Two stars only because I'm compassionate. Lunch today using a Groupon- I live in Buckeye so if it wasn't for Groupon I would not go out of my way to give places way off the freeway corridor a shot unless I was in their neighborhood.  We were five miles from Ali Baba today so it was worth a try.  I was very disappointed.  The woman who works in the grocery next door was very personable, I went in there first looking for Zartar bread. She directed me to the bakery that doubles as the dining room.  The cases were sparse, but what was on display looked good.  The menu seemed promising.  My companion had the ubiquitous gyro with fries and a soft drink. I ordered the Ali Baba plate with an order of the yogurt/cucumber \"salad\" on the side, to eat with my entree much as a raita is eaten with Indian cuisine.\n\nTo mimic others, the service was ridiculously slow.  Whoever is working their line must not have professional food service experience, or the kitchen is set up to prepare food for only one table at a time.  I got the impression that they are understaffed, to put it conservatively.  When asked how I wished the meats on my platter prepared, I said I wanted the chicken cooked to 160 degrees but not cooked to death, and the lamb and kufta medium.  When the food was finally served, the meats had been removed from the skewers.  There were four one inch cubes of chicken, four one inch cubes of lamb, and a six inch by one inch by quarter inch high strip of kofta (seasoned ground beef that is formed into oblongs or flatted out on a flat skewer and cooked over a grill.  All the meat was dried out and way overcooked, and I mean way overcooked.  I know that the middle east is not homogenous, and recipes vary, but I wish the kufta was seasoned more robustly with the spices that are found in Egyptian kofta. The seasoning was rather one note. The rice was cooked to perfection and had a good flavor, and there were some middle eastern pickles like strips of turnip pickled in beet juice, a pepperoncini, and cherry pepper slices.  Bread is only served upon request; a nod to our American carb conscious diet, but kind of weird for a middle eastern restaurant.  My experience in the middle east was one where there were huge slabs of bread served with everything.  My yogurt and cucumber salad with mint was amenable, I could have done without the olive oil dripped on top because it was a bitter olive oil, not fruity.\n\nSo, because of the Groupon, the way I look at it is that my entree cost five bucks instead of 15, excluding my cucumber yogurt salad.  I wasn't cheap with the tip, the bill before the discount was twenty six dollars and change and I tipped $5.80.  I don't hold servers responsible for kitchen mistakes, at least not in an environment where the servers don't have any power to change the speed at which the food comes out.\n\nThe worst of it all is that instead of finding a place not too far from home where I can find all my favorite items from the middle east, I found a place that I can't justify the drive to visit in order to give them a second chance.  It's too bad, some of the best food I have ever eaten has been at deli bakerys that put up a few tables in the corner.\n\nSo, guess I have to wait until the next time I fly back east and then hit the Reading Terminal Market in Philly if I want perfectly cooked kufta, kebabs, and chicken.\nBummer...............