Babalou’s Mediterranean

Lamb Gyro

Meh. Nothing to special about this place! I ordered chicken kabobs and a lamb gyro. My husband enjoyed his gyro. I however, didn’t enjoy the chicken kabob! It comes with Greek salad, hummus, and rice. They asked if I want regular or spicy so I went for spicy– big mistake. First off the chicken wasn’t even on a kabobs not a big deal but why say it is. cause for a dollar less you can get grilled chicken off the kabob! Second, «spicy» just wasn’t «spicy» it’s freaking hot! Had my husband try just to make sure I wasn’t giving up to easy and he totally agreed that it was just too hot! The Greek salad was ok, not great. Hummus was very plain. So like I said at the beginning this place is a totally meh.

Hidden gem in the Dub C.
Food: I order the combo plate with chicken minus the rice. The chicken was marinated to perfection, brilliantly grilled and just damn tasty. Served with a generous side of hummus, salad and fresh pita bread. A complete and well-​balance meal, macros satisfied. I opted out of the rice portion and they gave me more salad to fill the plate. Also asked for my chicken to be spicy, it had a minor kick, but wished it was spicier.
Service: Very friendly and accommodating staff.
Price: I paid close to $ 12 for my food, although it was tasty and a generously portioned… I still thought $ 12 was a bit unfair, I’m used to paying under $ 10 for similar portioned Medi food. The penny pincher in me wasn’t too fond of the prices.
Ambiance: Very spacious, artsy, colorful and welcoming environment. Located on Bonanza and California, good spot towards the end of the street… location helps you avoid the busy WC downtown traffic.
Overall: Simply delicious — simple and delicious. What more could I ask for? I love Babalou’s.

I literally eat here once a week for lunch. I highly recommend the spicy chicken plate! And if you like Gyro’s, it is definitely top 10. I usually take mine to go, but when I eat in, there is usually only 5 – 6 people inside, so never is too busy. The guys that work there can be a little difficult to talk with, but they’re foreign, which means the food is true authentic, so I’m fine with that. Enjoy!

I really love this place. The chicken shawerma wrap and the chicken shawerma slad is our go too, almost weekly. They spice the chicken perfectly. Their falaffals are also home made. The hummus can use more flavor but perhaps they use little to no garlic for the general public.
In person, the staff is friendly; however, don’t expect too much warm and fuzzy on the phone. (didn’t deduct for that) The lamb gyro was not to my liking but everything else is fabulicious!!!

My favorite place for a quick bite! I usually come here before work to grab a quick gyro because it’s fast and filling! You really can’t go wrong with their chicken gyro! Chicken is tasty, vegetables are fresh, pita is soft and warm. Guys behind the counter are awesome, and I love the mural on the walls. I can’t wait to come back soon!

Ordered chicken salad to go and requested a side of hummus. At first I was annoyed that they charged me $ 15…until they handed me the heavy bag. The chicken salad has a substantial amount of very delicious chicken, they gave me 3 full warm pitas and a full ½ pint of hummus. You could easily feed two people for $ 15. The service is very friendly and I received my food in less than 5 minutes on a week day at 12noon. Okay, there might be better Mediterranean restaurants out there but the combination of price, taste, hospitality and portion size makes this a new favorite for me.

Had a craving for a shawarma and found this place. So glad I did because I decided to go with their combo plate and was very satisfied. The meats were tasty and the sides were delish. Portion was a bit small, but flavor was there and I love the spicy sauce!

My favorite place to eat in walnut creek. Great when you’re craving something super flavorful and delicious.
When I’m feeling wild (or hungover) I get:
Lamb Shawerma Wrap with extra sauce!
But my regular paleo healthy choice is a chicken kebab plate with no rice –lettuce instead. Plus baba ganoush on the side for dipping!

Seeing that Babalou’s is highly rated on Unilocal,I had it bookmarked for the longest time. When I finally made a point to have lunch there, I was incredibly disappointed! Thinking I was going to have a «healthier» meal that day, I found myself eating a lamb gyro that was way too salty. I’m not sure if the chef normally has a heavy hand with the salt, but I felt like my taste buds were numbed and my blood pressure went through the roof with the sky high sodium intake. I couldn’t bring myself to eating more than half of the gyro. My friend ordered a combo plate and also noted that the meat was too salty. She also ended up throwing away her half eaten lunch as well. We both definitely had much better Mediterranean fare elsewhere.
The ambiance is interesting with a colorful mural along the entire wall of the eatery. The two guys behind the counter seemed nice enough. I guess that’s the extent of the two stars for me. Will not be returning as there are other better places I can get a good gyro.

