Just ate here for the 3rd time. It was a slow time (5:30 p.m., Sunday) and my friend and I were the only diners. We ordered and our simple order took at least 15 minutes. I was a little concerned because someone kept coughing in the kitchen. I ordered the falafel sandwich with hummus and my friend ordered the Greek salad with grilled chicken. My sandwich was not outstanding. The pita bread appeared homemade, which was a plus, but the falafel, while crisp on the outside, were gummy and heavy. Inside the pita, along with the falafel were marinated vegetables which lent a sour taste. The hummus was about 1 tablespoon wiped onto the inside of the pita. The sandwich was accompanied by roasted red potatoes, which were simple and tasty. I ended up not eating much of my sandwich, and it left a heavy feeling in my stomach for the remainder of the night. My friend said her salad greens were soggy and that there was just a tiny bit of feta. The tomato included the stem portion. The chicken looked dried out (probably had been frozen which might have accounted for the delay in serving). She had originally ordered a chicken dish that came with tabbouli salad. She asked for a substitution as she is gluten intolerant, but the kitchen would not make a substitution.
This was my second poor experience at Al Zaituna out of three visits. The first was for the lunch buffet which did not impress. It doesn't appear that the kitchen staff particularly cares about the impression their food makes on their customers or I think they'd try a little harder.
I go to AL Zaituna often. I must say, my favorite would be two of their appetizers, and that would be their Hummus and Babaghanouj. Their kafta is sometimes dry but still very tasty. I prefer it a bit more juicy. The Gyro is great! absolutely one of my favorites. The chicken and beef Shawarmas are very good. The bread speaks for itself, it's great.
I recommend
Gyro, Shawarma beef, lamb and chicken.sandwiches, Hummus, Kafta, Babaganouj.
Babaganouch is made from grilled eggplant.
I prefer the sandwiches over the dishes, the sandwiches are the perfect combination of everything.
Atmosphere: As far as atmosphere goes, it is not a very fancy one. Young couples could probably enjoy it, I recommend it more for students, or just a casual place for groups to hang out at.
The hookah is not bad at all, prices are very reasonable.
I really love middle eastern food, so I try to have it at as many different places that I can and this one has been my go-to place for a while.
I haven't had any of the bad experiences that other reviewers have had, but the owner and the cook are a surly couple of guys, so I can imagine that the food might be of varying qualities depending on when you go. I might just be lucky, but I love it.
I've liked everything they have there pretty consistently, but I generally go for the sandwiches because basically every meat they serve is available in pita-pocket form. The only difference is that the kofta is in a sauce in the plate, whereas its just the meat in the sandwich. My favorite is the sharwama lamb or the gyro. They're just god damn delicious. The appetiizer sampler with kibbeh, falafel, tabouleh, hummus and pickled vegetables is outstanding as well. I guess everything on the menu that isn't a sandwich is a little pricey, but I wouldn't say it insn't worth it.
As for everything else, I quit smoking so I have no idea how tasty their shisha is, but I used to sell hookahs at The Headstand, so I do know that the hookahs they serve it in are decent and their prices for that aren't too bad. I don't really even remember what the restaurant looks like inside, so I don't know what to say about the comments about it being dirty or whatever. I guess I don't really give a s**t because I usually go there for lunch or really casual dinners, so I'm not really concerned with the atmosphere when I'm there. Also, it makes perfect sense that they wouldn't serve alcohol being that it's a middle eastern restaurant, so I didn't really mind that at all. Especially since they let you bring your own drinks if you like, and there's a ton of bars and alcohol serving establishments within walking distance of the restaurant anyway.
I would definitely recommend giving it a shot.
Revisited Al-Zaituna last night and had another great meal. This time I had the Al-Zaituna Combo with lamb shish kebab. Everything was terrific. I'll probably request it a little more well done next time.
I need to try the lunch buffet sometime. Don't be afraid to try this great place. They will be happy to guide you to a happy meal!
I have been to this rest a few times now and not impressed at all. Â The service is ok, food is decent most times but not consistent, and prices are ok for El Paso. Â I dont like their pita because they are usually to thick ,Given the arabic rest options el paso has now, I will probably go elsewhere in the future.
Review Source:The food was delicious and very authentic, I was very impressed  with the home made pita bread (which i've never had)
Price was fair, clean establishment. But the service kinda sucked. Just one server, very nice guy, he was just over loaded. Be prepared to see tvs on wall with baseball and Bollywood shit on there.
*Vegan friendly def a plus*
My ex-gf ordered a few side dishes and it only came out to $5 =)
I wish I ordered the hot tea, maybe next time im in El Paso!!
Mediocre in my opinion. The two appetizers we had were great with freshly baked pita. Prices were quite reasonable. Place was perfectly clean. Wife loved her meal.
However, I got the kebab combo (chicken and steak). Each combo had exactly four pieces of meat. Each piece of chicken was so dry it made me choke trying to eat it. Each piece of steak was dry and tough and difficult to chew. And we never got a refill on our drinks.
We are going to try it a second time but being that it's all the way on the west side and we are on the east, it's not nearly good enough for us to drive there specifically to eat...perhaps if we happen to be in the area.
This is El Paso, so variance in cuisine is quite limited. Al-Zaituna has a lot to be desired as far as atmosphere, but after my first trip here today, I'm pretty pleased with the food.
