Mawadda Cafe

The food here is top notch and the owner is very nice. What a great place to come eat when your tired of the standard greasy cheese burger. I recommend #9 Saltani you get to try 3 different deliciously prepared meats.

Food was good. I had hummus platter, falafel sandwich and greek salad. It was 66 degrees outside but the air conditioning inside was cranking away at full blast. I felt like I was in a meat locker, very uncomfortable especially to my cold hands trying to eat. My winter hoodie helped some but not for the hands. Service is very very slow, but the people are nice. They seem to stay in the back kitchen way toooo long.

A terrific find! We would have been here sooner if we had known they existed! My hubby and I were looking for a place away from all the holiday festivities and boy were we pleased. We shared the scrumptious hummus appetizer. Hubby had the Meso Kabobs with rice and hummus. I was surprised, for a meat and potatoes eater he gobbled it up! I enjoyed the felafel salad with a delicious pomegranate vinaigrette dressing; the felafel was the best I have ever tasted. Then there was the Chai tea. I was surprised. .. It tasted like a slightly sweet and light coffee latte; and it doesn’t even contain coffee! Overall we enjoyed it thoroughly and will be returning often.

I love this place. I get their veggie combo that comes with a Greek salad, spanikopita, 2 falafel, 2 dolmas and hummus. Mmm. They also do gyro specials for lunch that are $ 5 or $ 6.

I just found this greek café in the Fred Meyer parking lot (North end) and had a taste for a greek salad. For $ 6.59 I got the best greek salad I’ve had in a long time complete with a slice of pita bread. Very good size, nice colorful greens, generous amounts of cucumbers, tomatoes and sliced red onions and a side of dressing. Plus, the man working there was very pleasant.
Will be back.

Gyro salad was pretty boring. Bunch of Romaine w/​2 olives, 4 – 5 onion bits, and a couple Cuke and Tomato slices. Boring Tzatziki as well.

First, this place would’ve received a 5^th star had it not been such terrible service. I walked in at 12 noon, the place had 1 customer in there besides myself and initially there was no sign of any employee, as they were all in the kitchen. I waited at the counter for about 5 mins when finally someone came out and took my order, I was told then to take a seat it would be a few minutes. I didn’t see anyone who worked there for another 10 – 15 mins, I could here them talking in back making food. During that time, another customer came in, waited a bit and then left. I ordered the Lamb Gyro and it was amazing, also Grape Stuffed Leaves was tasty. Definitely give them a try, oh and don’t forget to order a drink, they don’t have waiters/​staff apparently and I was never asked for one but I wanted to. Great food, bad customer service experience.

Let me start by saying I called ahead of time to inquire what time they closed? We arrived 20 minutes prior to closing with the intent of placing a to go order and the man announced they were closed when we entrred. Upon questioning him, he agreed to take our order. Not off to a good start… grape leaves and fallafel were good, gyros meat was tough spanikopita was stale and bland. Very small portions for the price. Don’t waste your time or money. Much better options out there.

Chicken Shawarma entrée is delicious for those who like spicy food. Comes with salad, small serving of pita, hummus, rice, and tzatziki sauce — very large portions. Family liked other orders like large salad and chicken kebab plate.

I’ve eaten Middle Eastern all over the country and have never been so happy with the food as I am with Mawadda. I can’t say enough good things about the food and recommend it to everyone I know.
Great service, reasonable prices, amazing flavors!

I go here all the time whether I eat there or call it in to pick it up. The guys knows me and my family and always remember our orders. I highly suggest the stuffed grape leaves and the gyro salad. Always a pleasure going in and forever one of my favorites.

Stopped by after dropping someone off for a flight.
Chicken kebab was not dry after driving the 40 minutes back home, 1 star just for that. I know, I should have given into the Smell of the Garlic God in the backseat, pulled over & partook, but the leather’s still nice & I’m trade-​in conscious to a fault. Also, the hubby’s schwarma was in the bag & however illogical, it seemed wrong to eat the goods without him.
I splurged and got the Sultana plate. No doubt, the best spiced ground beef/​lamb I’ve ever had. I will return for this alone. Perfectly spiced, tender and just fantastic! The chicken was seasoned nicely, moist and the lamb kebab was pretty good as well. Not the best I’ve ever had in terms of tenderness but definitely up there.

This place is amazing. Simply the best Middle-​Eastern/​Greek you’ll find anywhere. The lamb anything is always fantastic and no matter what kind of Samba you get you’re in for a real treat!!!

Nice place for some great Mediterranean food! I had a Falafel Sandwich with a salad and my wife the Gyro Salad. Both meals tasted great and we will be coming back for sure. Staff was friendly and the place was clean.

