Hanging Gardens offers authentic cuisine to Sun City residents

Esho Kais, the owner of Hanging Gardens Restaurant, hopes his family’s authentic Mediterranean recipes will become popular with Sun City residents.

“I’m trying to get the authentic flavors,” he said. “It costs a little more and I don’t have anything precooked. I want everything to be fresh. It does take a little longer, but the quality is much better.”

Kais opened the restaurant, 10050 W. Bell Road, Jan. 15 as an extension to his catering business to provide for customers on a daily basis.

“It’s been good,” he said. “We’re seeing new faces. If I have a minute, I go out to meet the customers. I want them to be happy.”

In fact, he said, he wants to meet the customers so much that it is one of the reasons he will not consider placing the restaurant on a delivery service app. The other is that he wants to guarantee the freshness of his mesquite-smoked cuisine.

“I’ve always liked to cook,” Kais said. “When I get in the kitchen, I’m very light on my feet and I forget myself. I become engrossed in the cooking.”

His meals are prepared when ordered, he said, except for a few items that are offered with every meal, such as the lentil soup, which is prepared each morning.

The restaurant is Kais’ second business. He opened Al Manar Food and Market in 2016 at 19th Avenue and Thunderbird Road. Al Manar was like a Mediterranean market, he said, offering a grocery, restaurant and meat market in one location. He was doing well, and then the Covid pandemic struck.

“We closed right before the Covid got real bad and the government started bailing people out,” Kais said.

He continued his catering business, which is where he got his start. For years before Al Manar, he would cook for more than 300 at church and other events and eventually began his catering business about 13 years ago.

“Every event I do, I treat it as my first event,” Kais said. “I want them to like my food and want more.”

He will cater to events of any size, although larger events may require more notice.

Kais said he will also accept catering business through the restaurant, which is open 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Saturday.