Al Shish Palace Mediterranean Cuisine — Restaurant in Madison

This new restaurant in Madison is very, very good. They have a large menu consisting of many different dishes, some of which I've never heard of / are otherwise unavailable in the Huntsville area. I'll be back to try those, but for now, I stuck with old reliable favorites, and I was not disappointed!

We ordered for carry out on Saturday evening. We were told it would take 25-30 minutes for our food to be ready, which was accurate -- I stepped inside at around the 27 minute mark and it was ready to go.

Service was a little confused / harried but overall very nice. They struggled a bit juggling me and another customer there for pickup along with the phone calls they were getting. They're very new, so I chalk it up to still getting their sea legs. The confusion was made up for by the warmth and kindness I was shown -- one gentleman even walked me out to the entrance and opened the door for me.

While I didn't dine in, the restaurant itself looks warm and cozy. It also smelled absolutely amazing, which is a big plus!

Prices seem a little high at the start, but once you see portion sizes it starts to make sense! One of my few complaints is I wish there were more options at dinner that cost slightly less for a slightly smaller serving size. For now though, the price is worth it for a special treat.

We ordered the chicken shawarma plate and the combo (lamb and chicken) shawarma plate. Each plate came with our choice of a soup or salad as well as our choice of rice or French fries. We both chose rice and soup; from the soups, we tried chicken vegetable and lentil. We also got a small order of hummus to share.

The shawarmas were both delicious. The meats were incredibly tender and for the most part still juicy. Boyfriend said the lamb was the best he'd ever had -- not gamey at all, incredibly flavorful, tender, just delicious. I tried it and couldn't help but agree. Not usually a lamb fan but this stuff was legit. The rice was super fluffy and delicate; the chopped nuts (pretty sure they were pine nuts but not positive) added an amazing depth of flavor and fun crunch.

One of the few things we were both lukewarm on was the soup. I think the chicken vegetable just wasn't to our palates; it had a sort of cinnamon-y flavor that we're just not used to. It was packed full of veggies, though, and I'm confident I'd learn to like it if I kept on trying it. The lentil was just okay. I've had better lentil soups at other local places; the flavor and texture was just a little one-note.

An addition to our meal was this special garlic spread. Other reviewers raved about it, and I was very excited to try it, but I just didn't like it very much. Super intensely garlicky and for me it was just too much. That's okay though -- it was free and I was happy to try it!

Lastly, the hummus -- it was delightful! Very smooth, creamy, and subtle. The small serving was plenty for us on top of the huge meal. One of my favorite things about Al Shish is they did NOT skimp on the pita. Sometimes if you order hummus and pita, you're given a huge glob of hummus and about three thin slices of bread to go with it -- not here. This pita is freshly made, dense and soft and warm, and they are very generous. We actually were able to eat almost all of the hummus before we ran out of pita, which NEVER happens for us. One million points to Al Shish!

We will definitely make the drive back out to continue trying dishes. Thanks for an...

EDIT This restaurant has now changed hands and the changes to the food are devastating! I’m changing my star rating from FIVE stars to one.

The food used to be amazing and flavourful! Warm, rich and filling. Now it’s absolutely terrible and we will never return. The amazingly rich flavoured and meat filled lamb chilli soup has been replaced by a thin, bland, bitter tasting BEEF mess. Be sure to wear your glasses so you don’t miss the few minute grains of beef. There is no lamb in it yet the name has not changed. The taste is atrocious!

The delicious little clouds of bread have been replaced with flat, unleavened tasteless discs of dough. My husband had a beef pita wrap. Hardly any filling, the beef was covered in disgusting A1 sauce! I cannot comprehend how they even think this is Mediterranean. Even the hummus did not escape the destruction of this previously amazing menu…way too much tahini, no lemon and no garlic.

How they even managed to destroy the rice I’ll never know.

Health rating has dropped to 88 too.

Do yourself a favour and eat at Tazikis instead. Whilst Tazikis may be a chain and virtually the McDonalds of Mediterranean cuisine their food is far better now than Al Shish.

The pictures shown below are the OLD menu and absolutely do not reflect the current fare being offered here.

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If you don’t eat here you are denying yourself one of the best meals you’re ever likely to experience! We had the family chicken meal for four. Omg! The portions were so generous! The flavour was simply divine! Even the rice had a delicate aromatic flavour with hints of orange peel, sultanas and almonds. The tawook chicken and boneless whole chicken were amazing, moist and tasty but my favourite were the lamb kofta! If you get these make sure to spread a tiny bit of toum (garlic dip) on them to experience a truly amazing flavour! The fresh baked bread should be illegal! It’s light, fluffy and delicious which means I ate way too much of it! It’s brought out to dip with the delicious toum! We had the lamb chilli soup and it was rich, flavoursome and full of lamb. The hummus was creamy and delicious. We enjoyed every bite we had and definitely look forward to returning. Our server Julie took amazing care of us and was kind, helpful and generous. Altogether an amazing...

I am not sure what my expectations were, stepping into this restaurant, but I knew it was meant to be a "quick-bite", according to Google. I sat down and ordered a lemonade and waited. It took a few minutes, but not too long. What surprised me was that it was not a fountain lemonade, it was freshly squeezed. And I must say, I don't think that I have EVER tasted better lemonade. And then our server, Zach, brought out fresh-baked pita bread. It was fresh and warm and fluffy and it was amazing. I was yet to find anything I did not like. When Zach came back to our table, I ordered a lamb shwarma, and my mother, whom I was with, ordered a chicken shwarma. Along with our shwarmas, we got the lamb hummus. Everything was freshly hand made and it was all delicious. I personally just do not like pickles, but my shwarma had pickles. I tasted it and it was honestly the best shwarma I had ever had the pleasure of tasting. The balance of the flavors, the impact of each flavor, how nothing was over whelming or under whelming. When Zach brought out our food, he shared a fun fact with us; the black tea that is served to everyone with their meals is traditionally served with Mediterranean meals and is enjoyed after finishing the meal. I had a wonderful experience with this restaurant, between learning about Mediterranean foods and drinks and enjoying these drinks. I plan to come here more and to anyone looking at this restaurant, I highly recommend it. I doubt you...