Pita Crave

Maybe I’ve been spoiled by Pita Inn, Pita House and Sultan’s Market, but this place gets a meh from me.
The decorations are a very strange mix of cultures and so is the food.
I asked if they had mint iced tea, the lady said she could make some.
What i got was a luke warm tea that tasted more like lipton than mint iced tea. I was also disappointed that they put Giardiniera on the pita, isn’t that italian? When i go to a middle eastern restaurant, I would prefer it to be mostly «middle eastern.»

Went here a while ago and it was pretty good. Plenty of food for th price and it tasted ok.
I’d go back again, but it went out of business.

A trip to Israel gave me experience with real Middle Eastern food &emdash; an experience most American restaurants can’t give. Falafel was plentiful and perfectly seasoned. Schwarma was made more like a burrito and oddly enough had french fries in them. This style food was basically all I ate for 10 days but gave me an appreciation for a cuisine which is normally overlooked in the United States. Since that trip, I have been looking for a great place to take my taste buds back to Israel. While driving on 59 near Schaumburg Rd. I saw Pita Crave tucked in a strip mall. Perhaps this could be the restaurant which reminds me of Israel.
Pita Crave has been called Pita 59 and Grill 59 in the past. I am not sure whether these name changes were due to a change of ownership or something else. However, this was my first visit so only speak to it under the name «Pita Crave».
The menu is typical for a Middle Eastern restaurant. Falafel, Schwarma, Kabobs are 85% of their meals. Most everything can come as a sandwich inside of a pita or as an entrée. I ordered their Kifta Kabob sandwich with a side of Basmati Rice. The cashier upsold me to a meal which was similar price but came with 4 kabobs instead of 2. My number was called after about 7 minutes and I received a full plate of food. The entrée included 4 kabobs, 2 pita halves, a colorful vegetable salad with dressing on the side, rice, and two sauces for the kabobs. One sauce was a Middle Eastern white sauce while the other was a spicy red sauce. The red sauce was my favorite as it added a nice burn that lingered well. The kabobs themselves tasted like Middle Eastern hamburgers. Slight seasoning with a charcoal flavor was the opening flavor but I found myself wanting more flavor at the end. Their Basmati Rice may have been a little salty but I tend to be sensitive to salt flavors. Their veggie salad consisted of cucumbers, radish slices, and a vegetable I couldn’t identify but looked like cubed ham. The dressing was light but not over done. I ate the salad with a fork as well as inside the pita with a kabob. Both worked well.
Pita Crave looked to have been recently redecorated. Paint is fresh and the tables don’t look well worn. An open ceiling does create a lot of noise which may be frustrating to converse over during lunch rush. They had large table fans on the counter to help keep air circulating. The fans created a lot of white noise which was annoying. Their air conditioning may have been out that day.
Price is a strong point of Middle Eastern food. Unfortunately, Pita Crave seemed to charge a slight premium over many other fast food Middle Eastern restaurants I have visited. The entrees are $ 7.99 which doesn’t include a drink. Refills on beverages are $.50. My total bill was a little over $ 10. While I received plenty food, $ 10 felt a little high for Middle Eastern fast food dining.
Pita Crave is a local restaurant I would visit if I had a hankering for Middle Eastern food. Price was a little high but the food was pretty good. While I enjoyed my Pita Crave experience, I am still looking for some Middle Eastern food to remind me of Israel.

Um, are those canned jalapeño peppers on my kefta kabob sandwich? And why did you drown it in yogurt sauce? What is this? Mexiterranean food?
There isn’t much middle eastern food around here — so that in and of itself makes this place special. Basically, if you’re nearby and craving it, it’s your only option. Falafel, hummus and other standard fare are all good here.

I LOVE Pita Crave. This was the second place I’ve gone to for Middle Eastern/​Mediterranean food and I loved it. I know there are probably so many other real ethnic and authentic places but I’m a newbie to Middle Eastern cuisine.
I was a little hesitant to try Middle Eastern cuisine just because I knew nothing about it. I feared anything with curry in it. The only thing I like that is remotely Middle Eastern/​Mediterranean is lamb and hummus. With that being said, this place helped my get over my fear/​ignorance about Middle Eastern cuisine. I know… I know… I’ve only began to scratch the surface. BUT this place is AWESOME! I love, love, love the chicken shawarma. It is so good. The spices in the marinade or rub is not overpowering (the first place I tried shawarma had so much curry in it, I couldn’t enjoy it as much). The portions are great. DON’T forget the falafel. It’s DEEEEE-​Lish. Not to mention the owner and the people working there are so nice. I think I’ve been to Pita Crave like 3 or 4 times since in the last two weeks.

