Basha Bistro

The hummus alone is worth the trip. Super nice owner whose staff deserted him tonight, but he served us anyway. And the pace was perfect! He brought out the hummus from my mezze plate first, and that kept us busy until the felafel, then later the rest of the mezze plate and the chicken shawarma. The chicken shawarma was a standout, too, with the veggies and rice. Great prices, too! We will definitely be back!
7÷20÷12: tried them back again a few months later for some takeout and the super nice owner is gone, replaced by some whose English is a little sketchy. The steak kabob was gone and the new owner talked me into the ground beef kafka, which I wasn’t fond of. She didn’t seem to understand «steak» meant not ground meat. Anyway, won’t be back. Too bad. The hummus is still great, tho.

This place used to be good when Ramsy was managing it and using his grandmother’s recipes. 5 star good easily. It’s under new management now and the food is fairly disappointing. It’s a shame.

I came in for lunch on a Monday. First off, the little lady who took my order was super nice and took time to explain some menu items. I ordered the tomato soup, which was great– not too acidic and yet smooth, and I also ordered the falafal wrap. The falafal was cooked just right. Visit this place soon.

Nice to have another Mediterranean option near work. Thanks to Scoutmob otherwise I’d probably never notice the place. They’re located right next to the huge mosque on 14^th Street. I’ve been twice and both times there was plenty of available seating. Order food at the front, and then wait … great to know your food is cooked to order but service feels very slow. During one visit, I ordered just 1 falafel for comparison sake. The falafel didn’t arrive until after I was almost done eating my lunch.
CHICKEN SHAWARMA PLATTER — $ 9.95
I got this b/​c the cashier said this was her favorite. Looking at the other reviews, it seemed like everyone else thought the chicken shawarma was the best dish, too. Chicken was good, veggies (squash, zucchini, green pepper, onion) are supposedly grilled but tasted sauteed to me, and the rice was surprisingly my favorite part of the meal — I think it was the butter :) Meal portion was generous — enough for 2 meals. My friend had gotten the Chicken Shawarma Pita ($ 5.95), and really liked it a lot.
BEEF SHAWARMA — $ 5.95
On another visit, tried to order the Kofka but they didn’t have it that day so I opted for the beef shawarma. The beef shawarma was kinda fatty and chewy :(Also ordered waffle fries for an extra $ 1.29 … they look and taste just like Chick-fil-A’s waffle fries.
BABA GANOUSH — $ 2.95
Nice smoky eggplant flavor, and very good. The baba ganoush comes in 2 sizes — we got the small «single serving» portion but it was plenty for 2 people … maybe even 3. Comes w/​2 large pita bread, too.
FALAFEL — $.99
Their falafels are donut-​shape, and more heavy & hearty tasting than others I’ve had. Definitely tastes homemade. It’s too bad you have to pay extra to get the Tahini sauce. Overall ok but a little disappointing after having to wait what felt like forever for one falafel.
Overall 3.5 stars but rounded down to 3 for service. The folks here are very nice … just need to speed up the service.

Ehhhh…
The chicken biryani was flavor explosive, homey, and comforting (though I didn’t grow up eating biryani). Good size portion too. My beef shwarma was slightly overdone and lacking in portion size, especially compared to the biryani. The hummus was good, and a fairly big serving but was served with whole dry pitas, totally unacceptable.
Poor service — I don’t mind paying the automatic 15% (or more) gratuity on a Scoutmob deal, but there was literally no service. Most of our plates were chipped and he even found a piece of the chipped dish in his food! Dark, lonely, and shoddy service. My mind couldn’t help but wander to the brighter Mediterranean resto up the street…

I am pretty picky about mediterranean food. So naturally am a little hesitant about trying a new place. My husband and I put a lot of stock into every meal, which I admit at times can be a little paralyzing. We are huge fans of shwarma, however, neither of us are fans of lamb so finding good beef or chicken shwarma is important… very important.
My husband has high standards for non-​lamb shwarma since he left LA (blame Zankou Chicken). Basha isn’t quite true shwarma but a close replacement. They grill their meats which can be much healthier. I am forever a victim of being served dry chicken out at restaurants and the highly rated Mediterranean Grill is no exception. But that’s a review for another time.
All that rambling done, this place will be seeing my husband and I a lot more often.
Lebanese rules!

The kibbe is good. The kofte sandwich meat was tasty. But how can a restaurant run out of food? At 1pm. Unfortunately, this happened on 2 occasions, which does not endear it to this impatient reviewer. Compounded by lackluster service and a general feel of disorganization, I don’t feel compelled to revisit even though it is oh so convenient.

Solid shawarama, good salad and good baklava. Went for lunch at 2 on a Thursday to use the scoutmob. It is an order-​at-​the-​counter to type of place. The food came out shortly after my order. Waitstaff was friendly and décor was new and clean. Will go back for lunch when I am craving med food.

I’m in like. But I don’t think it’s love. It was good… just missed the mark on a few things.
My plate
Hummus and bread: Pretty good. Hummus had good flavor and texture; nice and creamy without being over processed. The bread came piping hot, which is a plus — but a little over toasted, which took away from the hummus.
Falafel and tahini sauce: Flavors were right, texture was not. The falafel was dry. I definitely needed the tahini sauce to get it down.
Chicken shawarma plate: The flavors were well-​balanced. Didn’t need more or less of anything on the chicken. The rice was a little dry, and I’m pretty sure it lacked saffron (understandable… did you know saffron costs more than gold, by weight?). Veggies were good. Zucchini and yellow squash is my favorite side veggie :).
Would I come back? Maybe. But I think I’ll date around first.

