Fava Mezze

This place is in the heart of it all. iChat forward menu and courteous staff. I felt right at home! Everyone GO!

Mezze for two is $ 20 and totally worth it. We had 5 different mezzes, enough for lunch and some leftovers. Their hummus and baba ganoush were the best I’ve had in Atlanta, accompanied by soft fluffy pita triangle pillows. Lamb and beef kebabs were seasoned and grilled perfectly. The place is bright, clean, and friendly. I felt like royalty eating on their gold trimmed plates.
They’ve been in the catering biz for 20+ years and I’m glad they finally opened a quaint resto. My only gripe is that they’re only open for lunch.

While the experience needs a little polish and settling this was not a bad meal at all. Confusing menus, sure, but I felt like Mo would rather have just brought us out some tasty treats and sat down and talked about life with us, rather than take our order and stay distant. And not in a bad way.
Most of the plates are tapas style, so you can try everything for not too much. And if you bring a friend and you get sandwiches and a side you’re only out $ 9 a piece plus tip. I recommend the grape leaves. Pretty normal lunch prices for the area.
Also it’s very common to add a tip for scoutmobbers even if it’s just one diner, so that’s not out of the ordinary and not something you should take as a negative when considering coming here for lunch.

Went here for lunch. The place is small, and there are only about 7 or 8 tables. There were three other parties seated when we arrived, and as others have noted the only server was the boisterous owner. In spite of this, my girlfriend and I got relatively prompt service (and my water glass was never empty for long).
We started with the grape leaves ($ 6) and falafel platter ($ 6). We recieved five large grape leaves and six falafel. The falafel were the best I’ve ever had, hands down, and I’ve eaten a lot of falafel. The grape leaves were good, and I’m puzzled by the previous reviewer’s description of them as «mushy.» In my experience, most dolmas are somewhat «mushy» and what made these particular grape leaves unique was that they were the opposite. They were actually far more rigidly packed with rice than any grape leaves I have had before, and had a unique flavor which was quite good but not what I was expecting.
Next we had the meat shawarma ($ 6) and the shish kafta kebobs ($ 9 — the menu on the website is out of date and lists these as $ 6). The shawarma was delicious, with a generous serving of marinated beef on a fluffy pita. The kafta consisted of four balls of medium-​rare seasoned ground beef and a small salad. The beef was delicious, and cooking it medium rare really made it for me. At this point we also ordered the Foul Medammas ($ 6) because we liked everything else we’d had so much and it looked good. It was fantastic.
We got our leftovers boxed up promptly, and paid at the register. They do not accept credit cards, but there is an ATM in the restaurant (which, quite unforunately, charges a $ 2.75 fee). All prices included tax, so after my girlfriend and I stuffed our faces (and I am a glutton) our total was $ 33 even. Add baklava ($ 1.75) and subtract $ 10 for my
coupon and this outing cost me $ 27.50 plus tip (and including the ATM fee). It was well worth it, and would have been even without the coupon. Also, my tip was definitely not automatically included or even suggested, as another reviewer claimed that theirs was.
Ate the baklava on the way back to work and it was the best I’ve ever had.

We went a couple weeks ago to use our Scoutmob coupon and were absolutely disappointed in the whole experience. The food was terrible. We had a salad that had three ingredient including one we asked to hold. I could get a better salad at McDonalds. The stuffed grape leaves were so mushy and gross it was as if eating porridge wrapped in a soggy leaf. By far the worst I have ever had. The only item that was halfway decent was the chicken scwarma. If not for everything else wrong with the place I could have probably overlooked the cold pita it was wrapped in and the tomatoes that I asked them to leave out. The service was abysmal but I will blame that on lack of preparation for the post scoutmob rush. I would never go back here again.

«I am still reeling from that lunch» — memorable words from my co-​worker that summed up our lunch excursion to Fava Mezze. We tried out this place thanks to Scoutmob, I think. It’s a new Mediterranean resto located next to Antico Pizza. The place is small, somewhat sparse, but clean. The owner is a large, boisterous, and quirky guy who was extremely pleased with the simplicity of the menu which was mainly split into sandwiches and sides. «Everything is $ 6! Makes it easier» he boomed. They do not take credit cards because he’s «from the old country» but for your convenience, there is an ATM on the premises.
He recommended that our party get the mezze sampler for 4 ($ 35) since it was a better deal. It came with 2 meats and 3 vegetable sides. We chose the lamb kebobs and chicken shwarma for our meats; grape leaves, falafel, and a fava bean dip for the vegetable sides.
What we got was a small plate with 2 small grape leaves, 2 very small falafel, and some fava bean dip. Quizzically wondering how we were going to split this less than plentiful bounty, we pointed this out to the owner who boomed «Man you know how it is. You tell the kitchen and sometimes they just never get it right. I’ll take care of ya!» Ok sorta funny. For a second.
We got a second plate of the same, small portions, and an extra side of hummus on the house. The pita was fluffy and actually pretty great. «It’s the real stuff. Comes from a bakery!» But then, things didn’t fare much better with the meats. We receive 2 wrapped gyros. Again, really? We’re suppose to share that? The gyros were good though mostly stuffed with salad and the lamb kebob sandwich had roughly 3 cubes of lamb in it.
I calculated that if we’d gotten 2 sandwiches and 3 sides separately — it would’ve come to $ 30. We paid $ 5 more to get what appeared to be single serving portions. Despite the Scoutmob discount, I’d be hard pressed to go back. It’s a pricey lunch — you’re basically out about $ 12 if you want a side to go with your sandwich. Drinks? No clue. We weren’t really offered water or beverages until we were mostly done picking through the sandwiches.
Overall food was okay. The staff, not just the owner, were pretty quirky, sometimes downright surly. If you stick with sandwiches, you may fare better. Also, the owner will tack on tip for everyone, not just large parties. I heard him say to someone at the register: «That’ll be $ 6 even, includes tax. Oh and $ 2 for tip so your total will be $ 8.» That takes some balls.