Papa Kebab

One thing we've really tried to do over the past year or so is explore more restaurants outside of our neighborhood home base. In a city with so much diversity and so many restaurants, there is an overwhelming number of options for meals and no possible way to try them all. One day in the fall we decided to go over to the High Line to celebrate the colors of fall and before that grabbed a late lunch at Papa Kebab, a casual Mediterranean place in Chelsea.

Papa Kebab's menu had salads, sandwiches and platters with all different types of meats. M decided on the adana chicken wrap ($6), which came with one piece of adana chicken kebab, lettuce, tomato and one spread (M picked babaganoush) in your choice of bread (M went with whole wheat). There was also a sauce on the side that appeared to be like cacik (a thinner version of the Greek tzatziki), if we remember correctly from back then.

The sandwich was okay. What was odd was that the adana kebab didn't have a ton of flavor. Chicken adana is one of M's favorite dishes at Turkish restaurants because it contains ground chicken which is combined with peppers and spices before being grilled. There is usually a lot of flavor, but this one was very mild. The lettuce and tomato were fresh, but the babaganoush didn't do much for the sandwich either. If anything, it dulled the flavor of the adana kebab even more. It was creamy but had very little flavor. The whole wheat wrap however was nice and chewy. M probably wouldn't get this wrap again. 

A got the joojeh chicken kebab platter ($10). The platter came with one kebab (the joojeh chicken was chicken breast marinated in yogurt, saffron and Persian spices, and then grilled), a choice of side dish (A got bulgur pilaf - the other options were fries or basmati rice), a roasted tomato and roasted pepper, sumac onions, and two sauces (a hot sauce and the cacik-like sauce).

This was definitely the better of the two dishes. The chicken itself was flavored well but a touch on the dry side. Often A uses the sauces as an accent, but for this he had to use them to add a little bit of moisture to the chicken itself. (M also used the hot sauce to improve her sandwich.) The tomato, pepper, and onions are fairly standard accoutrements for Persian food, and overall they were okay. The best of the 3 was probably the sumac onions, which M really liked. The bulgur pilaf was spiced well with many of the same Persian spices on the chicken, and the onions were cooked to the point of being nice and soft to eat with the bulgur. We liked the bulgur side.

We also got a side of pita bread. It was okay. M found it to be a lot drier and thinner than other pita breads we've had, and didn't particularly like it as she prefers the softer pita bread. A didn't think it was anything special either. As far as bread goes, we'll gladly take the soft yet crispy bread from Akdeniz or those giant chewy rolls from Turco any day over this pita bread.

Our lunch at Papa Kebab was fine but the portions were a bit on the small side, especially compared to other places we've been before. It's a good Mediterranean option if you're near Chelsea Market or the High Line, but we wouldn't call it a destination Mediterranean restaurant worth traveling for. We might stop by again if we were in the area and in the mood for some kebabs.