Bucharest Grill

Best chicken shawarma I ever had. I’ve even been crazy enough to try shawarmas at other restaurants in the Detroit area and have been disappointed each time. Seriously, none of them come close to Bucharest Grill. I need to know what magic they are working on that grilled chicken. Yum!!! We add extra garlic sauce to the shawarmas and that pushes it over the top. For me the chicken shawarma salad is ranked up there with the best salads ever. Yes, I’m raving about a salad. Get the pita chips on the side if you’re getting a carry out order, or they will be soggy by the time you eat the salad. I have a difficult time deciding between the shawarma and the salad each time I’m here so I usually order both and save one for later. Hey, don’t judge me. The chicken and hummus and fried cheese are also favorites of ours.

Best chicken shawarma I’ve ever had in the world. Get it. Love it. Enjoy it. Repeat.
And that’s all I have to say about that.
Jackée

I’m outraged. I love shwarma and despite thinking I had eaten the best in Tel Aviv and Istanbul, I come to a small shwarma joint in Detroit, Michigan and promptly get my mouth slapped by the capital T-​truth aka Chicken Shwarma.
The not-​so-​secret here is the amazing grilled chicken and outstanding toum they mix in, and my god is it good.
Rumor has it they’re switching locations though. Wherever they go, I’ll go.

Probably the best food that I’ve ever ingested.
I’d love to write more but you just have to go in there and get some!

OK, I’m going to start off my pretty positive review with a negative: whatever you do, don’t get the garlic dip! WOW… I love garlic as much as the next person but good garlic overload. We unfortunately made the mistake of ordering the dip (we thought as an appetizer) and it turned out to be a daylong mistake. Stay tuned.
First, we entered through the street in the bar area that was not the main entrance and slightly confusing. It turns out that the food area is across a small hallway attached to the bar. We were here during the week and at a non busy time so we were golden and ordered our food quickly.
Of course we had to get the rave reviewed chicken shawarma. I noticed as I was leaving the ordering area that someone ordered a chicken shawarma without the garlic… interesting.
Our food came out quickly, and we had a bowl of the largest garlic dip I’ve ever seen. Geesh. You could have fed 6 people off it it easy, but you wouldn’t want to do that because the air would be disgusting with garlic breath. So we dipped a pita in the garlic dip and yowza was it STRONG. I mean. It was like taking a bite of raw garlic but in a fluffy form. At first were were OK with it, even smothered it on our wraps which were HUGE and absolutely delicious. The meat was fresh, perfectly cooked, and tasted incredible. However, they already had the garlic spread on them :). Oops. It was garlic overload my friends. And oh how we regretted it later.
So thanks to Bucharest Grill we were miserably burping up garlic all afternoon and making each other sick all damn day. It was pretty nasty. Not gonna lie. However, I will say this, if we had avoided the garlic dip, I think it would have been much better. The garlic is still potent, but not as heavy as the mess that we ate. So, go to Bucharest Grill, get the chicken shawarma but DO NOT GET THE GARLIC DIP. Unless you are Buffy and killing some vampires. This would be the best protection for you EVER.

I will say what everyone else has said, Bucharest Grill has the best chicken shawarma I have ever had! To be honest the chicken shawarma is the only item I have ever had from Bucharest. I usually hit them up while I am drinking at Park Bar before Tigers or Lions games when I am in town. My brother lives a few blocks away and talks about going here for lunch as well, but I have only been during very busy times.
Unlike the other reviewers, I know what I am getting into when I go during these times (when everyone comes downtown from the suburbs expecting the same suburban space). Bucharest Grill is located in the corner of Park Bar right by Ford Field and Comerica Park. Do not expect to be able to sit down to eat or for you food to be delivered right away. You may be able to find a nice lean spot, but rarely will you find a seat before a game. You can also order food from either the upper or lower bars. This makes it easy if you can get a seat at the bar to both drink and eat!

Hesitated to add one more review to the many, many that this place has already received, but I’m a Unilocaler, and it’s what we do, so…
Picked one of the days of the year when (we thought) downtown Detroit restaurants that are open are likely to be less busy: New Year’s Eve lunchtime. Arrived on the early side of lunchtime, and found a line waiting for table service. The line got longer as the lunch hour progressed. Thankfully, service was quick. Despite the name, which I hoped would enable me to order Romanian dishes that I could compare to Mom’s, the menu swung mostly between Middle Eastern and hot dogs, with some miscellaneous international items thrown in (quesadillas? schnitzel?) I chose the stuffed pepper, while the co-​diner got the Bucharest Shawarma. He enjoyed his shawarma, but had one small quibble: the menu states that the shawarma comes with fries, while his fries were nowhere to be seen. A small quibble, since the portion size was quite large, and didn’t need fries to complete the meal. Similarly, my stuffed pepper was enormous. I carried it away and enjoyed it for lunch the next day. Come here prepared to chow down. One other (small) quibble: we dined on a very chilly day, and would have appreciated hot beverages. Alas, none were available (not offered on the menu). Probably done to encourage patronage of the Park Bar, which shares the space. Overall, though, we were glad we finally made it to Bucharest.

