Pita Palace

I wish I could give ZERO STARS… Well, let me start by my first impression of the place. The A/​C was broken and there were no signs indicating that, it required myself and several other patrons to ask the owner to figure out why it was hotter inside the the restaurant than outside (it was 94 degrees outside for reference). I approached the counter to order and was met by a man who by all accounts was rude to me for not knowing exactly what I want and what everything comes with despite it being my first time ever stepping foot in there. When asking about what the sandwiches come with, he looked at me with an incredulous and almost insulted look answering with, «The sandwich, just the sandwich, read the board…» When he directed me to the combo ($ 15 gets you fries, a drink, «extra» salad, and «EXTRA» meat — more on the meat in a second), he curtly and hastily listed off what it came with and that’s what I’m looking for. When the total rang up it was $ 17.50 all in all. To reference, EVERYTHING in there was over a 3^rd more expensive than advertised online, something that someone on a quick business lunch won’t have time to reconsider. A little insulted at how expensive it was for what looked like Americanized, fast-​casual Mediterranean food, I gave the benefit of the doubt and assumed the «extra» meat and salad would be well worth it.
Salad apparently is an open term, there’s a condiments bar that has «salad”-like choices. The «extra part is just a bigger plate given to you, but if you buy anything you’re allowed to grab as many salad bowls as you want, so this «extra» salad is really a gimmick. Then came the food, everyone before me had their sandwich prepared by an employee, I was handed empty pitas and a small plate of meat and told «there you go». When I say small plate of meat, think of the average Gyro you get and the amount of meat in that. THAT is what they consider «extra» meat there. The fries were just frozen Ore-​Ida fries that had been deep friend, nothing special, frankly pretty awful.
For the price I paid I expected a decently sized Mediterranean salad and at least double meat, what I got was an average portioned meal and average Mediterranean fast food. The chicken was good, but not memorable, for $ 17.50 I could have had a great meal at Roxx (how has AMAZING food) or any other sit-​down restaurant with functioning A/​C and friendly, competent customer service. This place is a joke and is clearly only afloat because of revolving door, regular clientele, not new business. The guy running the register acted like the owner, and if that’s the case, he needs some serious interpersonal skills because he seems to critically judge every patron’s every actions with smug disgust. There are SO MANY better options around town for this style of Med, Fresh 4 U, Mediterranean Grill, Café Agora, the list goes on, so by all means try there first before succumbing to deceptive pricing, rude and lazy service, disappointing portions to price ratio, and average Mediterranean food.
Steer clear!

Terrible service. Food not bad.
The person who took the order was not friendly and bordered on beliggerent.
He asked what was in my brown bag as I sat down. I humored him and answered that it was fruits. I even asked him if he wanted some.
I then asked why he asked. He answered they have some restrictions on outside food coming in. That doesn’t make sense unless I started eating that in there. Which I didn’t. And nor did I give any indication that I was planning to. I told him not to worry, I wasn’t gonna eat it there.
Then he handed me the pita instead of providing on a plate (or paper bag or something). And I had to ask for napkins as well.
The food itself tasted fresh. And it was a spicy as I liked it.
But the service was embarrassing. Very awkward. Not even worth 1 star.

Unfortunately the ownership here has changed and so has the food. The food isn’t bad, but it is not as incredible as it used to be.

I love this place. Great food, good prices. Four stars instead of five because the staff are so chill sometimes you walk in and get ignored, but I still go here all the time.

Used to love this place because it felt a little like a relic from the past. The interior is wayyyy too glitzy and negatively accentuates the reserved and unpersonable counter people. They changed the fries with new ownership, and I know fries shouldn’t break or make a place but it kind of soured me on them. Just a personal preference. The shawarma is good, and they offer a lot of salad options for it. With the interior change, and the fries (I realize the fries shouldn’t be a big deal) it’s not enough for me to seek them out anymore.

It’s authentic, it’s awesome, it’s reasonably-​priced. The service keeps it real, they ain’t jumpin through any hoops for ya! I got a shawarma half pita and it was delicious. I feel like they really skimped on the meat, though, and padded it out with too much hummus, tahini and babbaganoush. Sorry about my misspellings. Next time, I’ll tell em to skip the babbaganoush and I’ll put my own hummus on it because then they will have to give me more meat! They have a badass salad bar with these amazing pickles and carrots and crazy hot sauce and hummus and cucumbers and onions — oh my. Their drink selections suck, just Pepsi and diet Dr Pepper and Mountain Dew, which is dumb. *pouts* When in Atlanta, speak Atlanta and serve Coke. Anyway, the pita bread is wonderful. I’m definitely a big fan and will be back. :)

Good food and great service! Had great time. The falafel are amazing. Portions ‘real good.

