Babylon

Website says that they open at 11 AM on Saturday. I placed an order online and got confirmation that it will be ready by 11:35. Once when I got there, place was still closed. Turns out they open at 12! Nice job Babylon

There’s a sign outside offering 99 cent falafels on Friday afternoon so I thought I’d give it a try. I did ask if these were regular size falafel sandwiches, and the server said yes. So I ordered a falafel and lentil soup. The falafel portion size was small — half a pita with two small falafel balls. Can’t complain for 99 cents, but I really hope that size was for the promotion, and a regular price sandwich would have been larger. The sandwich was okay, the lentil soup was bland — but also at a 99 cent promotion price, so I can’t really complain.

I have been to Babylon twice and both times I had a good experience.
The hummus and baba ganoush is served with warm pita bread and it is very tasty.
The falafel meal comes with rice, soup, and pita bread. The falafel is very flavorful!
$ 5 fresh veggie burger and fries… the burger is kind of small, but for $ 5 it is good.
The service at Babylon is good, very relaxing ambiance and it is BYOB.

I really like this place. I live in the neighborhood so I’ve been back a few times. The food is fresh and delicious. They are so friendly and I believe they are BYOB. Def coming back to try the Cornish game hen next!

Delicious schwarma and salads! Sooo inexpensive. Nice atmosphere. Definitely check it out.

Wish I had come to this spot earlier! Attentive service, fresh Mediterranean food, byob, cool vibe and atmosphere and can’t beat the prices. The chicken kabob, chicken shawarma and hummus were all excellent! I will definitely be back!

The dishes were decent and we did not have to wait. The surrounding area outside as well as the interior décor are not memorable but you are here for the food right? Will be back!

Pretty disappointed. I was really looking forward to a shawarma and unfortunately, it was absent of flavor. My husband had lamb and I had chicken. The sauce, the neat, nothing had any flavor. Fries were good though.

Over the past week, I’ve called twice trying to place a carry out order and no one ever answered. I got the voicemail several times after letting the phone ring, several times. Not good. I’ve dined in and done carry out Babylon many, many, times since it opened at this location. When it first opened, I was impressed with the service and the food. The owner was always on site and everything ran smoothly. I’ve not seen her or even the same staff the last few times I’ve been in. And the last time I dined in, the restaurant was completely out of toilet paper! Babylon, I love your food. I’ve found it to be some of the freshest and most authentic Persian cuisine in Chicago but Babylon, please get your act together!

The delivery was 20 minutes late and the food tepid. The chicken was dry and over cooked. Our entrees came with only rice — would a couple of tomato or cucumber slices have been overly indulgent — and a tablespoon of sauce. I can’t understand all the rave reviews. The falafels were tasty, tho not the best I’ve ever had.

Went back again, good and service were great. If you are nearby I recommend checking it out!

Went back again, food and service were great. If you are nearby I recommend checking it out! All dishes were tasty and prompt. Go for chicken over the lamb.

Having worked in customer service and seen people complain about STUPID things I’m reluctant about leaving reviews. But I need to look out for my fellow financially challenged/​maybe just plain cheap Chicagoans and say that you don’t get what you pay for here. I ordered the lamb and chicken kabob combo and I really liked it… pero like, you could double the portion. Not tryna be a typical American but there was literally like 4 cubes of chicken. The nice reddish seasoning wasn’t even included! With my bf’s combo and the large garlic potatoes the total was nearly $ 40. I’ve paid less at other Middle Eastern places and gotten way more. Maybe you get more dining in, idk.

I’ve been a long time customer of Babylon, but hadn’t dined there for 6 – 8 months since their Damen Avenue/​Bucktown location closed. If I am not mistaken, I believe the original chef departed a couple of years ago to start his own place (Mediterranean Grill & Cuisine on Lincoln Avenue in Lincoln Square). Ever since then, the food at Babylon is not quite as good as when the old chef was on staff.
A few more complaints; the portions have always been somewhat small for the prices… at least start with doubling the rice and salad portions, as they are quite stingy. Also, the toilet seat in the bathroom was falling off, and the menus look terrible!
! Step it up people.
My girlfriend and I ordered The Chila Fry (juicy, masterfully marinated and grilled chicken breast shish kabob was outstanding! The Shawerma is quite good too!) entrée with rice and a small side salad (rice was cooked perfectly, however, some of the romaine lettuce was brown and spoiled. That’s unacceptable!), lentil soup (was luke warm and lacked a little spice), falafel appetizer (only so so, tasted like the oil hadn’t been changed in a while), Greek Fries were pretty good, cucumber yogurt salad was good but not great, and the babaganouj was good. I remember the days when my friends and I would marvel at the amazing food at Babylon. I really hope that they can refine the recipes to match the old days!
As far as the new restaurant atmosphere and location is concerned, I absolutely love it!
They did a super fabulous job with the bright, clean, and modern space and the super cool acrylic paintings completed by a local artist, plus the painted floors, large and bright windows, etc. There’s a full bar with plenty of seating. Hopefully, the liquor license will get approved soon! My expectations are even higher now with the higher end space. Get it together Babylon!
I give Babylon 2.5 stars.

