Kabob Central
2306 Central Ave., Alameda
No website: Yelp reviews http://www.yelp.com/biz/kabob-central-alameda

This is a small, barebones Iranian storefront just down from Pappo’s (reviewed in 2008 and 2009) and across from Angela’s (reviewed Aug. 2010). You order at the counter, get a number, and seat yourself. They bring you the food and bus the tables afterwards.

If we’d read the Yelp reviews we might not have tried them at all. But we had seen their sign while eating at Angela’s across the street, and were willing to take a chance on walking in.

I ordered the beef gyro, which came on the thicker toasted flatbread used here. This turned it into a much bigger sandwich than I was expecting. The beef is very salty and sliced thin, typical of gyros these days. There were two nice touches – a nice heap of mixed salad, and garlic-laced Greek yoghurt dressing.

The salad, which also came as a side on Carlos’ mixed kabob plate, is pretty amazing for a cheap restaurant. It’s crisp shredded romaine, thinly sliced fennel, pitted Kalamata black and Greek green olives, with a mild, slightly tangy dressing. The rice is high-quality Basmati, extra long-grain and unbroken. 

The chicken kabob was good, but the beef was excellent. It was tender and well-marinated, not quite up to the level of Mezze’s pork kabob entrée, but awfully close for a dish that was half the price.

The Iranian version of raita is mast o khiar, which KC serves in a soup bowl that holds at least 2 cups of dip. It is thicker than raita, and pureed generously with mint. I had ordered fried onion rings as a separate side, and received a order big enough for three people! They were crunchy, greaseless, and quite good dipped in the mast o khiar.

All told, the servings were generously sized. It isn’t gourmet food by any standard, but for the price it was better than what we were expecting. It’s the type of place you have to be in the mood to eat the few things they do well, 

Two side orders (the onion rings and the mast o khiar), two entrée plates, two drinks, and a few dollars for the table bussing, came to a very modest $33.