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Sinbad Mediterranean Cuisine & Buffet (Closed)

5801 Northwest Expressway
Oklahoma City, OK

Sinbad Mediterranean Cuisine on Northwest Expressway

Sinbad Mediterranean Cuisine is the latest of several buffet restaurants to occupy this building in Warr Acres that I think was originally a Pancho's Mexican Buffet (the Aztec warrior statues are still visible on the outside of the building). The transition from Taj Indian Cuisine to Sinbad in 2010, though, was not as drastic a change as some of the others that have occured. Sinbad has kept the buffet tables, furniture, and even the telephone number of Taj, and continues to serve Indian food in addition the the Mediterranean dishes that have been added.

I would like to say that the addition of Mediterranean cuisine has made the restaurant even better than when it was strictly an Indian restaurant, but many choices from Taj have been eliminated. Sinbad serves some of the more popular items that were served at Taj, but it no longer offers Indian food from the menu (which were my favorite at Taj). The Mediterranean food from the menu seems to consist mainly of meat items cooked in large quantities, and I found the buffet to be the best choice in terms of getting the best choice of food for the lowest price. The restaurant now has more variety than before, but I did not find the overall quality to be any better.

Sinbad's buffet
Sinbad's buffet has a section for meat items, a section for vegetarian food, and a section for desserts and salads

Sinbad has two buffet tables for the main entrees. The meat table is where most of the Mediterranean items are found, but also included are chicken tikka masala and other Indian dishes. The vegetarian table is almost exclusively Indian. A third table provides salads, desserts, and Mediterranean side dishes such as hummus and tabouli.

Three meats from the buffet
Gyros, chicken kabobs, and chicken kubideh from the buffet

Mediterranean style meats such as kabobs are really the specialty of the restaurant. At least I feel that to get your money's worth out of the buffet some meat items should be included. I took a photo of some of the meat items that were representative of the buffet, but others are also available. For me a sampling was enough to get a good taste of the food.

Persian Meatballs were the meat item that I thought had the best flavor. Either the sign on the buffet did not say or I do not remember the type of meat used, but the meat combined with the sauce was excellent.

Of the items shown in the photo, the Chicken Kubideh was probably my favorite. This was grilled chicken that was highly spiced so that the chicken flavor was not predominant.

The Gyros was dry, but I thought it had a good flavor, and is probably excellent in most circumstances (it was probably sitting on the buffet for too long).

The Chicken Kabobs had excellent meat, but I did not like the way they were flavored with the spices used.

Chicken Tikka Masala was an Indian dish from the meat section that I thought had a very good flavor. Even though I did not think it was as good as the same dish that used to be served at Taj, the spice level was higher than Taj used to make it (at least on the buffet). Thus it ended up being something I enjoyed probably as much as before.

The Indian food in general at Sinbad was both my favorite and least favorite of the items from the buffet. An example of my favorite was the Vegetable Korma from the vegetarian section that I thought had a very good flavor. It was sweet, but curry should be a little sweet to counteract the spiciness.

The Indian style desserts were also very good, including the Golab Jamon. There were more desserts than I could try, and all of them were good.

The Indian style Basmati Rice was a disappointment compared to the other Indian food, but the Naan was very good (it tasted as if the owner was making it the same way Mani used to do at Taj Restaurant).

The items I really thought should be skipped were the Mediterranean side dishes such as tabouli and hummus (although the hummus was better). Overall it seemed that the Indian food was better, but the Mediterranean meats and kabobs made the meal more satisfying.

The buffet was good from the standpoint of having enough variety to find several things that were good. I did think it was a little expensive, but I have been to other buffets that cost as much and were far less enjoyable.

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RESTAURANT DETAILS

RATING: 21

Cuisine: Middle Eastern & Indian
Cost: $$
Hours: Open Daily
Accessible: Yes
Tea: Masala
MSG: No
Smoking: No Smoking
Alcohol: Beer
Buffet: Lunch & Dinner

Most Recent Visit
Jun. 28, 2010

Number of Visits: 1

Best Items
Persian Meatballs, Chicken Tikka Masala, Vegetable Korma, Potato Soup, Naan, Desserts

Special Ratings
Persian Meatballs:
Gyros:
Chicken Kubideh:
Chicken Kabob:
Hummus:
Tabouli:
Vegetable Korma:
Chicken Tikka Masala:
Basmati Rice:
Potato Soup:
Naan:
Golab Jamon:
Banana Pudding:
Masala Tea:



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