Ara's Shawarma — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I’ve been going to Aras Shawarma for about two years and have tried several of their locations. The North Hollywood spot on Vanowen used to be amazing — the food and service were top-notch. Echo Park was a bit lower in quality, and the Sunset location was bigger but still disappointing.

When they opened in Encino, I was excited since it’s close to me, but every visit has been worse than the last. Today was the worst. They took my order for two beef shawarmas, and after 10 minutes the cashier came over very rudely to say they had no beef and told me to pick something else. We were forced to change the order, they didn’t refund the price difference, and on top of that we had to wait a long time.

The food was terrible — nothing like the old North Hollywood shawarma I loved — and it even made us feel sick. Only one Armenian gentleman there was polite; the rest of the staff were rude and careless. Very disappointing to see how far this...

I ordered a pickup before reading the reviews, as most were unsatisfied. I ordered one plate of Lula kabab with fries instead of rice, and unfortunately, the fries were old and cold, and my kid refused to try them; besides, the beef was so salty. Also, the shawarma beef wrap I ordered was cold, smelly, and looked like nothing except shawarma. The chicken shawarma bowl was nothing like shawarma; most of the chicken was trash and could not be eaten. The store is new, but it doesn't do its best to be a good choice for people. No wonder...

Disappointing experience at this location. I’ve enjoyed Aras Shawarma at their North Hollywood spot, but this location was a letdown. The first sandwich I got had big, dry chunks of chicken with no flavor, and the bread was falling apart. I let the cashier know, and while they did offer to remake it with different bread, I still didn’t get the food until 20 minutes later. The whole experience was frustrating and not worth the wait. Definitely not going back there. Compared to other shwarma places they take so long to make...