Nahrain Fish & Chicken Grill

What amazing food! Great flavors. The chicken tikka was succulent and full of flavor. The hummus was so delicious as was the eggplant appetizer! Generous portions and warm, friendly service. Great find!!!

Had the fish in clay oven or masgoof. One of the tastiest fish I had. Highly recommend the Nahrain fish & chicken grill. Benny the owner was great, waiter very attentive. Excellent customer service. Will come back for sure

Have a friend in town visiting from Ohio & he’s staying out here in El Cajon. He loves seafood so he Unilocaled a place to try and we ended up here based on the reviews. Welcomed right away by the owner, Bennie. Told him we’ve never been here so he didn’t even tell us to look at the menu. He recommended their specialty. The white carp fish cooked in their traditional clay oven. Told us it would take awhile to cook since it’s all made fresh to order. We had the hummus while we waited… That was fresh too. Everything was fresh and SO GOOD! Hidden gem out here and I will definitely come back. Great customer service made the experience so much better.

The masgoof is by far one of the tastiest and healthiest prepared fish you’ll ever try ! I encourage anyone who hasn’t tried this Iraqi specialty to try it first at nahrains! Very welcoming customer service as well.

First time here, wasn’t entirely sure what we were expecting, but it’s a little hole in the wall place with good food. My wife had the chicken, I had the beef, the owner stated it was filet minion and seasoned with their special spices. I could cut it with a fork it was so tender. Great flavor, the chicken too. Also the hummus was AMAZING! Will definitely be going back to try the fish. Only reason it’s not 5 stars is because I thought it was a tad pricey for this type of establishment.

amazing food. You have to try it. Everything is good — it tastes homemade. It’s a Mom & Pops place — like literally Mom & Pops :)
I will go back any chance I have.

We have heard about Nahrain restaurant in El Cajon CA. We live in Fresno Ca it’s about 6 hour drive for us. We decided to give a try today. As we walked in the staff where the kindest, friendly group of people. They helped us to choose the fish we would like. After 20 min… This delicious tandoori fish comes out on a plate. Delicious, finger licking good. Thank you very much Nahrain Restaurant.

Great place to eat! Very clean with nice staff. We got the appetizer sampler and falafel sandwich and it was so delicious! I will definitely be back. The hummus and baba ganoush were delicious as well.

The hummus was delicious and I am very picky about my hummus. I’ve had authentic hummus through my Lebanese friends.
The service was on point, the woman who greeted me on Saturday was very friendly and even put the sauce on the side in case it wasn’t to my liking.
The falafel sandwich was outstanding with just the right crunchiness. And the baba ganoush was creamy with the right consistency.

The owner said that the fish is laid vertically in the stove, while it is filled with fat and water when we have it ready on the table, this could not happen unless you put the fish in a try laid horizontally so the fat does not come out.
Did not like it, so expensive for me

All I can say is the food was amazing and wonderful. The whitefish was delicious
The food is served family style but can be individual plates as well
I am so happy that I checked the reviews on Unilocal. I was very pleased!

This place has amazing food. I ordered the chicken cream chop with hummus and baba ganoush. They all were fantastic. Thank you to the cook Amo Nazar. He makes amazing food. I recommend this place to anyone who wants to eat middle eastern food.

Started off with a sampler appetizer which was so delicious. Then it was followed by grilled tilapia and chicken – both out of this world. Meat was tender, moist and flavorful. The food is fresh and is made to order so there is a little bit of wait. Great healthful meal after working out at the gym.
Customer service was exceptional. Benny was extremely helpful. He knew it was our first time and explained the menu. Restaurant is kid friendly with ample parking on a Thursday night. Hidden gem in East County!

We were not super impressed… I will give them the benefit of the doubt that they were actually undergoing a remodel IN the restaurant so they were take out only. We ordered the Chicken Tikka and Beef Tikka sandwiches, along with the Arabic salad. The vegetables were fresh except the olives tasted like canned black olives rather than Middle Eastern olives. Also, the sandwiches AND the salad were dry. I thought maybe some Tzatziki or similar — maybe because they are Halal? The salad had no dressing — I wonder if they normally don’t have sauce and dressing or maybe it was because they were in remodeling mode? I’d like to give the place another try perhaps.
Oh, the bread was REALLY good!

Amazing grilled Fish Highly recommend drove from Arizona to try it. My friend tried the grilled chicken it was amazing az well. Prices very responsible.