Yes to the Bucharest Shawarma. And to the curly fries.
This original location has a lovely symbiotic relationship with the Park Bar, which has a decent beer selection and a full bar. Go to the bar for drinks and over to the counter for food– the staff will bring the food out to your table.
Non-​shawarma items are OK, but not good enough to vary my order.

So I’m sure if you have skimmed some of the reviews everyone has raved about the shawarma especially the Bucharest Shawarma with has fries inside (YUM!) and yes they are all correct in saying they are amazing and a good size. But Bucharest actually has a large menu and I believe you can’t go wrong with anything you order.
This particular location is attached to Park Bar so when you first arrive and you are looking to «dine in» you go up to the counter and order. You then walk over to the Park Bar side and sit down. They will give you a number to set on the edge of your table and the workers will bring out your food when it is ready. The Park Bar doesn’t provide abundance of seating, especially if the upstairs is closed so be careful if you’re coming with a group.
A full bar is available and they make excellent bloody marys. They don’t top it off with all the fixings but the flavor is great.
The stuffed pepper is delicious but keep in mind it’s only one pepper so you may want to order something else to accompany this. The stuffing is pretty basic but is flavorful. The pepper is placed in a bowl with tomato like sauce/​soup surrounding it. Once you bgin to break apart your pepper it turns more like a soup, but none the less still tasty. The curly fries are top notch and like I had said yes the shawarmas are excellent. The Fattoush salad has a great house dressing, but you may want to ask for it on the side, last time they drenched mine. The small is big enough for two people to split as a side. The hot dogs are also good there. The Chicago dog was a winner in my book.
To top everything off the prices are ridiculously good.

I attended Wayne State University for my undergraduate education. Being poor students, my friends and I were always on the look out for tasty inexpensive food. Although this place is well known in Detroit, we came across it by accident.
It quickly became one of our favorite restaurants, and we went there regularly. The restaurant is suited in the heart of Detroit right across from the Tiger’s stadium. The area is very safe (in case you have a Detroit-​phobia).
Whenever we go there, I order chicken shawarma with curly fries. The portion size of the sandwich and fries is great and filling. I highly recommend their chicken shawarma especially with garlic sauce.
They also have a full bar with great seasonal beer. I sometimes go there for a drink or two while watching soccer games. I am an absolute fan of this place. In fact, I am drooling as I am writing this review lol.

Been coming to this spot since moving to Detroit in 2009. Was a regular for many years and always loved the chicken shawarma, grape leaves and curly fries.
Even after moving away from Detroit last year I still go back whenever I’m in town. I’ve noticed the wait times get longer and the menu expanded (which is good for their business)… And I started to branch out and try some new things.
My most recent visit (today) spurned this review because it’s so disturbing on how not to run a food establishment and even though they’re going to keep being fine as they turn out a semi decent product in the heart of downtown — they should still be criticized for some horrible customer service.
Ordered 2 falafel sandwiches, grape leaves and a fattoush salad. Falafel was undercooked and sat waiting for 20 min on the counter while the people working there turned out one shawarma after another on the shawarma assembly line — while about 20 orders behind me were placed and completed i waited for a salad and a few grape leaves. It literally took between 20 – 25 min.
Upon arriving home — we noticed the salad (basically a box of lettuce) was missing the key component — dressing.
Having just returned from a month long work trip — there’s no dressing at the house and living 15 min drive away didn’t make returning practical.
My girlfriend called to tell them their error… They offered no apology, only advised that the responsibility is on us to check our bag before we leave. They stated that they get a lot of orders and sometimes they overlook things. No, Bucharest — the responsibility is on you to make sure a box of 4.95 lettuce has dressing with it … And to have one of the 10 people standing around doing nothing to double check orders.
Sometimes too much business can be a bad thing.

I don’t get the following this place has. It’s decent, but not great gyros, lousy service, too few seats, hole in the wall type of place. Way better than coney’s after the bars close, but really not all that good.
Service and attitudes are terrible. My young son is a finicky eater and decided he wanted chili cheese fries. They have chili, they have fries, they have cheese. But they absolutely refused to assemble all 3 ingredients on a plate. Even the manager got involved and refused to even sell me all 3 ingredients separately. So I bought fries, a cup of chili, but they refused to sell me cheese so I could not make chili cheese fries. One word for these people: as%hol#s! After my kid had a meltdown, we left.
I don’t eat here anymore.

