Labad’s

We went to Labad’s over the weekend and saw the man cutting the meat out front threaten a lady with a knife for taking his picture and ordered her to delete it. He said, «No! No! No pictures can be taken of me. I have a big knife, delete it and remove it from your phone immediately, or I tell you I have a big knife».
Psycho! I will never be back and won’t frequent any store who talks that way or threatens a customer.

Always go here for traditional Middle Eastern staples at decent prices. The employees are colorful and fun.

William makes the best gyro you can get in Pttsburgh, hands down, and the baklava is also TOPS.
It’ll always be him outside at the stand if it’s open… the legendary mustache really does draw people in!
Everything they make here is fantastic. Worth knowing: His grandmother makes the baklava from scratch and always FRESH.

Go for the gyro and hummus. Stay for the awesome convo with the gentleman who has the best facial hair I’ve seen in a very very long time.

I like this place. So far I have tried the hummus and the falafel, it was good. I lived in Israel, so I have eaten my fair share of middle eastern cuisine. The only feedback I have is that the store looks a bit dirty. I think that could be a turnoff to some… I think they could do a few things to freshen the place up and make it known they serve food, I think they would get more business this way, and people would not miss out on the great middle eastern cuisine. The man at the front desk is very kind as well.

I’m starting a list, «Where the locals go!»
This is IT. Labad’s is the best and the moustached man who works there is so helpful and nice!
Best hummus and baba ganouj in town!!! They have a little restaurant in the back, try it out, this is a great lunch spot!

I stopped in here after reading past Unilocal reviews.
I picked up some tabouli, hummus, baba ghanouj and stuffed grape leaves (Yebra?). The smoky deliciousness of the baba ghanouj/​sh was my favorite.
William (Whoo hoo… secret’s out, that is the moustachioed man’s name!) helped me, and gave me tips on cooking the stuffed grape leaves. (I used a pan with a little water and fresh lemon juice. Delicious.)
He was extremely friendly and nice — I have already recommended this store to others going to Pittsburgh, and to ask for William.

The store is small, but it carries specialties that are difficult to find in Pittsburgh. I was particularly excited to find middle eastern chili sauce and chocolate covered Turkish delights.

Bought a large, delicious and cheap gyro from a man with a nice handlebar mustache. WIN.
Only thing I bought in the store was a small container of sliced almonds for $ 2. Seems like a great place to buy ingredients for Mediterranean dishes though.

Trust a man with an epic mustache.
Made a stop here to pick up ingredients for a Middle Eastern lentils and rice dish; Mustache Man taught me the name of the dish in Arabic and gave me detailed instructions on how to cook it. He recommended the best bulk rice (basmati) and the best bulk lentils (green) for the dish and now I just want to stop in casually to ask him how his weightlifting is going!
The sliced almonds I bought at Salem’s in North Oakland had bugs in them; The ones I bought here did not. Another plus.

The hummus was good quality. I would like to try the red pepper flavor. I’d come back if I was in the strip.

Been going Labad’s since childhood. Very nice guys — they act like they can be your uncles!
The place hasn’t changed since the late 80s. Excellent food and well stocked groceries.
If you have never been to the Penn Avenue district of Pittsburgh, you are doing yourself a great disservice.

The restaurant in the back of this grocery store is a gem! The food is homemade, fresh, and flavorful. The service was friendly, relaxed, and efficient. The prices were very reasonable. I will definitely return. I heard there’s a second location nearby now, serving lunch and dinner. A winner!

Did you know that Labad’s has a restaurant behind the store? I didn’t. This little nugget of information was discovered by hubby, who works in the Strip District. Soooo glad he discovered it because as far as I’m concerned this place makes the BEST Mediterranean food in the ‘Burgh.
The store/​restaurant are owned by a family from Syria who have always been friendly when we go in. I guess my husband has gotten to know them pretty well because they always come out and greet him when we visit and have taken to asking why we haven’t been in more recently. (Invariably the answer is TOO MUCH WORK!)
If you’re feeling adventurous, try the Sleek — it is a dish made with kale, garlic, and bulgar wheat and is ohhhh so yummy (and packed with good nutrition!). The gyros (hubby prefers traditional, I prefer chicken) are TO DIE FOR and come loaded with meat, veggies, and tahini. The hummus is also delicious. And the prices are good, especially when you take into account how much food you get.
Don’t have time to sit down at eat? The food sold in the front of the store is just as tasty. You can even buy specialties like Sleek to go. Oh, and if you eat a lot of rice (we prefer Basmati), they sell it in barrels or bags and it’s MUCH cheaper than at the grocery stores.

Amazing falafel & baba ghanoush wrap for $ 5. The first one he gave me didn’t have falafel but he quickly fixed me by giving me another one on the house. Falafel was obviously fresh and flavorful. Baba ghanoush was some of the best that I’ve had — smokey, yummy and lots of it. Fantastic baklava! (and his mustache is as impressive as everyone keeps talking about) There’s a small-​ish grocery store inside where they sell things like grape leaves, hummus, miscellaneous Greek/​Meditt food. I’ll have to try out their falafel dry mix for myself!

