Baraka Shawarma

I love You.!!

Same as Sean L, this review pertains to Baraka Shawarma’s catering, which is great for casual lunches and dinners.
We had a party of around 20 – 30 in Clarkston, so we knew we wouldn’t be able to fit inside the store. However, they cater so we ordered two trays of chicken and rice, two trays of salad, and trays of white and wheat pitas.
The chicken and rice is amazing — I couldn’t stop eating it! To try to balance out my meal, I ate a heaping mound of their salad as well. That makes up for all the rice, right?
[14 of 100]

We had the food catered out so can’t say anything about the location itself. However, the food itself was delicious!
We had, what was labeled, Chicken and Rice which I’m guessing is the Chicken Shawarma. The rice was really flavorful and the chicken was nicely season and juicy. I could not stop helping myself to it!
We also had the Greek Salad. It was very fresh and the dressing that came with it was very nice zest to it.
Finally we had a bunch of pita bread, both white and wheat that complimented all of our food.
All of it tasted very homemade, fresh, and really good! I come get their food again.

I’m a Clarkston local and this place is quite a gem… try it! I can’t pronounce the name either, just make something up.
I’m within walking distance and visit once a month or so. Very small, not fancy, very modest sitting area, small kitchen, not much to do in the ‘dining room’, limited parking, hard to reach from the main road.
Ok, now the reason you go here is for the food, which is spot on. I’ve been working my way down the menu and I have not found anything that I don’t like. The spicy sauce they use is brilliant, I wish they could bottle that stuff up.
Now, don’t come around thinking this is gourmet Mediterranean food cause it’s not (I’m sure the outside would not give you that impression, ha!) It’s good, cheap, street fare type food. Grab it, go somewhere, enjoy!

A friend told me that this place is trying to help the immigrant community by providing jobs. So we tried it out a few months ago.
I would stick with the gyro… that was my favorite out of the things we tried. It’s nothing amazing on the culinary scale, but knowing that the shop is trying to benefit others encourages me to patronize them.

Oh Barak (h)a. I wish I could love you. And I wish I knew which way you really spell your name since the signs outside and inside are different, hence my parenthetical H.
I’ve been to the B.S. (coincidence?) twice, and both times were mediocre. The first time, I got the chicken shawarma and it tasted pretty good despite the weird additions of pickles and pickled banana peppers. Later on that day, though, I experienced some intestinal distress that we don’t need to speak anymore about. Suffice to say, it took me about a year to venture back to the restaurant and try again.
Today I ordered some baba ganouj, and Boyfriend got a falafel. We were asked if we wanted the food for here or to go, and even though we said, «For here!» everything was bagged up upon completion. It’s fine if you don’t want people eating inside, but don’t give them the option! Being asked, and then having my stuff packaged to go annoyed me. Though I was kinda cranky since it was like 3 and I hadn’t eaten yet. But still!
Upon arriving home, we dipped into the ganouj first. It was sour. Like sour milk, not like lemons. I spit it out and threw it away. Blech.
I had the gyro sandwich, which also featured pickles and banana peppers. I was kind of expecting it, but… still strange. The guy making the sandwich asked if I liked it spicy, and as is ALWAYS the case when I say «Yes» to spicy, he asked me like 2 more times, and then held up the bottle of hot sauce to show me, «I mean this! You sure you want this?» Dude, if you don’t think I can handle it, why did you even ask me? I know I went on and on about this when I reviewed another place, but damn y’all. Shit gets old. And anyway, who the hell puts hot sauce on gyros?! I mean, I love spicy food so it’s fine, buuuut???
Boyrfriend wasn’t nuts about his falafel, either. We could see they had previously cooked the falafel and kept it under a heat lamp, and then tossed it in his pita. It had about the texture you’d expect – soft all over, instead of crispy outside and soft inside.
Soooo despite my infamous love of hole-​in-​the-​wall, locally-​owned food establishments, I have to give Barak (h)a a pass. It would be nice to have a place in Clarkston that sold decent Mediterranean foods, but this ain’t the place.

Baraka Shawarma is a true hole in the wall. It’s in the middle of nowhere on E Ponce de Leon in the ghetto area of Clarkston. But they say these types of places are the best place to get food. Is it true?
Yes and No.
Upon coming here, I had beef and chicken shawarma and falafel. The beef and chicken shawarma was good by itself. It was tasty and moist but they put WAY too much creamy garlic like sauce that it overpowered the shawarma that it ruined the experience of eating it. The Mediterranean rice was good and tasty buttery. The falafel was dry and not good.
Would I come here again? Yes I would but I would skip the falafel and I would ask for the creamy, garlic sauce on the side, the next time I order any of their shawarma.

We met up here with a few friends who lived in the area, and had a simple dinner. The place is apparently a one-​person show– but she seemed to have things down pat– our food came out in a reasonable amount of time.
We had a falafel sandwich, and a combination platter (a mix of gyro, and chicken meat covered in a creamy ‘garlic’ sauce alongside some rice and vegetables– I can’t remember now).
The falafel was a bit too dense, and wasn’t quite crispy enough on the outside, but the flavor was actually pretty good. (3).
The gyro meat was very tasty, but super dense (3.5). The creamy sauce made things that much heavier– should’ve asked for the sauce on the side.
We also ordered Baba Ganoush– Pass on this one. It came out in a plastic tub… and had a strange consistency– kind of watery. I couldn’t really taste the eggplant at all. Suspect that it was some store-​bought product. No bueno. (2)
If you’re in the area and happen to be hungry– this place has got simple, decent food that’ll fill you up and not do much damage to your wallet.
P. S. For those of you who long for deals from days past… this spot used to be occupied by City Burger, home of the «triple patty 27 oz of beefy goodness for under $ 10» burger. Oh the good ol’ days… That was the best burger I’ve had in quite a long time… please…come back…

Stopped here for lunch after a hike at Arabia Mountain. I had the shawarma plate, Ms. L. had the vegetarian plate. It was delicious and more food than we could eat even though we were starving. Falafel was great, hummus was out of this world with a great mellow lemon flavor. Grape leaves were a bit mushy and lacked flavor, but the next day when we microwaved them they were actually better. Shawarma was also great. We also had a dessert that was like a little baklava log with pistachio sprinkled on it, but not sickeningly sweet like most baklava here in Atlanta. Service was friendly and quick. There are two tables indoors and two tables outdoors, but this place is obviously geared towards takeout — — there’s no décor inside and if you sit outside, you’re about 8 feet off of East Ponce.