Grape Leaves

Grape Leaves is a hidden gem! My favorite is the lamb and shrimp kabob plate. Their hummus is the best hummus I’ve ever had!

Awesome local Middle Eastern food and service!
I often order take outs, and it’s always fresh and on time!

The food was good and really good prices. However do not go here if you have a nut allergy. There are pine nuts on everything. Even things that don’t have nuts in the description.

Very good. Cute little place. Excellent hummus, maybe the beat I’ve had… All of my party agreed… and the pita was cooked nicely. Very good kabob dinner served with tasty vegetables, nice flavoring on the grilled veggies.

I’m giving Grape Leaves what may seem like an unjustified favorable review, so even though the place can tend to over salt their food, I’m still a fan. Mostly because the ingredients are very fresh and delicious but also because the service is always outstanding and it’s a true ‘locals’ spot.
It should be noted that the two dishes they went heavy handed on the sodium front, they quickly, happily, and apologetically, without hesitation, made another dish that was prepared to perfection.
Highlights:
Hummus. See pic and just do this nearly compulsory start to your Middle Eastern meal, some of the best i’ve had. The Tabbouleh is equally outstanding and fresh and highly recommend.
Chicken Kabob and Shrimp Kabob… great portion size of quality chicken and shrimp with excellent balance of flavor. Not served Kabob style but great nonetheless. Both are accompanied by charbroiled vegetables, rice and sesame sauce. All dinners include soup or salad and can definitively recommend the Lentil soup which is good for both body and soul.
Vegetarian Kibbeh — grilled and finely diced veggies, almonds and spices filled in a ball of cracked wheat which is crispy deep fried and served over Lebanese and Jerusalem salad.
The two items which were overly salted imo… its names sake, the Grape Leaves and also a special there were running one night, the Moroccan Chicken. Both righted in quick fashion.
Do yourself a favor and check this place out if you’re in the OP, it won’t disappoint.

We tried Grape Leaves on a whim. It was a nice day out, so we decided to sit outside. Our waitress was decent; not overly friendly, but not rude either. I did request a salad with my dinner plate instead of the lentil soup, and I was brought lentil soup. I didn’t mention it because I figured I would give it a shot. It was not the best. The soup was bland and left a weird taste and feeling in my mouth. We also ordered a side of hummus. The hummus seemed like they were trying to be unique and cool with the almonds, but it was a fail in my opinion. It was bland (I added salt) and too nutty tasting. Then our dinner came out. I ordered the beef shawarma and my boyfriend ordered the lamb kabob. The shawarma was cut into extremely tiny, taco like, pieces. Both the beef I ordered and the lamb was covered in some sort of gravy that did not taste middle Eastern at all. My dish honestly tasted the beef stroganoff. The lamb itself tasted good in my boyfriends dinner, but the gravy ruined it. The vegetable that came with his plate were seasoned better than any other thing we ate. If my dish had tasted even remotely Mediterranean, I would be back. Unfortunately, it did not.

My daughter and I had enjoyed the food. I had the lamb with the couscous which was great. My daughter had the stuffed grape leaves. My daughter did request the traditional yogurt to dip the grape leaves into but our waiteress did not understand and provided her something else. It would be nice to include the traditional white yogurt on the menu. Overall, it was good.

Great food! The new management has definitely made positive changes to the food and restaurant atmosphere. I love the chicken sumac and their Jerusalem salad!

One of my favorite places for Mediterranean food… Plus it’s a BYOB … Under new partnership owners!!!

I love coming to Grape Leaves for inexpensive, healthful food.
I love meeting friends here because it’s BYOB. That’s ballin’ on a budget yo.
I love meeting vegetarian/​vegan friends because we both eat well.
That’s why I chose Grape Leaves to cater part of a huge wedding celebration I had. I expected some vegetarian/​vegan friends and family to come and (let’s be honest) I wanted some healthy options to contrast the indulgence of fried chicken, barbecued ribs, potato salad, and coleslaw.
The owner and I sat down about a week before the party to discuss menu items and number of guests. He put it together for me in a concise text message with a quote that very evening. I told him I wanted to cut that number in half: $ 300.
«No problem!» He replied.
The day of the party he brought over pans of baba ganoush, hummus, falafel, and grape leaves. Yusssssssssssss!!! All of my favorites from the restaurant.
They were big winners at the party — especially the baba ganough. M’s grandmother, poppa, and step mom had never had that taste-​y delight before and they all loved it. My sister and Nick M raved about the grape leaves.
Anyway, it was perfect and just what I wanted.

This is the first place I visited when looking for an apartment in Oak Park. My mom and I came here for lunch and had a great experience. I came here a couple of other times and had great experiences each time. The food is great and was new to me as I had never had Middle Eastern cuisine before. It’s a great place to check out. I would recommend it for lunch rather than dinner.