I finally got to try this place recently, and I loved it. Seriously loved it.
I had the chicken shwarma sandwich, and it ruined me for any other shwarma sandwich. It was that amazing. I’m still dreaming about it.
The side of fries was easily enough for two people, and perfectly cooked. They offer two choices of fries — straight or curly, and I went with the straight. The only thing that I wish they offered was malt vinegar for the fries, as I love that on good fries.
I washed all that down with a large craft beer, and was delighted to see that my tab was $ 13.50. What a deal for an amazing meal!
I can’t wait return and try some other offerings from the menu, but then, I love that shwarma!

I used to get chicken shwarma every couple times a week for about a year but this was in 2011. I didn’t review back then but I would’ve give 5 full stars. Back in the day, the meat was tender, garlicky, herby, and packed with flavor! Today I went in for the first time in years and I was so DISAPPOINTED! The chicken tasted like they dropped an entire salt shaker in the mix. It was so salty and abrasive I got sore gums after lunch.
The service seems really slow and unorganized… Very sad to see the food change so much.

I love Bucharest Grill and often find myself having incredible cravings for their Bucharest Schwarma. I came with a friend to introduce him to the yummy bites of wonderfully grilled and juicyChicken Schwarma placed atop garlic sauce, seasoned fries, pickles and lettuce. He was impressed and killed his sandwich in less than ten minutes. I was too busy stuffing my own face to really care how he was liking his wrap! I also got a side of hummus to go and can’t wait to dig into it at work tomorrow. Yum! Bucharest delivers and my coworkers at the hospital often call out for deliveries. It’s quite convenient and the orders come out quickly!

Lets get one thing straight, you can’t grill chicken and call it a shawarma. Bucarest doesn’t make shawarma, they make grilled chicken sandwiches. Very good grilled chicken sandwiches.
The «Bucarest» Sandwich is probably their best with the additions of cabbage and fries. Make sure to request light garlic. They pile that stuff in the sandwiches. Masks the taste of everything.
Stay away from the beef shawarma. It’s like chewing gum. I don’t know what’s up with their beef. It’s almost impossible to break down and swallow. And as mentioned earlier, it’s just a beef sandwich. A REAL beef shawarma doesn’t have garlic!
Employees at their front desk suck. Rude. Nasty attitudes. Need to smile and learn to say thank you. Still super busy and it’s non stop in this place.

My boyfriend and I was visiting Detroit from Houston. My best friend kept sing SHAWARMA SHARWAMA all week long. She loves it! We haven’t had the slightest clue what she was talking about. We just had to try it!
Small cramped place inside the Park Bar. This place is super packed! Over flowing with people. Order to go it will be hard to find a place to sit late at night. Chicken Sharwama is so cheap! Less than $ 5! Grilled marinated chicken, pickles, tomato, lettuce, garlic, and spices all wrapped in pita. Oh my goodness! Delicious Delicious!!! I highly recommend to everyone! They also have a 6 pack to go $ 3 each. You can even take it on the plane! Seriously we need to bring Bucharest in Houston. I am super pleased I final got to try Sharwama!

I don’t feel this place lives up to the hype, at least not for vegans. I came here at 11:30pm after a concert and was happy to find a place with vegan options so late in Detroit. I went with the veggie shwarma, which contains fries, peppers, and tomato. I swapped the mayo for hummus and no cheese. Even for just $ 5, it was a bit underwhelming. Not bad, but nothing special. A bit small and bland. Maybe the falafel wrap would be better if you are vegan.
Service was so incredibly rude, for no apparent reason. My cashier acted as if taking my (very quick) order ruined her day. Staff seemed angry and upset.
I like that you can eat in the attached bar next door. The bar was kind of awful though-​packed with middle aged dudes in suits and a live guitarist doing acoustic Michael Jackson covers. I would come back here, but only if I was very hungry and couldn’t find anything else.

The long and short of it is: the chicken shawarma is a great value at $ 5, but is still not as good as people claim. I’ve wanted Bucharest Grill for years but never made it down there until now. 7pm on a Tuesday there was a small line of about five people. After quickly ordering, my food was delivered to me no more than twenty seconds after I sat down.
I got a chicken shawarma (of course) and curly fries. It was fine — good, even. For $ 8 and change I got a filling dinner. My problem with the shawarma was that it didn’t have as much garlic sauce as I’d like: it was all at the end of it. Next time I’ll have to ask for extra.
The part that bothered me most was that I had a few burnt pieces or chicken that left an acrid sort of bitterness in my mouth awhile after I ate it. Despite that, I’d go back, especially since it shares a building with Park Bar.
Bucharest Grill is good, but I don’t see it as «craveable» like I was expecting.
EDIT in reply: The chicken shawarma here definitely could be – i just need extra garlic sauce and to hope for no burnt bits next time!

This place has some of the best chicken shawarma that I have ever had. I ordered the chicken shawarma salad and I added feta cheese to it. The portion was huge. I could not finish the salad.
It is located across from Comerica Park. It is a small location that does not have any seating, but you can take your food to the bar that is connected to it.
Highly recommended!