Great family own business. Honestly the food tastes great. I love their beef koobedah, which tastes amazing with the rice and cucumber yogurt. I have been coming here for years and this is the only place I ever go to for my Persian food fix. read more

Generous portions, good service. Every timeI order 1 food for two people and we end up getting a to go box!

Service, food, friendly atmosphere....delightful. Come hungry! Every bite was awesome! We ordered the dinner for 6, and left with more meals. Best rice and meats ever! read more

Food is great I like to give 5 stars for the food but service is horrible. They give you the good and never come back to see if you need anything else. read more

This is the best Persian restaurant in terms of tender and tasty meat. Whenever I feel like having comfort food, I come here. Their chicken kabob is so tender and has layers of flavor. I love their rice and grilled vegetables. Whenever I have guests coming to town, this is the place I take them to enjoy the wonderful food. They are always impressed. read more

Heidar Baba - Middle Eastern Near Me - Pasadena, California

The best this side of town with exceptional service and abundance for each serving. Love the chunky Shirazi salad and the very creamy Mostakiar. We always top off our meals with their house brewed Persian Black Tea - an excellent ending to a hearty meal. read more

Heidar Baba - Middle Eastern Near Me - Pasadena, California

Come here if you're hungry and you have a lot of time. +Ambiance: It definitely has an old world feel when you go and a little kitschy but charming. +Food: +Koobideh - We tried the ground chicken, ground beef, and steak ones. We all agreed the ground chicken was the best so make sure to get it! The skewers were cooked perfectly, nice and juicy with a crispy char on the outside. Most of their entrée dishes come with a huge helping of rice, grilled vegetables and soup or salad. I think it's easily shareable or you'll have leftovers for lunch the next day. +Baghali Polo with Lamb Shank - This stewed lamb shank that's falling off the bone, is served with this awesome dill rice pilaf which I've never had before and is distinctly Persian. The lamb itself is extremely tender but the real star of the dish is the pilaf! +Hummus - The meals come with pita bread and butter and herbs but I love hummus with my pita so we ordered some to go with our meal. The hummus is smooth and creamy and a little light on the seasoning which I actually liked. +Price: $20 can easily feed 2 people or yourself and a doggy bag home. -Service: Very slow read more

Ordered the Heidar Baba signature course meal for 3. So delicious! Everything taste fresh & prices are reasonable. Best Persian/Iranian place in Pasadena! I can't get enough of the steak that they have. I recommend this place to anyone that loves middle eastern/halal food! Go try it and thank me later read more

horrible I came all the way from Riverside tge food was aweful my order wasn't even right and they didn't do anything to make it right if you're thinking about eating here you shouldn't. read more

Great food! Huge portions! Great place to order for parties! Compliments about the food every time!

The Best Persian Restaurant in the San Gabriel Valley and Pasadena area. When you go to Persian restaurants they give you grilled tomato slices, onions cut up and chopped bell peppers. This place gives you a WHOLE MOTH$F$%$CING ONION, BELL PEPPER AND TOMATO GRILLED TO PERFECTION! The meat is so tender, succulent and juicy. I was seriously blown away by this place. I went to the Huntington Museum with my cousins and we saw this place, its a little small restaurant but the food is incredibly good! It is 100% halal and much better than Azeens Afghan in Pasadena, if you want great kebabs in Pasadena, look no further! Heidar Baba Kabob has the best sirloin steak beef barg! read more

