So you're strolling along Nicollet Mall and you get a little hungry. You enter Gaviidae Common and take the escalator to the fourth floor. You see the usual food-court offerings, and then you spot Kabob's Indian Grill offering a $4.99 lunch buffet. You begin to look for which two or three items you'll pick, when you realize: There are about 25 items! The new question: How much can fit on one plate?
Such abundance initially came out of scarcity. Kabob's owner, software engineer Ather Jameel, arrived in Minneapolis to work as a technology consultant. A native of Hyderabad, a state in south India, Jameel says he soon found he couldn't find any good Hyderabadi food in the Twin Cities area. In search of a solid meal, he drove all the way to Chicago to a restaurant called Hyderabad House.
"But, it would be: Have a feast, then come back," Jameel says, emphasizing that Chicago trips were not a permanent solution.
Jameel noticed there were many other Indian IT professionals in the Twin Cities in a similar predicament. When he hosted parties at his home, guests would rave about the food that his wife and mother prepared. "You have to have a restaurant!" Jameel recalls his friends begging his family.
Jameel took their advice, eventually leaving the tech field to become a restaurateur. He and his wife, Sarah, opened a food stand in Bloomington in 2007, a sit-down restaurant in Maple Grove in 2008, and then Kabob's Indian Grill in 2009.
Downtown workers rely on Kabob's not just for authentic Hyderabadi dishes, but also for Indian dishes from other regions. The first half of the buffet line hosts a number of vegetarian dishes such as dosas, idlis, wadas, pav bhaji and a rotating selection of a few types of rice such as rice dotted with lentils, grated unsweetened coconut and mint. The second part of the buffet is nonvegetarian. One highlight is the goat curry, a recipe from Sarah Jameel with soft morsels of goat and a mild spicy flavor.
The authentic Hyderabadi dishes at Kabob's include a variety of biryanis (a cooked rice dish with meat or vegetables), Chicken 65 (a favorite of Ather Jameel's that consists of salty, spicy, bright red bits of cooked chicken), tandoori chicken prepared in the Hyderabadi style instead of the more common Punjabi version (Jameel won't reveal the secret spice mixture), and the double ka meetha dessert, which resembles a sweet, orange-colored bread pudding.
Indian breads and snacks are made on site as well. Cooks make naan in the kitchen behind the buffet, placing them inside a 300-degree tandoor oven. Jameel says in addition to the lunch rush, customers also stop by in the afternoon to pick up a snack : samosas, vegetarian pakoras, bhel puri, dahl puri, pani puri and Indian tea (black tea prepared with fragrant spices) -- each for $2 or less.
