Pita Jungle — Restaurant in Chandler

Pita Jungle is a healthy type of Mediterranean restaurant located on Ray Road and Dobson in Chandler. A group of 10 of us met there for lunch today and we got good service and great food. You can always depend on this restaurant to deliver a lot of different yummy variations on healthy food. From salads to pita bread sandwiches, from salmon and shrimp dishes, blue corn nachos and great hummus, falafel, tabouli and babaganosh. This good is all homemade to delight your palate at a reasonable cost. They use all fresh ingredients. There are many locations throughout the valley. I ordered the curry potato spinach pizza which was delicious, but I should have ordered it on lavash bread because I don't think that the pita bread was a good pizza substitute. My friend ordered the gyro in a pita bread with salad tahini sauce and a pickle. The other girl ordered the chicken shawarma, the other one of Philadelphia beef pita sandwich and everyone was happy. When we walked in there was a sign on the door saying excuse our mess while we remodel and it looked like it was in disarray. This location is does not have nice decor not like the 48th Street and Ray location. That is modern and bright and wonderful. This one has a new checkered floor that replace the stained cement floor which looks worse than what it did. There's a bunch of junk everywhere like a random shelf with all kinds of condiments and when you first walk in to the left there's just a bunch of tables and overturned chairs. It does not look nice. The best thing about this restaurant is that does have a back patio but they were full when we got there because we needed 10 seats and they didn't have enough. The back patio looks out on a man-made lake and it's the palm trees and it's very beautiful and peaceful. All of our lunches were under $10 so you can't beat that. If you live in the valley and you have never visited A Pita Jungle you need to try them out. You are in for a fabulous meal that you can feel good about. I would give five stars for the food and three stars for the location. Also parking is very very tight there because there's also another restaurant Valle Luna there and that parking lot is impossible to find a park. In my humble opinion, Pita Jungle...

We love Pita Jungle and have been to several of their Valley locations over the years, some maybe only once because it was near somewhere we happened to be, and a couple that we frequent regularly, such as 3rd St & Roosevelt and the Ahwatukee location. Only a few locations I know of have outdoor seating; the Ahwatukee location however, while comfortable and heated, it’s large patio provides diners with an unobstructed view of an expansive parking lot (a row of planters with at least a 4’ hedge would go a long way here, providing more than just a visual reprieve for patrons).

The Chandler location on Ray is located in a recently renovated strip mall, and at first, appeared smaller than what we typically see at locations elsewhere. Don’t judge a book by its cover. We walked in to a cozy foyer with a very inviting dining room, with the bar on the right. Smaller than some locations, you can’t help but notice the wall of windows with a cozy outdoor patio behind them in the foreground that is met with emerald green lawns, and a cobalt blue lake with an abundance of water fowl in the background. There are heaters which provide ample respite when it’s cooler out, and everything we initially thought as we pulled up and parked was immediately debunked and just leant itself to the overall experience we had while dining here.

Of coarse the food was excellent, as you would expect; it is Puta Jungle. I have my go to dish, Grilled Chicken Pasta Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette (i sub the tomatoes with sautéed broccoli), better than I’ve had before. I also ordered a cup of the Lentil Soup since it was a cold day, and it was SOOOOO good. Rather than whole Lentils like I’m used too, this soup was pureed to a perfect consistency, with cream added ♥️.

My partner has his go to dish as well, the Lavash Schwarma Wrap, which he said was perfect. Interestingly, I noticed we spent more time here, enjoying our meal and appreciating each other, than we have at other locations. The locale and scenery were definitely five stars...

Updated May 2019 - we went back on on a Wednesday late afternoon ( half-price bottles of wine all day). I got the salmon entree and my mom got the Shawarma wrap as a rice bowl. The Shawarma dish was super flavorful and we both really liked it. The salmon was good, and was cooked well, the flavor was really mild. I tasted the garlic in the smashed potatoes, and spinach. We also ordered the baklava which was made by our server Jordan, and it was delicious! The ambiance there is really nice and the service was excellent! It was a lovely day so we sat outside. Thanks again Kevin!

UPDATE - The owner has reached out and I am going to return and give it another try. I will post another update afterwards. We've eaten here before and have to say it tends to be hit-and-miss. Today we had spanakopita to start (1st time). It was slightly over cooked (burnt edges) and was overall a little bland. We used the lemon slice and it added a needed flavor. I also personally like the flaky filo dough regardless. I didn't taste parmesan, which to me, would have been more flavorful.

Next we split the glazed chicken lavash pizza, and asked for balsamic reduction on the side, that we drizzled on top. It was a little bland ( caramelized onions could have been more flavorful) and better with the balsamic. Additionally, it came out cool not warm or hot, which is never good, and it was burnt on the edges as you can see in the picture. Over all this place has a nice ambience when you sit outside in good weather, and typically...