Ara's Shawarma — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I hate writing negative reviews, and it takes a lot for me to do so. But this crossed the threshold for me, unfortunately. But first I'll start with the good as an attempt to demonstrate an honest desire for positivity:

The food is GREAT! If I were reviewing only the food, it would get five stars. I got the beef lula kabob wrap, and the ingredients were all fresh, and the beef was so juicy, and I loved it. The food is definitely fantastic.

Here's the but: when I drove up to the restaurant for the first time, happy to see something new in place of the previous restaurant I visited pre-COVID whenever I worked in the area, I was relieved to see clear signage requiring masks and six-foot distances. It's nice to see a small restaurant, popping up mid-pandemic, taking my health and safety seriously. I entered and found large colorful stickers on the floor delineating six-foot distances as well. Great, I feel like these people get it. Then I got to the counter and the cashier walked out, with his mask dangling below his nose. Oof.

I evaluated my options. I'm not super confrontational, so avoided what I should have done, pointing this out to him, and went ahead and ordered. I do see this mistake a LOT, so while it's definitely COMPLETELY wrong mask usage that defeats at LEAST half of the point of the mask, I've started to grow calloused to seeing it. However after ordering my food and paying, while waiting, I witnessed the following:

This same cashier's mask regularly slipped below his mouth, at which point he would consistently fix it... but never to above his moustache. The nose problem wasn't, apparently, him not noticing the mask had slipped, but a choice. He did this regularly and frequently, fixing the mask after periods of time with his mouth fully uncovered, to always below his nose. He clearly had no intention of ever covering his nose, defeating the point of the mask.

There's a nice large window into the kitchen where I could see the staff preparing the food. They were technically all wearing masks, but at least two of them were wearing their masks around their chins, faces completely uncovered, again defeating every single purpose of the mask, while PREPARING FOOD for customers. I did see two other employees wearing theirs properly, though, including over their noses. So some of the staff took it seriously.

I watched another employee with manager/owner energy enter the store, walk about halfway in, and then pull up a gaiter over his face. Besides already walking past me and another customer unmasked, gaiters are famous for being the only type of mask LESS effective than not wearing a mask at all, as they actually divide up the particulates we exhale into a mist that spreads farther. This is definitely not food preparation-appropriate protection.

At some point in this process I realize I should have asked to cancel my order and leave, but again, I don't enjoy confrontation and, more importantly, it should never be my job to lecture the staff of a restaurant on how to follow the regulations they posted on their own door. I get that not everyone takes this virus seriously, but don't lull me in with a false sense of security only to then completely undo it.

Again, the food was great. But I'm writing this in December of 2020, when Los Angeles ICU bed availability is at 0%, and we're about to spike higher from the holidays. This isn't the time to be careless with protecting your customers and coworkers. I'm hopeful some effort is made to retrain the staff and take precautions as seriously as the signs on the door and the floor imply. I don't think I'll even consider returning until we're all...

Place an order for 3 shawarmas today , 2 beefs were normal, the pork one was smelling disgusting, obviously the meat was rotten. It was not possible to eat, so instead of calling and complaining we drove there and brought the shawarma back to them so they could check for themselves. The reason we went there wasn’t even to get a refund or a new shawarma, but to ask them nicely to not serve that meat because obviously something was wrong with it. To our surprise the only person who barely talk to us was the cashier , who even didn’t bother to apologize, suggesting a new shawarma to get rid of us ( why we even wound wanna get a new shawarma, when the first one smelled and tested like rotten meat), the whole point was to prevent people getting this food served and possible food poisoning , we thought we were helping their business as well. Instead we were shocked by carelessness of the employees and the owner , who was informed according the cashier boy.

Well, I have to edit my review, because I can’t reply, so - NEVER received any call from your so called manager, even more when I called from the same number that I used for order, no one picked up the phone, but surprisingly answered to another phone number ! Stop this foolish game , try to act more professional and good luck to your business, never coming back again. I wish you were there to try my “fresh” shawarma that I brought back to your so...

2025 after watching more tikTok videos about this place, I thought I'd give it a second chance And I thought they would have got their quality under control by now, went there ordered a chicken wrap shawarma and a beef. I ordered both with extra veggies and salad inside , hardly any veggies in there whatsoever . The beef was so dry. It felt more like beef jerky with no sauce inside. The chicken felt more like boiled and shredded than from the fire pit roast. They have no customers at this location. I can see why. Beef overcooked and so dry and old. There's no hints of authentic shawarma or donor kebab. Feels more like a dry burrito with hints of Indian dry spices. Very disappointed with with the horrible low quality of the food, I guess shame on me fooled me twice. No third chance. $30 for two sandwiches. Couldn't even eat half of it and left.

2024 Very friendly staff. Clean restaurant. Open window kitchen . I ordered the beef plate thinking it was all meat, picture on the menu shows just meat, no mention of rice in the dish name. It was mostly rice, hardley any meat 😔 just a very thin layer of meat on top. Compared to their commercial we didn't even get a quarter of the meat that was in the video. 1 plate with some bread was about $24 . we asked for fresh juicy. But the meat was very very dry and stale . It taste ok. But i know this place can do much better. Came here...