What’s chwarma? Some might say it’s simply how you spell schwarma in Morocco. At least that’s what I thought when we stopped at Cafe Restaurant L’Etoile in the Djemaa Al Fnaa (Big Square) of Marrakesh’s Medina. We kind of stopped there on a whim considering every other place we had been to was a success so far, and I proceeded to order a Chwarma Sandwich with a side of frites.

While unvegan travel rules stipulate that I can order my food with veggies, I still try to avoid any uncooked veggies for fear of beaver fever, so I ordered my chwarma without. This was a fail, so I sent it back and asked for it without salad this time and it worked. Unfortunately, while chwarma does appear to be how schwarma is spelled in Morocco, the version L’Etoile pumped out was more of a dry, flavorless compression of shaved chicken.

It was certainly disappointing, but perhaps a good example of the bad touristy food I had been warned against in the Big Square. Luckily I had already eaten some good food in the square and knew it wasn’t all like L’Etoile.

Hailing from the closest thing to the Middle East outside the Middle East (Michigan) I often crave me some schwarma. Unfortunately, Pittsburgh wasn’t satisfying this craving until I heard about Salem’s Market & Grill in the Strip District. The restaurant is set up kind of like a cafeteria, but with the addition of spinning spools of meat. There was Indian food as well, but I was at Salem’s for one thing only.

I ordered some Chicken Shawarma (since that’s how they spell it) and asked what it came with aside from the chicken and garlic sauce. The guy listed a veritable salad’s worth of vegetables and I asked to have them all removed. He happily complied by writing “No Veggies” on my ordered sheet and I watched as he put together a fully-loaded pita of chicken and sauce. I also snagged a side of hummus.

The results were just as I had hoped. The garlic sauce was delicious and the chunks of spooled chicken were deliciously seasoned. I wouldn’t have minded more garlic sauce, but that happens pretty much always. Plus, the fresh hummus was a nice touch after months of store brands. And, it was damn cheap. My sandwich was only $6.50 and could have been plenty filling for a meal if I weren’t trying to taste a little more.

Salem’s definitely lived up to its billing and I now know where I can go to get my Middle Eastern fix when the craving comes.

Look at the picture to the left, ignore the title of this post and tell me what you see. If you are like me, you probably think that is a burrito. It has the signature Chipotle foil, a nice fold and the grill marks that usually come with a tortilla. But this is no burrito, this is a chicken schwarma wrap from Pita Kitchen in Sherman Oaks, a hole in the wall to be remembered.

At $7.50 the wrap is a bit on the pricey side, but it is definitely an appropriate price for the size. The wrap came packed with chicken, tahini and hummus, and if Pita Kitchen had had their way with their regular ingredients, it also would have included lettuce and a salad. I’m not sure what the difference between lettuce and a salad is, but as they were both certainly vegetables, I wanted none of it.

As for the taste, I was definitely happy with the chicken. It had been nicely seasoned and cooked. The tahini sauce was also pretty good, but definitely took a back seat to the hummus. And while the texture of the hummus was good, it lacked the oomph of flavor that makes me love great hummus. This could have been a lack of garlic, lemon or both, but it was definitely noticeable and a little sad due to the awesomely creamy texture.

If you’re wondering why I keep rambling about the texture, it’s because I ordered a side of the hummus, which ran at a steep $5 bucks. And while the portion was once again huge, I wouldn’t have minded a smaller and more manageable portion. It came with three pieces of pita, which was a fair amount, but still nowhere near enough to take on the copious amounts of hummus.

While I was glad to have stumbled upon a nice little hole in the wall like Pita Kitchen, I could definitely see some areas for improvement. Maybe I’m just spoiled or crazy.

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.

On my way home from the bar one night, I was unsurprisingly jonesing for some grub. The trouble was that I was driving through the area of Pico and Robertson, which isn’t exactly known to be a late-night food hub. But just when I thought my snack options were going to be limited to whatever leftovers I could find in my fridge, I saw a shiny beacon of hope that seemed to be a food truck. When I pulled over to explore, I found that although not exactly a truck, I had stumbled upon some sort of mobile food purveyor. It was called Kosher Grill on Wheels and a schwarma sounded like heaven to me (and with any luck, eating Kosher would bring me one step closer to that heaven).

I’m not sure how much food they had to offer, because all I really saw was that spinning spool of schwarma meat. I ordered one and watched as the sliced off bits of chicken and tossed them on the griddle for further heating. While waiting for the griddle, they asked me what kind of wrap I wanted and what I wanted in it. The choice of wraps were pita for 7 bucks and laffa for 8. I was a bit surprised by the high prices, but that’s the price you pay for Kosher, so I figured at that point I may as well go with the laffa. As for inside the wrap, there were mostly vegetables, but there was also hummus, tahina sauce and a spicy sauce. I asked for all of these and the guy slathered them on the laffa as we waited for the chicken.

When it was done, he wrapped it all up, sliced it in half and threw it in a bag for me. I headed home ready to chow down on some Jewish meat.

I opened it up and it smelled great, but was a bit small for the 8 dollar price tag. Nonetheless, eight bucks would be a small price to pay for late-night pleasure. Unfortunately, pleasure wasn’t all I got from this schwarma. Although the chicken and sauces were delicious and well-seasoned, every few bites I would find some bit of chicken I couldn’t bit through. It wasn’t hard enough to be bone, but whatever it was, it was unwelcome in my mouth. I would have to spit out these pieces for fear of busting a tooth or choking and that made me feel sad. I really thought Kosher Grill on Wheels could do better, especially for the price. It may have been Kosher, but if that’s the kind of meat they are slinging then treif sounds much better.

