The Olive Mountain

Bring your favorite wine and friends to enjoy a wonder of flavors at this informal Evanston landmark. Great dishes for group sharing or a table for two. Lentil soup is a must and a vegetable combo platter is a scrumptious addition. Close your eyes and point to an entrée on the menu, as there are no bad choices. Service is friendly and helpful, unhurried and casual. Ridiculously reasonable prices. Tip generously.

I’m originally from Michigan and used to Dearborn middle eastern food, this is far from it. I’m still in search for good middle eastern food in Chicago.

Tasty, casual, practically empty at 4 pm on a Monday afternoon. Staff attentive but not intrusive.

I went here as part of a group of six. Most of us came individually so we had to spend some time waiting but the waiter was very patient and helpful when answering questions about the menu.
The group shared hummus and baba ghanoush (babaghanouj), which were so good with the pita. As my meal, I ordered the chicken shawarma pita pocket. It was such a great value since I wasn’t super hungry after the pita with hummus and baba ghanoush. Two friends had the chicken ticka and both said that it was quite spicy, but the waiter did mention that when they ordered so believe him when he tells you.
The interior has cool artwork and looks great for big groups of 15 – 20 as well as couples. And again, the waiter and owner were so, so nice! Great service.
tip: If you have a Northwestern WildCard, they give you a discount, so make sure to take it with you!

I really wanted to like this place. It’s not the typical décor I go to for a shwarma or kebob. Color and décor gives it a great family restaurant feel. The service is impeccable. Waiter/​Owner is so kind.
Appetizer — I started with the hummus and soup. Hummus was fantastic. One of the best I ever had. The small portion is a great size for 2 people. The soup has so much ingredients in it that we were both pretty much full afterwards. We only ordered one entrée but the waiter gave us two soups cuz it’s hard to share. Really kind.
Entrée — this is where it went downhill. I had the Chicken kebob dinner and the Beef pita. Chicken was decent. The breast was moist, tender, charcoal grilled — great flavor. But the rice and sides really fell short. I generally love the rice and shovel it down while I eat, but this was just flavorless, lumpy, and unexciting. The tomatoe, onion sides were not great either.
Beef Pita — really really bad. Pita was cold and hard. The beef was dry and sour. The sides just didn’t pick it up. the whole thing fell apart because the pita was so thin and the vegetables/​sauce got it wet so it broke apart too easily.
They give a 10% discount for northwestern student. Again, I had great hopes after the apps and service, but the remainder just wasn’t there.

Amazing food. The owner is so friendly and nice. They’ve been here for more than 30 years! The food were beyond average!

Such a good deal! We came here for lunch on a Sunday and got the specials, which came with appetizers and coffee for a super reasonable price. The food isn’t mindblowingly amazing, but still quite good. I really liked the chicken shawarma, and the hummus and falafel were great as well. BYOB for what it’s worth, and affordable prices paired with great food

The food you ordered at his place is either a hit or a miss. Service is always friendly though.
~miss~
Their lamb shish kabob and beef shish kabob are often overlooked and really hard to cut through. It takes a long time to chew those meats. Baklava is too heavy for my taste, wish they put less sugar between the fillings so it feels less heavy.
~hit~
With that said, they make amazing *lamb shank*. Soft and tender. Tomato flavored. Easily pulled apart. A must order whenever you’re here.

Shiw: Shiw and Dou here, reviewing Olive Mountain here in Evanston!
Dou: So we’re definitely big fans of this place. The food is great, the service is always excellent, and this time was no exception. We ordered the Baba Ghanoush as an appetizer, and the owner insisted we try the Hummus as well. He was so nice, he actually brought us a small tray of Hummus out so we could try it as well! Both were very delicious!
Shiw: For main course we ordered the Chicken Tikka and the Baked Lamb Shank. The lamb was great, meat was falling off the bone, very flavorful. I also really enjoyed how there was a lot of veggies on the plate, so it was a very balanced meal. The eggplant was my favorite part in there.
Dou: Yeah we both really liked the chicken too. The owner recommended the chicken tikka over the chicken shwarema (we were originally going to get that one), as he said the shwarema can get a little dry in the evening. The tikka was very very good, the spiciness level was just right. The best part about it was the charring — totally perfect little burnt zing to balance out the spiciness. Awesome stuff.
Shiw: Great place, and definitely would recommend. Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you next time!

