I’ve probably never thought that Middle Eastern food is the type of food that needs innovation and modernization. Give me some well-executed schwarma nearly any day of the week and I will be a happy man. Yet, Pita Jungle not only exists in the Phoenix area, but it has multiple locations that demonstrate a pattern of success. Oh, and it just oozes modern Middle Eastern.

Sure, hummus and schwarma are on the menu as old standbys, but it would be kind of silly to order them. Instead, we started out our meal with Cilantro Jalapeno Hummus. It was a beautiful thing to behold, aside from the random diced tomatoes and onions in the middle of the dip. Moreover, it weirdly only came with one piece of pita and any extra was an upcharge.

For my main course, I ordered the Asada Lavash Pizza they were offering as a special that night. Lavash Pizza is always on the menu, which is another one of their modern takes, but the asada aspect was unique to that night. It included the aforementioned asada, crema, avocado, some of that cilantro avocado hummus and a few veggies that I had no interest in. The result looked like a really sexy matzah pizza, and tasted even better than that. There was plenty of beef which tasted like you would expect Mexican beef at a Middle Eastern restaurant to taste (solid, but confusing) and the rest of the ingredients melded together really well.

Pita Jungle is essentially the Middle Eastern food you never asked for, but are glad to have. I’m still on the lookout for the more traditional side of Middle Eastern (which Pita Jungle has, but at a premium), but I have no qualms with what Pita Jungle has been able to do to bring the old into the new.

Straddling the campuses of Carnegie Mellon and Pitt, Craig Street is where ambitious students can often be found eating lunch or dinner between classes. On that street is a little Middle Eastern restaurant called Ali Baba, which I found myself eating at based on a high recommendation. The recommendation was mostly based on something that have called Kibbee Nayyee, which is a raw lamb dish that is apparently pretty hard to find.

Hard to find or not, I think you have to be in a pretty special mood to crave raw lamb, so I ignored the recommendation and went with hummus as an appetizer and a Chicken Pita Pocket. This pocket comes filled with spiced chicken, lettuce, tomatoes and their special yogurt sauce. I ordered mine without the lettuce and tomatoes and was eager to see what I would get.

But first came the hummus, which was pretty tasty. It was thick and creamy, with just the right amount of paprika and oil.

Then came the Chicken Pita Pocket, which somewhat resembled schwarma, but wasn’t quite there. I was definitely a fan of the chicken seasoning, but the chicken itself was kind of weirdly soggy. Then there was the yogurt sauce, which tasted pretty good, but the pita could have used more of it.

Without having eaten their Kibbee Nayyee, Ali Baba seemed to me just an ordinary Middle Eastern restaurant. It’s not bad by any means, but also not a place I would rush to return to either.

While LA has its fair share of Middle-Eastern restaurants, Kabab Grill in Palms boasts something I haven’t seen elsewhere: its own pita oven. Growing up with the Middle-Eastern restaurants of southeastern Michigan, I just kind of assumed every place had their own oven, but in LA I learned this was not the case. Yet, a pita oven alone does not make a place great, so I was eager to see how this Syrian-flavored place would taste and hoped it didn’t taste like the blood and tears of civil war (too soon?).

The first thing I tried was their Zaatar Cheese Safeeha. This Syrian specialty was a special baked pita-like bread cooked with thyme, oregano, sesame seeds and olive oil with cheese melted over it. It was definitely a good choice. It came out of the oven kind of crisp and the cheese had a bit of a chewy mozzarella texture to it, but a stronger taste that went well with the other seasonings. It also went well with the hummus, garlic sauce and chili dips that came with the rest of my meal.

And as for that rest of my meal, I ordered the Chicken Shawarma Plate. This came with shaved off chicken from a spool in the back, plus two sides. Like any good unvegan, I chose hummus for both sides. It also came with the aforementioned garlic sauce and one piece of pita. The result was fantastic. The only vegetable to be found was a giant lettuce leaf that I can only assume was place in the styrofoam box to prevent the chicken from melting the styrofoam. The hummus was pretty damn good and the garlic sauce was nearly as good as Zankou’s. The chicken was good and tender and really my only complaint about any of the meal was the pita.

No, not like that. The pita itself was delicious, but there just wasn’t enough of it. Only one paltry piece for all that chicken and hummus? When I finished the pita, I was left with a lot of loose hummus and chicken that had to be dealt with with a fork.

So, if you go to Kabab Grill and order one of their plates, be sure to ask for extra pita. You’ll be glad you did, and you’ll also be glad you tried out Kabab Grill. Just don’t go if you are in a rush. It has the look and feel of a fast restaurant, but they put a lot of care into preparing everything and that can mean a bit of a wait.