3 to 3 ½ stars.
I ordered the whole chicken for $ 13.00 and ate it at the restaurant. I called it in before so that I wouldn’t have to wait when I arrived.
It comes with a huge piece of flatbread, some tomatoes, onions, a few pickles and some yellow vegetables that were kind of hard that I didn’t bother to try to eat them.
The chicken is spatchcocked and cooked in a tandoori oven so that could be the reason for the uneven cooking. However since I am an Asian it is taboo to overcook chicken. The spices were nicely seasoned on the chicken but only the thigh and the back had any moisture at all on it. The breasts were way too dry and overcooked. I honestly think this chicken should have been cooked at least 10 to minutes less or maybe it was reheated. The skin looked shriveled up and not plump.
We ordered some hummus and enjoyed that. It was nice homemade version.
Overall I liked the hummus but was disappointed in how dry the chicken was but for most restaurants sadly this is the norm.

the best chicken ever in east county is in Nahrain. if anyone is thinking Greek chicken, you have try this place just once and you will be hooked. their roast chicken is life changing, but you better call in and give yourself ½ hour window because it takes 45 minutes to cook. if you don’t mind waiting, the owner will keep you in very good company with his hospitality and kindness.
they prepare it in a tandoori clay oven and no it didn’t taste like tandoori chicken nor did it taste overly lemony. every piece from the smokey, crisp, char, moist, flavorful chicken made the 45 minutes worth the wait. never in my years have i had chicken like it. the cooking process made the dark meat almost slow smoked bbq like in texture, it was unreal.
we were told they do things at nahrain the old fashioned way and I can see it and taste it. from the way they prepare their killer hummus which is the way we like it, not mushy and not overly thick or oily. only small complaint the khubz couldve been smaller for two and hotter, by the time it arrived it was room temperature. nice hot flat bread would go great with the chicken and hummus. the yellow rice was good and how can you go wrong with arroz con pollo.
they have other tandoor grilled items like fish but we cannot wait to go back for that chicken.

OMG… The Msgoof fish has no similar taste but the fish taste at Abu Nuaas Street; Iraqi ppl will know what I am talking bout.
Just came to SD for business trip and decided to try Nahrain fish place since I heard about it so many times.
They have a real charcoal tanur for cooking not an oven! My fish called the red something and it tasted really really good.
My first experience was ¹⁰⁄₁₀ .
Highly recommend.

When I was a kid, we’d drive to the beach for a few days’ recreation, which was fun, but one of the best parts of the trip was the ride home. See, the Kiwanis guys would set up a large chicken BBQ by the side of the road, just where the bridge backed up on Sunday afternoons, and the smell of grilled chicken would torture us kids and force our parents to spring for several plates. Genius.
Fortunately, you and I don’t have to drive from San Diego to rural Delaware to get ridiculously good grilled chicken and fish. We have Nahrain, on Main Street in El Cajon.
Don’t be put off by the strip mall. In fact, remember the bakery, Shakira, next door to Nahrain; you’re going to want to stop in there on your way home.
At the back of Nahrain’s dining area is a deli counter laden with several species of fresh fish. Customers make their choice based on the species they prefer, but also on the size of the fish, some of which will feed a half-​dozen people or more.
On a recent visit, my wife had a grilled red snapper (served masgoof-​style), and I had a spicy whole chicken that was spatchcocked and grilled as well. Both of these items were expertly prepped and cooked over the flame of the tanoor. They were moist and flavorful, with delicious bits of char, and taking a tip from from our fellow diners, most of whom were Iraqi, we used pieces of the Arab bread called khubz to pick meat from bone and carry it to our mouths.
The woman running the front of house was helpful and a bit directive as we chose our food, reminding me so much of my father’s sister that I took to calling her «Amti», Arabic for «auntie». She seemed to enjoy that, and spoke to me in Arabic, which sadly was a wasted effort, as I only remember a few words from childhood.
The restaurant itself is spare, brightly lit, and offers Arabic language music videos playing quietly in the background. Service is tin foil, paper and plastic, water is bottled, soft drinks are canned. Those used to cushy surroundings might do better to order carry out, which I’ve done, several times.
Our meal was not inexpensive, costing $ 40 plus tip, which included two drinks and a hummus appetizer (comped… thanks, Unilocal!). However, I so enjoy fresh, well-​prepared grilled fish and chicken in large quantities that I consider the price worth paying.

I stopped in here for dinner, and I quickly learned that with a Unilocal check in, it will earn you a free hummus appetizer. Although my app wasn’t working, presenting me with oops code 8 error, they still honored their check in deal with Unilocal.Very cool, I thought.
For my meal, I had the hummus of course, and the chicken tikka with some grilled vegetables and a very large flat bread for $ 11 and some change (
). The hummus was fantastic and made in house with fresh garbanzo beans, not from the large can. (
) The freshness was very evident, because what I tasted was an all natural garbanzo beans with a touch of garlic, lemon, and some luscious olive oil. (
) The offering came with small pita chips doted around the plate, which I used to scoop the hummus. (see) very good stuff.
The chicken tikka was good. The chicken was properly cooked, tender, juicy, with nice char marks, (
) but its flavor could of been a little better. I little more aggressive seasoning would of benefited it. Don’t get me wrong, I like it, and polished it off, but it just needed something extra. The large flat bread was very good and came nice and warm. (
) It was of a wheat variety and it had a good chewy texture. I used it to eat the chicken and some of the pickled veggies and grilled onions and tomatoes.
What this meal needed was some sort of sauce. Perhaps a Mediterranean yogurt sauce which would of been great to eat with the chicken and bread. The chicken tikka served on a bed of rice, would of been good too. Service was good, and the owner was an enthusiastic gentleman regarding his food. Specifically the grilled fish house specialty they offer.
My overall impression was a 3.5 stars, but with the Unilocal check in deal and that fanastic hummus, I rounded it up to 4 stars.