I have been to Olive Mountain at least 7 times in the past two years simply because the food and service cannot be beat. Aside from the lebanese salad, one of my favorite parts about eating here is the warm atmosphere and the incredibly kind owner. He is always around checking on the customers and making sure the hot tea and pita bread keep coming.
Whether or not you typically like Mediterranean food, there is something here for everyone and the service alone is worth coming back again and again.

The chicken Schwarma pita pocket is out of this world! A stuffed pita for $ 5! And the flavor is amazing! You won’t find this just anywhere! I order from here at work and it’s an amazing amount of food for the price and it tastes great too! Would highly recommend the chicken schwarma and falafel!

Hummus, hummus, hummus. That’s all you need to know. Probably the best hummus I’ve had yet. Amazing lunch and dinner specials here — comes with generous side of soup/​salad/​hummus/​falafel, drink, and entrée. Very friendly staff and they give you unlimited pita!
I love getting the chicken salad or catch of the day here. There house salad dressing is acidic, healthy, but very tasty! They usually have salmon for the catch of the day and it is definitely a steal. I come here whenever I feel like I need something healthier but still want to eat out. :)

I’ve been going to Olive Mountain with my wife for delicious Middle Eastern food for almost 15 years, and I just went again tonight to celebrate my 37^th birthday. I’m pleased to report that the food here is consistently terrific, the family atmosphere is exceptionally warm and friendly even by Evanston standards, the portions are generous, and the prices remain very reasonable.
As many reviewers here note, you can basically order anything on the menu and it’ll be delicious. Like Dave’s Italian Kitchen a block away, you feel when you eat at Olive Mountain like you’re eating family food in a relaxed, family atmosphere. My personal favorites are their falafel and chicken shawarma with lots of tahini sauce, though I also love their hummus and kibbeh. My wife usually tries a combo plate of one sort of another (she had the vegetarian plate tonight and I had some too, it was awesome), and our son who is 9 went with us and was very pleased with their kids’ menu pizza and his first taste of baklava.
The owners and staff are friendly and attentive, and service is reasonably fast even when the place is completely full as it was tonight. As others have mentioned the servers are happy to help you pick out a meal or choose between dishes if you’re new to Middle Eastern food. The prices for entrees are perfect for their portion size (which are usually enough to take some home and finish later while watching a movie) and another nice touch of the menu is that the appetizers are also invitingly priced so as to encourage you to try a new one every time you come in. I hate when restaurants price their appetizer list almost the same as their entrees, making you choose one or the other. At Olive Mountain, you can have both, which is so nice and leads to discovering new favorites like their kibbeh, which I had never even heard of before trying it here.
There are lots of good places to eat in Evanston, of course, but if you want a meal that tastes like it was cooked by your own family, in a cheerful, bright, clean setting, and served by very nice staff, THIS is the place to go. I suggest it regularly to all of my friends from out-​of-​town, and it comes with my highest recommendation.

The food here is wonderful, and the servers really care about your comfort.
Every meat dish we had was cooked beautifully, especially the chicken kabob, and the desserts were truly authentic.
I’ve not had Turkish coffee this good since my stay in Istanbul.
We will definitely be coming back here.

«Don’t be shy! Come on in, you’re going to have the best lunch of your life!»
I’ll admit I was unsure, «the best lunch of your life» is a tall order. But I assure you, The Olive Mountain really was the best lunch of my life. I even went back for dinner on the same day.
I got the best service I’ve ever seen in a restaurant. The owner was incredibly enthusiastic, and made the meal very enjoyable. He was wonderful to talk to, and very helpful with selecting which delicious foods to try.
The lunch prices are very affordable, me and my friend each got plenty of food for $ 20 total, including entrée, sides, drinks, and desert. (Try the baklava for desert, its delicious!!)
10/​10, definitely going back.

I love Mediterranean food and this place has the best lunch specials in Evanston. Chicken schwarma and hummus is to die for as are all of the entrees. Our office orders from here multiple times a week and the food is addicting. Not only that but the staff could not be any nicer! Mike will greet you with a genuine smile every time you enter. If you end up dining in the restaurant the service is does not disappoint. There have been a lot of chain Mediterranean places move into Evanston in recent years, but I love that this is one of the few family run eateries.

