Sam's Pita and Kabab — Restaurant in Riverside

I come from out of town so I might be a bit more spoiled with Mediterranean options, but with a near 5 star rating I can’t be disappointed right?

Well, Sam’s Pita and Kabab wasn’t a 5/5 for me but a perfect 3/5 to 3.5/5.

Maybe it’s because I came near closing time, but I just wasn’t all too impressed with the food here.

Their best/most flavorful meat was the kefta, although it is a bit on the salty side. Pretty disappointed by their “beef” which came well done/zero pinkness. I was also a bit surprised by the portion size of everything especially the meats. I feel like they could give 20-30% more rice, possibly the cheapest food one can make. And the meats? You will get about 2-3 oz of meat per skewer. I would say I got about 6-7 oz of meat which is pretty stingy for a 3 meat, I can’t get 10-12 oz of cooked meat for $25+ tax? Not even a premium cut like filet, strip, or ribeye.

The garlic sauce is good, but it tastes almost like a Caesar dressing. I think they use mayo in their garlic sauce which is a bit disappointing.

The meats were flavorful, but the portions were quite disappointing and I felt somewhat ripped off considering I paid ~$30 for 6-7 ounces of cooked meat($5), some rice(25¢), a spoonful of hummus(50¢) and garlic sauce(50¢), wilted salad($1) and store bought pita bread (50¢) those prices include labor too. Yeah I got ripped off big time charging me $30 for $10 worth of food, I hope a chipotle opens up right next to you.

Sam’s pita and Kabab, your 4.9 stars is due for regression.

The mint lemonade was good, even though it was $5.50!!! That was the most sensibly priced thing here.

UPDATE: changed to 1 star for the unprofessional reply. Yeah, you guys are due for regression. Good luck with the “family business, which is just another moniker for “we don’t pay taxes!”.

Good bye sams pita, it was nice knowing you.

and would you look at...

We were visiting my in-laws who has started loving Arabic/Middle Eastern cuisine when I joined the family! My father in-law found this place and couldn't wait to take us to Sam's restaurant and try the food. It was a long drive, but it was absolutely worth it! The food arrived in a in timely manner, fresh and delicious.

I asked the front casher persons about the meat and they confirmed it was Halal. I also, checked Zabiha, and they are added to the certified list. They have a certification as well in the restaurant you can check if you would like.

We ordered different plates and we all shared our dishes. Shawarma chicken plate, mango chili chicken kabab, beef kabab plate, combo kabab plate 3 skwrs, garlic and feta French fries, Turkish coffee and yogurt drink. Everything was really yummy, freshly made and just delicious. The flavors were super great and for spice sensitive people, the spice level was not noticeable at all. We has some leftovers and we took everything with us, because it was just so great.

The restaurant people were super friendly and welcoming, very clean and spacious. Great for families and friends gatherings. The music absolutely reminded me of layali (nights) Lebanon.

If you are visiting the area it's a must to try spot, we we'll be revisiting in the future when we are...

I'm a little late to review this but I just can't stop thinking about it so i have to!

I'll start with, we stopped on a whim 5 minutes before close. We expected nothing and only got 1 dish (beef shwarma) to go, just in case it was bad. News flash, it wasn't. The first bite we tried, we were absolutely blown away. We started to try everything individually bite by bite, then we started combining things and there wasn't a single bad combination. This confirmed we absolutely had to go back, no questions. On our return trip, we went during the day. The staff and our server was so incredibly nice, I asked so many questions and he was very polite and happy to answered everything. He made us feel so welcomed. We got chicken shwarma and beef kabobs. The beef was so tender, it had to be prime beef. The quality of everything was nothing less than perfect. The Taziki was mouth watering, in my limited experience, the best I've had, because I simply didn't really care for it until I had theirs! Have you ever heard of baklava? Because until I came here I certainly haven't and holy moly is that also incredible. I will have another review when we come back again after trying more places. Sorry, no photos, too busy eating to put...