Monday 19 September 2016

Restaurant Review: Kebabs on Queen (Hamilton, New Zealand)



On our recent trip to New Zealand in August 2016, I discovered that there were a lot more halal restaurants than I expected. The biggest surprise, however, was finding out about Kebabs on Queen, a super popular halal Turkish chain that has 11 locations all around the country! What more can you want?


Since we were only spending two days in New Zealand, we planned out our itinerary hour-by-hour to maximise on the amount of Kiwi amazingness that we could possibly experience:

Day 1

In the morning we drove 2.5 hours (right-side driving!) from Auckland to Matamata to visit the Hobbiton Movie Set. (Review coming soon!).


 Afterwards, we drove about 45 minutes to the city of Hamilton, and visited the Hamilton Jamia Masjid to pray dhuhr and asr prayers. (Traveller's prayers are so handy alhamdulilah!)


With our daily prayers in check, it was only a hop, skip, and a jump over to Centre Place Mall which housed a Kebabs on Queen in their food court.


Looks are definitely deceiving in the case of the above photo. I snapped this after the food court closed, so it doesn't quite capture the popularity of the place. This mall wasn't very busy to begin with, but after we got our food and sat down to eat, I noticed that about 70-80% of the food court customers (of all ethnicities and religions) were going to Kebabs on Queen, despite there being a number of other places to choose from. Makes me happy to see halal establishments thriving!


The restaurant serving area was immaculate which pleased me greatly. The menu is pretty simple and focused on a few dishes: chicken, lamb, or falafel, which can come in a sandwich, on rice, or on fries (chips). Check out their menu here.


There's also some daily deals and promotions which are well-priced.

We decided on the Chicken on Rice Plate which comes with chicken, rice, salad, and hummus, and the Iskender Combo with lamb, rice, and salad, but also a side of fries and a drink.

You also get to choose THREE sauces to personalise your plate! That was definitely exciting, I don't think I've ever been allowed three sauces anywhere!


Our food arrived! Everything here was absolutely delicious, and they were quite generous with the sauces! The rice is just a plain basmati rice. The lamb was long strips of well-seasoned and tender lamb, and the salad was just fresh julienne veggies with a white sauce dressing, which I quite liked.

The fries were fresh and tasty, but the interesting thing was the ketchup! It wasn't ketchup, it was called "tomato sauce", and tasted closer to a savoury, slightly sweet tomato sauce for pasta than the sweet stuff we dip fries in. I liked it!


Here's my plate! The Chicken was tasty, the hummus was good, and the sauces I chose (can't remember which ones!) definitely brought the whole thing alive with extra layers of flavour.


Location

Address: Centre Place (Mall) 501 Victoria Street, Hamilton Central, Hamilton
Phone Number: 07 8383938
Website: Click Here
Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday: 9.00am - 6.00pm 
Thursday: 9.00am - 9.00pm
Sunday: 10.00am - 5.00pm



Not planning to go to Hamilton to visit this location? No worries. Check out their 10 other locations all around New Zealand.

Thanks for the great food, Kebabs on Queen! Hope to come back again one day!
-Maryam

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1 comment:

  1. I have to say I absolutely loved going to this place the other night. The people that work there were trying to create an optimal dinner experience while making your choices their priority. I would definitely recommend these venues Chicago for any kind of fancy event.

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