If you like to be secretly overcharged, this is the place to be. We came for the .99 falafels and were charged 1.10 each. On top of that, they snuck another dollar in the total on my credit card statement (receipt said $ 14.xx; credit card statement said $ 15.xx), so you wouldn’t catch this part unless you’re checking your credit card statement carefully. Another Unilocaler mentioned this happening to them so this is apparently not a one-​time accident. (Read it for yourself down below; review by Ethan S.)
As for the food, the first time we came, the falafels were great. Since then, it’s been all downhill. The most recent time, I actually was repulsed by the taste (this was before I discovered the billing shenanigans).
Once loyal customers; now never coming back.

Often times Rosa J.‘s choice of supper is dictated by what Groupon she has available. I had a Groupon for Babylon that was going to expire soon. Babylon is located in Uptown, directly across from the cemetery on Clark.
I wasn’t expecting much from Babylon, yet the food was decent and the decors were crisp and clean. Our Groupon deal provided $ 20 credit that could use toward anything on the menu. We had the following:
1) falafel appetizer: each order comes with five (5) pieces of falafel. I wouldn’t say the falafels were rated supreme; they were passable for the neighborhood standard. The yogurt sauce was quite tasty, as a matter of fact.
2) falafel entrée: This entrée includes a cup of lentil soup, salad, pita bread, and rice. The lentil soup lacked «zest» and could have used more spices to make it more interesting and memorable. The rice was a bit bland and hard.
3) grilled veggie entrée: a cup of lentil soup and pita bread are included in the entrée combo. By the way, the hot sauce for the pita bread was pretty on point. Hubby seemed to enjoy his grilled veggies. However, he did comment that the food was average at best.
After subtracting the Groupon credit, our bill came to $ 7 and some change. We received friendly service from the lady in the house. She was energetic, spunky, and enthusiastic.
If I happen to be the area and want to have a a relaxing, low-​key meal before heading to Andersonville to meet up with friends, I may be considering visiting Babylon again. Otherwise, many amazing Middle Eastern restaurants in the city can easily outshine the neighborhood Babylon.

I was on the run to an event in Lincoln Square, so thought some quick healthy Mediterranean food would be perfect. I got there at 6:55 pm and ordered a large Tabbouli salad with some Chicken Shawerma on top. The total with tax and tip came to $ 12.55. There were only 3 tables in the restaurant, so I assumed this would go fast. But unfortunately the food didn’t come out of the kitchen until 7:25 pm (30 minutes later). I ran out, jumped on my bike and hurried to my event. I was quite hungry and got quite a surprise when I opened the food. It was a very small container of food (see photos). To their credit, the taste was pretty good, but for close to $ 13 I would have expected a little more than just a hint of a salad. Plus I wonder why this little portion took half an hour at a restaurant that wasn’t busy.

Excuse me BUT YOU CALL IT KIDS MENU? It’s just burned… or you guys are using the old oil that contains a lot of terribly bad substances and carcinogens. I’m 21 years old and even me cannot eat this, I’m asking YOU how kids can eat that?! HORRIBLE!

One perk to being in the Andersonville/​Uptown area is the incredible selection of food you can get out here. There is a sea of Middle Eastern restaurants, unfortunately for me and my stomach they can tend a bit too pricey. So when my companion and I were searching for a good spot to get some take out for dinner we came across this wonderful place!
Price wise they gave us something to work with. I order the Chicken Kabob which came with rice, pita plus your choice of soup or stew. The stew was nothing too crazy, just some potatoes in some tomato soup but we loved it and added it to our rice portions. I LOVED the chicken, it tasted amazing (charbroiled heaven). My friend got the Shish Kabob and let me try and piece, also very yummy. We were both bursting at the seams by the time we finished our meals. Each meal cost about 10 bucks and was more than satisfying.
Pick up was painless and took at most 15 minutes.