I’m Lebanese and have eaten at just about every Lebanese/​middle eastern place in town. I was very excited to try this after reading about how good it was, and I get really homesick for food from home. Well, this was probably the worst «Lebanese» food I’ve eaten.
Food: the beef and chicken shawarma wasn’t shawarma, it was cooked on a grill! The kafta was dry and overcooked. The chicken shawarma also had no garlic. Come to think of it, I don’t know if they even use garlic there. Typically, chicken shawarma is served with a thick garlic paste made from crushed garlic, lemon, and olive oil (and it’s a key ingredient!)
The rice was simple, not bad but not Lebanese rice. I will admit the hummus is very good, and they use good pita.
Service: This was strange. We walk in, and no one is at the counter. There’s some guy in the corner who sees us and starts talking. The cook, who speaks little English, says he’s waiting for the manager because he can’t work the cashier. 5 minutes pass and the guy in the corner says he’ll take our order and help out but that he wasn’t the owner/didn’t work there. We pick things out and the cashier runs in, late. She rings up my girlfriend while I chat with the guy, Rafik, who turned out to be Lebanese, in arabic. He said he was a doctor (?) and then said he *was* the owner (??). So if he is the owner, he sat there for 5 minutes staring at us before taking our order. If he’s not the owner, he is not helping whoever is, because he’s kinda sketchy. The cashier also overcharged us so we had to fix that too.
In summary, I have no idea why this place has such great ratings. If you want good Lebanese/​middle eastern, the absolute BEST, most authentic place to go in Atlanta is Mezza Lebanese Bistro in Decatur. It’s about as close as you can get to Beirut– ya habibi! Or just go to Med Grill. Even the mediocre Mediterranean Bakery in Chamblee has better food, and they at least give you garlic paste for your chicken.

I am SO glad I found this place (thank you, Scoutmob)! It is by far the best middle eastern food I’ve found in Atlanta (I got spoiled in Washington, DC years ago). The food is fresh and delicious. Without a doubt, the best baba ganoush I’ve ever had — a nice smoky flavor. Went for a second time the other day and got a shish kabob wrap — excellent! Especially love the crunchy marinated veggies in it (unlike most places that put pickles or nothing like this in their wraps). And the falafel is KILLER! I will say that they still are running out of things and need a bit more time to get that down, but they are working hard and I suspect they will get it all together very soon. Normally I would give them a 4 instead of a 5 for this reason, but I’m overlooking it because the food is so good. If you like this kind of food, go now!

Mmmmmmm, I really like this place now. Yes, the service is still slow, but going in expecting it to be slow means that I don’t feel so bad when we wait. Now the boy and I have the attitude of «get some tea and hummus and then relax.»
Boy do I like their regular hummus. It’s the perfect consistency, perfectly creamy, not too much garlic or tahini. Delicious. By far the best hummus I’ve had in atlanta. Like I’ve said before though, I still don’t get the «spicy» hummus. I’d recommend sticking to the regular stuff.
Everything I’ve had off of their menu is great and the kitchen seems to be finding their groove with quality products and appropriate cook times for meats. I’m so glad this place is open in my bf neighborhood, and hopefully this will be the last star adjustment I make for this place.

this place is soooooooo awesome.
just went to basha bistro again. for lunch.
the owner hooked us up with some of his new baba ganoush, which was amazing. really great.
then we had a kofte wrap and a chicken schwarma, both were outstanding!
to wrap it up, he gave us some baklava with berry reduction. it was seduction! it was sooo good.
i will definitely be back again, and again, and again.
[chris]

Updating these guys to a 5. I’ve been here a few times since the first couple of the visits, and the food has been consistently excellent every time. Everything is very fresh; in fact, some items are made to order. (Of course, people should keep that in mind. This isn’t the fastest place in Atlanta by any means, but I’d happily wait a little longer for food this good.)
The baba ganoush is seriously killer. At present they’ve added some kalamata olives to the baba, and it mixes well with the smoky eggplant and garlic flavors.
And this is the first tabbouli I’ve had in the south that resembles actual Middle Eastern tabbouli. No cucumbers as filler. Fresh lemon, good ratio of parsley to bulgar, just the right amount of salt.
The chicken schwarma was also good, but I can’t say enough positives about the veggie options here.

I accidentally walked in this establishment, while in the area. I liked the food and people at this place a lot. Had a tasty Chicken Shwarma after a long time.
Last week I had Basha Bistro cater food for our 15 people house party, food quantity was plenty, and the owner also gave us the directions to reheat the food. Everyone at our party loved the food, and couldnt stop raving about their home made extremely hot sauce.
All together, I would go back to this place. I may call my order ahead, because good food made right takes time to make.

Great little place with a good assortment of options. I had the chicken shawarma wrap, which was delish. The chicken was tender and not dry like some other places, and the wrap was sauced perfectly. I loved the addition of their homemade pickled turnips!
The staff was super friendly and even offered us a complimentary baba ganoush and house made pita chips to try. Looking forward to trying more things and making this a regular lunch spot!

I really enjoy this place each time I go. The food is fresh, delicious, and affordable. The hummus is great and I highly recommend the Basha Mezze Platter. The wraps are awesome and the portions are generous. I will definitely be coming back.

I am very glad that something international has opened in this spot versus a boring chain establishment like Five Guys or some other dreadful burger place that West Midtown does not need.
The ambiance is like Mediterranean Grill. You order at the counter. I think that this place has promise, but it still getting its bearings because it is relatively new. The staff were very friendly.
The beef was tough, flavorless, and overcooked. The rice was very bland. I was surprised that the food was so mediocre and flavorless considering that it is right next to a mosque.
It may have an upswing, so I might check it out again and review again.

Food comes out quickly and was very good. Staff was very friendly and let me try a lot of different things on the menu.