Pita Shack Best Halal Mediterranean Restaurant — Restaurant in Pflugerville

I believed the overwhelmingly positive reviews and took a chance on Pita-Shack - a terrible experience at this clown shoe operation compelled me to write this review.

I called in a pickup order of three pita wraps - the man on the phone said it would take 15, 20 minutes. I got there about 25 minutes after I ordered and was not greeted or acknowledged , but no big deal as they looked pretty busy.

At 40 minutes after calling in the order I approached the manager (owner?) and asked if my order was going to be ready soon, or if it had even been started. He said, "Yes we had a problem in the kitchen, it will be five minutes."

I sat back down and waited ten minutes - still no food. During this time he yelled at an employee for answering the restaurant phone and told her, "Don't answer the phone, get back in the kitchen, please!" At least he said please. I went back up and got his attention (very difficult to do, actually). I said, "Hey, has my food even been started? If not, I'm going to leave and get something else." He said, "It will be five minutes." I told him he had said that ten minutes ago.

"I can refund your money or it will be out soon," he said. I told him I hadn't paid yet and wanted the food. He and another employee began hastily assembling three pita wraps. Note, this is fifty minutes after I called in the order - they were only making them then because I approached twice asking if my food had even been started.

The manager bagged up the wraps and gave them over as I handed him my debit card and coupon for buy-one-get-one on entrees. He wouldn't take the money, he just gestured to the door. I said, "Aw man, really?" He nodded and gestured to the door again. I thought that was cool - I hadn't demanded anything from them other than the status of my order.

Now this is the part that made me write this review. I'm halfway to the door when this man clearly says, "Don't come back!" I stopped and turned around, really not believing what I had heard. I walked back to the counter and asked him, "Hey, what did you say to me?"

He said, "It's nothing," and gestured to the door as he had done before. I made it almost to the door and heard, once again, "Don't come back!"

I turned around, smiling in disbelief. A customer in line tried to defuse the situation and said, "I think he's saying 'please come back.'" Yeah, he wasn't - it was loud and clear what he said.

Anyway, I won't be going back. I thought it was weird the whole time I was there that the owner/manager/whatever wouldn't greet or even talk to the customers. People were lined up on one side to pick up online orders while another line was waiting to order at the counter. People were walking out after being ignored for too long. The phone was ignored and rang incessantly. I probably ticked him off by asking him if my food had been started and not believing him when he told me it would be five minutes, but what can you do when the staff is ignoring a room full of customers, giving them no indication if their food is being prepared or not.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far - I don't write reviews and usually ignore bad and/or rude service, but this was too much. I just felt bad for everyone there - the patrons and employees. Kudos to them for not charging me, though... I didn't ask for or...

Update 12.31.2023:

Somebody previously complained about receiving barely two slices of pepperoni per pizza slice. Well, we ended up with four... on the ENTIRE pie. I challenge anyone to surpass that!

As I said in my last review, this place is off my radar. However, a relative wanted to try the pizza here so we ordered pickup. It has become unmistakably clear that this is a subpar establishment with ridiculous prices. I genuinely hate this place.

Prior Review: We called ahead to ask if they do curbside pickup and were told yes. She said she will take payment once we arrive. Once there, she says to come in to pickup and make payment as she can't take it over the phone. I told them that's not what she said earlier but she wouldn't budge.

The only reason why we ordered from here is due to her confirming they do curbside. :/

Ya'll, I'm livid at this point but went inside anyways to pay and let her know this wasn't appropriate to lie like this. She starts giving me lip about how only the manager can take payment over the phone and he just left and blah blah blah.

As a customer, during a frickin' pandemic, do I need to know all this? You said you offer curbside, it's your responsibility to see it though. If you can't, then find a way to fix it or just say sorry I messed up rather than running your mouth off with excuses.

I paid, collected my food and left. In retrospect, rather than risk the health of my infant and wife, I should have just left and gotten food from a drive thru nearby. But being super tired, hangry and baby crying in the back decided to quickly get the food from these liars so we can go home.

We had gotten a chicken and beef shawarma pizza. I counted 3 pieces of chicken shawarma. The cheese fell out each time we picked up a slice. With that said, the beef shawarma was plentiful and tasted really good and I liked the overall taste of the pizza. But not enough to get and spread covid-19.

But honestly I'm getting really sick of these establishments that flaunt their halal status but is run or worked by individuals with negative behaviors and poor personalities.

Now there's plenty of shawarma places in the Austin area and there's Promise Pizza for those who want halal pizzas. So I don't see any reason to come back again. This shop...

I found myself near this place in August of 2023 and decided to try it based on other reviews. My wife and I enjoyed the dinner we had. Since Google Reviews is asking me to rate Food, Service, and Atmosphere I'll do so in order.

Food - It was great. No complaints, they have great recipes for every dish on the menu. Turns out their baklava recipe is in their grandpa's head (more on that in Atmosphere). I had the chicken shawarma and it was delicious. I was offered any number of sauces if I wanted them but with just a little harissa the chicken was fantastic. My wife had kebabs, dolmas and tabbouleh and reported them all to be excellent.

Service - The owner took our order. He was professional and seemed very happy. He had a big smile on his face the whole time and since I dined in, I was able to observe him help other customers and his enthusiasm never waned. I did see a couple of others in the back doing the cooking. The food is authentic, there's no doubt in my mind. It was served in a timely manner, pretty quick actually, considering all the things we had ordered.

Atmosphere - It was pretty slow when we were there, primarily because it was like 8 p.m. when we arrived, maybe a little earlier. That said there was a stream of delivery drivers coming in to pick up orders. So we had the whole place to ourselves. It was during our meal that we learned that the owner's father carries the recipe for the baklava in his head, and oversees the making of it to ensure that no detail goes unheeded. I like that, it lends an air of authenticity and respect to this menu. Will you get that if they're super busy? I'm not sure. But the place is otherwise clean and adorned with nice decorations.

So there it is, Food great, Service excellent, and Atmosphere was fun. If you're on the fence about trying a restaurant like this, I would say this would be a safe bet to get something you will want to come back for and even though it is out of my way, I'll make the drive because they made the entire experience enjoyable. There are plenty of photos of the different menu items already so...