Zooroona Restaurant — Restaurant in Kalamazoo

Genuinely not sure how this place has such good reviews…..

My husband and I met up with my family at this restaurant at 6:30 on a Friday night. My parents made reservations for 5. Upon getting there, there is only silverware/cups for 4. We also were not given any menus. No biggie - it’s a Friday night, they’re probably busy……

It was over 10 minutes after we first got there before anyone even acknowledged our presence aside from seating us. Which was strange, because basically immediately after we came in, the older gentleman at the front who seated us sat another group and immediately provided them with menus, while we waiter over 10 minutes! Mind you, we were seated directly next to the hostess station. We made direct eye contact with the older gentleman multiple times over the course of the whole night and he made very little effort to interact with/help us at all.

The restaurant was busy, but not full. Our waiter was clearly dealing with lots of tables, but we were being visited far less than others. Our empty water pitcher sat on our table for 30 minutes before we finally flagged down someone to ask for more, because it was clear nobody was paying attention to our table. The aforementioned older gentleman walked past our table over a dozen times during this 30 minutes, and I watched him notice the water pitcher was empty, yet he did nothing. After 30 minutes when we asked our waiter, our waiter asked this older gentleman to fill the water for us. This just made me feel bad for our waiter, as he had many tables and clearly the person at the front had no interest in helping out.

After 45 minutes our food finally came out. It was good, but not great. The lentil soup was extremely thin, both Shawarma King and Cairos make a much better one. I will say the way Zooroona cuts their chicken shawarma is better than their competition. But for everything else we had….you’re better off going elsewhere. Even when Shawarma King (off Drake) is packed to the brim with non-stop online orders, we have NEVER waited more than 20 minutes for our food.

Overall, this was just a less than good dining experience. The food was not worth the wait. They also do automatic gratuity of 18% (at least for parties of 5+), which may have contributed to why our service was poor. It was also extremely warm, to the point where I began feeling ill towards the end of our meal. I can’t even imagine how the wait staff felt. I will...

This is one of the best meals we've had since leaving the Detroit (and specifically, Dearborn) area 10+ years ago.

We are huge fans of Middle Eastern cuisine, and though our past familiarity was more with Lebanese influences, the rich, deep flavors and spices are much the same across the region... and we love them all.

The hummus here is smooth, creamy and simple... exactly where you want it to be when paired with the intense flavors of everything else. I strongly recommend one of the appetizer sampler plates... otherwise you are going to miss out on so much deliciousness!

One thing to note, if you are not totally familiar with the cuisine language - the shawarma and taouk are marinated the same. Only the cooking method and presentation (small strips VS larger kebab chunks) differ. Important to know when choosing 2 dishes for the combo plate. Both are divine!

The rice makes you wish you could bathe in it. I don't think I've ever had a more perfectly cooked rice dish in my life. And while the toum (garlic paste) was a bit mild for my taste, the version paired with the shrimp is delightfully hot. The heat is that wonderful full-bodied type, rather than the kind that burns your tongue on contact.

I could spend hours raving about the dressing on the fattoush salad. Absolutely some of the best I've had, and it is something I am incredibly picky about.

My only complaint was about the dolmeh, and this is really a personal preference thing I think. The dolmeh was served ice cold, and I'm not sure if it was that or how it is stored before serving, but it left the leaves slimy and made for a very unpleasant texture in the mouth. I'm sure the filling was delicious - it certainly had a nice lemony overtone. I just could not get past the texture at all.

Because of our past in the Dearborn area, we love pickled turnips. They DO have them here, but they're not a prevalent garnish... so if you're a fan like us, ask for a small bowl of them.

Finally, a shout out to our server, Megan. She was attentive, accurate and didn't roll her eyes when my husband talked her ear off LOL She was definitely part of making this one of our best dining experiences in a long while!

We can't wait...

Under new ownership and unfortunately it has resulted in 2 not great experiences. We used to get food from here frequently.

First delivery order, we order 2 chicken dishes, spend over $100 on sides and desserts. Our order comes with NO chicken entrees! Just the sides and desserts. Uh what? So we call the restaurant and they said they ran out of chicken! No one called us to let us know because we would have cancelled the entire order. They lied and said someone did call. Nope, bo one called us. No missed calls, no messages. Ridiculous. Considering we waited over an hour for our meal and had to order something else to eat! How do you run out of chicken?! New owners trying to cut costs by ordering smaller quantities?? It wasn’t late in the night either.

We try again about 3 weeks later. Order arrives late but maybe not restaurants fault, OK, fine. Only we notice there are no grilled veggies with the entrees and they only included 1 of the 2 baklava we ordered. So I call, bc we looove their grilled veggies and baklava, it’s our favorite. Was told they NO LONGER SERVE GRILLED VEGGIES with the entrees (!!) when their menu clearly states the entrees come with it. Said new ownership decided this. What a scam. Charge you the same for less food. Also less rice was included with the entrees. Super disappointed to learn no more grilled veggies, big mistake new owners. Vegetables are a low cost item; no idea who thought it’d be a good idea to remove this but it’s a very bad idea. Update the menus then, at a minimum so customers don’t expect to get it. Really poor management.

The beef shoulder was inedible! No flavor, like ZERO SALT or spices on it and it was beyond tough. Like a hockey puck. So overcooked. Description says tender, hilarious. I fed it to my dogs. What a waste of $30!!

Also as another reviewer mentioned, their garlic sauce does taste different now, not for the better, so just another disappointment. It used to be soooo good.

So we won’t be getting food from here again which is so sad bc we used to love this place. Such a bummer when new owners change things...