The owners have returned, thank goodness. Probably one of the best Lebanese meals I’ve had since moving to the northwest suburbs. Combination plate can feed two people quite well, and one person to nearly exploding. Very generous portions of lamb, chicken, kifta, falafel and great rice. I love the different kinds of salads, particularly the tabouleh, which is a parsley-​based salad. Kabobs are always great. Have never had a bad meal here. Price is quite reasonable.

I am so disappointed. I think this place closed over the 2010 holidays! This was a great place for me, because I am a vegan, and for my husband because he is not! But I think they closed.

I was really glad when this place opened up across from my house. I was getting tired of the same Subway, Jimmy John, style American fast food. When this place opened up, they offered Mediterranean style food like falafel sandwiches, hummus, shawarma, and shiz kobob, and a few other middle eastern style food. I particular love that they have pictures of the food on their menu so you know exactly what your are ordering.
This place is nothing out of the ordinary, and the quality of the food is good. Their food is comparable to other fast food middle eastern type food and the service is ok. They just take your order and move on to the next customer. It would have been nice if they greeted you with a smile, but that is fine with me as long as my food comes out fresh and hot.

I always drive by this place with the intent to check it out and never do. I finally decided to follow through and check this place out. When I walked in the first thing I noticed was how clean the place was. I wasn’t expecting much, so that was a pleasant surprise. The menu is simple and above the grill they have pictures of all their plates. I opted to try the falafel sandwich and again pleasantly surprised. The sandwich was huge. It was basically a whole pita stuffed with 2 or 3 falafels and the Jerusleum salad. Taste wise it was good. I’ll definitely go back when I’m in the mood for a falafel again.

I have a new love I found in the last year and it is the Shawarma
but I like it with Lamb and that there is the problem as most places make it with Chicken or Beef, and there seems to be a regional difference also like if you are Egyptian or middle eastern so lays the problem
I know what I first found in Seattle and that is what I fell in love with as a Lamb Shawarma and this is what I am looking for
so I should of gotten the Gyro but I went with the beef Shawarma sammich, it is stuffed into half a pita pocket (was hopping for a wrap) and has nice big chunks of cucumber on top and some seasoning but the meat was kinda bland, then there was no pickle and they gave you this little ass cup of Tahini sauce I mean come on guys that was enough to barely put on ¹⁄₃ of the sammich maybe 3 bites
now don’t get me wrong it was a good lunch and filling but still not the sammich I was hoping for, I will go back and try it as a meal with rice and what not
until then my hunt goes on for what I consider the Lamb Shawarma

This place was formerly known as Grill 59 and Pita 59 so you can see some other reviews under those names.
We really like Pita Crave and their mounds of Middle Eastern food. Did I say «mounds»? You bet! The portions here for the meals are huge so come hungry or you will have leftovers for later. It’s a counter-​style place so you’ll order and then take your food back to your table.
I have not tried something here I didn’t like. I especially love the Chicken
Shwarma meal and their hummus. We took one of our «city» friends here because he is always skeptical of truly good food in the ‘burbs and couldn’t believe we would have delicious Middle Eastern food minutes from our home. He was shocked, amazed and literally had to eat his words.
My four-​star rating is based on the quality of the food. The service is what you would expect from a counter-​style place; not necessarily attentive but the aren’t rude, either. Just average friendly no-​nonsense take your order and move on. And I’m okay with that.

AKA: PITA CRAVE.
I was pretty disappointed in the falafel. It lacked any taste and I had to shower it with salt just to convince my mouth I was eating something. Also the menu offered Ice Mint tea. which arrived at my table piping hot in an 8oz cup. Perhaps I should have made myself a little clearer. I really wanted to like this place, because a great Middle Eastern spot out side the city and close to work would have been great… I’ll try it again. It can only get better.

Grill 59 is fairly new in the area, and is about a mile from my place. That being said, it is an easy dinner-​saver or lazy-​saver. :)
We started getting their combo platter at first, but realized that we really just love the shwarma. Now we get the shwarma platter.
Their meats are delicious and flavorful. The falafel are crispy on the outside, perfectly almost creamy on the inside. The rice… oh the rice. It’s so buttery and nutty, I could eat plates of it.
They also have a little «sides» bar if you like pickled veggies. They have pickled beets that are a delicious crunchy addition to your meal.
If you want lebanese sweets, they have little sweets packages (from a bakery in the city) filled with various kinds of baklava and cookies.
I will say, a negative point, goes to the pita they have. They’re dry and paper-​like. Thank god they have delicious rice, so I don’t even take their pitas anymore!