There are three Mawadda Cafes and I’ve been to all of them. They’re all slightly different.
This one excels at making Falafels. They are amazing. They are the best Falafels I’ve ever had.
The gyro sandwiches are ok, but the yogurt sauce they put on them at this particular Mawadda has something that lowers the over flavor. No Ther Mawadda makes their Gyro sandwich like this.
Service is ok. Workers are always nice. Place seems a little dated, but they make it up with the awesome Falafels.
Watch out for the giant stuffed tiger in their hallway.

My wife and I read through all these reviews and some were bad but we went anyway and I’m glad we did. This place was busy. The owner was very nice. The place was classy, clean and very pleasant. The food was to die for. We ordered several plates so we could try them all. I couldn’t decide which one I liked most. This food is amazing. I only regret is that I wish I had known about this place a year ago when we moved into the area. We had the chicken kabob, chicken swarma and lamb gyro’s. All were best I’ve had in years. Also worth mentioning is that I have acid reflux, but did not experience this with the food here. I forgot to mention the salad was crisp and perfectly spiced.
Personally, I think these other bad reviews are BS. The recipes, cooking and delivery were all top notch. I was going to another place in west seattle that had great reviews but their food was dry, the owners were rude, the place was old and dirty, and it took them two hours to get our food out for take out. Granted they were busy, but why would I make that drive for half the service and worse food?

I was excited to get a gyros salad today because I haven’t had Greek food in a while and for some reason was craving tatziki. Boy am I sad I chose to go to Burien Mawadda! My first red flag should have been when I walked in and there was hardly anyone in there — only one table of two at 12:30 — when the place should be packed with lunch goers. I ordered my gyros salad with a «side of tatziki» — thinking it would come with a vinaigrette, but I also wanted the tatziki to dip my gyro meat in. The guy was about to charge me, but gave me a sideways glance and asked «how many do you want?» When I told him only one, he decided not to charge extra.
My salad was to-​go, so when I got back to work I was super disappointed to see a sad looking «salad» if that’s what you could call it. The gyro meat was dry and spongey and seemed old. AND the salad came with no dressing! There was only one tiny little tatziki sauce! I don’t know if that’s usually all it comes with (if so, that’s crazy) or if the guy thought that by me saying I wanted a side of tatziki that I didn’t want dressing?! Either way he should have either a) given me dressing or b) told me it only comes with one small sauce, so that I could have asked for two!
Not only that, the tatziki sauce was nothing like the creamy, lemony, cucumber-​dill sauce I expected, but a watery, curdled mess that tasted a little «off.» I ate it because I was starving! And of course, about 30 mins to an hour later, I had a terrible stomach — the salad got me sick! :-(
I don’t know how this place has so many good reviews. The food is whack!

This was my 2^nd time here, as there aren’t many «Mediterranean» places in Burien, and I figure that I should give them another chance. Bad idea.
This review is based on both trips, and I’ve had everything twice.
Falafel is overcooked. Not burnt, but extremely dry and not much color.
Dolmas were slimy and tasted 2 days old (or more?), and the «large» hummus came with one pits (which would’ve been 4 pieces if cut up), so how many piece would a «small» get?
The tahini tasted old and was slimy as well. Even if I wanted to eat the tahini, I had no pita for it.
Hummus was flavorless and runny. I threw my dolmas ($ 5.99 for 6) away, and was unable to eat the rest of my hummus as I had no pita.
Bottom line– I spent $ 15.00 on a ½ a large hummus and 1 slimy dolma.
I will not be going back– perhaps their meat dishes are better, but the very basic staples that are part of every Mediterranean meal are horrible, so I wouldn’t recommend risking it– or wasting your money.

Ordered falafel, stuffed grape leaves, hummus combo.
Loved the falafel.
The stuffed grape leaves were too sour for my taste.
The hummus was very disappointing, tasted weird (I LOVE hummus. I recommend habibi Mediterranean & Greek restaurant).
Ate ²⁄₂ fafafel, ²⁄₃ stuffed grape leaves, ¹⁄₆^th hummus & because I wasn’t satisfied, I ordered the chicken sambosa (they ran out of beef). Glad it had good flavor.
I will return fire more sambosas & to try the gyros & shawarma.

Let me start by saying I have eaten falafel and hummus all over Israel, Jordan, and even Egypt. I’ve had kofte in all those places, plus many in Turkey. I love these foods and seek them out. With the good reviews I thought I’d give this place a try when I went to SeaTac.
I was a bit disappointed. The falafels were blagh. I believe they were made from a dry mix, not freshly made. Taste was bland. Texture too dense. Undercooked on the inside. No one would dare serve these in Israel or Jordan.
I also had the chicken shawarma. It was good, a little spicy. Real shawarma is sliced off a rotating spit. This was just spiced and fried in a pan. Not bad, but not real shawarma.
I will say that their pita bread was fresh and soft, something (amazingly) many Seattle Middle East eateries can’t seem to serve.
The staff was attentive and polite. Price was OK. I may try some of their other offerings next time I go to the airport and possible adjust my review.