Al Azayem Restaurant

🇮🇶 IRAQ / QUICK FIX: The gem of El Cajón's "Little Baghdad" might just be this fast-paced diner-style Chaldean restaurant.

🇮🇶 IRAQ
📍 550 E. Main Street,
El Cajon, San Diego County
🅿️ Parking lot in rear
🥤 No Alcohol

📸 All photos by Jared Cohee
for Eat the World Los Angeles

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Every once in a while a restaurant slips into these pages that requires even more of a drive than usual. Readers of Eat the World Los Angeles are probably the type that already head to all corners of Los Angeles and Orange Counties for the delicious foods available from every region of the globe. But it is also hard to say no to special places in Ventura, San Bernardino, Riverside, and San Diego Counties, which all could host their own Eat the World domains.

The last of these is home to some cuisines that have a stronger home than Los Angeles, and Al Azayem is proof of this. It may be a stretch to call this part of Main Street “Little Baghdad” as many do, but there is no doubt that this is ground zero of Iraqi cuisine in Southern California, if not the entire country not including Detroit. El Cajón also has a great variety of Middle Eastern foods, but there is one little kitchen amongst many that is worth calling into if you ever find yourself anywhere close.

When you sit down and enjoy your meal in the mostly takeout restaurant, a tray of fresh bread and small bowl of what they call vegetable soup arrive. If you come famished, you will probably start dipping pieces of the bread and wondering just how cheaply you could fill yourself up here. But do yourself a favor and move forward slowly, leave plenty of room for all of the delicious plates that are soon to arrive at the table.

There is often a line of people waiting to order at the counter, but if you come to eat here you can let someone know and menus will arrive and orders can be made at the table. While the meat-forward dishes will call you for sure, grab an Iraqi salad ($7.99, below), a fresh mix of chopped cucumbers and tomatoes. Even while it is not tomato season and the black olives are from a can, somehow the big plate of veggies is very satisfying, especially once the meats come and you can alternate bites.

One of the stars of Al Azayem seems to be the tashreeb lamb shank plate ($17.99, below), which families of Amaraic-speaking Chaldeans at the other tables all seem to be tearing into. While labor-intensive, the meal is served quickly because it is prepared daily. A tender lamb shank is placed with a tomato-based stew over many pieces of thin flatbread. Tashreeb means “to soak” in Arabic, so any dish with this name will always have bread soaked by broths or stews.

As many of the most delicious foods around the globe have come to be, tashreeb was the “invention” of lower class peoples. Forced to use what they had, a spiced stew on bread is naturally a filling and cheap meal, although in the beginning the meats were probably very minimal if used at all. Today there are a vast amount of tashreeb variations with many types of meat or vegetables, and these can be eaten in homes and restaurants alike.

You will notice a distinct zesty citrus flavor amongst the savory stew, this because of the heavy use of dried limes. Half chunks of these are still in the broth when it is served, but avoid eating these! The shank itself has more meat on it than it originally looks, so make sure to keep pulling pieces off. You can also have a tashreeb plate with beef shawarma here, which might be a little easier to share amongst a large group.

On the vast menu, you will also see an entire section labeled breakfast, which will cause mouths to water at anytime of day. If something catches your eye, ask if it is still available because many dishes can be enjoyed no matter when you arrive. One of these is kubba saray Baghdadia ($15.99, below), possibly most alluring because of the last word which tells its origin story.

If you have been to Baghdad there is a very good chance you have eaten at Kubba Saray Restaurant, a place that makes these traditional “palace meatballs.” Kubba is a pretty simple dish, a good amount of ground beef is mixed with aromatic spices and shaped into a ball with a bulger wheat cover. The broth it swims in is also simple, but the combination of flavors is deeply warming and comforting.

Al Azayem is really only like dipping your big toe in a body of water to check the temperature. But the temperature is just right, and makes you wish that El Cajón was a neighborhood that was closer to Los Angeles. Alas, the pull might just make visits to San Diego County a little more frequent. What are some other restaurants in the area that you recommend?

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