Heading into Noho Royal Garden in North Hollywood, I kind of expected to find myself in a typical Middle-Eastern style restaurant. But no, there were no rugs on the wall, no decorative lamps or beads. Instead, it felt like I had just walked into a Mexican cabana. Part outside, part inside, with umbrellas, trees and stones, this was a perfect place to escape from work…well as long as the food was any good.

Outside the place was a big sign promoting their $7.99 lunch special, so even though they had some tasty-looking shawarma sandwiches, we asked the waitress what their lunch special was. It turned out that this wasn’t some sort of special lunch menu, but a single dish that was on special today. It just so happened that on this day, it was their Chicken Shawarma Plate. The plate was regularly priced at $9.99 and came with onions, roast peppers, roast tomatoes, salad and basmati rice. I was enticed despite the fact that it came with multiple vegetables, but ordering it without all those would require me to get more food. I opted for the hummus, which was $4.99, but looked quite good. Then I ordered the lunch special, but without the vegetables.

The hummus came out first and looked unlike any hummus I had ever seen before. It was quite white in color and looked really runny. Then I dipped some pita in and found it to be pretty amazing. It was the creamiest hummus I’ve ever had and still had great flavor. Plus, there was plenty of it.

While eating this delicious hummus, I realized tat in my haste to order my main course with no vegetables, I neglected to order without the salad. No sooner than I remembered, my dish appeared. Although the salad was on the plate with the real food, It was pretty well separated from the rice and chicken. The chicken was unlike any shawarma I had ever seen.

Most shawarma I’ve had has been shavings off of a spool of meat, but this was more like chunks of chicken that had been marinated and grilled in a pan. Although surprising, I didn’t hesitate in eating. I found the chicken to be quite flavorful. How ever it was cooked, the cook had chosen some great spices. I used the meat, pita and leftover hummus to make myself some delicious mini-sandwiches and by the time I exhausted my plate of chicken, I was one stuffed and happy unvegan.

Despite having a lot of vegetable options, Noho Royal Garden cooked up some delicious and unique Middle-Eastern dishes. I figured the Persian and Armenian influences that the menu purports to have were the reason the food was so unique. Aside from the veggies, the only downside was the price. Even though I got the lunch special, I needed to spend another five bucks to make it a whole meal. This isn’t a lot of money in general, but for lunch I feel like I can find something a bit cheaper.

As a Jew who clearly doesn’t keep Kosher (see any entry on bacon, cheeseburgers or shellfish), I sometimes find it fun to eat a meal the way my Kosher brethren do. In LA this means a trip to Pico and Robertson, which my girlfriend affectionately calls “Little Israel,” although actual Israel can hardly be called “big.” Kosher restaurants either serve meat or dairy, so to take care of my unvegan needs, this Kosher pilgrimage took me to the meat-based Haifa Restaurant.

Haifa serves traditional Middle-Eastern foods like schwarma and kebabs, which is nice since you wouldn’t really want to put cheese or other dairy foods with them. I perused the pita sandwiches and decided the Fried Schnitzel sounded just delightful. When I ordered, I asked what came inside the sandwich and the waitress told me it was the schnitzel, hummus and salad. Actually, that was what came in all their sandwiches, so instead of choosing something different, I just ordered it without and hoped there would be enough schnitzel and hummus to fill the thing.

Before my sandwich came, the waitress brought out a bunch of different miniature side dishes. This was all good and well for the veggie munching crowd, but there wasn’t anything to offer for unvegans. Oh well, it was a little bonus that I hadn’t been expecting anyway and it kept the rest of the table happy. Suckers.

My pita sandwich came and looked perfect. Not a vegetable in sight. I chomped in and found it pretty enjoyable. The combination of breaded chicken with pita was a nice double dose of carbs that I always appreciate and the hummus helped keep it moist. If anything, this could have used a bit more hummus, but it was pretty good as is. The meat was actually pretty awesome and was definitely the quality I expect from Kosher meat. Of course, this came at the somewhat premium cost of $8.95. Yet, the premium wasn’t huge when you consider the cost of some sandwiches in LA that don’t even adhere to strict ethical and religious codes.

Walking into Bottega Louie in downtown for lunch, I really had no idea what to expect. My girlfriend had told me it was some sort of market, but I found that it was also a bustling restaurant. And this was no ordinary bustling restaurant. There wasn’t just one kitchen, but multiple kitchen-esque stations that were in plain view for everyone. There was movement everywhere and a waiting list to get a table. For lunch! I knew this place had to be good.