Impressive gyros from a guy with an impressive mustache. If I can pry myself away from the taco cart at Reyna, a gyro from Labad’s hits the spot. I’m pretty sure every place in the entirety of Allegheny County that serves gyros claims to have «The best gyros in Pittsburgh,» but from what I’ve seen, Labad’s gets the title.
But it doesn’t just stop at the delicious gyros. There are few other places to get sheep’s milk feta, for instance, and the hummus made there is a great fill-​in for when I’m too dang lazy to make my own. And their bulk falafel mix… I can’t say I’ve had better. The falafel bucket is empty probably about 60% of the times I go, and there’s a reason for that.
The folks who work there are also friendly (seems to be a theme that the places I like have good people in them…) and as I mentioned, one of the most epic mustaches in the world works at Labad’s.
If you seek middle eastern groceries, or a good gyro in the middle of a shopping day, this is the place.

A man who looked like a 1900s circus strongman with a killer handlebar mustache sold me fantastic baklava and husband a decent gyro on the street out front. Three cheers for the Strip District.

This was a pleasant surprise and a great experience. Annie and I are at Ross Park mall walking around trying to figure out our lunch destination when serendipitously her phone rings and it’s her Dad, «Brother Len» calling to ask us to lunch at this hidden gem. Nice! I prefer not to make decisions on the weekend. Next we are headed down to the strip on a relatively pleasant saturday afternoon. The locals are out en masse and parking is at a premium. In keeping with our serendipitous saturday theme we find prime parking right in front of Kaya (another one of our favs’). We walk towards «Labad’s grocery». Now, I’ve been to this grocery before and have certainly walked by it numerous times and had never known of the little café located in the back of the grocery. Len’s been a regular here for years and is friends with the lovely syrian family who own the joint. We walk into the back room which is exactly what I was hoping for in that it was very small a few tables, middle eastern decorations on the wall and a cozy somewhat seperate room which had for some reason multiple stuffed animals next to the table. There also was a sheet hanging blocking something from view and if I’m to believe Len it was a camel :-). Annie and I have a seat with Len who is sitting with the patriarch of this family «Fayed» I believe his name is. Fayed has to leave to tend to the store and multiple operations occurring. One of the sons is selling «shish kabob» on the sidewalk. This is also a grocery store with sidewalk sales and of course the small café in the back. I love the entrepreneurial spirit of first generation immigrants. Len orders me up some coffee. It was a very strong version of coffee served in a tiny mug. I’m guessing their version of espresso. Len takes care of ordering, which is good because I can’t claim to be a middle eastern food connoiessur and tend to be lost after I exhaust the hummus and gyro options. He orders us some type of platter, not sure the name of the platter itself but can describe the offerings. I liked the metal plate that all of this food was served. It was a large round plate sectioned off for each dip/​option. It was served with warm pita bread. I like family style dining and this platter certainly encouraged sharing. Now, the only thing that I was familiar with was the hummus and the black olives. The hummus was as good as any I’ve ever had. It was very authentic mashed chickpeas blended with olive oil, lemon and garlic. It was really good served with the pita chips. The olives were really good briny small black olives served with the pit. The other sides were Baba Ganoug, which is really good eggplant dip with oil, garlic and pepper. I have tried this in the past and really didn’t like it. I really liked this, so I guess the stuff I had in the past wasn’t authentic. Now, one of the two new things I had and probably my favorite was the shanklish salad, which isn’t the type of salad you may be thinking of. There was no lettuce, but instead homemade aged cheese that is very good and delicate. The salad also consisted of onions, tomatoes and oil. It was great. The final side of this dish wsa the macdoose, which I had never tried before. It is eggplant pieces stuffed with walnuts and drowned in olive oil. This wasn’t my favorite, but I found myself however I kept eating it, so I guess I must have thought it was okay. This would have been a great vegetarian meal (first time I’ve ever said that sentence) if I stopped there. But, Len also ordered me a skewer of lamb. At first it was a bit undercooked, but one of the sons (Lawrence?) grabbed it and grilled it for a few more minutes and then it was more to my liking. I really like lamb and grilled with middle eastern seasonings is a treat with a little pita and some onions and tomatoes. Annie had a skewer of grilled chicken, which also was seasoned nicely and cooked well. Throughout the lunch we were greeted like family from other members of the family including «Mama» who you just want to wrap up and take home with you. The guy on the grill (another son can’t recall name) also was very warm and friendly and had this killer «handlebar» mustache. Fayed stopped back after we were done with lunch and spent some time chatting with us. He is a really interesting guy and a true renaissance man with vocations that have included the military, principal in school, chef amongst other things. One of the most interesting things I found about this guy is that in spite of being a syrian christian part of his history includes teaching the koran to the bedouin (nomadic desert dwelling arab group). A couple other notes Len who knows this type of food says it’s the best authentic middle eastern food in Pittsburgh. Next time I’m there I will definitely try the kibbee, which is spiced ground beef w/​pine nuts and stuffing. It’s a favorite and you can get it raw if you order in advance. That would be adventorous.

Not a bad store for a few tough-​to-​find Middle Eastern items, and the price is right. Because Labad’s doesn’t appear to be as popular a destination as other stores in the area, some shelves are scantily stocked, and some items look a bit battered and dusty. Still, this is the place to go for canned fava beans and Turkish delight.
Labad’s also offers tasty, filling falafel wraps or gyros for super cheap.