I had the beef schwarma ($7.99) and I substitued hummus for the potato side, while my girlfriend had the gyro (also $7.99) with tabouli on the side. Having tried a lot of different middle-eastern dishes both in the middle-east and here in the states, you get a pretty good meal here, especially for the price. My schwarma was packed, and while it was a little different than what I had in the middle-east, it was still really good. It was basically a packed pita, whereas where I was in the Mid-East, it was a sliced roll that was almost like finger food with different sauces. At Jerusalem up the road, the schwarma is almost wrap-like, so everyone has their own little flair on the dish.
The gyro was really good, the meat was very tender and the tzatziki sauce was a nice take on what I'm used too, a little greener and less thick than what I've had at other places. Tibouli was a little heavy on the parsley, but it's great when combined with hummus.
The inside of the restaurant was a little run-down, but you're not going there to admire the walls you're going there to eat some good food, so I think if you're going to call a place "disgusting," you need to remember your priorities, as the food (at least my experience) was well prepared and seemed as clean as any other restaurant in this city. I'm curious how the hookah is, I've had some really good stuff in other countries that I can't seem to find here in the states, but you've got to deal with what you've got I suppose.
They advertise they have a belly-dancer on Friday and Saturday evenings, maybe that's something to check out?
My people are from the Middle East, so I will be extra snooty on my review! Â Nah, I will do something even more authentic, I will be extra cheap on this here review...
The food here is good, though not great and at close to $20/person for dinner, I expected a little more. Â That being said, I wasn't able to get here in time for the buffet, so maybe there's an opportunity to get more bang for your buck during lunch hours. Â The combination plates are a good choice for variety in lieu of a buffet.
Grab a good deal at <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.restaurant.com%2Frdc%2Fal-zaituna-restaurant-el-paso-mediterranean-rid%3D392441%3F%26mcn%3D00096699&s=d8a8f2c30125f79785d8222fe4f6602df0d0476d3428b6d3fd2f2b18472beeed" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.restaurant.co…</a>
I was wanting to introduce a friend to something new, so we came to Al-Zaituna. Â We ordered the gyros schwarma, cucumber salad, some falafel, 1 order of stuffed grape leaves, and hummus. Â The schwarma was a pretty small portion, especially for $10! Â The rice was kind of pathetic, and some of the meat pieces were burnt. Â The cucumber salad was great, as was the hummus. Â The stuffed grape leaves were decent--they didn't seem to have much fillling, though--it was a little disappointing. Â The falafel were okay, but overdone--really crunchy and way too brown.
 The one thing I loved?  The iced tea.  It had a great flavor.  For dessert we ordered the kataif, and it was good.  Kind of like a thin cake with melty salty cheese on top, and a pink crunchy-ish topping, and drenched in rosewater.  I liked it, as did my friend.  Not sure if I would come back.  Portions were small, and the food seemed to be cooked carelessly.
We were here just before 5PM on a Saturday and when we walked in, we were the only customer they had. Â Service should be awesome right? Â Wrong. Â And you would think that "if you got time to lean, you got time to clean" right? Â Wrong. Â We asked to sit outside since it was nice and warm and breezy and were told to pick any table, which they all looked kinda gross due to the hookah burns in the plastic table tops. Â Ok, so we chose the least disgusting and have a seat. Â A quick glance at the menu and we notice the glaring lack of alcoholic beverages, which was quickly confirmed by our server who had all the enthusiasm of a teen stuck in a car on the way to relatives in the country(at least that is the best I can conjure up right now.)
Ok, so one Coke and one Sprite, which came out with just a few floating cubes in the top of each glass, very flat. Â The "Coke" was not Coke, but some other type of cola...or the mix was so off, that it was not recognizable by my taste buds.
So we order Vegetarian plate and beef kebabs(or is it kebobs?, Wikipedia doesn't know either <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FKebab&s=7e802be694a307cf6b7e796cd28eaf5670248ba995d946249b3522d380d86bf1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/…</a>) which took a long time to get.  I mean, how long does it take to make falafel and a couple of skewers of beef and vegetables?  Once we got our dishes, we forgot to take pictures and pretty much ate everything.
The falafel and hummus were pretty good, the beef I would bet $100 had been made way before we got there and had just been warmed up. Â You know that glisten that meat has when its fresh off the grill? Â This didn't have it...it was dry-ish, and tough and not that hot. Â The basmati rice was below average.
Food 2.5 stars at best, and portions were not that big. Â And for the two of us, it was $26 and change not including tip.
Service was 3 stars...while she wasn't happy to be there, she didn't exactly neglect us.
Cleanliness and atmosphere gets 1 star if that. Â
I can see this place being ok if you are a student that is into the hookah craze, but for the food?  No way.  Anyone that has any experience with  mediterranean food will not enjoy this place at all.
Won't be returning and couldn't recommend this place. Â Maybe it wasn't primetime, but I can't un-see or un-eat the experience.
This place rocks! The food is very tasty with proportions to match price. Try the chicken kebab and conclude your meal with a baklava. It would be safe to explore the other dishes as they are all very delicious. The staff provided excellent service and the peach hookah was very relaxing as it was sweet.
Review Source:I ordered the lamb kabobs, hummus, warm pita bread, tabuleh and lentil soup (which was the best danm lentil soup I've ever had) and it was absolutely delicious! I was thoroughly stuffed before my meal was done but nevertheless, I was determined to finish my plate just for the sake of knowing that my food would taste better fresh rather than being heat up as a left over later on. Absolutely satisfied with this place!
Other perks: the best waitstaff (down-to-earth, patient, helpful and fun), free Wi-Fi, great music, bellydancing on Fridays.
On Fridays they let you bring your own alcoholic drinks since they don't serve any...how great is that?!
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