I love Mediterranean food, I mean like I'll drive 53.5 miles out of the way for good - really good Persian food. With that being said, please know that his review is a bit painful for me to write. Inasmuch as I understand that every restaurant has it's "off" nights, I believe that all employees are a representative directly of the business as a whole. That the success of a business is only as strong as their weakest link. So it begins with our arrival anticipating amazing Persian food. It's a small quaint family run business located in Pasadena in a strip mall sort of setting. Okay, it is a strip mall. Who am I kidding. Anyway, we order sodas, iced tea and waters. All come promptly. Entrees are ordered next. I had the shish kabob (beef) and it was cooked well and flavorful. It was accompanied by rice, a grilled tomato and a grilled green pepper. My friends ordered the chicken, shish kabob, curry chicken and the koobideh. All of which are decent and reasonably priced. The food was very mildly seasoned and not what I'm used to. I prefer the kibbutz style koobideh :) We substituted the soup and salad for hummus. I've had much better Middle Eastern food, but you'd have to travel to the Westside of town. The food was not the issue. The level of professionalism and lack of proper payment notification is what concerned / bothered me. We were a party of (5) five, we all had different dishes and attempted to pay by credit / debit cards. At which point we were told it is not possible. That they can only take (1) one credit / debit card and the rest must be in CASH. Yes, this too sounded shady to me. The waitress then after much conversation with us decided to go talk with the "head waitress" who then advised only (2) two credit / debit cards and the remainder in cash. This is a group of legal professionals debating with wait staff as to their processes, procedures and the lack of logic involved in their decision to only allow (2) two cards maximum. Seeing that no one was going to gain headway with irrational thinking individuals, everyone expect for me had cash ( I never carry cash). They all paid me and I put the bill on my credit card. I will not be returning here as there are MANY other options for better Persian food on the Westside of town, that accept credit / debit cards and will NOT squabble with the customer over semantics. This is why they received a (2) two star rating. Had the food not been decent, I'd have provided an equal amount of stars that would have been more appropriate. read more

Meat. Rice. Persian Tea. S'all I need when I'm here. My friend and I are great fans of their shish kabob and their chicken kabob. We stay away from any of the kabobs that are ground meat of any sort because why eat ground meat when you can have hot juicy succulent pieces of chicken and beef? One of us will get the shish kabob and one will get the chicken, and we'll share our meats. When you order one or the other, you get your choice of either soup or salad. Usually, I think the soup is a barley soup, the salad is nice and basic. After that, you get your giant plate with your meat and an Enormous Mountain Of Basmati Rice. The rice is absolutely lovely, but I often feel like I'm drowning in it. At least you know you won't run out of it. Their baklava is delicious, and their persian tea is very wonderful. I do wish they got more customers regularly. Some nights, they get enough traffic, but other nights, they're pretty empty. That's okay. More meat for me! read more

It's hard to give a bad review for a place that serves you huge portions of food. This place might as well be a buffet for the insane amount of food you get. A lot of restaurants these days don't give a good value for what you get. You won't feel like you got ripped off eating here. I ordered the Chicken & Beef Koobideh plate. It came with a soup & salad first before you get your actual entrée plate! All the plates comes with grilled peppers, tomatoes, and an abundance of basmati rice (see my pic and other pics from other Yelpers) So skip breakfast and eat lunch here or skip lunch and have dinner here. Or take your leftovers to go and eat for several more days after your meal! Either way, come hungry! read more

Heidar Baba - Middle Eastern Near Me - Pasadena, California

If you are looking for delicious Persian food, this is your place. The owner and staff are really nice and it makes the experience even better. read more

If you're vegan or vegetarian please stay away. They will assure you there is no meat in a dish and then serve you a dish with picked out pieces of meat and meat chunks just hovering in your food. When I confronted them about it, she said oh yeah we just pick the meat out of it when someone orders it without meat. Yeah maybe notify your customers ahead of time so they could decide for themselves if that's something they are okay with or not. The waitress then went to speak with her manager for quite some time and all you can hear from the distance was management or whoever she was yelling at the poor waitress. The funny part is no accommodations were made and no decency to apologize. At this point we were ready to leave after waiting for quite some time and the waitress never came back to check on us or bring the bill. We ended up walking to the front counter to pay and of course they charged us full price with nothing to say to us. read more

Food was good and portions were nice and big! The kebabs however, weren't koobideh kebab and mostly your regular standard kebabs.

