Rate-A-Restaurant, #68 in a series

Restaurant: Chicken Al-Wazir

Location: 1219 Glendale Ave. (Glendale)

Type of restaurant: Middle Eastern

We stipulated: Maria's been wanting to check out Chicken Al-Wazir -- which is close to our Adams Hill 'hood -- for months. It was my turn to cook... so I picked up the phone and placed an order. I wanted something cheap, with free delivery to boot, and so it was finally time to try Chicken Al-Wazir.

What we ordered: Chicken kabob ($7.50) and Chicken and beef lula ($6.50)

High point: A lot of food for quite a decent price. We weren't sure what lula even was, but the guy on the phone convinced us -- "You have to try it at least once in life. If you don't like it, I'll give you the swarma next time" -- and he was right, it was delicious. (It's the entree to the right, a ground meat/sausage sort of dish.) The plates also came with pickeled veggies, slaw, rice, roasted pepper and tomato, and pita bread. In other words, enough food for two meals.

Low point: I wasn't a fan of the pickled veggies, but Maria was. Also, the chicken lula was a tad overdone.

Overall impression: When Eating LA's Pat Saperstein hit Chicken Al-Wazir, she sheepishly admitted it felt like cheating on Zankou Chicken. And let's face it, Chicken Al-Wazir is no Zankou. The chicken just isn't as moist or down and dirty delicious. But Al-Wazir gets points for economy... and that free delivery (for orders over $10).

Chance we will go back: Probably not for a while; next time, I'll be in need of a Zankou fix.

For a complete archive of our Rate-A-Restaurant reviews, check out our newly revised companion ratearestaurant.blogspot.com website.