Time to continue our journey up Main Street as we eat our way towards Western Avenue. One of the first places we stopped at on the Main Street eatery tour was Haddad’s Downtown Restaurant which is located down the hill on Main Street as you’re heading towards the riverfront. Well there’s another Haddad’s Restaurant up on the top of the hill as you’re driving towards Bradley. I’ve driven by that restaurant hundreds of times but have never gone in it. Time to correct that today! To the MBIP Mobile!
Here we go cruising up Main Street to...
Haddad’s Restaurant! It’s way past the lunch hour, so things should be quiet in here, let’s go in and see what’s going on in there.
Yep, it’s quiet in here alright! It’s really nice and cozy in here. I have a feeling they do a big takeout business, although by counting the chairs, they can seat about 16 people in the dining area here.
Here’s a shot from the back of the restaurant.
After hearing me make some commotion by taking pictures, this beautiful woman came over to the front counter. This is Nidal and she’s the owner of this fine establishment and the sister of Rita, who runs the downtown Haddad’s that we’ve stopped at already. She’s really friendly and we had a nice chat. She told me that they’ve been in this location for years and business is very good.
I noticed the pictures on the back wall and she said I could go back there and take a look, so let’s go take a look, shall we?
The majority of the pictures on the wall are press clippings of Nidal’s dad, Tony Haddad who immigrated to Peoria in 1977 with his wife Loreece from Lebanon and started selling food from a cart and later got into the restaurant business. Tony died on December 5th last year, but his family and the Haddad name live on and continue the family tradition of serving up wonderful Lebanese food in Peoria.
I met Tony a couple of times while doing posts about the carts in downtown Peoria and here’s a photo I took of him in 2014.
Here’s a photo of Nidal’s mom, Loreece selling food from a cart in downtown Peoria. Nidal looks exactly like her!
As you can see from all these awards, they know a thing or two about cooking up some delicious meals!
I took a photo of the kitchen and placed my lunch order with Nidal. I ordered the Shawarma, which I’ve never had, but Nidal highly recommended it. She told me it’s a house specialty, so who am I to argue with that?
And here’s Nidal making the Shawarma behind the counter in the kitchen.
I let her put the finishing touches on as I settled in to my seat at the table here.
This is the view from where I sit.
Alright, here’s Nidal with the Shawarma and she serves it up with a beautiful smile. I love that!
There’s condiments to the right side of me on the table! How very handy!
This looks and smells like a chunk of heaven on a plate! Let’s dig in and see what it tastes like...
Wow, this is so tasty and delicious! Housed inside the fresh pita pocket is marinated beef tips, tabbouleh salad, onions, tomato and topped off with a creamy sesame sauce. The beef is so tender and succulent and the tabbouleh salad, onions and tomato add to the wonderful flavor. The sesame sauce is spicy and adds a nice zing to the sandwich. This was my first Shawarma, but definitely not my last!
Nidal told me they recently opened up a new Haddad’s on University. Here’s a picture of it that she showed me at my table. I’ll definitely be checking that out in the future. Thanks to Nidal for a delicious meal and for being wonderful company as I enjoyed my lunch in Haddad’s on Main! We’ll see you all tomorrow!
Haddad’s Restaurant
1010 Main Street
Peoria
309-672-5339
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