Basha Falls Short of Full Potential

For a town with nearly 200 restaurants, Skokie certainly offers a great deal of options. Hungry foodies can find their fill of , and there are a wide variety of in town.

 Personally, I'd love to see another Mexican restaurant call Skokie home. But what the town lacks in some areas it makes up for in others, such as the large number of Middle Eastern eateries that dot Skokie. There is the near universally loved , the amazing treat of and the less discussed option of .

Sometimes the atmosphere of a restaurant is important, and sometimes it isn't. There are plenty out there that have obviously put a lot more thought into the appearance of the dining room than the quality of what coming out of the kitchen.

 That isn't the case at Basha, where everything has a homespun, do-it-yourself quality, such as the hand-written sign advertising vodka shots for $3. The aesthetics of the dining room hover somewhere between a living room and a cafeteria.

The chaos is part of Basha's charm, but it's also among its greatest weaknesses. Basha does indeed have some fantastic offerings, but the restaurant needs to more consistently put its best foot forward.

The quality of our meals tend to vary widely from visit to visit. Each time, the value is amazing: each and every sandwich is less than $5 and platters, such as the filet mignon platter, are less than $8. While the great prices never waver, the food sometimes does.

On our most recent visit, we were generally lucky. In the mood for some soup on a cold day, we ordered a large portion of the lentil soup, just $2.29. The thick, hot blended soup had the consistency of split pea and was very satisfying. We also shared an order of the large hummus. At $2.79 for a generous nearly 8-ounce portion, the mashed chickpeas are served with just a touch more lemon juice than we like. But that's fine for it's Basha's spin on the dish, and it works.

Sadly, our luck on this visit ended soon. Satisfied with our soup and appetizer, we ordered sandwiches. The falafel sandwich ($2.39) was a bit mushy. Normally, Basha serves up more crunchy falafel patties. Everything else about the sandwich--from the thin pita wrap to the veggies to the tahini sauce--was perfectly fine.

The chicken shawarma sandwich ($2.95) was where things fell apart. There's just no way around calling it exactly as it was: the chicken was dried out. This wasn't accidentally overcooked chicken. This chicken was obviously a little freezer burned. It was inedible and inexcusable, casting a pall over a place I had previously enjoyed.

However, that's the thing about Basha. Along with the unbelievably low prices and quirks in service, diners can expect a few uneven experiences. Luckily, it isn't always that way. But with other great options just down the street, it's hard not to think twice about going elsewhere.

The word 'Basha,' means 'King' in Turkish, and as much as I want to be a loyal subject, there's just a bit too much chaos in this kingdom for me.