Skewers Mediterranean Delight

Customer service sucks! I work in the building next door and would love to give this place business do to convenience. At 2pm on a weekday I was going to try their garlic fries since I worked past my lunch, I get to the door and the door is locked and there is a woman sweeping telling me they are closed. I told them its only 2pm. No sorry or anything. Just BYE! Unfortunately, due to several occasions where there customer service was just unacceptable I would rather walk a little bit further to another place. Even if it’s for a red bull or Gatorade I would rather walk to CVS across the street.

Better climate control is needed in this place. When it’s hot they open the doors which causes a couple of issues: (1) flies hovering over the semi-​attended salad bar, and (2) open cooler items are just over room temperature. I opted for a premade, enclosed greek salad (from open cooler), grilled skewer and cold tea from closed cooler which were good. I’ll probaly go back in the winter when it’s cooler.

Open at 7 am and right next to my office. Convenience and made to order food keeps me coming back. Nothing special and I usually need to add my own salt and pepper to give the mediocre food some kick. Today, they started adding veggies to their regularly plain egg scramble so I do see some improvement there.
Burritos have way too many potatoes and sandwiches can be a little greasy. I stick with the egg muffin breakfast sandwich because it’s freshly made in front of you (5 – 10 minute wait).

My review is for the catering from Skewers. I can’t say enough good things about it. The food is amazing and plentiful — I always get compliments on it! And just as importantly, the service is amazing. They go beyond their typical menu in store for catering — they do it all — pasta, chicken, sandwiches, fruit platters, pastries! When I order catering from Skewers, I never worry about how things will go — I’ve been doing it for several years and they have come through for me every single time. 2 thumbs up!

The people here are very nice and I was very happy to see that they have updated the right side and turned it into a nice eatery and salad bar. There is another local spot for salad bar but they are kind of expensive. This place has a pretty nice selection, the food is fresh and the cost is reasonable.
On the other side I have ordered cheeseburgers and a few other dishes, all pretty good. It’s convenient, clean and overall a good experience for breakfast, snacks or lunch. You can also call ahead which I like. My colleague enjoys their salmon burger a lot.
See my pic for the salad bar.

My falafel wrap tasted like dough. They didn’t add enough tahini sauce to mask the dryness. I’ll stick to Oasis Grill.

Chicken was super dry. Everything was falling apart bc the pita was stale. Never going back

**THIS LOCATION HAS SINCE CLOSED DOWN**
I’m updating my review to 5 stars because the service AND food have just gotten better over time. This is now my go-​to spot if I don’t pack lunch for work. They added a really awesome salad bar this year. It’s not that pricey and the selection is above average for salad bars. I like it better than Whole Foods’ salad bar. If I’m not making my own salad, then my usual is their greek salad with chicken swerma added to the top. Their meat’s really flavorful. They also have a great selection of bars/​snacks and kombucha!

Time: 12:32pm
Purpose: Left Lateeva’s next door look over and saw and joint. So I wanted to see if I can snatch up another account nearby.
Ambiance: Full Mediterranean café with a convience store like on one side and dining room other. Lots of seat brightly lit with not too much noise from the kitchen staff. You walk in place your order grab a seat when it’s ready they’ll bring in to you in other room. The doorjam leading into dining room has that symbolic Greece structure like triumphant look to it feels like this place could be at Caesar Palace vegas.
Staff: When I enter they were milling around half the crew were actually working the others were laughing and telling jokes. Took them awhile before asking me what I needed so I hung in there and waited til their play time was done and to be serious.
Cleanliness: Areas were customers walk and sit is clean however behind the counter is were I encounter minor problems which is a quart size pot left almost near the floor with other supplies nearby that isn’t meant for consuming.
Eats/​Drinks: Dolmas (6pcs) $ 3.99 and one baklava $ 1.95 which later I found out probably was bought at restaurant depot a place were most food industry owners go to. It was dried out and filo sheet on top didn’t have that crunchiness to it anymore.
Products: Middle easter Mediterranean fares and desserts. Hot&cold food, plates, combos, sandwiches, salad, soup, hot/​cold drinks, energy bars, chips, candies, juices, coffee, smoothies etc.
Punch Line: Fresh salads and juices, hot food is tasty, convience shop next door.
Final Thoughts: From the outside it looks like 2 businesses until you walk in and realize it’s adjoining business here. I would come back to try the pita wraps as one guy it from the looks with tzazitki sauce oozing out it sure looks good. It’s kind of pricy here but place is gears towards the office workers nearby buildings like Bart, kaiser pernamente, cal-​trans, FBI, bank reps, oakland tribune, at&t so on…

Had their Burger Bar. Excellent burger, cooked perfectly to my taste. Big juicy and I got too add my own toppings! Can’t wait to try the shwarma