While waiting for our table, we wandered around the pre-made food market area and saw some beautiful sandwiches, pastries and even more. If I wasn’t already hungry, this certainly did the trick. After about fifteen minutes of drooling, our table was ready, so we headed to the area close to the pizza-making station and took our seats. Although the menu wasn’t huge, there were plenty of things I wanted to try out. We decided to get some white bean hummus to start things off. This hummus was pretty good, but was made even better by the delicious flat bread it came with.

For my main course, I ordered the Meatball Parmesan Sandwich. The menu described this as three meatball sliders, tomato sauce and provolone. Somewhere in my head, I thought of this as three meatballs in a single sandwich with that provolone and sauce. Because of this, I was surprised when my waiter came to my table with three miniature sandwiches. I find it amazing that the term “slider” has been stretched so far that it can even include miniature sandwiches, but that scruple aside, these things looked damn good.

I started eating and was very happy with what I bit into. The buns were moist and tasty, while the cheese, sauce and meatballs went perfectly together inside the bun. The meatballs were juicy and flavorful and they each had just the right amount of sauce and cheese, as to not overpower the meat. The fries that came with them were also pretty good and necessary since the three mini-sandwiches would not be enough to fill me up.

For something unexpected, Bottega Louie was pretty awesome. My meatball sandwich was delicious, even though it used the term “sliders” pretty liberally. I would definitely go back if I find myself in that part of downtown again. I might even try some of their pre-made food to mix things up.

In the quest to finally find some good schwarma in LA, I made my way to a little Lebanese place called Sunnin Cafe. I have fond memories of delicious Lebanese food back in Michigan, so I hoped that this place would be at least a little awesome. Getting there was a little confusing, though, as it appeared as though there were two Sunnins, right across the street from each other. On further inspection, it looked like the larger of the two is unopened and the small place will be moving in there soon.

The inside of the little cafe gave the appearance of a generic diner. There were seats

at a counter and no more than ten small tables. The big difference, though, was the strong smell of the Middle East and the rotating spool of meat where a deep-fryer might typically belong. I also loved that they made no effort to hide the fact that the cooks were Hispanic. It’s a pretty widely known fact that kitchens of ethnic restaurants all over LA are filled with Hispanics, despite the fact that waiters and such fit into the ethnicity. It was refreshing to see that Sunnin didn’t hide that aspect of their business.

We ordered some “hommos” (love the spelling) to start things off. There were a lot of great-looking appetizers, but I find hummus to be a great gauge of how good a Middle-Eastern restaurant is going to be. Luckily, the hummus was awesome and made me excited for my main course. It was a tough choice between the chicken shawarma platter and chicken shawarma sandwich, but the sandwich eventually won out. To be safe, I asked our waiter, who also appeared to be the manager and maître d’, what came in the shawarma. He said it came with sauce, lettuce and other vegetative matter. I couldn’t let me meal be ruined by such veggies, so I ordered with only sauce and chicken and hoped it would turn out well.

When my shawarma sandwich arrived, it was fully free of veggies. The chicken looked a little yellowish, but I didn’t let that stop me from digging in. Every bite was delicious, greasy and garlicky. It was even better when I dipped it in hummus, but the dipping wasn’t necessary. If I’ve had better shawarma, I couldn’t tell you where. Sunnin is now officially my number one Middle-Eastern place. I only hope that when they move into their larger location, they hang on to at least some of their quaint little diner mentality.

Situated just off the main stretch of downtown El Segundo is The Hummus Factory. The name is really false advertising because it certainly is not a factory and also makes a lot more than just hummus. To be precise, they should have named it The Middle-Eastern Restaurant.

When it came time to order, I chose the Chicken Kabob Sandwich, which I assumed would be like schwarma. The only things that stood in my path to an unvegan lunch were cabbage and pickles, which I made sure to order without. The sandwich also came with salad or fries and I (surprisingly) opted for the fries. To top it off, I got a side of hummus in the expectation that the rest of my food would not quench my unvegan hunger. That proved to be a wise choice.

When I got my food, it was pretty not bad, but the sandwich was severely lacking in garlic sauce. I don’t know if this is some sort of LA thing, but I’ve noticed these Middle-Eastern restaurants just don’t put enough effort into the garlic flavoring in their sandwiches. Of course, they offer sides of garlic sauce, but there should always be enough in it initially to make me happy. The saving grace, not surprisingly, was the hummus, and for a restaurant called The Hummus Factory, it better be.