Seasoning Alley

This place was good. Nothing to complain about. Healthy good food and hygienic. Food are all very reasonable price. Well prepared and well presented.

Healthy and local, that’s what I’m about.
So, I have probably gotten the chicken shawarma like 20 times already. It’s delicious, sort of dry but in a tasty way, and relatively healthy. I always get it with the tabbouleh, hummus, and salad, though I have also tried the eggplant dip — which is smokey but I don’t love the texture of eggplant, and the beet & apple salad — which is delicious but only if you’re in the mood for some tart. I wouldn’t recommend the beef shawarma, which has a dryness that’s hard to get through and feels like it’s scratching your throat on the way down. It also has a tendency to have pieces of fat which is unappetizing. Regardless, the portions are great and you get to chose your side dishes which is fantastic.
If you are a hot sauce fan like me, do yourself a favor and mix some sriracha in with the hummus, it will change the way you view hummus, especially Seasoning Alley’s hummus which has a smooth creaminess to it that blends well with the sweet spicy sriracha.
The only thing that I am turned off by from this location is that they are stingy with their sauces — they have garlic sauce and tahini but if you ask for multiple, like if you have four people’s orders and you want each person to get a tahini and garlic, they act like it’s their firstborn. Tahini goes well with shawarma, and if you are going to give one then give one for each dish. I get that it’s more of a cost to them, but I love me some garlic sauce and tahini.
Anyway, this place is good. It’s affordable. It’s healthy. And parking is free if you find a lot nearby. Oh and they DELIVER! For lazy folks like me, this is a blessing.

I’ve been here many times for take out. It’s always good. I’ve only had the tri-​tip and chicken shawarma, and I much prefer the tri-​tip. The hummus is delicious as is the salad that comes with the plate. The portions are not too large that you can’t it all if you’re especially hungry, but it’s also not too small that you can’t have half of it and feel satiated and save the other half for later. Service is fast, too.

Upon first glance it doesn’t look like much… But it’s amazing. I tried bringing my sister and her family here and she said, «come on, Valerie. There’s a photo of a chicken in the window.» Since then, that photo has been removed and the place looks great from both outside and in. Besides, it’s always busy so it must be good.
I’d best describe the food as fast and gourmet. They have falafel (which I love) and tons of protein/​vege/​health conscious options. The presentation is clean with a new side salad accompanying most dishes. The portions are so generous two people could easily split a meal and be satisfied.
The customer service is prompt and friendly. I am especially impressed with Rips. She could tell I just had my nails done and was so considerate in helping me keep them from smudging. She grabbed my card, put it back in my purse, opened the tahini and really went above and beyond to make my experience here a great one. She just has a pleasant personality that contributes to the positivity of the atmosphere.
Overall, I’d highly recommend this place to any and everyone.

Our go-​to place for Mediterranean food. Easy location with street parking or parking in the public, free lot a little walk away.
Positivies–
–Clean location. Simple décor. Bright dining area.
–Friendly cashiers. Have never had a bad or negative experience while ordering. We only ever take-​out here, so I can’t attest to their table service.
–Usually order the beef kabob. I like my meat well-​done, and these kabobs are always well done while still being juicy and flavorful (not chewy or bland). Comes with rice, salad, hummus and pita. I’m not a huge fan of greek salad, so I usually substitute tatziki, which they accommodate greatly. The chicken kabob and beef lule are good as well.
–The food is ready quickly for us to take out.
–Prices are good for the amount of food you get/​variety of food. We generally have leftovers of everything.
Will be coming here again and recommending it to others looking for a simple and tasty meal.

⁵⁄₅ stars all the time!
There is nothing to complain about this place. I’ve come to this spot ever since their grand opening. I brought my family (grandma, dad, mom and brother), boyfriend and friends and they all love foods. I came here so many times and tried almost every dish, and was never disappointed. I used to go to the one located in Glendale, but I come here once I found out this place in my town. I’m so glad we have this in La Crescenta/​Montrose.
Today I got a 10 piece shrimp plate, which is a currently a special dish, and it was okay, but I wasn’t satisfied because the shrimps were small and tasted dry, not fresh. However, I still want to give this place solid 5 stars.
I recommend their chicken plate, which you would never regret!

Great value for excellent food and service! Loved the grape leaves. Plates are generous so shared with a friend.

If anyone’s looking for a bouncy ping pong of golf ball, you can use my leftover shish kobab pieces from Seasoning Alley. They were so hard I had a hard time cutting them with a knife let alone chewing. Tabouleh was bland and old. Rice was edible but nothing to write home about.
Safe to say that was my last trip. Too bad… They started out serving quality food but gradually went downhill

I have been going there for some time now and I have always been impressed with their quick turn around, and delicious dishes with fair prices.
I recommend them very highly to anyone who loves middle eastern food.

Falafel plate was so good. Falafel was crispy and full of flavor. Hummus was a little bland but allowed the falafel to really take the lead in terms of flavors all up in your mouth.
Next time, I shall try the chicken plate! The salad with the falafel plate was exceptional… the rice was meh… next time I will just sub salad for the rice.