This place has mosakhan, which is completely different from moussaka. Mosakhan is a Palestinian dish whereas Moussaka is Greek. I called to ask if they have Moussaka and the phone rep said yes, so off I went.
I was disappointed about the miscommunication, but I thought– oh, hey, all things happen for a reason– so I didn’t cancel my order. Here’s the lesson: do not order Mosakhan unless you’re on high-​protein AND high-​fat diet. A huge turn off was seeing the spoonfuls of oil that drained from the ground meat and it didn’t look or taste like chicken at all. What I liked the most was the refreshing yogurt with diced cucumbers that came with my order.

i got the (2) chicken skewers lunch plate and it was horrible.
rice — NO FLAVOR
salad — too much olives. so salty
bread — like cardboard
hummus — ok
and worst of all
the chicken — UNDER COOKED. pink in the middle.
sorry, not coming back…

The guy that owns Skewers (has adorable triplets) is wonderful! Really a top notch professional and I always want to help him. The falafal is really delicious
the freshness of the salad is questionable. The blue cheese dressing is good. Humus is very good and their thin pita chips are a perfect partner to the humus
However, I hate going here because the woman that runs the cash register is so sour! It is such an inconvenience for her to ring me up that I find myself avoiding going to Skewers. It is always such a hassle for her, never a smile, never a friendly word.
It is such a shame because the owner is really delightful.

I like going to Skewers for lunch. The service is excellent. They always ask if everything is ok, how was the food, etc. I always get the gyros or falafel wraps. You always have to use extra tahini on them; it’s really good. Good hummus. Always good for a quick meal for a decent price;. good size portions.

1. salmon skewers. SO GOOOOOOD. not over cooked– thank god
2. greek salad really good flavor
3. humus: obviously homemade and made well

RAW MEAT ALERT! Strike 3 for this place. My coworkers and I eat at this place bc it is convenient and it serves the most amazing chips w/​hummus. However, not worth it because they undercook their meat to the point that it is RAW when you bite into it! My coworker has ordered the grilled chicken salad three times now, and each time the chicken has looked perfect on the outside, but upon biting in, it’s raw inside. I have had the same experience with the salmon skewers. When the food is brought back to the counter with complaints, no refund is given and a «who cares?» attitude is received from the employees. Not acceptable. This place is just waiting for a lawsuit.

I came for falafel, not foilafel, which is what you get when they cut the wrap in half. Worst part about it is that I noticed the tiny aluminum pieces after eating half and thinking it was pretty good. Not the best, but a satisfactory falafel wrap.
When I mentioned my foil concerns to an employee she said she was aware of this problem, but that the manager still wants them to wrap it then cut it… huh? If you know you have a problem, solve it! Simply do not cut the sandwich, or cut it first then wrap it. Simple solutions!
It amazes me how some restaurant owners have no sense of accountability or concern for their customers. Unacceptable.

Skewers offers breakfast, mediterranean burgers, med. entrees, chocolates, gums, sodas, and mediterranean sides.
eats: falafel (6/2.99) came with sauce and pita pockets
–falafel very fresh, just made
–couldn’t open pitas without breaking them.
–falafel tasty with white sauce given
sides:
–dining area next door.
–only metered parking all around. had exceess minutes on my ticket…
–cashier very friendly, cheerful, helpful. rounding 3.5 to 4 stars.

What I ate: Falafel plate
Visit date: June 23, 2011
First time? No, but last time was better (but not by much)
The falafel was not fresh. They were rather large so I’m thinking they left them in the fryer for a REALLY long time to get it to cook all the way through. The outside was tough and the inside was just so-​so. The hummus was not appetizing. It was ‘eggy’ and I’m pretty sure hummus isn’t made with eggs… ever. The best part of the plate was the salad and not because of an awesome dressing, but because it tasted like it was supposed to (like lettuce).
Sorry Skewers… you’re going to have to do better to call yourself a ‘delight’.

My co-​worker kept telling me how horrible this place is for lunch that’s why I’ve never gone here despite its proximity to work. However, I noticed that they started serving breakfast sandwiches for $ 3. I kept seeing the advertisement for it whenever I walk to work from BART. So when hunger strikes, I decided to give this place a shot. After all, how can you mess up something so simple — croissant, bacon, eggs and cheese?
Man, I was totally wrong, you CAN mess it up. First of, the sandwich may LOOK big but if you take a look what’s in between the croissant, only half (½) of the sandwich had the bacon, eggs and cheese, while the rest is completely empty. WTF?!? Next, the sandwich is pre-​made so it’s barely warm when you get it. I’m not sure about everyone else, but for me, I don’t mind waiting for a little while to get a hot sandwich. Last, the taste and ingredients. They’re stingy with the bacon and cheese but they saturate it with egg. It might as well be called a breakfast EGG sandwich. Plus, the eggs tasted watered down.
So moral of the story, never come back here again even if the sound of breakfast sandwich looks and sounds appealing.