Ok, I hope I don't offend anyone with this review, but I just wasn't a fan of the inhuman portions offered here. Food: Even as the complimentary appetizers were served, I knew I was in over my head. Sure, they give you the standard hummus and pita, but they also bring out a platter of pickles, a piece of raw tomato, a fourth of a raw onion, some jalapenos, and what I think was basil. What am I supposed to do with the raw tomato, onion, and basil??? We ordered an additional appetizer, the must o musir, a bowl of yogurt and diced shallots (http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/oKmKXq_HCri6F6C46g5EAQ?select=u9ZwQbnbyfL9Jl3Sl1KHXw). This I enjoyed; it heavily reminded me of my mom's interesting take on spinach dip. My entree came with barley soup (http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/oKmKXq_HCri6F6C46g5EAQ?select=H12ab60_JEx8hQZZ46rpow) which I liked for the high fiber content. It has this sort of minty aftertaste that was unsettling to me, though. I almost fainted when my abaloo polo entree arrived (http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/oKmKXq_HCri6F6C46g5EAQ?select=sgxFZUJ4-BCPyimaRXwLyw). This thing probably weighed more than a small child. The dish consists of grilled onions, tomatoes, and green peppers, grilled chicken chunks, and absolutely delicious saffron jasmine rice sprinkled with sour cherries. I found the veggies and chicken completely flavorless, but the rice was so delicious. Since I obviously had to take most of this home, I had an opportunity to eat it again the next day. The meat was still almost completely flavorless to me. Service: As Michael C. said, the service is " a bit lacking." Atmosphere: This place is usually pretty empty and has plenty of space for enormous groups. That said, I feel like their staff can't really handle huge crowds. Maybe they aren't used to those sorts of situations? The interior is quaint and subdued with plenty of carved wood. Synopsis: Even though the portions could feed a small country, I don't think it justifies the price. I nearly had to force feed myself the rest of my chicken chunks and rice for days after. Not pleasant if you don't absolutely love what you're eating. Perhaps this would be a good place for meatatarians to feed. read more

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Meh. I'd skip this place. Much better middle eastern and Persian places out there where the service is better, and you get when you order/pay for. Keep driving on Colorado and you'll hit better middle eastern joints. I promise . read more

I went to this place since it first opened, and watched it grow for over 15 years. I loved their food, so I took my family and relatives there before. We haven't been there for a while, and last night my mom and I went back to enjoy a big meal. We ordered Burberry rice with chicken, and dill rice with lamb. We were excited, until we get our food. There were only one tomatoes only on burberry rice. They didn't put grilled onions and lime wedge like they used to do. Dill rice is just by itself, and no longer have chopped parsley. My mom asked for onion so the waitress brought some big chunk onions. Imagine eating rice and dry meat, without any sauce or condiments? I have been to quite a few Mediterranean and Persian restaurants, and all came with some salad, tomatoes, and lime. We then asked for a box to go for left over. The waitress nodded, and said ok. But she stop at the counter and chatting with another employee about personal stuffs. There were only one other family in the store. I have to asked another waitress for a box. We will not go back again. read more

Full disclosure: I'm Persian, so I've eaten at a lot of Persian places. I recently went with my boyfriend - we started with kashke-bademjan, I ordered a dough with a barg (filet mignon) plate with a soup to start and my boyfriend ordered the koobideh combo (beef and chicken) with french fries with a fountain drink (diet coke). They brought out a can of coke for my boyfriend. The complimentary sabzi plate included literally two pats of butter and 5 leaves of basil. The pita bread was stale. The kashke-bademjan was dramatically underseasoned and lacked flavor. My soup was also underseasoned and lacked flavor. My barg, rice, and grilled tomato was very good (hence the two stars). My boyfriend's beef koobideh was dramatically underseasoned (so much so that the chicken koobideh was actually more flavorful). They never brought his french fries. When they brought the bill, it included "fountain drink" which is more expensive than the can of coke they brought. When we pointed this out, they said that the fountain was broken so they couldn't bring us a fountain drink. Then we kindly asked if they would then charge us just for a can of coke, and then they obliged. Bottom line: I would consider getting just a barg plate, to-go. Nothing else is worth eating there. read more

Parking: Plenty of free street parking and in the rear. Service: It was a bit imbalanced. The staff was very attentive in the beginning, but nowhere to be found later on. Food: The food was actually pretty good, but it took FOREVER to come out. Maybe it was a particularly busy night for them, or the food I ordered might have been a special item that takes longer to cook? I ordered the shrimp kebab plate and the ghormeh sabzi, and if those are expected to take longer to cook, then that definitely should be announced in the beginning. Portions: HUGE Overall, I was mostly bummed by the wait time. I feel like their kitchen needs to be streamlined better? But this place seems to do good business, so maybe I just came on a night when they were overworked? read more