Since our last visit about a year now, this place has definitely gone through a revamp with it’s interior. It may have not expanded much in size but it definitely has a new look to it. I had the Chicken Pita which was fairly good whilst the hubby had the Falafel Laffa which was a little disappointing compared to the last time we had it here. Falafels here were then crunchy and on point! For some reason it was soft and bland this time about. I really hope they would go back to making their Falafels the way they used to be. Service was good and they were generous with the portions.

Hands down best falafel in Atlanta. The staff is wonderful, everything is kosher, and it’s a great place for a quick and delicious bite.

Best schwarma in town! Love all the toppings that they give. Delicious! I was in Alabama and a woman told me that Pita Palace is what she mostly misses from Atlanta.

This used to be one of my favorite places in town. Super friendly staff and amazing schwarma.
Went last week and my goodness had it changed! Staff was not nearly as friendly and served out of by me being there. The chicken schwarma was almost inedible. So much fat on the meat, bad tasting, did not give much hummus. My friend ordered falafel and it was just average as well.
Née management or ownership can be good and bad. In this case it is terrible and I’m very disappointed.

Much improved décor and cleanliness. Food also very food. Had Turkey Swarma with seasoned fries, all great with fresh salad and veggie bar.

Quality is superb. Authentic. Know what they are doing. Perfect pita place.

Horrible service. Rude dude at the cashier (Sunday evening) was quite condescending to me when I was trying to ask a question. Note that I am 100% middle eastern and I know that my question was legitimate. He made me feel so awkward so much so that I will never step in that place again. Also note that the «chef» was outside working on his car or something as we were going into the restaurant which is something I didn’t like, especially that he wore a glove in his right hand only. I am not sure how clean this place is.
Regarding the food, nothing special. Falafel is very spicy which is not how it is supposed to be. The shawarma has good traditional spices however it had a lot of thick connective tissue that I had to spit out while masticating. I also didn’t like that the cashier dude is the one that shaves the shawarma off the shawarma thing and makes your sandwich.

I planned a group work outing here. Luckily only two of us could make it since the place is pretty small. But I like holes in the wall.
The staff were quite patient with us as we took our time trying to figure out waht we wanted. My friend and I both ordered up laffas (chicken and lamb shwarma) and they were served up quickly. These things are huge. Neither one of us could finish it off. I ate about half and saved the rest for dinner. A nice way of getting your money’s worth. I think the pita is the best option for most diners. We had planned to order dessert as well, but were way too full by the end of our meal.
Pita Palace doesn’t serve up the best shwarma out there, but still nice.

Indigestion. Enough said. I took my bff and bro to Pita Palace for lunch on Xmas for a taste of Israel and we were expecting fresh, scrumptious Middle Eastern food, but instead we got that infamous bridal store scene in Bridesmaids.
I seriously wish I could give this place zero stars. We also saw a gigantic bug in the Jerusalem salad. And my brother’s shwarma laffa was cold. I think PP needs to pull it together. The spicy fries were at least edible. Pricing sucks – you gotta use your scoutmob. Sure, a laffa is a ton of food, but is it worth the lack of freshness? I went with the falafel laffa which was good to eat at the time but made me feel so gnarly afterwards. I think we here in Atlanta have a dearth of good, quick Middle Eastern – so unless anyone has a good suggestion, I’m veering away! Perhaps they were just having an off day… But we had such an unacceptably unpleasant experience. The service was good, but if the goods need servicing in the palatability department, none of that matters. Standby.

Very mediocre food served with a horrible attitude. The woman taking orders was very rude. I had never been to the establishment and even if the food was amazing I probably wouldn’t return simply because of her.
I ordered a shawarma pita with a spice level of ⁵⁄₁₀. It was ok. Not good enough to return. I paid over $ 10 for a very mediocre pita and a bad attitude. I won’t be back.

