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THE FREE LANCE-STAR
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BURGER AND KABAB 367 Warrenton Road (Old Forge Plaza) Falmouth Phone: 540/370-1878 Hours: Monday, 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, noon to 8 p.m. Closed on Sundays Price range: Entrees--$5 to $9.50 Atmosphere: Overly bright, nondescript room with a loud television that is nearly always on. You order at the counter and sit down while your food is prepared fresh and delivered to the table on disposable plates with plastic utensils.
Payment: TAKE CASH. They don't accept credit cards or personal checks. Other info: This is a Pakistani-owned restaurant in a gritty strip shopping center. The food is interesting, with layers of delicate and strong spices. The owners are friendly and curious about what Fredericksburg-area diners want. No appetizers or desserts available yet; nor is there a children's menu. The restaurant will deliver food if you're calling from within a 3-mile radius. |
There's definite potential here at Burger and Kabab. The food is interesting, affordable and zesty. The owner wants to please Fredericksburg diners adventurous enough to try Pakistani food.
Everything is informal here. You order your food at a counter in one room, then choose a seat in the other. You eat on disposable plates, with plastic forks and spoons. You reach in and choose your bottled drink from a convenience-store-like case.
It's so ordinary it's almost depressing. Hey, you're thinking, if I'd wanted to go on a picnic
Ah, but then there's the food. Unless of course you know how to prepare a chapli kabab on rice at home. Didn't think so.
There's nothing ordinary about the food at Burger and Kabab. They cook chicken and beef a few different, tasty ways and serve them with two sauces--a hot, red one and a cool, yogurty green one. It's all delicious.
The chicken comes curried in a brown gravy over rice with flat, grilled bread ($6.99). This dish wasn't printed on the menu, but the owner told us about it with a knowing smile. We immediately ordered it.
You can also have your chicken grilled in large chunks over rice ($6.50), stuffed inside a pita with vegetables ($6.50) or fried on the bone, American style ($4.99 for four pieces).
There were seven of us. We tried it all. The fried chicken delighted the children, though it came with absolutely nothing else on the plate. For $1.49 we could have had fries with that.
The grilled chicken was as good as grilled chicken can ever be, which is to say that it was juicy, delicately spiced and cooked perfectly.
The curried chicken with gravy was everyone's favorite. It was seasoned enough to be exotic without being overpowering. Bits of bone and whole cardamom pods were evidence of its freshness. The meat melted in the mouth.
Beef dishes come in the form of the lowly hamburger for the traditional palate (quite good, with fries, at $4.99). But you can get a respectable hamburger plenty of places.
Highly recommended are both the seekh kabab for $6.50 and the chapli kabab for $6.99.
The chapli is served as two beef patties. Various Middle Eastern seasonings are involved on both the outside and inside. The beef is ground with onion, pepper and herbs. Think of it as a meatloaf from Pakistan.
The seekh is two oblong, twisted sections of ground beef in a lighter seasoning. A firm, long-grain rice accompanies every dish not served as a sandwich.
Being a party of seven, we ordered nearly every item on the short menu and wished for small dishes to pick at or something sweet to finish it off. Maybe they'll offer those one day.
Look at having dinner at Burger and Kabab as a chance to have an impact on the future of a good little restaurant. Ask about appetizers or different Pakistani dishes. You never know what the owners have in the kitchen that's not been printed on the menu. Have the nerve to ask that the television be turned off and some Middle Eastern music turned on.
And don't forget to bring some cash. They're not set up to take credit cards yet--but they might if business picks up--and they don't take personal checks.
Perhaps that's a reaction to its surroundings. You turn off U.S. 17 north at Old Forge Plaza, a singularly ugly strip of stores fronting a troubled neighborhood. A Motel Six looms across the parking lot.
You're hoping for an oasis inside the restaurant. Some low light. Some color. Pakistani music, perhaps. Anything to transport you from where you in fact are.
What you get are bright lights, a loud television set up on a podium in the dining room and a discount decor where the wallpaper pattern features cans of food. It was also way too hot inside the dining room last Friday night.
Had we complained about the TV or the heat, I've no doubt the woman who owned the place would have made changes. I asked her about the lack of appetizers and deserts. She said the restaurant has been open only a few months and asked me sincerely about what I thought people here would like. She's eager for suggestions, it seems. Not too many restaurant owners are that accommodating.