The best kabob I ever taste, quality and quantity ante always warranty!! Some of the plates are enough for 2 people

I go to PCC and nothing is around but fast food. This place is the best and healthiest option. The food is absolutely great and Ali (the owner I assume) was very courteous and polite :) read more

The soup is so good and the kabab reminded me of home In winter that what I call ( comfort food ) read more

The restaurant has a nice modern look. The food was nice and charred, just the way I like. This is the first time I've had Persian/Iranian food so I can't comment on how authentic it was, but it was certainly tasty. Vegetarian Rating: 3/5 Had Some Options read more

I have no idea how these people can give this place 4, even 5 stars! Let me start by saying that I am not only Arab, but love middle eastern food. I ordered the Chicken Kabob meal ($12.95), and with this comes my choice of soup or salad...I opted for the salad with Italian dressing. The waitress asks me if I want "white meat or dark meat" and that there is an extra charge for white meat. WHAT?!?! Who makes kabobs with dark meat anyways? NOBODY! It's just not done! You always use white meat, so whatever, I suck it up and pay the fee. On the table is what we call in the Arab world as "maza," an assortment of muchies and what not. They gave me one raddish, one skinny pickle spear, one individually wrapped pad of butter, one pepperoncini and a quarter of a raw onion. What am I going to do with a quarter of a raw onion? I then get one piece of thin, flavorless, cold pita bread, cut into quarters. First I get my salad. It is not only overdressed, but it is bagged salad! A restaurant using bagged iceberg Ready-Pak salad is unacceptable! And then they throw a piece of raw broccoli in there right on top for good measure I guess. That was odd. Finally my meal comes, and it looks pretty good. In fact, the chicken was moist and not to bad, although it lacked a lot of flavor. It is colored yellow from the spices, but very little of that spice actually impacted the meat. They do however, give you 40-pounds of basmati rice. The rice was tender and fluffy, but again, lacked flavor. They need to utilize salt and pepper more. It would have made the rice much more enjoyable. I was the only person in the restaurant and the service sucked. Literally, I was the sole patron and my glass never got a refill. I had to literally stop eating and walk to the counter to ask for more iced tea. I never saw my server except for when I ordered and when my food was delivered. I was on a time table, so I had to again, get up and walk to the counter to get my check. All in all, I was disappointed. The food lacked flavor and corners where cut where they shouldn't be. The service was horrible and there was no excuse. If you know of a better middle eastern food place, I would suggest going there. read more

Food is great and authentic but the service is horrible. Not all the servers are awful, hence I go and have lunch there. But most of them have these 'beach rest face' (like this -_-) and you have to wave and yell for their attention. I've been there twice waited for 20minutes to get a menu... Left in frustration and hunger. read more

Pretty much after writing my last review on Heidar Baba I received a call from who I believe is the owner Ali. I have to say, he truly does care about his reputation and obviously is very proud of his cuisine. He was very apologetic in regards to what had happened and I understand how something like this could have happened. So, he offered to make it right. I stated in my previous post that what little food we did receive was good. Well tonight we got our order, it was chicken kabobs, flame broiled onions, flame broiled zucchini and a large flame broiled what looked like a hatch pepper and two types of rice. This food was delicious, the chicken was so juicy and succulent, rice was amazing topped with a little butter and crushed the flame broiled tomato into the rice (oh, forgot to mention the tomato above). The onions, ugh, they are just onions, why and how could they be such a tasty necessity with this meal, I just don't know. Well, Ali made sure that Rizzah in Chicago and Massoud in LA are no longer my favorites when it comes to Persian food, I and my wife can't wait to try some of the other dishes Heidar Baba has to offer. Thank you Ali, I appreciate the sincerity and the extra mile you took, all of which you honestly did not need to do. I appreciate the pride of what you do and it shows in the amazing meal we had tonight. Thank you, we will be ordering again soon. read more

I can't give this restaurant full 5 stars. Food is good. Pricing for dinner on the high side ($20 for chicken kebob dinner) but that is not the reason for the 3 stars. The wait is long and service is NOT with a smile. I called and upon not hearing me they hang up (they don't give your phone a chance to connect). I called again and they hang up again with one hello only without giving you a chance to connect (I can hear them and when my phone goes to my head phones there is a slight delay). I did this the third time and same thing; one hello and then hang up. Why bother picking up the phone any way? Clearly they don't want the take out business. We ended up going to the restaurant and ordering but we sat there and sat there and sat there, for the food to be done. I would not go there again. There are other good kebob/halal places. Sorry. read more

Love their chicken skewer. amazing. and the rice is super fluffy to boot!!