Pita Palace is a kosher Middle Eastern restaurant located in the Briar Vista shopping center not far from Emory, across the street from Whole Foods Briarcliff. It’s a hole in the wall. I’m not going to go as far as calling it a «shack,» but it almost feels like one. This is more of a quick lunch or take-​out place than it is a restaurant to sit down and enjoy a meal. I like it because it’s akin to Israeli street food. The kitchen prepares many of its ingredients daily, including their own taboon bread.
The restaurant is on the La Vista side of the shopping center, facing Whole Foods. It’s in a small corner spot. They’ve crammed a lot of tables into the limited space and there’s some covered seating outside. During peak periods, parking can get tight so you may have to park around the corner and walk over.
Pita Palace has chicken shawarmas (freshly shaved off the spit), falafel (made of ground chickpeas), schnitzel (breaded chicken), pargiot (dark meat cornish hen), white meat grilled chicken, seasoned beef kabobs, hamburgers, and veggie pitas. You can order the falafel and meats in various forms, e.g. inside a pita pocket or wrapped in laffa (taboon bread). The laffa wraps are quite big, significantly bigger than the pita pockets. They are comparable in size to a Mission-​style burrito (such as Moe’s or Chipotle). It’s a lot of meat/​food.
Pitas run about $ 7 – 10 each, laffas run about $ 8 – 13 each. If you don’t want a pita or laffa, you can have the meat served on a baguette, in a salad, on as an entrée (double meat, for roughly $ 15) with salad bar items.
I recommend ordering the laffa because taboon bread can be hard to find in Atlanta, especially freshly-​made taboon bread. Taboon is made out of chickpea flour and is traditionally used as a flatbread wrap in Jewish cuisine. It’s soft and slightly spongy.
There’s a self-​serve salad bar that is used by both customers and staff. The salad bar has hummus (chickpea spread), baba ghanoush (eggplant spread), spicy sauces (jalapeño, habanero), Israeli salad (tomatoes and cucumbers), pickles, red cabbage, coleslaw, pita chips, fried eggplant, sauerkraut, and other items. The salad bar is included with most orders.
If you order a sandwich/​wrap, the staff will use ingredients from the salad bar, Subway-​style, to customize your order. I like to load my laffa wraps with lots of stuff: hummus, baba ghanoush, Israeli salad, red cabbage, pickles, and slaw. They also have sauces in squeeze bottles, such as tzatziki yogurt sauce. It is good stuff. Don’t put too many sauces/​spreads inside or your meal will get messy towards the end.
The meats I suggest ordering are the shawarma, pargiot, and beef kabobs. You can see the chicken shawarma rotating on a spit behind the counter. I think this is their most popular meat and it’s not uncommon to see it completely gone by the end of the day. The shawarma and the pargiot, both marinated chicken, taste somewhat similar. However, the shawarma chicken meat is sliced thin while the pargiot chicken meat is chopped into small chunks. Either way, you can’t go wrong. The beef kabobs are delicious. The beef patties are nicely seasoned with onions and spices and are flavorful and satisfying. I think the meat portions are generous.
Overall, I have found the ingredients to be sufficiently fresh and the wraps to be tasty and filling.
Service is good.
Bottled water and soft drinks are available in a fridge. If you want tap water, you have to get it yourself from a bathroom-​looking sink that is oddly placed in the short hallway leading to the lone restroom. Funny enough, it’s not the first time I’ve seen something like that.

I was disappointed that I did not get as much meat as I remembered getting the last time I was here, which was more than 1 year ago. The cashier was very friendly, and helped me choose what I wanted based on my preferences. She recommended that I go for the schwarma plate without the pita bread to get more meat. When I got home, I found out that I got a schwarma sandwich, adding to my disappointment.
I got a choice of babaganouj or hummus and I opted for my favorite, the hummus.
They also can make it as spicy as you want so I chose medium spicy.
The salad bar is very good. I love the eggplant but it is very oily. One bite and the eggplant wrings out a lot of oil. I like the peppercini’s as well. The salad bar has a lot of options.

Yum!!! Eating here reminds me of the Falafel place in Miami Beach. It’s traditional with the salad bar that has Israeli pickles, red cabbage, Israeli salad, and all of the yummy toppings. I crave it on weekends, usually Saturdays which sucks because that’s during Shabbat so they are closed. The pita was served soft, fluffy, and warm. They put babaganouj and hummus inside the pita along with the falafel. The falafel were small and crispy on the outside with them being soft in the middle. They were warm and flavorful. One you add the cucumber and tomato salad, pickled cabbage, Israeli pickles, tahini, and onions, I was good to go.
Like always, I ate too much and needed to rest afterwards.
He staff is very kind and have something nice to say whenever you visit whether they ask about your day or talk about the weather.
The food is Delish!!!