Ya Hala

Ya Hala means ‘hello’ or ‘welcome’. My husband took me here for our anniversary. We had the Baba Ganoush and the Chicken Shawarma. The waitress was very friendly and the atmosphere was warm (fireplace) and intimate. Very flavorful authentic flavor. We will return!

I came here for the first time last week for dinner. The restaurant is very luxurious in its décor but a lot of the lights were off, I guess because the restaurant was more or less empty on a Saturday night at 7 pm. The food was good and well-​prepared. The service was off and on… At times I was well-​attended but then other times, I wanted assistance and kept waiting while the staff was at the bar talking to each other. After I was done eating, I waited a long time to receive my check which was annoying. Although I did not do hookah there, they had a nice-​looking separate lounge for hookah. More people were there doing hookah than were eating which was interesting.

The food is just ok. I had chicken schwarma. It was alright, I’ve had better. I would have to assume the veggies that came with it were from a bag of frozen vegetables. Thats how they appeared and tasted. The baklava I was hoping would be the redeeming part of my meal, it wasnt. It was dry and had no flavor. Doesn’t it always come with honey on top? It made me sad. I only had one bite.
There was only one server, and he was very busy with multiple tables so I won’t even talk about the service.
With all of the delicious Mediterranean resturaunts in the area, this one is mediocre at best.

I love this place and am happy to see it thriving. I’ve been coming for years ever since I swore off Omars 5 years ago, and so glad I was told about it. There has been some questionable service a time or two, but the food has remained consistent and flavorful every time I’ve ordered it, whether eating at their establishment of taking it home. The salad that comes with the shawarma platter is the only thing I don’t like, so now I pay a little more to swap that out. The beef shawarma platter and rice with extra garlic sauce is my go to, and the hummus is Fantastic. I haven’t ever been into the hookah, but it’s gotten quite popular there, and some nights seem to get really festive.

This place is terrible. I met a friend there and we ordered simple dishes such as the sample appetizer and some grilled lamb and beef. The sample plate was ok but the meat was stale I couldnt even finish the piece I was eating. Not only was the food bad but the service was worse. We told our waiter that the meat is stale he denied it and didnt even try to apologize. I will never go back or recommend this place to anyone

Don’t come here. Wait time until we got service was 10 minutes+ and didn’t get a menu until my girlfriend got up to get one. Also wanted to order a drink but they were out of a mix to make it.

Me and my friend came in for dinner while the restaurant was quite empty, before the night crowd came in, we were NEVER acknowledged, sat ourselves, at least 5 servers walked passed us, after asking is anybody going to help, someone finally sauntered over, to take our drink order, which she got wrong twice. We had to ask for menus!!! I’ve eaten here several times before and there appears to be a decline in customer service! Not sure what’s going on but I hope they pull it together because the food is pretty tasty but no food is good enough to endure bad service!!!

Yum! Again! Love love love this place! The staff is so friendly and very knowledgeable and great at offering advice if you want it. The drinks are exceptional too. Very reasonable prices for the quality of the food. Will be back as soon as humanly possible.

Frequently have lunch here. Staff is welcoming and service is good. Great falafel and schwarma. Some of the best Mediterranean in St Louis-​super fresh

i’ve been here quite a few times, and love the food here. So why only 1 star? Because of this experience. My husband and i were eating and several patrons began lighting up cigarettes and hookahs around us (not in the hookah «area»). I get that it’s a hookah lounge, but smoking cigarettes in a restaurant in St. Louis County is illegal. I brought this to the attention of the wait staff and was told that
1. The owner doesn’t care because these are his friends.
2. If I have a problem with it, I should file a report.
3. They are aware it’s illegal but oh well.
I have an allergy to tobacco smoke so we had to end our meal early and leave rather than stay and spend more money. And we won’t be back until this changes. Now I’ve not only reported them to the department of health, but I’m writing reviews. The owners should rethink how they treat their patrons vs. their friends.

The staff is nice and make sure you have everything you need and are willing to help you with your hookah. I love the decorations and the fireplaces. My boyfriend and I meet here during the week when he gets off work. Good location and its usually not too busy during the week. Thursdays seem to be a busier day because they have international night. I love how they combine food, alcohol, and hookah. It’s very difficult to find places where my boyfriend (21) and I (19) can have what we both want. For him, food and alcohol, and for me, food and hookah.

