In the states, when I heard kebab, I thought of skewered meat. I had never heard of a doner kebab. Then, I moved to Japan and I saw doner kebabs everywhere. Being sold at festivals, in Ueno's Ameyoko market, and in restaurants. You can basically get a doner kebab anywhere, but in southern Ibaraki, the king of kebab's is Ali.
The Kebab Ruler of Southern Ibaraki
For those of us who live in southern Ibaraki, if you want a doner kebab, there is one place that comes to mind, Ali's Kebab. Ali's rules southern Ibaraki with an iron fist. You have either been to Ali's restaurant in Tsukuba, or have seen the Ali's Kebab food trucks at events, parks, or Tsukuba station. They are everywhere, and the kebabs are pretty good. One of these days, I will do a post about Ali's Kebabs. But today, I am going to talk about Ali's Friend.
Ali's Friend
That is the literal name of the restaurant. I guess the owner is a friend of Ali's, so why not name it simply, Ali's Friend. Ali's Friend is located in the parking lot of Joyful Honda in Arakawaoki facing Route 6. You can't miss it. It is right by the supermarket entrance of Joyful Honda.
I went on a sunny afternoon on a Saturday to grab some lunch.
Inside
The inside of Ali's Friend is very spacious. There is an indoor dinning area and an outdoor dinning area. The outdoor dinning area faces Joyful Honda and you just see all the cars lined up for a parking spot. That day, I decided to eat inside and checked out the menu.
The Menu
Great news my non Japanese speakers! The menu is in Japanese and English. There are six main menu items on the menu. Hamburgers, pizza, cheese roll, curry set, pita sandwich, and naan roll.
The hamburgers are pretty simple. Beef or chicken. Take your pick.
The pizza section is interesting. There are a lot of interesting looking pizzas on the menu like, the chicken kebab pizza, barbari pizza and ghormeh pizza. I have no idea what those last two are but I want to try them.
The cheese rolls are kubideh, which I think is beef, and chicken. Again, take your pick.
The curry sets look quite delicious as well. It is a pick your meat and curry type of deal.
Next, you have a pita sandwich and naan roll which all come with either beef, chicken, or lamb.
I should also mention that there is Costa Coffee at Ali's Friend, which is what I ordered when I visited, and lassi drinks.
That day, I went with a lamb naan roll.
That is a Big Roll
I was kind of worried about what I ordered because the lamb naan roll was a bit pricey at 900 yen. But when I saw the size of the roll, I layed my worries to rest. It was long, and it looked enticing. With my roll, I was also given four different sauces to try. I had already ordered my roll with a mixed sauce so I was curious what other sauce went well with this roll.
Tasty Lamb
I bit into this naan roll and it reminded a lot of Greek gyro sandwich, without the yogurt sauce. I thoroughly enjoyed my first bite of that roll and the delicious lamb meat inside. There was a lot of lamb in there and the outer part of the naan was soft and delicious. I then decided to give the four sauces I was given a try.
Not So Great Sauces
First, the ginger sauce. No, just no. If you have a salad, use the ginger sauce for the salad but not for a kebab.
The wasabi sauce wasn't really spicy. Actually, it didn't really have any flavor to it. I can't recommend both these sauces for your kebab.
Great Sauces
Now these sauces are what should go in your kebab.
The spicy sauce wasn't really that spicy but it had a small amount of spice with great flavor that went really well with the lamb meat.
The number one sauce you should definitely spread on your kebab is the original sauce. That sauce was fantastic. I am not sure what is in it, but I know one thing, I kept pouring that sauce in my naan roll like if it was the holy nectar of the sauce gods and that sauce would give me eternal life.
I left Ali's Friend satisfied and full. At the entrance of the restaurant, you can buy pastries and an amazing yogurt sauce. I bought that yogurt sauce before I left and used it on some pita bread I bought from Costco. It was heavenly. I am definitely getting that yogurt again and I am definitely trying the other dishes on the menu.
So if you are in the mood for a kebab or maybe a middle eastern style pizza, why not give Ali's Friend a try. Who knows, you might see me there, eating a kebab with tons and tons of original sauce on it.
Enjoy!
For more information on Ali's Friend, check out their website:
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