Middle East Restaurant — Restaurant in Corpus Christi

I'll break up my review into two parts: the deli and the market.

The Deli:

The staff were friendly and helpful. The deli offers several Mediterranean and Indian dishes though I can't speak to their authenticity.

I ordered the gyro plate which comes with a salad. The salad was pretty good, no complaints there. The gyro plate itself is basically a plate of the ingredients to build your own gyro. There was a lot of gyro meat, sauce, and veggies on the plate with a warmed up piece of pita bread wrapped in foil. They are very generous with the amount of gyro meat they give you and I was not able to fit it all on my pita. The gyro meat was crispy, but didn't seem to be as well season as Erinini's which is my usual go to gyro place.

Overall, it wasn't bad for the price and I think I would come back to try out other stuff. My only concern was whether the staff were taking cleanliness seriously since they seemed to do a bunch of stuff between handling food and I wondered if they should wash their hands first.

The Market:

It's like the foreign foods section of HEB got combined with a gas station. They have a ton of spices and food stuffs from the middle east, Africa, India, Pakistan, and the Mediterranean along with your typical gas station convenience store stuff. I'd imagine if you're from those parts of the world you'll be able to pick up something that would give you a taste of home. The staff were helpful and friendly and willing to chat about the business and whatnot. Pretty neat place over all and I think I'll be coming back soon when I need to buy spices in bulk.

My only word of warning to people who come here is that the market is located on the edge of the rougher side of corpus christi, so you may have some strange characters come in the store and possibly approach you. I had a man who was clearly high on some sort of drug ask me my age (probably so he could ask if I could buy him beer or cigarettes) before asking me for a dollar. I didn't feel in danger, and the guy wasn't pushy or rude, but I could see how someone else could feel uneasy with that experience. Still, that's kind of out of the shop owners hands since they can't control who comes and goes from the business.

Overall, it's a...

WORST SERVICE EVER. OWNER DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO MAKE IT RIGHT WITH A CUSTOMER. EMPLOYEE IS AN EMBARRASSMENT TO THE RESTAURANT. Ordered and paid for half a tray (12 squares/24 pieces) of Greek Baklava five days prior. When I went to pick it up the lady helping me didn’t know my order was set aside. Instead she piled another order into a meal tray which was difficult to count. It was POORLY PRESENTED when you consider I PREORDERED it. When I got to my car I took the meal tray out and counted 11 squares several times. I went back and advised there are only 11 squares. The same lady proceeded to count and tell me it is 12 squares / 24 pieces several times ARGUING WITH ME. After she took the pile of Baklava apart to properly count them she realized she COUNTED WRONG and in fact was only 11 squares / 22 pieces. Then, after I asked for a refund the other lady advised her my order was already set aside in a nice box implying she didn’t have to pile a bunch of pieces into a meal tray. Was fully refunded. Apology only occurred after I told the whole incident to the cook and mentioned she didn’t apologize. Communication, learning to count 12 square, and not arguing would have prevented any of this. Owner is unwilling to discuss the...

I wanted to get some hummus & pita bread for dinner. Honestly their price for this is the most reasonable place to buy it, it is about the same price but you get about 3x more compared to Eirinis Gyros & More. However the pita bread is thin and not homemade. I also decided to try a Lebanese salad, Tabbouleh. I tried this long time ago with some Lebanese college friends, very similar taste except they had more bulgar in it. Very unique but refreshing taste. I also had a chicken shawarma wrap with sauce and Lebanese relish & pickles. The chicken was good, the pickles & relish brought some crunch to some bites. They have a special plate Monday-Friday.

I visited again, this time on a Wednesday to try their spicy butter chicken on Lebanese rice and pita bread. This was a great dish, it had big chunks of chicken breast and the sauce was a little spicy but not too spicy. The rice had lentils in it, very good tasting. The only thing that would make this dish better would be to cut the chicken pieces smaller. I think it would bring some moisture to...