I just don’t know what happened. The food did not mesh with the 4−½ star rating.
Chicken Kabob-​Chicken was dry, overcooked, and slightly tough.
Falafel-​Very good flavor. Crispy outside layer, soft tasty center
Salad-​Poor. The greens were old. They tasted like they were left outside at room temperature for several hours and thrown back in the refrigerator.
Hummus-​Very bland and tasteless.
Service-​Poor! There were several tables that were left dirty. I saw the food server take away the dirty dishes and never bother to wipe down the tables. There was another person who managed to wipe down a few tables. However, she pushed the food remnants onto the floor.
Parking-​Street Parking

This restaurant is listed as Mediterranean, but what an extremely vague category. What does French food have much in common with Egyptian, although both are countries that border the Mediterranean Sea? In fact, 18 countries surround the Mediterranean, & two are surrounded by it as island nations. Specifically, if the cuisine had to roughly correspond to the geography, The food at Seasoning Alley would be closer to the cuisine from the Levant, which refers to the sun seemingly rising up from the eastern Mediterranean shores.
Cyprus, Palestine, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, & Syria are usually the modern day countries that comprise the Levant. The cuisine at Seasoning Alley can also be called Middle Eastern w/​a good infusion of Armenian for good reason since many Armenians had to flee the Transcaucasus homeland region & escape to such Middle Eastern countries as Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, & Iran due to attacks by the waning Ottoman Empire. This may be the modern reason why Armenian food & Middle Eastern seem to go hand in hand here in Los Angeles.
Adana, another restaurant serving Armenian-​Levant cuisine, has stiff competition food-​wise now with the coming of Seasoning Alley. However, Seasoning AlIey is designed as a basic belly-​up-​to-​the-​counter-​to-​order kind of place while Adana fancies itself as a back drawing room in the far interior reaches of the Nevsky palace St. Petersburg, Russia. The flavours at Adana are more refined, but the direct, don’t beat-​around-​the-​bush style of Seasoning Alley is just as enticing.
There is no alcohol served at Seasoning Alley, but have stylish drinks such as San Pellegrino, Orangina, etc. as well as aycd soda fountain for the soda addicted. I chose Orangina since it is slightly acidic to clear the palate w/​a bit of orange pulp for at least some vegetal component.
1) The New Zealand Lamb Chop special contained 4 small chops that may have been brined & herbed w/​a bit of thyme, black pepper, & possibly garlic. The meat is moist, firm w/​a good meaty chaw. There is a delicate wild gaminess that lets you know that you are eating sheep, and not something so bland that you can’t tell what kind of meat you are eating. There is something terribly primal when eating the lamb chops here. After eating the chops w/​fork & knife, I felt compelled to eating the left-​over meat on the bone w/​sharpened finger nails & canine teeth.
2) Salad tastes fresh & vibrant although the greens are subtly neutral in flavor. There are cubes of crunchy Persian cucumber, ripe tomato; pickled pepperoncini/​small green non-​piquant pepper; sneaky, sharp, piquant Yellow Wax Chile that is blanched to make it soft & then torched to blacken, likewise for the small red tomato.
Torshi, which means ‘sour’ in Farsi/​Iranian is, in this case, a salt-​vinegar pickled, lightly fermented thickly julienned radish dyed magenta w/​beet juice. Dressing is agro-​dolce/​sweet-​sour. Cooling, refreshing, eating it in between the bites of heavier, textured tasting meat or after eating the pastiness of Hummus (whom moose) & pita bread.
3) This may be the best tasting Hummus to date. Tahini/​ground white sesame seed paste is added to the mashed garbanzo beans for a sweet nuttiness. Fresh, finely ground cumin adds a smokey, medicinal, herbal component, & a touch of garlic rounds out the Hummus w/​earthy funkiness. It tastes freshly made, not days old & oxidized. I used the pita bread to dip into the Hummus, but I suppose you can make a «sandwich» using the lamb meat, salad greens, hummus as a dressing to create your own Shawarma wrap.
4) The Basmati Rice was cooked to perfection: al dente yet moist, subtly nutty, boiled in a lightly meaty broth that might be chicken stock. Totally safisfying complement to the lamb as well as any other dish for that matter.
My Bad. I forgot to order their house made Baklava. That would have been the cherry on top. Will have to go back to get the beef Shawarma too. 4– Unilocal stars.
PS There is a HGF/​high garlic factor to the foods at Seasoning Alley which may account for its delicious flavours, but not recommended if you are going out on a date afterward unless your date also ate there too.