Food wise, imma say this is hit or miss, but to give it a try! I had a shrimp dish and a chicken dish, wish I could remember the names! Basically everything about the shrimp dish was meh– the shrimp wasn’t really seasoned or special and the vegetables were like a lima/​carrot/​pea frozen mix kind of situation. The chicken (some kind of lemon chicken) was really tender and really tasty and we loved it. The hummus here is also amaze. They top it with oil; roasted nuts and a few herbs and it’s truly fantastic.

Neat little lunch spot! Food was tasty! The space is quaint. The lamb was a hit… tender and nicely seasoned.

This is a small little hole in the wall place and I love it! The chicken shawarma is really tasty and the lentil soup is delish too. I especially loved the tea served with real mint leaves. Really reasonably priced too

I ordered hummus & a falafel sandwich to go and both were delicious. One of the best falafel sandwiches I’ve had in a while! The flavors were great and everything tasted fresh.

I walk by this place every day and was excited for an opportunity to try it. To go, I ordered a vegetable pocket and it was beyond salty, watery and just inedible and lentil soup that taste like water. I had to throw it out and ended up STILL having to cook myself dinner. Waste of money and time. Such a shame because they were really nice in there.

Shout out to Yvonne B for recommending this terrific, very much under-​the-​radar restaurant. Don’t let appearance deceive you – this place could be considered a hidden Oak Park gem.
Like Taste of Brasil (another excellent but not-​widely publicized restaurant), Grape Leaves is BYOB, but your dollar goes considerably further here. For the unbelievably low price of $ 9, I got a huge serving of lamb kabob over a bed of rice pilaf that I’ll likely be eating for days. The meat was superb, and the babaganoush ($ 4) had great flavor. I guess if I had any criticisms at all, it would be that they don’t have any cool Mediterranean cocktails.
I think Grape Leaves excels in its minimalist, ‘no frills’ approach – lightly decorated interior, a modestly-​sized menu, and let’s not forget incredible taste + value. Eric S is a fan.

Having lived in the area all my life, I was excited to try Grape Leaves for the first time this summer. While I had heard great things from friends, I like many of the recent reviewers was disappointed with the food.
I had the baba ghanoush and falafel sandwich. The baba ghanoush was decent. The serving was quite hefty. They finished off the plate with olive oil and scattered cashew pieces. I was really disappointed in my falafel sandwich. It lacked the any special qualities. The tomatoes were not seasoned and the hummus was bland.
My waiter was very nice and friendly, but otherwise, I have no reason to ever come back to this place.

I’ve adored Grape Leaves for quite some time… until recently. I do not know if this is true, but, it’s been said there is new management. For the past year or so they were inconsistent in being open when they said they would be but the food has been relatively good.
My most recent visit was a whole different experience. I ordered the Chicken Shawarma (something I’ve had before) and was surprised to see it made and delivered to the table in roughly five minutes. That was my first red flag. The second red flag was the amount of steam coming from the food, especially from the center of it.
As I began eating it, I noticed other restaurant patrons were getting their food in rather quick amounts of time and there was a very familiar «ding» sound coming from the kitchen area. I realized what was wrong: They were microwaving the food. Ding after ding along with the discernible hum of a microwave made it all too clear to me.
The chicken was dry, tasteless, and immensely salty. The rice was watery due to being microwaved and the cucumber salad lobbed on top did not help. When I confronted the man running the restaurant he insisted that it was not microwaved and didn’t know what «dry» meant. I can’t hold him at fault for not speaking fluent English but I can for denying what was clearly being done in the kitchen.
If you like microwaved middle eastern food, go to Grape Leaves. If not, I suggest going to the Jersualem Café on Harlem near the movie theater or even running across the street to Falafill. Both of those options have yet to harness the power of a microwave. (And if all else fails, go to one of the two Greek restaurants near OP avenue.)
Farewell, Grape Leaves… I loved you…

The great: Turkish coffee and the Lebanese dessert. Both were out of this world. I will be seeking out Turkish coffee in the future. The coffee is $ 2 for about 1.5 shot glasses full of coffee. Read about it before you order it as there are coffee grounds on the bottom and it won’t be ‘good to the last drop.’ The ambient music was also a nice touch.
The blah: I heard the microwave go off no less than 5 times while I was seated in the restaurant. The microwave ‘ding’ is not the sign of a great restaurant, even if the microwave was for the warming of pitas. The kabob was edible, pretty sure that it was not cooked fresh, the grape leaves were also edible, not great. The hummus left much to be desired.
While waiting for our food someone came in to pickup a takeout order and offered a Groupon, there was discussion about whether or not to accept it as it was for dining in only (?), not sure how it worked out but nobody seemed upset at the end of the conversation.