Larsa’s Kitchen

Yay! Excellent Mediterranean food in Elgin! The gas station location is off-​putting, but it is quite pleasant inside. The menu has a great variety, the portions are generous, and the flavors are great.

Looks can be deceiving. From the outside, this place looks like something out of Fallout. Inside is clean, fresh and well appointed. The food here is AMAZING! I had the beef shawarma and my wife got the gyros. Both were authentic, flavorful and probably some of the best Mediterranean food we have had. Don’t be put off by the location, you need to visit this restaurant.

WE LOVE IT here. Fast, healthy and always good food.

Very tasty! Greek salad fresh with good romain. Shawarma very good. Can’t wait to try the other stuff. Cool that it’s in a Gas Station!

This place is amazing! We used to live right down the street from an amazing Greek place in Cali but this is better. The place is run by all women and they are so sweet and the food is fantastic! Highly recommended

Not impressed at all. In fact, I was quite disappointed after reading all of the good reviews.
I had the Steak Shawarma and the steak was very dry and over cooked. It was one step away from being beef jerky.
Rice was bland. Over-​all dish could have used more seasoning.
The tahini sauce was good but not good enough to give this place more than two stars.

Here’s another one of those, don’t judge a book by its cover places. Let me tell you, the GPS wasn’t quite sure if we were here or not as we approached. We turned in and thought we were at a gas station. Well, we were except that it was abandoned. It felt like a Stephen King novel where it looks like everyone was going about their business and then all of a sudden they vanished into thin air leaving everything behind just as it was. Exactly like that.
We walked in the door and went to our left into the restaurant. The attached gas station/​quick shop is immediately to the right. There were maybe ten tables inside and you place your order at the counter. The women working the counter were nice. I was overwhelmed standing there trying to make a decision. I was with two of my sisters and there were three to-​go containers of baklava — that was an easy decision. I ordered a combination plate with a little of everything and my sisters both order Kifta/​kefta kabob. They seemed to cook everything to order except for maybe the steak and the rice. The steak was my least favorite thing on the plate. It was too chewy for me. The rice was good though. But the chicken breast and the kabob were the highlights for me! I specifically asked for Tzatziki sauce and I think my sisters ended up with a garlic type sauce. The garlic sauce was too potent for them while I found my sauce to be delicious! Lunch for the three of us was reasonable. We probably could have ordered smarter and not spent quite as much, but everyone was happy so it was well worth it!

WOW, this might just be my first 5 star review! Now, first of all, lets get this out of the way, it’s located inside of an abandoned gas station, which is completely fine and dandy, back to the review. Immediately upon entering I noticed they have a really nice digital changing menu, with a wide variety of items, now. I am pretty new to this kind of food, so I just went with what looked good, and I ordered the #3 Beef Shawarma wrap, with a side of Tabouleh salad. All I have to say is this wrap was AMAZING! Perfectly seasoned/​tender beef topped with the freshest pickles, tomatoes, onions, and a Tahini sauce mixture made to blow your taste buds all the way to next Tuesday.
As for the Tabouleh salad, it’s probably the freshest, and healthiest tasting thing I have consumed in awhile! Delicious lemon juice/​olive oil dressing, chopped mint, onions, bulgur, tomato, and parsley, chopped so fine the flavors literally explode together, I can’t say I’ve had anything quite like it, definitely an immune system booster. Overall, I will definitely be returning to Larsa’s Kitchen! Looking forward to trying other items on the menu, and I will update my review. OHH! And how can I forget the AMAZING perfectly seasoned & crisp fries? Just try them folks, and you’ll see EXACTLY what I’m talking about, these are not soggy grease joint fries NoOo NOoOo. Also, kudos to the kind lady working the kitchen by herself for the superior service with a smile, thank you for that. Will be back!

If you like or want to try Middle Eastern food, this is a great place. I’ve been there a few times for lunch and like it.
The place is connected to a closed gas station, which confused the first time I went there. Great lunch spot.

Must’ve caught the B Team the other day. It was a Saturday lunch a bit after 12 and I have been craving Middle Eastern food since we had a promotional menu at my work. The chicken shawarma was dry and the gyro meat was overly cooked. Fries portion was generous, but that didn’t really make up for the other things.
Spending $ 20+ dollars at an abandoned gas station and getting subpar food was not the way I wanted to spend my Saturday.

Wow, this place is tasty. Very fresh consistent food with a friendly staff.
I worry about their location though as the gas station to which they are attached shut down sometime near their opening.
Larsa, if you are reading this, I would be happy to help you find a new location to keep you in business!

Basically you must try the lentil soup, a very hearty version of this staple, and the kefta kabob on bright yellow rice. I’ve had the chicken kabob as well and while it’s made of breast meat and therefore tends to be dry and flavorless, this was certainly not the case with this kabob. The tabouleh, a bright tomato, parsley, and bulgur salad, dressed with lemon juice, is quite delicious.

