Moby Dick of Boston

Many a kebab has met its maker gripped tightly in my meaty paws, or torn apart and gobbled uncouthly in my usual gluttonous haste. And they haven't just been American kebabs either -I've tasted kebabs from the street markets of Damascus to the sunny climes of Palo Alto (just once!), stuffed in so many types of breads I can hardly name them all. The point, in other words, is that I know my kebabs. As a result, I was really looking forward to my Kebab at Moby Dick of Boston, just around the corner from the Boston Symphony where I was about to hear Handel's wonderful Apollo e Dafne. A kebab, I thought, would be the perfect appetizer for some nice music.

Before delving into the heart clogging sandwich in question, though, a note about the name of the restaurant. Moby Dick isn't exactly a chain - or rather, the Boston branch isn't exactly a chain. Rather, for some reason I haven't yet been able to identify, Iranian kebab restaurants in the US always call themselves Moby Dick, even if they have nothing to do with each other. The generally quite excellent, cheap, and generous mini-chain of Moby Dicks in DC, for example, are high on my recommended list for people in the Washington area. Other Moby Dicks are not.

Moby Dick of Boston, at least during my one visit there, is unfortunately in the latter category. It's not that the lamb kebab I had was bad, particularly. The lamb was tender, tasty, and reasonably well marinated. The yogurt sauce was strong with garlic, the sandwich wrapped in the requisite paper and foil. But kebabs, to my mind, are dependent on two things. First, they really need to be generous, stuffed healthily with meat and sauce, and salad. You can't make kebabs with a stingy hand, especially when you charge $7.50 for a single sandwich like Moby Dick of Boston. This alone is a fatal flaw. Second, kebabs have to be wrapped in really good bread to be worth their while. It doesn't always have to be hand made in a sort of tandoor, though I've found the best Iranian kebaberies (is that a word?) always oblige, but it does need to be decent, and definitely something other then Moby Dick of Boston's weak supermarket pita.

I thought for a moment of giving them a pass because I went early on a Sunday - but then it occurred to me that if you're open, you should be ready to serve, Sunday or not. And I doubt the prices dropped at all during the week or in the evening either, so unless they made the sandwiches twice as big for everyone except me, I don't think they're out of the dog house. To be honest, I've had much worse kebabs, but not for so much money. What I had at Moby Dick of Boston should probably have cost about three dollars - and for that, they're getting a thumbs down from me.