Daniel L.
Yelp
Having lived over seas in the Middle-East for over a decade, I was home-sick for some of the food that I had grown to love over the years. I have eaten at Lebanese restaurants in Chicago, New York, the suburbs, etc. and hoped to find a place that I could go to here in Peoria to get the same type of food and flavor that I had grown accustomed to.
As my wife and I walked into Haddads, we saw the pictures on the walls of maps of Lebanon, saw the family sitting at one of the tables, nice plants, but very modest in appearances. A store front venue.
The woman who greeted us was very nice, welcoming us in, and showed us to our table and menu, bringing us our drinks within seconds of arriving. Looking at the menu, there was a modest assortment of different things to order, with combination specials that were very reasonably priced. To my great delight, I saw as one of the side items "kibeh", which is one of my favorite things in the world to eat. We both ordered the "Beirut Special" with a side of "Baba-Ganush" (eggplant spread) and one order of "kibeh" (what is supposed to be ground beef or lamb, stuffed and fried with wonderful seasoning"
The food:
The humus was standard affair, as was the baba-ganush. The Tabuleh was mostly parsley chopped up with lemon juice where the bulgur wheat was not to be found. The most disappointing part was the Kibeh, where rather than a wonderful ball of fried meat stuffed, it was a flat piece of what looked like meatloaf, and tasted about the same.
The main course had kefta kabob (ground beef with herbs and seasoning rapped around a skewer. This in fact was very tasty, moist, and good flavor. It was served over a bed of rice with a wonderful sauce that we both enjoyed. With it came stuffed cabbage which was good, as well as a stuffed potato which they could have done much better with. The biggest disappointment on the main course plate was a heaping portion of green beans that were straight from a can, and the canned flavor permeated everything else on the plate.
All in all, it was a mediocre meal at best, but I will go back there once more to try there falafel and shawarma sandwiches to see if perhaps they are better at making those.