Amazing food. Love this place. Ingredients are always fresh.
I make the trip out here once a week to get my fix of these delicious dishes.
My favorite is the kafta plate. Meat is seasoned well and tender. Rice is beyond yum.
I’ve tried the gyro and the chicken shawerma plates and I was not impressed. I’m also particular as to how I like my food, specifically chicken shawerma. It wasn’t bad but not my favorite either.
Staff is friendly. Very helpful. The location kind of sucks because it is in the closed down bp gas station and you can totally miss it of you blink.
Definitely worth the trip to check out this phenomenal food.

If you like fresh and flavorful food? This is the place.
This is a once a week place for me. The staff are really nice too.
Ive tried most of the items and have found them all very good.

For a restaurant inside of a gas station, I’d say Larsa’s is fairly decent. Obviously it’s not the best middle eastern food I’ve had but for the location and area it’s not a bad bet. I ordered the chicken shawarma plate which came with chicken, a ton of rice, a pita and a couple slices of tomato and onion. The chicken had some flavor but was a little dry as was the pita. If you have a hankering for food while getting gas maybe grab a plate to go. I wouldn’t recommend the wraps since some of my coworkers ordered it and said it was extremely dry due to a lack of sauce.

This place is dynamite!
I’d highly recommend making the trip to give this place a try. We live in Crystal Lake and drove about 30 minutes to get here, but it was well worth the drive. There aren’t enough Mediterranean places in the general area, which is stupid, so this is definitely the go-​to spot for some tasty hummus and other healthy goodness. They keep the place very clean and all the employees were very nice. Give it a try, for sure!

The moment m’lady — who keeps her ear to the goddamn ground! — heard there was a Mediterranean spot in a shuttered BP Amoco station in Elgin, we were both like, «No brainer, dude.» Much pump and jazz and jubilation ensued, and endured, for the weeks ’til we finally got a chance to check it out. And there we were: Pulling up alongside a non-​functioning gas pump, parking our car for lunch.
Only negative? Right off the bat, no high chairs for the mega tiny patrons. Admittedly, I was pretty surprised — it’s probably more of an oversight than anything, but definitely one worth rectifying, in my mind. We’re in the suburbs, homey, and tiny people live here, too. Buy a couple high chairs, toss ‘em in the corner. No brainer. We ordered for take-​out, as a result.
The food was great: An order of very fresh mujaddara, a pair of veg platters (falafel x 3, hummus, babaganoush, dolmas x 3, a wee pile of lettuce, cups of tahini) and baklava. Everything hit the spot like a champ. We were impressed.
I’ve since tried the jalapeño-​cilantro hummus (awesome) and more of the aforementioned on a subsequent early evening hang with friends and everything held up. These folks are doing it right, fighting the good fight.
(maybe just get a couple high chairs)

Since there isn’t anywhere around us to get our schawarma and falafel on, we decided to make the trek to Larsa’s all the way from Batavia to Elgin. Coming to this place is very odd. First of all, it’s in an old BP station. You park where the now-​defunct gas pumps are and you walk in the glass doors towards the left. If you need to use the washroom, you walk back through the «lobby» and into the old mini-​mart part of the building and pray that the ladies’ room isn’t locked… dammit. So then you go to the men’s room, hold your breath as you hover over the seat, and then go back into the restaurant and order some falafel.
Their falafels are cute! They look like mini donuts, and are tasty to boot. The beef schawarma is just okay — it was basically seasoned chunks of steak, which might be to some people’s liking but we enjoy the giant-​cone-​of-​meat schawarma instead. The kufta kebabs were also delicious.
All in all, decent food. Not the best Middle Eastern I’ve had. We’ll continue to try to find a decent Mediterranean place in the tri-​cities area (I can’t believe there is such a dearth of them in Batavia/​Geneva/​Saint Charles… someone please open a decent schawarma place soon! I AM DYING HERE.)

Wow, Larsa’s is interesting!
I only had a falafel. The pita was too big and dry, that’s why a star was lost, but the falafel, toppings and tahini were great. I’d go back to try other items for sure.
The interesting thing is the location. A run down gas station no longer in service houses Larsa’s. The drive thru signs are up but you can’t use it. There is caution tape around the pumps. The gas station side has product still in it but is locked up. I worry that this totally unattractive mess will steer potential business away.
If you are brave, drive in, eat, stay, Larsa’s will not disappoint on flavor.
But truly, I hope they find a new location.

The reviews do this place justice. It’s been on my radar for awhile (because of all the positive reviews) and my husband and I finally ate here for lunch yesterday. The food was awesome. I ordered the chicken and hummus (with jalapeño/​cilantro hummus) and my husband ordered the steak and hummus. We both agreed that the chicken was well-​seasoned and juicy and tasted much better than the steak. We will definitely be back to try a gyro or one of the yummy looking salads!
It’s definitely weird that they are located in a closed Amoco gas station though. There’s yellow caution tape around the gas pumps and in the not-​yet-​empty convenience store. The shelves are empty, but there are still drinks in the coolers. Just weird. Don’t let that deter you from trying the food though — if you like Mediterranean food, you won’t be disappointed.