Sometimes you get what you pay for

Located on the corner of 8th and C Street is Haji Baba, a Mediterranean restaurant with a party environment and 1.5 star service.

If you don’t care how the food tastes and don’t mind waiting around an hour for each order to come to your table, then the Haji Baba is the place for you.

I ordered the beef shawarma, which was hard to pronounce but seemed appealing.
I asked the waitress what a shawarma was.

Her description of the food was as follows:  “Thinly cut meat cooked on a spit like a kebab, which is then wrapped in Taboon bread with lettuce, tomatoes, hummus, lavash, tahini, and fattoush.”

If only the description had been more accurate of what I received: thin strips of tough meat, with about as much flavor as frozen food, wrapped in a wheat flavored tortilla, with lettuce, a few pieces of tomatoes, hummus.

To be fair, I didn’t have to spend more than $8 for a plate of food and drink, but I did have to wait about 45 minutes to get it.

Had the place been busy I might have understood but my companion and I were alone in the restaurant.

To get our drinks refilled we had to stand up and chase the waitress.

We paid our check and left in a hurry, our food only half eaten. I am pretty sure I would have preferred a frozen T.V. dinner.

I was shocked, I have tried a decent amount of restaurants around our campus now and all of them were quite good.

So, I decided to give Haji Baba a second chance.

They say “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.”

Well, shame on me.

I’m not going to sugar coat it, I came here twice because I couldn’t believe how bad it was the first time. After being seated I ordered quickly and waited for my food.

I walked out an hour later. I still hadn’t been served the food I ordered.

They do serve beer, wine, and hookah for those looking to make the most of the night they wasted coming to the Haji Baba.
If you are looking for a place that is trying to set a record for the worlds slowest service and overcooked food then this is the place for you.

Donate to City Times

Your donation will support the student journalists of San Diego City College. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment, cover the cost of training and travel to conferences, and fund student scholarships. Credit card donations are not tax deductible. Instead, those donations must be made by check. Please contact adviser Nicole Vargas for more information at [email protected].

More to Discover
Donate to City Times

Activate Search
The news site of San Diego City College
Sometimes you get what you pay for