I love mediterranean food, and love to try new mediterranean places when I can. I was initially excited to try this place, but my excitement was very short lived.
I ordered a spicy chicken kebab, and my girlfriend had the grilled combo plate. The portions are generous, which is the best part. However, it was all downhill form there. Everything was swimming in oil. The chicken, the onions and peppers, even the rice. You can tell that the kebabs have spices on them, but unfortunately the oil completely overpowers it. I could not finish the mean, which is quite rare. Bottom line, there are better places form Mediterranean in Walnut Creek.

Fantastic! We order Babalou’s at least once a month for our office meetings and it is never disappointing. Authentic delicious Mediterranean food!
Love!

Great veg falafel wraps! Love the falalel balls here. They have dolma too although I didn’t quite enjoy the taste.

Love — portions, ability to adjust spice, quick, hummus, thick cut veggies
Like — flavor, options, phone and online ordering
Hate — nothing
Overall — not «authentic» but solid and very good food. Do recommend for easy quick lamb or Mediterranean fix.

Finally: I’ve found a decent Mediterranean eatery with affordable prices and generous portioning in this side of the Bay! This place is a GEM amidst the somewhat higher-​priced Walnut Creek eateries.
I came in on a late weeknight with my family and the place was fairly empty. There were two workers in store and they served us very promptly.
I got the Veggie Plate, which for $ 9 was delicious, fresh, and left me FULL I had to take half home. The falafels it came with are made fresh in-​store and tasted DELICIOUS. They’re deep-​fried with a vegetarian green mash center and didn’t taste greasy at all. The hummus, tabouli and fresh pita paired well. The plate was everything I wanted and asked for at a good price and great portioning. My family also got the lamb pita sandwich and chicken-​lamb wrap, and they were both full from their meals as well (came with fries).
Everything was fresh. Everything tasted great. And it was well worth the money. Casual, quick eatery at a good price. No complaints!

Where is everyone eating in #WalnutCreek? Babalou’s. This spot was packed and I quickly found out why!
1) Prices are reasonable. I got a huge plate of delicious and fairly healthy food for $ 12. Win.
2) Food… it was good! I went with the Mediterranean chicken plate which was basically their spiced chicken with mushrooms atop rice, served with salad, hummus and pita. I requested it spicy and it had some kick, but wasn’t overbearing. The rice was fine, but that salad and hummus… yes! I probably would opt for the chicken salad next time and ask for a side of falafel and hummus since the rice really didn’t do anything for the dish.
3) The falafel was real good. Surprisingly real good. Meaty (but vegetarian) balls, deep fried, but not greasy with great texture and flavor. Spot on.
4) Service was pretty quick and friendly in this super casual spot. Order at the counter, find a seat and wait.
Nothing fancy, just some good eats at great prices.

Perfectly solid 4-​star medi. Nice flavors, great seasonings on the meats. The chicken and kefta were better than the others we had (I want to say lamb or beef).
I know shewarma style varies from country to country and place to place but I’m just so partial to the kind we got in Israel — in a cut-​open, fluffy pita with hummus and sauce and all the things. These were in that more tortilla-​like wrap (no idea what it’s called) that you often get from more-​to-​the-​middle middle eastern places as opposed to a Greek gyro or Israeli shewarma’s pita-​centric style.
That said, the meat seasonings were good and it had lots of nice pickled pickley things, which I also come to expect in shewarmas. Happy to support a place like this for a downtown WC medi fix.

Really good Mediterranean food!
The restaurant itself has a lot of character with a colorful mural of celebrities painted across the interior of this place. The menu is pretty simple. wraps, plates or kabobs, and the prices are relatively reasonable especially since the portion sizes are huge.
I ordered the combo plate which comes with a mix of flavorful lamb and chicken atop a bed of yellow rice, a medley of veggies, hummus and pita bread on the side. The meat was extremely delicious… jam packed with a ton of flavor. Everything was so good I didn’t want to stop eating. But after eating just half of my serving. I was stuffed. My bf ordered the kabob combo which was equally delicious. The meat had a lot of char and smokiness to it.
This place packs great value for the price and the quality of the food. We’ll definitely be going back.

Delicious Mediterranean food! I usually have the Chicken Garlic Wrap (without the fries, which are usually a little under done). The wrap has tomatoes, pickles, and a delicious mixture of chicken and spices which can be made more or less spicy to your preference.
Their Turkish Coffee and homemade baklava make for an excellent dessert too! Service is polite and helpful, and the food takes only a few minutes to arrive after ordering at the counter.
Highly recommended!

This is the closest feel to a Mediterranean cart food in the area and it is very good! The place doesn’t have air conditioning so it may be a little warm during the summer days. The long rice and their yogurt dressing on the sale is very good! The lamb is a bit on the saltier side and the quantity is on the smaller side but overall really good food!