Fantastic Mediterranean food! I come here with a colleague at least once a week. They have the best chicken, French fries, and lentil soup! Try the chicken quesadilla ! Yummmmy!

The food was decent. Baba ganoush was particularly good. Hummus was okay. Kibbeh was surprisingly tasty. Gyros were pretty standard.
The service was HORRIBLE. I have worked as a server and I understand that there is a bare minimum of service that is acceptable. They fell BELOW this minimum. The restaurant side was completely empty when we sat down. I ordered a dirty martini, they brought me something that looked like a Cosmo… and tasted worse. Then when I tried to explain that it wasn’t what I ordered they took it away. After a while a different person came to the table to ask me if I wanted something else… I told him that I wanted a dirty martini. Fifteen minutes go by and there is still no one behind the bar… when they do finally get around to making a drink and bringing it to me it was disgusting. I asked them to bring me a beer and some water. After bringing me the beer is when they explained that they didn’t have a bartender… also, I never got my water. The two men that were handling the service that night were on their phones and smoking hookah at the bar the majority of time we were in there.
I’d pay for the food, but I would not pay for the so-​called service. Probably not going back.

Decent food, but I thought I had the same thing at a number of other restaurants. I liked the falafel though. Not many people or atmosphere

Kibbeh appetizer… The smallest I have ever seen, at least it was tender. This was by far the best part of the meal. Also, if you expect your appetizer before the main entry… Too bad.
Chicken sharma platter. The chicken was dry as can be. The rice was recommended to be… It was plain white rice.
Beef kebeb… Way better than the chicken.
The garlic sauce… Sucked!!! I have eaten middle Eastern food all over from all different countries, and the sauce is supposed to be creamier and made with Tahini… Not here. Here it was white bechamel slightly garlic. Also I asked for extra and was charged $ 0.99 for each side about the size of a shot. Total ripoff.
Come only if you want to enjoy crappy dinner surrounded by kids smoking hookah.

Nice restaurant, very quite although. the server was attentive and helpful. we had chicken wings which was very salty. we had some hummes and bread those were very tasty. for the mains we had chicken platter, lamb platter and kabob platter. all of those were very nice with very good
wife and brother in law ordered a pot of coffee. they said thats the best coffee they have ever had. please note my wife and brother in law both worked at starbucks for quite a long time and for them, they never had this kind of coffee even in a starbucks. Then we tried some dessert also. can not remember the name of those dessert but they were very good. I had a cheese cake for myself, it was not as good as the newyork cheesecake but still it was better.

Found this restaurant by accident when travelling to the STL area on business.
Came back twice in the same week and determined how to order their food for delivery. Did this (and gave my first ever 5 star review) because this is the best middle eastern food I have had outside of traveling in the region.
The style is palestinian, similar to the Israeli style. Their lentil soup is vegetarian and their falafel excellent. My co-​workers confirmed their meat dishes were excellent. Infact, (another first) we talked about the meal we had there the following day. It is easy to miss entry to their parking lot. Aim for the Best Buy in the same strip mall and then walk over to their restaurant.
Takeout portions are larger than dining in.
Finally, service is friendly and prompt. The prices very reasonable. I will make a point to come back next trip to STL.

The food here was delicious and not expensive at all. Two of us ordered four appetizers and I wound up bringing a whole extra meal home with me. The service was great. The space itself looks kind of run down on the outside. But there is a really cool looking mosaic tile and stone bar inside.

Great shawerma!!! mmmm
Good prices and the main dining area is just ok, it used to be a shoneys, however the fact that you can get a hookah and lounge in the backroom, make it worth the stop,

I knew when I spotted what must have been half of the UAE’s Air Force in the place that it would be pretty authentic. I had a kefta sandwich that came with fries that was pretty good but a little odd. Great flavor in the meat served in a thin pita bread. The odd part is that it had pickles on it. I’ve eaten a lot of Middle Eastern food but don’t know that I’ve ever been served a sandwich with pickles. Good but not great.
Why only three stars? This place is just not in very good shape. The bathroom showed neglect, the fabric on the booth was visibly dirty and the overall impression I walked away with was that the place had been neglected for a while.
I guess I will keep looking for my realistic Middle Eastern experience…