Hands down my favorite place to go for lunch. They have some of the best lunch specials in the area and I love almost everything that comes with it. The owner/​manager always greets me with a big smile and makes sure that everything is okay. Lunch special is offered with a soup/​salad/​falafil and a drink
So far I have been there a few times and I love the following
(1) Lentil soup — It’s just simple and delicious. It fills me up and I love the taste.
(2) Falafil sandwich with Eggplant — Another favorite. Pretty filling and delicious.
(3) Vegetarian combo — Comfort food in my books. I love those rice stuffed grape leaves but personally wouldn’t want to eat it too often as it’s calorie bomb.
The service and food has been very consistent every time I go. I did do a take out last week and they made sure that we got the drinks too. Usually I find that the a takeout lunch special order from here lasts me for almost two meals if I get the soup. I love the deal and I love the food. So I will be going back again and again…

Usually i try to refrain from writing reviews unless both the service and the food have been totally disastrous. Unfortunately this was one of those cases. The evening started out like this
Upon seeing the magnificent pictures of the items I was totally head over heels for olive mountain. So i called them to do a home delivery. I gave the good old chap my credit card number thinking everything had gone through. Moments later I get a call from them saying the charge had not gone through. So i checked my bank transactions and actually the charge had gone through. So we went back and forth on this for quite a while until i told the guy that i would actually come over there and show him that the charge actually went through.
So after a trek to downtown evanston I showed the owner (?) the recent transaction. He was flabbergasted and spun a sorry tale of how is credit card system was not working and how it has been happening ALL DAY LONG. I kind of wished he had told me that earlier so to prevent all the hassle.
And maybe a word of advice if you know your CC machine is NOT working why keep using it and wait for it to actually get fixed.
Finally he was able to run the food order and i was able to get out of there to so i could satisfy my hunger pangs. I would have not written this review if at least the food was half as decent as depicted. Lo behold. The food I had ordered looked nothing like on their pages. YOU THE REVIEWERS BE THE JUDGE.
The Lamb pita
Such a soggy mess with the lamb burnt beyond recognition.
The lentil soup
Looked and tasted like baby vomit. All i could taste was garlic. Another reviewer pointed that out.
Khalouja
Cold and soggy as well.
These people give Middle eastern cuisine a bad name. The food and service are both deplorable. Next time I am sticking to OMG or Naf Naf for the real deal,
There is a tidbit of information that i forgot to include Which was the ACTUAL NAIL IN THE COFFIN
When i told the owner that the reason I ordered delivery was because I had the flu. He flashed a DAYQUIL bottle at me implying he had the flu too and he had to come to work. Seriously dude you work in a FOOD ESTABLISHMENT. The last person coming in to work should be you risking your customers.
Update to owner:
Maybe you did not read what I said. YOU CLEARLY STATED THAT YOUR CC Machine did not work. On the phone it seemed like the fault was mine as if the credit card was not going through. And if the CC machine did not work the whole day why not put it aside and accept cash transactions. THATS JUST BAD BUSINESS. You knew the CC machine was not working but still kept on using it. Also the ONE charge did GO through on my end, perhaps not on your end. And my BANK has frozen that amount until the pending charge comes off which is more than what i bargained for.
Also that does not exonerate you from the terrible food you gave me. If at least the food had been of quality, it would be water under the bridge. Stale pita. Burnt lamb. Or do you have an excuse for that as well. Just look at the pictures.
Also the stellar reviews you keep talking about seem to be on a declining trajectory

This review is based solely upon the friendly service, late one night (Sunday), very close to closing.
I’ve had the experience where the posted hours contain the qualification open to a specific time unless we’re not busy.
This clearly is not the case with OM. We walked in within 15 minutes of closing. The waiter greeted us, offered us the usual bread and dip, stating that the kitchen was closing, that we should decide quickly if we could (very understandable in terms of any restaurant).
We ordered the standard fare. It came out quickly, hot and well prepared.
The affable owner came by to make sure we were enjoying with no rush at all trying to have us finish. Just plain watchful for our enjoyment.
As the only two customers in the restaurant, we felt we were valued and that their concern was our enjoyment.
Great service!

I honestly do not know why a lot of my friends from School do not know about this place! The service is so good, the food is delicious, and it’s cheap compared to the other mediterranean restaurants. I’ve come here about 3 times, and I’ve had a good experience every time.
The waiter/​owner is really enthusiastic and energetic, and he really welcomes you into this hidden gem of a restaurant!
The filafels, soups, and appetizers are very cheap, and sooo good. I like the lentil soup– it’s thick, smooth, and flavorful. Not at all what you would imagine when you think of lentil soup.
I’ve tried the filafel pita, two chicken dishes, and baba ghanoush. I don’t think they are particularly special-​naf naf and OMG still do a good job. But It’s a great sit in restaurant, with a lot of food options, and the food is fresh and friendly to your stomach.
Seriously! Check it out! It doesn’t have the most appealing entryway– but it’s cute and cozy.