JUST WHEN I ESCAPE THE ‘BURBS…
Someone goes and opens the top notch Middle Eastern casual lunch spot I’ve been hungering for. The food here is really stellar for a take out spot unlike some establishments (I’m looking at you Sultan’s Market). Lunch and a drink will run you about $ 9, but the portions are very generous and everything from the chicken to the rice to the salad is extremely good.

So I had to work late and grab dinner in the Streamwood area. Looking for something new on Unilocal,I read that Grill 59 is now serving Mid East cuisine. Now I love Pita Inn and semi love Pita House, so I was pretty stoked to see a new pita place close to the paycheck. The sign for Grill 59 is covered with some tarp talking about pita, but when you get close they wrote crave after pita. So I guess the place is called Pita Crave. Now being a veteran on Pita Inn I wanted to jam the combo plate. So I ordered. $ 9.39! Now I know the Pita Inn is a good deal but, dazam. Twice the price. SO now I sit down waiting for what I expect to be some good schwarma. I mean at twice the price this shit should cure H1M1. They have a condiment bar. It has the pickled beet thing, the onions and parsley, but nothing too great. I like the hot sauce and tahini. While waiting I see two guys that look the part. The one looks like the rotund guy from Indiana Jones. But when my food is done a Mexican gentleman was cooking it. It looked good. Let me take you on a tour of the combo platter. Beef Schwarma was unrecognizable. It was minced and thrown into the corner. It was stringy and dry. This is usually what shines on the plate. Bad start. Next the falafel. Crispy and hot, this was one of the better falafels I have had in a while. So we are tied 1 – 1. Shish Kabob looked great, it was nice and juicy but it was the chewiest thing I have ever experienced. I literally had to take a break chewing it because my jaw hurt. The chicken was dry but not too bad along with the kifta. The rice was ok nothing too great, but what broke my heart was that the pita was dry and hard. The place is called Pita Crave. You better have some fresh good pitas.
Closing my rant I’ll repeat my points. The place is overpriced subpar pita joint that has little moisture in its food and an identity crisis. My recommendation: go down the road to Pita House, or dive your ass to Wheeling for the good stuff at Pita Inn.

I was so excited to get the beef shwarma, pita and rice pilaf. I just should have waited and gone to Pita Inn in Wheeling. I was very disappointed. The beef was dry and bland. The rice was flovorless and mixed in with the salad in my «to go» box, so that was not very good either. The pita seemed to be microwaved, so by the time I got it home, 5 minutes later it was chewy and hard around the edges. I will not go back. :-(

Yeah my first review!
Ok, I must say I am a fan of this place. I went there as a recommendation and reading the other posts. I really enjoyed the food and would have given it 5 stars but some of my meat was a little dried out. Everything else was 5 stars hands down. The workers were totally cool, food was made immediately, portions were big, and the prices were FAN-​tastic. I would def recommend this place to others, the chicken, falafel (really good), and beef shwarma (however you spell it) were the items that I would recommend. Good stuff all around. It is halal too if you care.

one of the things i miss about living in the city is the large variety of excellent middle eastern restaurants. (just thinking of kedzie st. brings a tear to my eye). well, now i am a little less sad after discovering Grill 59.
yes, there really is authentic middle eastern food in the suburbs.
the quality of their kabobs is right on par with any of the old stand-​bys downtown and the portions are generous. we usually get the chicken kabobs which are perfectly seasoned and served up with a ton of rice, a delicious side salad, and pita for only around $ 7. their hummus and stuffed grape leaves appetizers are spot-​on, too. the owners and employees are all very friendly and my phone orders are ready for pick-​up in a timely fashion… i’ve never had to wait. there is a nice dining area, though, if you want to eat in.
their meat is halal, in case that matters to anyone reading this, and they even sell baklava from Nazareth Sweets in chicago. *sobs*

This used to be a burger gyros joint, but the owner decided to make it into a Middle Eastern joint. And the food is great. There aren’t many places in the area where you can get this kind of food. The owner’s a really nice guy. There’s a great pickle bar. and the prices are reasonable.
It’s called Pita Crave now and we still frequent this place.