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.

EDIT: This building got knocked way down, but you can find other Mezzas.

Since my buddy wanted to eat something healthy (foolish, I know), we thought we would try out some Mediterranean food nearby. Since I’ve already hit up a few of the local places, we looked to Yelp to find something new and discovered a place called Mezza Grill in Culver City. We sat down inside and were greeted by a mildly friendly waitress with bells hanging by her waist that must have some Mediterranean significance. But considering she was blond and likely of some sort of Germanic or Scandinavian descent, the bell thingies came off as somewhat gimmicky. Oh well, gimmick or not, I was ready to eat.

The menu was of typical Mediterranean fare and prices for platters of schwarma and such ran about 12-14 bucks. This wasn’t too out of the ordinary, but there was something missing. No sandwiches. I’ve never been to a Mediterranean place that didn’t at least offer or a doner or a wrap. Perhaps that sort of option exists for lunch, but I was kind of sad it wasn’t there for dinner. Instead, I just ordered the Chicken Schwarma platter. It came with a choice of hummus and then a choice between fatoush and tabouleh salad. Knowing that I wanted neither of those latter choices, I asked if I could get both spicy and regular hummus. The waitress said it was cool, but was quick to tell us that I was only getting that because the place wasn’t too crowded. Really, blonde waitress? Couldn’t just give it to me without a caveat? I guess I wouldn’t be too friendly if I had to walk around with bells all night either.

Before the platter arrived, we were given a little snack of pita chips and some sort of olive oil dip. It was quite tasty and a good lead-in to the real meal. The schwarma platter arrived and I was very upset to see onions laying upon the top of my chicken heap. What the hell is that? The menu had made no mention of the onions and I brushed them away disdainfully before getting down to the eating. The chicken had a great flavor, although a little mushy at times, and went really well with the garlic sauce. Both hummus flavors were surprisingly good and also tasted great with the chicken. I made myself mini-wraps with the toasted pita we were given, so it was kind of like eating a sandwich, but since I had to do all the work in making the sandwich, a bit of the fun was lost.

By the time I finished, I was stuffed beyond belief and slipped into a bit of a Mediterranean food coma. Mezza did a pretty good job of serving me dinner, but it still would have been nice to have had a sandwich option. After all, if you go there to eat healthy, you shouldn’t have to order a huge platter of dinner.

About a year ago, a new Turkish restaurant opened down the street from me in Palms. I was overjoyed at this and especially happy when I saw that they were open late on weekends. Unfortunately, I went pretty soon after they opened and was kind of disappointed with the results. Lucky for them, this was before I started a meat blog, so when I finally got around to paying them another visit recently, it was my first chance to give them an unvegan review. The restaurant is called Sofra Kabab Express and although “express” is typically applied to fast food restaurants in airports, this is nothing like one of those, even encouraging people to hang around and smoke hookah (nargile in Turkish).

They run a great lunch special, which I was able to take advantage of. This was a sandwich, fries and a drink for $6.99. Not too shabby. For the sandwich, I went with the Chicken Doner (Shawarma) Sandwich. I think they threw shawarma in there so they wouldn’t scare off people looking for a regular Middle-Eastern meal. I made sure to order it without vegetables, since for some reason, people still seem to think vegetables are a good idea for a sandwich. Anyway, my sandwich was ready pretty expressly and since I’m no hookah smoker, I took it to go.

Just looking at the thing, I could tell they had made great improvements since my initial visit. The chicken was covered in a garlicky sauce and looked pretty juicy as well. Also, it was good to see that the sandwich was pretty stuffed, since there is nothing worse that a sandwich with too much bread, no matter how good the bread may be. I bit in and was quite happy. The chicken was as juicy as it looked and the sauce on it tasted great. In the Middle-Eastern style, I loaded some of my fries into the sandwich, which only enhanced the thing. The fries were nicely seasoned and good on their own as well.

This was a great stop for a reasonably priced lunch. I’m glad I decided to pay them another visit and now I’m looking forward to taking advantage of their late hours.

It was a night for delivery and looking through LAbite, we found a good-looking Mediterranean place to order from it was called Best of Mediterranean (BOM), which is quite a boast to be put in a name, even for a place in West Hollywood. Obviously a place by that name had to be checked out. I was too hungry for a schwarma sandwich, so I ordered the chicken schwarma dinner plate. This came with hummos, tabouli, rice and garlic sauce. Knowing that tabouli is some strange mix of greens, I tried to order without it, but the website wouldn’t allow me. This was a big fail on the part of both LAbite and BOM, because many other restaurants allow you to customize dishes. Unfortunately, I knew that vegetables would be dying for my sake that night and wouldn’t even have the pleasure of being digested.

My food arrived and I opened it up in the hopes that somehow they had forgotten the tabouli. Unfortunately, this was not the case, but luckily they has relegated it to a corner of the styrofoam that ensured it didn’t make contact with my real food.

The real food tasted alright, but not great. The chicken was semi-rubbery and although the garlic cause was good, none of it really added up to the Best of Mediterranean that it boasted to be. I would recommend this place for a quick, easy delivery, but there are many better Mediterranean options to be explored in LA.

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.