I walked passed it many times thinking it was Boba all the time. When I finally decided to give it a try, I just found out it's not a Taiwanese cuisine! The waitress had no smile at all which made me think she's kinda discriminate against Asian people. The beef was extremely overcooked and I can hardly chew it! At the end, we just dumped out everything. Sorry. read more

Decided to try Heidar Baba out for lunch, I got the white chicken lunch special. It comes with a chicken skewer, rice and a roasted tomato. I got a salad on the side. It was really delicious! I've tried my share of middle eastern restaurants but this is definitely my favorite place. It's clean, the staff is extremely friendly, the food comes out fast and it tastes fresh. I was blown away how tender the chicken was especially for being white meat. Two thumbs up for this place. I'll definitely be back! read more

Heidar Baba - Middle Eastern Near Me - Pasadena, California

Food: EXCEPTIONAL Portions: HUGE Pricing: WHAT A DEAL I've tried so many Persian restaurants and none of them can compare. From the owners who so warm and generous, to servers are very welcoming!!! There are so many options on the menus, from beef to chicken kabob, shish kabob, to burgers, soup, salad, the list goes on!! My mouth is watering. The meet is so juicy and fresh. The portions are huge, so much rice and protein. I eat here every week!!!!! read more

We went there on a Saturday night after the Huntington and were seated right away but because of a couple of parties, the servers looked overwhelmed. We got our own menus to look through then eventually got someone to ask for our order. Unfortunately we weren't both ready at the time and asked to wait. It took a little while to get someone else to take our order and we thought we were on our way. We got our salad relatively quickly but the entree took a while. In fact one of the servers came by and noticed we still didn't have anything and went back. All told it was at least an hour before we got the koobideh. The food was good and a huge portion so plenty for a second meal or to split between the two of us if we wanted. After the meal was over we ended up finding someone to give us the check because we got the impression that was going to take a while too. Overall we liked the food but it was a pretty long wait to get it. I'm chalking the wait up to the party so I'd be willing to give them another try read more

Wow, this is my new favorite persian restaurant. Juicy juicy kabobs and mmm the barg is to die for. You also get soup or salad with every entree and the atmosphere is calm, casual. They have pizza and sandwiches for the kiddies too. Will def be a regular here! read more

Haidar Baba is one of those trustworthy places that one can enjoy any bite of his/her food there. If you are looking for a place that provides you cleanness and health then Haidar Baba is the right choice. Food is the best always specially when it is delicious and healthy! read more

I have been going to this restaurant for many years. I have always gotten the best quality food, the most friendly service, and in a comfortable environment. I bring so many people to this restaurant because of the reasons I described above, even family from Iran! They agree that its a wonderful restaurant. I hope I get to visit this place for many years to come. read more

Love! Love! Love! Whenever I'm in town here in Pasadena, it's a must to go eat at Heidar Baba. They have the best persian food I've ever tried. I definitely recommend anyone who has great taste in food to try Heidar. My favorite lunch/dinner spot hands down! Love everything from their menu. Can't go wrong ordering from here. Never disappoints customers, customer service itself is awesome! read more

It was Sunday evening and I was looking for something to eat that was filling and wholesome. Heidar baba is best known for its range of Iranian (Persian) cuisine, including chicken, beef, lamb, salmon, shrimp, and veggie kabobs and much more! The meat is halal which means the animal was fed a natural diet and slaughtered humanely. If you have enough room after the generously portioned entrees , then make sure to try out their yummy baklava and top it off with some treasured gelato!!! The environment of this eatery makes you feel welcome because of the lovely staff and eloquent decor. I would thoroughly recommend Heidar Baba to anyone with a hunger for exceptionally high quality food in the Greater Los Angeles Area. read more

Heidar Baba - There's now a new location in the OC!!! - Middle Eastern Near Me - Pasadena, California