Gypsy Queen Market, Deli & Food Truck — Restaurant in Asheville

First, the food is absolutely nothing special. I waited nearly a month after first looking for middle eastern food in Asheville, found this place, then saw their ridiculous wannabe trendy prices. $2.85 for 1 falafel ball? Are they laced with cocaine? $10.35 for a chicken shwarma wrap! That's about 3x the price of falafel at restaurants serving actual middle eastern food, and 30% higher than normal for a shwarma wrap. Well, I finally bit the bullet my last few days in Asheville to see what the fuss (ridiculous prices) was about. The falafel were okay, clearly not made with the same ingredients as authentic-nothing special at all. The chicken shwarma wrap, while pretty with its greens had hardly any actual chicken, and it wasn't juicy marinated hot off the rotisserie; it was like sort of small, dry shavings, and not many of them. Hardly any veges beyond a few strips of lettuce. And, the pita fell apart and the whole thing disintegrated in my hand, so I saw all its contents, realized there was almost no chicken, and decided to toss it rather than continue eating dough and lettuce. The small salad was nothing special either, which they charged over $9 for since it had a whole 2 of their prized falafel balls sought the world over..no wait, they were just okay and not even as good as normal authentic falafel balls. Why was it $9 again? All together, I spent over $30 and barely got a meal out of it. To be fair, this place does have a nice little porch and indoor seating area, which seems clear is a gathering place for aging out hipsters who want to slum it with what they think is decent Lebanese food. Really, it's just another waaaayyyy over-priced Asheville trendy poser of an...

Gypsy Queen Asheville

It is to be noted that I withheld this review for several months because I didn’t want the cashier in question to lose their job and that this place left such a bad taste in my mouth that it wasn’t until I had Mediterranean food again that I could no longer with hold this review.

This place is cute. The vibe there is pleasant with wonderful decorations and a general vibe of a hipster boutique style. I entered the restaurant with a few friends and the person working the counter took our orders.

The server/cashier seemed to be exceptionally antagonistic waiting with baited breath for me to say anything remotely worth getting frustrated over and I thankfully was able to dodge the bait.

We took our seats and my friends food arrived and after they were done eating mine appeared as well at which point I asked for a box and ate what I could of my meal before it was time for us to be leaving.

Which gets me to the food, the fries were wonderfully crispy and had a lovely tahini sauce on them. The shawarma was ordinary but it had an extremely overpowering vinegar in the slaw which deleted the flavors of the lamb/beef mix and required big dabs of their garlic and tahini sauces to taste anything other than the vinegar.

I would have very little to say about the food if it had not cost 20 dollars before tipping for just the sandwich and side of fries but in my opinion this establishment is a tourist trap for Yuppies and hipsters looking to eat something “foreign and exotic” on their...

My boyfriend and I stopped in for dinner after a long day snowboarding in Maggie Valley- we were hungry!!! We deliberated over the menu for a bit but ordering the Lebanese Poutine to start was an easy choice. I also ordered the fattoush salad with chicken shawarma and feta. He ordered the lamb kibbé pita wrap. Our server was super helpful, helping me choose what to order when everything looked too delicious to decide. The poutine was fantastic. The fries were the perfect size and crispiness to fork a pile into your mouth with ease. The sheep’s milk feta was deliciously tangy and the lamb hashweh was full of flavor. I didn’t try his wrap, but he was very pleased with it, and kept adding fries from the poutine to his bites. My salad was refreshing and filling alongside the fries!! I ordered a small and it was plenty for one person. Add a protein! The chicken shawarma was flavorful and tender. We grabbed some treats on the way out, I got the vanilla rose nougat- very strong in rose flavor that first punches you in the face and then grows on you as the sweet chewiness melts in your mouth. I had a bite of the baklava and it was my first so I can’t speak on it from a comparative point of view but I thought it was quite tasty! I was pleased with the kind service, clean and cozy atmosphere, and delicious food that felt like a warm nutritive hug. I don’t know what took me so long to try Gypsy queen but I will...