Zait & Za'atar: Mediterranean Dhaba — Restaurant in Saint Paul

I'm new to St Paul, so when my son invited me to pick a place for a Mother's Day lunch, I Googled "ethnic restaurants in St Paul" and picked this.

The smells when we walked in were wonderful and the decor and music were warm and cozy-feeling. The staff were friendly, welcoming, and helpful, and the service was good. As with other reviewers, we were offered samples of the three teas and all the dishes we asked about were explained to us. We started out conservatively on this visit. We shared the sample platter and shawarma fries and we each had a different tea.

I was extremely impressed. I used to live in Buenos Aires, on the Atlantic coast, and several times a year we would drive across the country to visit relatives. On the way there, we crossed a desert. The first town on the other side of the desert was full of tiny restaurants run by first-generation Syrian-Lebanese immigrants. They were so welcoming to the hot and weary traveler. There would be a soft, cool breeze iiside these restaurants, even without AC. The cooking aromas made our mouths water,. There was always an old man in a kaftan outside, squatting next to a bed of coals and cooking kababs, It was truly authenitic and I learned to love this kind of middle-eastern food.

Zain & Za'atar has very much the same feel and the food tastes exactly like that did. It's not overly Americanized. The tabbouleh brings back such memories! I can't wait to come back and work my way through their entire menu - including some more of that yoghurt and pepper soup we sampled but didn't...

The first impression of walking in was subpar. The floors and bathroom was dirty, which makes me concerned. If a bathroom was dirty, how dirty is the kitchen. The service was very poor. After being sat, which was an awkward experience because the two servers were talking about non work related items before acknowledging us, we sat for 5 minutes before getting offered anything to drink, even water. The server stood at the front desk doing non-work related items such as on their phone. The water glasses that were given were dirty and had an odd taste of water. Server never came back to refill water glasses. My girlfriend's very simple tea took 10 minutes to come out and was overpriced. The meal was even more disappointing. The beef shawarma plate w/salad was sad. The salad was simple iceberg lettuce with wishbone Italian dressing. There was very little beef and the rice was not fresh. My girlfriend's wrap did not come fries, which it stated it was supposed to. The server told the people behind us to leave a Google review and stood there while doing this.

Overall, I am surprised this place is still open or hasn't had any health violations. Poor service and poor food. The service and food was so poor we walked up and said we wanted to pay. The server had finally asked how was the meal and I said "it was just okay." She took offense from this and didn't apologize or say anything. I honestly will never come back and will not recommend to anyone.

Also paid $40 for 2 people... crazy...

On a whim, my family and I wanted to eat some shawarmas. I recalled this restaurant from my college years and passed by to see it was still in existence and learned it also had new owners. The menu boasts a wide variety of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern dishes such as falafel and beef and chicken shawarmas (we ordered both!) and new additions of Indian fare such as butter chicken.

We ordered a side of tabouli, falafel, and then a Beef, Shawarma plate and a Chicken Shawarma plate. My youngest had chicken Shawarma plate as well, but the child size portion. It was clear everything was made fresh and carefully as it took a little time to bring it out, but not inordinately so. They gave us a complementary side of pita bread and fries for being out of fresh fruit.

The tabouli was fresh with the perfect. amount of lemon, salt and olive oil added. The two shawarma plates were plentiful with steaming rice and well seasoned meat. A salad with a delicious light dressing, clearly freshly made, also accompanied the dishes. as I don’t eat sugar, they kindly made me a lassi with buttermilk that was refreshing and cool. My daughter had the regular lassi and said it was delicious and refreshing.

The restaurant was clean and well organized. I got to talk with one of the owners who brought my daughters ice cream on the house at the end of the experience. We found this small corner eatery to be a perfect afternoon...