We ordered food for pickup from here last week. It was very prompt, but the restaurant was also completely empty. Everything was decent, but nothing really blew me away.
Overall, I felt a few items were overpriced: $ 8.50 for a Lamb Shawerma sandwich that wasn’t particularly large, and the 50 cent extra sauces were in TINY containers. Almost everything we ordered was bland. The hummus was a bit watery, and I literally salted the falafels (but the falafels had good crunchy consistency). My lamb Shawerma entrée was also bland, and many of the pieces were chewy.

Food is not very good.
Lamb was so overcooked and chewy, you couldn’t swallow it.
Falafel is too big and too dry. They supply painfully little tahini sauce for it, and even the extra order of the sauce (for more money, of course) comes in a tiny container.
You’ll need about 4 or 5 extra tahinis to get through the dry oversized falafel balls.
Small upsides are good pita and baba ghanouj.
It’s just not worth it.
Too bad.
Pros:
+ Baba Ghanouj
+ Pita
Cons
+ A Middle Eastern restaurant that can’t cook lamb
+ or Falafel…
Ouch.

Babylon has a few things going for it, but ultimately they fail a point-​by-​point comparison to their best local competition, Taste of Lebanon. ToL is an all-​city superstar, so from Babylon’s perspective, the proximity is unfortunate. But Babylon is a couple of blocks closer to me, so I wanted to give them a fair test drive.
The pluses are:
+ Easy online ordering through Unilocal
+ Really tasty chicken shawerma
+ Thick, warm pita
+ Fresh fattoush salad, with the pita chips and dressing packaged separately
The minuses are:
— A tiny portion when ordering a small soup
— The shawerma wrap needs more vegetables and/​or less meat to balance it out
— Bland baba ghanouj
— Even more flavorless hummus
— Worst of all, a terrible falafel wrap; the falafel was bland and mushy and tasted faintly of fish… is it possible that they used the same oil or equipment for both fish and falafel?
These guys probably never stood a chance against Taste of Lebanon in my book, but at least they were a solid three stars until I bit into that dreadful falafel wrap. I can’t see myself returning except perhaps when I am craving chicken shawerma and don’t want to travel very far.

Created this account just to write this review:
I work up in Ravenswood and there is a dearth of good lunch places in the local area (especially if one does not like walking in the snow).
To that end I was happy that I would be able to check out Babylon for lunch on Fridays (they are only open for lunch on Fridays).
It is hard to beat $ 0.99 falafel sandwiches! I usually start with a falafel sandwich and then order one of the plates of chicken shawarma or chicken kebab. The food is a bit bland, but not that bad and the presentation is quite nice.
Why the 1 star?
They UPCHARGE on the tip!
I am anal so I keep and reference all my receipts against my bank statement at the end of the month. In all 3 instances the final amount charged to my card was $ 2 to $ 3 more then what I had written on my receipt. I went a fourth time and I was very careful to write the proper amount clearly and triple checked my math and I was still overcharged.
I am very disappointed that a place would do this.
I am curious if other users have experienced the same issue?

A friend of mine has been pushing me to try Babylon for a while now. Honestly, I don’t know what took me so long. It’s steps from my house and has a nice looking menu. I’m glad we finally tried in last weekend.
I ordered the lamb shawerma. It was very big for the price which was excellent. I loved it. It was really perfectly assembled and seasoned. My husband had the chicken kabob sandwich. It was even better than mine and we ended up sharing a lot. We also had an order of baba ghanouj which was ample. The only thing that bugged me is we got charged for more pita to dip. That really shouldn’t be the case.
For dessert we had the baklava. It was pretty good. Nothing out of the ordinary. I’d order it again.
The atmosphere is really nice. There’s something peaceful about munching on Mediterranean food and looking out of a cemetery. If I had to say anything negative, I’d say it was a little annoying that the waitress was playing a video game at the bar while we were eating. The place was mostly empty so we weren’t ignored and I totally think she should be allowed to play games while she’s taking a break… she should just turn off the sound.
Overall, this was a great experience. They’re BYOB! The prices are great and the food is delicious. Come here. Eat here. Come back again.