In general, when I eat at Mediterranean places (no matter how cheap or how expensive), I tend to think,“Hmm, I’d rather have Zankou…”. It’s the same way for people who swear by In-​N-​Out as the ultimate burger. Still, I continuously seek out new places just for the variety, and Seasoning Alley is one of few that actually holds its own against Zankou! The interior is clean, the workers are friendly, the menu is vast, and the flavors are money. Portions are a little better at Zankou, but it’s also more expensive there, so it balances out; and unlike most other fast-​casual Mediterranean places, Seasoning Alley isn’t exactly stingy with their portions either. As an added bonus, this is one of few places where my vegetarian mom actually enjoyed her vegetarian choices (the veggie kabobs), saying they were grilled perfectly and had good flavor.

Good place for Mediterranean food. Prices are higher than other local places serving the same type of food in that particular price range. But, the location is in Montrose and I expected as much. When you’re in the Glendale, Montrose, La Crescenta, La Cañada area… There are so many Mediterranean places to choose and eat from.
Food portions are good. I got the lula beef and beef shish with a side of beet salad. Both the lula and shish could have been a bit more moist, but I do appreciate that they used a leaner meat. Like someone said, if they chose a meat with a higher fat ratio, it would have been more moist. However, I think in the area of Montrose, people want leaner meats. The flavor was good and not too overly seasoned. I wish they had given more meat though… I like high protein diets!!! The rice was nice and fluffy, the way I like it.
My favorite part of the meal was the beet salad! It was so delicious that I ordered a large size to go! Oh-​mah-​gawsh… I couldn’t get enough of it. I actually need to go back to get more!
Service was great. The cashier suggested that I mix the beet salad with their quinoa salad and make myself a vegetarian wrap! And yes, I made it … Mixed a little feta cheese and it was delicious!

I have been a little emo about this spot since it replaced the little old fashioned italian deli. Thats just me… sometimes even cry as my hometown of montrose changes.
Anyways i tried this place for the first time tonight. Walked in, they took my take out order quickly. As i sat there gazing out the window at my quaint little town i was overcome by the smells of all the grilling meats and kabobs.
Took the food home and wowee! The chicken kabob plate and beef kabob plate each had a ton of meat. All the fixings fresh and delish. And the side of falafels were my fav!
I definitely recommend and i will def be back!

Definitely my go to place for Mediterranean cuisine.
The restaurant is clean and open, on busy times finding a table is a bit of a challenge but other that that the space is nice
The service is good, it’s nothing to write home about but they are efficient ready to service their clients
The food is fantastic! That’s what makes this restaurant really good, you can the food being freshly cooked as you wait. They are very generous with their sides and the garlic sauce in those little containers are bomb! My go to order is a combo plate with beef Shish kabob and and chicken. The plate comes with a huge helping of basmati rice, along with a side of salad and hummus (which you can sub for the other sides they have). This plate is not on the menu but all you have to do is ask.
Overall I really really like eating here!

Huge portions! High quality! Low prices! What else could you possibly want?
Dropped in for an excellent Monday lunch with my dad. The place is a bit small but seems new and clean. Liked the extra sink outside of the restroom for hand washing… smart. Order at the counter, you get a number and they bring the food to you. Service was friendly and the food came out fairly quickly.
Dad’s Greek Salad was a large, fresh and very reasonable $ 5.99. My Falafel Plate was a reasonable $ 8.50. It was some of the best falafel I’ve ever had– tender, fresh, moist, flavorful, not too salty. Probably home made, definitely not frozen! Also included hummus, some tahini, a salad and too much fluffy, buttery rice. I had to take it away before I ate it all! Nice selection of fountain drinks including iced tea and some zero calorie Sobe thing, I think.
Only downside is the metered street parking, which isn’t really the restaurant’s fault.

WHAT?! May I just start off by saying the location for this restaurant is perfect. Montrose gets really busy and didn’t have a Middle Eastern joint, until Seasoning Alley.
I would recommend the shawarma here. The seasoning (hence why they named it Seasoning Alley) is stupendous. I’ve never had a better tasting shawarma and I am Middle Eastern! Here’s where it gets even better: it WAS affordable. You get what you pay for. I also nibbled on the tahini chicken salad which was extremely tasty, but heavy on chicken… I doubt that is a bad thing! Quality and quantity is equally important, and this restaurant puts emphasis on perfecting both.
Although the food was remarkable, I can’t stand the décor inside. It felt like being in a tiny kitchen with the oven on. But hey, they have outdoor seating and do bring the food out to you, so there really is no complaint. I’m sure as time progresses, the business will try to work on the comfortability of the restaurant. But as is, they are one of the best places around. The cherry on top was the customer service, which I always value. They are nice and helpful, making it seem like you are at home and welcome.
It is definitely worth it.

Omg. What a fine Mediterranean food! This little town of Montrose has a lot of great things. We came here after Unilocal search and people’s ratings were credible, it’s really that freakin’ good.
We got beef lula kebab and falafel wrap and they’re oh so delicious, not salty, very tasty with awesome tahini sauce, hummus and salad.
Clean place with happy people!

We felt like we were settling for whatever was open by coming here, but on the contrary we struck gold!
The service was fantastic and the food was hot, fresh, and delicious!
I’ll definitely be back with an empty tummy :-)