Zaina Mediterranean Cuisine & Catering — Restaurant in Kansas City

Was hoping to have good, maybe just decent, Mediterranean food but was greatly disappointed. There isn't much seating and very little room to wall, but I could have overlooked a bad floor plan and slightly greasy tables if the food was good, but it was not. The chicken Gyro plate that I had was over cooked and flavorless. They have me Greek sauce/dressing instead of Tzaziki, and the rice was yellow by something that gave no flavor to it. The Greek side salad had a redish french dressing instead of Greek, and was sopping wet to the point that I had a dressing soup once the lettuce was gone. I was given the smallest pita cut into quarters to eat my plate with, and no vegetables with my plate. Overall it was a tasteless rubbery pile of food like stuff. I wanted to try their Baklava and should have known better, but did it anyway. I have never had the displeasure to pay for such a gross desert in my life. It was tough, cold, and again, hardly any flavor. I guess I should say there was flavor, it was just the flavor of stale walnuts and old butter. I hope to never have to eat something so gross again. The gyros were mediocre, with rubbery meat, but a good balance of veggies and actual tzaziki sauce. The curry was underwhelming and needing more flavor and actual meat it as it seemed to only have the rubbery pressed chicken I had on my Gyro plate. Overall it was a very disappointing place and I will never eat there again. I hope they can learn to cook some actual Mediterranean...

Now that I work downtown I needed to find a new go to for my Mediterranean/Middle Eastern Fix. Well apparently I only have to look about 3 blocks from my work! I'm pretty sure I found a new favorite lunch spot.

Zaina is a pretty cool place. You walk in and the dining area is long and skinny. There is a bar on the left and a row of tables on the right. There's one other place to sit and I will get to that in a minute.

So you walk in and you place your order at the counter. After that they bring you your food and you dine on the most delicious morsels from the middle of the Earth.

That's right, gyros, tabbouleh, schawarma, pita, hummus, it just doesn't stop! The flavors are so spot on and the price is down right awesome. A sandwich wrapped in the most delicious and warm pita, along with a side of soup and pita chips is gonna run you about $8. Yup $8. That's it!

So about that other place to sit. If you like being on display and you really want to win the mannequin challenge that's so big right now, there are 3 seats at the front of the restaurant that face Grand Ave. You basically get to sit in the window like a mannequin for people to walk by and be jealous of the things that you are putting in your stomach.

Check...

Food was fine enough and not totally over priced like most places in crown center. It is not my favorite Mediterranean restaurant in town tho.

However this review I purely about the "turkish coffee".

I've had turkish coffee before made properly, from friends who were actually Turkish. It was excellent. This was not. Their coffee was not served "in a traditional cup" as the menu states. It was a plain old coffee cup you would find in a diner. The "coffee" had to be instant. It tasted like tar and was black as night with a greasy film on top, and was extremely bitter. It had absolutely no hint of any spices at all. I'm sure cardamom would have come through even the worst tar flavor. Now proper turkish coffee does have very fine particles in the brew due to how its prepared. But there is also a nice frothy head on it, and it should have a bit of sugar in it.

This cup was a major disappointment to something I very much was looking forward to because it is very tasty when done properly and it held many memories with my...