Now that Chicago has reopened to out-of-state travelers without having to quarantine, I finally got back into the Windy City to see some accounts that I had not visited in over a year. One of my accounts is located in the north side of Chicago and I stopped in to see him one late afternoon and after we finished up our meeting, I offered to take him out to dinner. He's keen on Mediterranean/Persian restaurants - he took me to a Mediterranean restaurant a couple years ago for a buffet lunch. This time, he wanted to take me to one of his favorite places in Chicago - Noon O Kabab in the Albany Park neighborhood of Chicago.
Amin Naghavi grew up in the city of Tabriz in the high country of northwestern Iran. Tabriz had the reputation of having some of the finest cuisine and best cooks in the country. In 1978, political unrest rocked Iran and Amin Naghavi could see a change coming in the future of the country. Like many Iranians at the time, Naghavi felt it was time to find a new home for his family. The Naghavi's emigrated from Iran and ended up in Chicago. But what they brought with them was a trove of family recipes that dated back to near the turn of the 20th century. One of the recipes Amin Naghavi had was a lightly marinated salmon with Persian spices, a recipe his father had come up with decades prior.
A number of those recipes were passed on to Amin's son, Mir Javad, and his daughter, Parvin. And it was a few years down the road when the three Naghavi's decided to open their own Persian restaurant. The original Noon O Kabab opened in 1997 as a small cafeteria-style restaurant with seating for just 20 people on N. Kedzie. Over the years, the restaurant expanded, then retracted in size before moving to a larger space across Kedzie in November of 2016 in what was a former Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant. The Naghavi's had built a loyal following and wait times at Noon O Kabab would regularly reach over 90 minutes during peak times. Sensing they needed more space, the Naghavi family expanded the dining area adding on with a more formal dining space in 2019.
We took separate cars to Noon O Kabab and I found a parking space in the parking lot on the south side of the restaurant. (see map) I made the rookie mistake of waiting for my dealer in what was the more casual side of the restaurant. When he showed up, he said, "Oh, no. We're going over to the other side."
The "other side" was a large circular dining area that featured beautiful pictures made from colorful ceramic tiles. The centerpiece of the room was a large chandelier with sheer drapes which went out from the center. As the sun went down, light blue accent lights lit up the dome above the dining room floor. There was a bar area off to the side of the dining room, but with Chicago just getting ready to come out of pandemic restrictions, it was sort of roped off and closed.
We were seated at a large round table on the edge of the dining room and we were given menus by a lady. It turned out my dealer and the lady knew each other. "That's the wife of the owner," he said to me as she walked away. "I probably haven't been in here for a year and a half, so it was good to catch up." She came back a while later with some water and a Efes Pilsen, a popular Turkish beer that I had never had before. It had a nice light taste and went well with the food I ordered.
I was a babe in the woods when it came to what to order off the menu. With "Kabab" in the restaurant's name, it was obvious that the menu had a number of skewered meats to choose from. Beef skewers - including marinated sirloin and beef tenderloin cuts, lamb skewers and chicken skewers were available on the menu. They had a number of combinations of the meat skewers, as well as vegetarian dishes on the menu. They also had a handful of appetizers on the menu. My dealer ordered some falafel and hummus. I have to say that I'm not much of a hummus person, but the hummus at Noon O Kabab was outstanding.
Not really knowing what to do on my first time in a Persian restaurant, I figured that I'd be safe with lamb and chicken. (We had grilled steaks the night before and I was kind of "beefed-out" that evening.) I got the Lamb & Joujeh combination - charbroiled lamb meat with grilled chicken marinated in butter. But when the owner's wife asked me what kind of rice I wanted with the combination, I had that "deer-in-the-headlights" moment. My dealer came through in the pinch and said, "Give him both kinds of rice." One type of rice was a white rice with saffron, while the other was a mixture of brown basmati rice and spices. When the plate was set down in front of me, I was like, "Whoa, man! That's a lot of food!"
I have to say the chicken was very good. It had a nice buttery flavor on the outside and was very tender and juicy in the inner core. The lamb was equally as tasty, tender and juicy. And I enjoyed the basmati rice - both kinds. But there was no way that I was going to be able to finish what I had on my plate. I made a significant dent in the skewered chicken and lamb, however. It was just that good.
Expanding my culinary horizons once again, I have to say that I was impressed with Noon O Kabab. It's not all that different from some types of Mediterranean food I've tried in the past and you'll find staples like beef, chicken and lamb on the menu, as well as a number of vegetarian dishes and traditional Persian appetizers. My skewers of grilled buttery chicken and charbroiled lamb were outstanding. And the mixed rice I got was fine, as well. It was just a lot of food and I could have easily shared my meal as I was stuffed at the end and I hadn't finished everything on my plate. I won't be as apprehensive with my next visit to a Persian restaurant in the future and I hope to get back to Noon O Kabab at some point to try some of their beef skewers.