Zaya

This place holds a special place in my heart. As the only late-​late night dining option on campus, Zaya has been my destination many nights to refuel for study marathons.
I’ve tried pretty much everything on the menu. Highlights include the gyro, Zaya Pasta, burgers, and wings. The Parmesan garlic wings here might be some of the best wings I’ve ever had. I believe they also serve breakfast food after 10pm.
I’ve made many fond memories coming here for study breaks.

We eat it cause it’s on campus but the foods not great, overpriced, and service non-​existent

Awesome chicken schwarma… the seasoning is divine! Also, the salad dressing on the greek is amazing… great use of sumac. Love it!

This was just bad. The fries were half fresh (sort of) and half cold and really firm. It was like they mixed old and new together hoping the new ones would heat up the old ones. The fries also tasted like they had used oil that had been used to fry fish, or just don’t change/​clean the oil regularly enough.
The hummus tasted like its mixed with peanut butter, most likely due to using old sesame oil (it starts to taste like peanut butter to me when it turns).
The chicken was okay, but it was hard to eat much after the experience with the fries and hummus. It makes me worry that they are using expired food, or not cleaning the kitchen enough.
Just say no.

It’s actually been a couple of years since my last pilgrimage to Zaya (before I was a contributing Unilocaler), but I figure better late than never to share the word, right?
During the course of my undergraduate career at Emory, the little train depot next to the train tracks on Emory’s main campus, within view of the looming CDC on the other side went through a couple of different incarnations: the first (and less interesting iteration) was Dooley’s Depot, a run of the mill college food joint: burgers, salads, sandwiches, late night chicken fingers or pancakes until 3 AM, etc. The second, was Zaya’s, which I’m pleased to see, is surviving.
If you ever entered The Depot before it became Zaya’s the décor has changed not at all. It’s still got TVs mostly showing sports games, it still has the funky little higher level of seating next to the kitchen and a few tall tables near the windows and the lighting still isn’t the best indoors. I always liked sitting outside on the covered patio when the weather was nice enough.
The menu at Zaya’s skews more Mediterranean than Dooley’s with items like pita and hummus, tabbouleh, kabobs, schwarma and more. Yes, hamburgers, pasta, chicken fingers and chili cheese fries still exist as well for the less adventurous eaters too.
The hummus and pita was always good, but my go to almost every time was a Greek salad with big chunks of warm chicken schwarma on top. It comes with tomatoes, kalamata olives, fresh greens, red onion and a vinaigrette dressing. Whatever the chicken was marinated in prior to cooking is delicious and really made the salad great. And it was a pretty sizable portion of salad and meat too.
Granted, Zaya’s is a little pricier than other options on campus (like Chik-​fil-​A), but if you’re looking for better quality, Mediterranean food, this is it. I’m glad it’s still around and I hope the food’s as good as I remember.

Not even on the menu, but strawberry short cake ice cream… Mmmmmm!!!

Prices are not high for what you are getting. Very flavorful Shawarma beef. Surprisingly tasty fries — kind of like the McDonald’s cut but tastier.
Nice staff. Great little place right in the middle of our campus.
Main downside is that it’s tough to find parking here, but maybe I just don’t know the right place to park.

Prices high. and worse spanakopita i have had in a long time… what happened to flaky phyllo. i felt like i was eating uncooked dough

Located on Emory Campus and it is better than than DUC (which is not saying that much-​hence the three stars). They have your average restaurant’s fried foods and take Dooley Dollars. The restaurant is converted from an old train stop and the trains frequently pass by.
They are open late (perfect for midnight munchies or a drunken night on frat row) and serve breakfast after 10PM. They also sell pints of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. It is a short walk from most of the housing on campus, unless you live in Harris or Complex (like I did freshman year). But, it is one of the only food places on campus that take Dooley Dollars and it is a nice change after you get sick of the DUC and Cox.

Delicious food. Great alternative to Emory in house dining options

I was pleasantly surprised by how delicious the mujadrah (lentil stew) is here. Cute place in an old train station.

This place has so much potential… it’s sad to see such a cute restaurant (with great location for Emory students and employees) serve such disappointing and overly-​priced food.
I paid nearly $ 10 for a large (Greek) salad with chicken. First thought– portion size was great. Chicken was nicely seasoned (supposedly marinated) but was dry! Perhaps they used too much salt in their marinade, but come on how hard is it to cook chicken? For the salad, it came out missing an ingredient and it appeared to lack dressing. I asked for an extra side and I was brought what looked like a cup of oil, no joke. I pointed this out and they brought me another side of dressing. this one looked a little better but as far as taste was concerned, it was definitely lacking. I felt that at $ 10 I should have been getting a gourmet-​quality salad, and compared to what they served me I could have made something at home for less and that would have tasted better.
I’d rather drive a few miles down the street to Mediterranean Grill, where the food is not only more reasonably priced but tastes better too!