Went to Babylon on a Sunday afternoon for lunch. We ordered the hummus for an appetizer. The small portion was huge and came with a huge basket of fresh warm pita. The hummus was absolutely delicious. It was fluffy, creamy, super garlicy and fresh. It’s some of the best hummus I’ve ever had. Their warm, soft pita perfect alone or with the hummus. Immediately very pleased.
I ordered their feta salad and falafel wrap, thinking the feta salad would be a small side salad. It is HUGE. It’s good but not incredible, only because it’s a pretty basic salad. Greens, cucumber, tomato, olives, feta and seasoning. The dressing they serve it with does not make sense. It was some sort of mayo base thing that was sweet. I did not like it and asked if they had any kind of vinaigrette. Or waitress brought me two little tubs of lemon vinaigrette which was better but still not quite right. The salad needs a basic greek dressing or oil and balsamic. The falafel wrap was good, cheap at $ 4 but again not really incredible. I have had better but it was still good, and especially good at the price. It was wrapped in their delicious warm pita and came with extra tahini and some sort of chili paste. Good, tasty, would order again but not mind blowing.
Boyfriend ordered their lamb and rice entrée. The rice was very good, he was quite pleased. He really liked the lamb, drizzled with tahini and served with extra plus chili paste like my falafel. I thought the lamb was too game-​y and would not have been happy if I had ordered it. His entrée came with a soup, he chose the potato soup which we thought they forgot because we had all our entrees and no soup at one point. We didn’t care or say anything because the portions are so huge our table was COVERED in food. Then the soup showed up some time later, the waitress explaining the chef just finished making it fresh. The soup was pretty good, more food than we needed.
Service was a bit slow in some areas. Our hummus came out right away, our entrees took an appropriate time but the soup lag was weird. After we had all our food our waitress didn’t really check on us (in an empty restaurant) and it took a long time to get her attention for the check. She was very nice though and very generous. We both ordered 2 cans of soda and she brought us a 3^rd just because at no charge. We got another basket of fresh pita at some point without asking, no charge. I assumed it just came with the hummus but apparently they’ll bring you more and I received those extras dressings without any hassle. Those aren’t very expensive items but it’s still note worthy when so many restaurants nickle and dime you on 50 cents extra for dressing, etc.
We took home THREE containers of leftovers. Their portions are beyond generous and our bill only totaled to $ 30.00. That’s quite a deal. We would certainly go back for their hummus and I’d like to try a few more of their sandwiches/​wraps. Lastly their interior is really impressive, it’s actually a very very nice restaurant. It would be a good place for a date, its very classy and well decorated.

Pros — delicious food
Cons — slow service
— — — — — — — — — -
I bought a groupon for $ 20 worth of food. On a Friday four of us went to use it along with a bottle of wine as it is BYOB
There were a couple of veggies with us so we didn’t eat any of the meat but what we did have was delicious. PLEASE get the falafel — so good and very healthy.
The downside was that there were only 2 servers for the whole restaurant, which meant it took awhile before we were seated/​served/​fed etc., I’ll definitely try this place again and hope that the service was a one time flaw.

For excellent middle eastern cuisine, visit Babylon. As a foodie I have tried many restaurants and was pleasantly surprised on how fresh everything was and how fast the service was. Our server, Maria, was warm and friendly and checked back with us to make sure everything was going well. She also answered all our questions professionally. The location is on Clark and plenty of street parking. It is just south of Andersonville before you reach Lawrence.
Trust me, this is a great dining experience. My guest and I left totally fulfilled!

This is the relocation of Babylon from it’s former site on Damen Avenue. As good as the food was, it’s gotten exponentially better with moving to Uptown. And still with the eatery is Maria, who will help guide you to selections deserving of kings and queens.
The new location is fantastically designed and decorated. The entry has custom tilework in the flooring and if anything sets the tone for the meal you’re about to enjoy. Dramatic artwork by a local artist adorns the walls to create ambiance and give the diners eye something interesting to look at. I believe the artwork can be purchased but the artists’ studio is also nearby which might have a greater collection and selection if one were interested.
Maria, brought out two appetizer plates of various content such as hummas, bab ghannough, falafel, dolmades and tabbouleh. Wonderful! THEN, she brought out a plate of roasted potato slices covered in a rich garlic sauce that sent our party to the moon! My dinner was a shrimp dinner with rice that looked more like langostino’s because they were so large. My other diners enjoyed various shawerma dinners and all had leftovers to take home because of the generous portions.
If you are looking for fantastic middle eastern cuisine, look no further than Babylon. The liquor license is pending and should be in place by mid-​summer 2014.

This place is so yummy. A groupon brought us here, but the delicious food brought us back. I’m a tabbouleh and hummus snob– and these delights did not disappoint.
Plus, its brand new and clean and the people who work there are SO NICE.