Soumarelo

The place now Closed! No answer phones and at door it says please text this number 818−272−9552 for cooperation the latest re-​open. However, no one answer! i got one last Voucher… perhaps NO GOOD :(

My incentive to come here was a groupon. I ended up purchasing a family dinner and a lulu kebab meal. There was so much food that my fiancé had a nice lunch the next day. Rotisserie chicken can get dry but this chicken was moist, tender and super flavorful. Even leftover chicken the next day retained the juiciness! I would rather drive the extra distance to Soumarelo to pick up a rotisserie for dinner than to go to Vons down the street. AND they give a massive amount of ice cream for a badass price!

My favorite thing here were the fries. They were fried perfectly, and at $ 1.50, it’s a sure bet.
But for the food, it was not that great. I ordered the beef kebab plate. Rice was ok, beef was overcooked and hard, salad was just a salad, and the hummus tasted off and was a bit more watery than I like.

My parents loved the whole chicken meal here. They raved about the chicken and deemed it the best rotisserie chicken anywhere. They also really liked the flavorful rice which is surprising because they are very particular about rice, being Asian and all lol. So yeah, two thumbs up from my folks who are usually picky eaters. I had the beef shawarma plate myself and thoroughly enjoyed my meal.

I used a Unilocal deal here ($ 10 for $ 20 coupon). $ 20 worth of food at this place is A LOT. I remember carrying home 2 full bags of food. The food was good and there was a lot of it. I can’t complain much about this place.

I was prepared to give this place 5 stars a few months ago, but felt really burned by how they essentially disappeared and would not open during the last weeks of their online special.
The thing about Soumarelo is that the chicken is much better than Zankou and it feels good patronizing a family business that didn’t result in a murder-​suicide (Google Zankou family and you’ll know) in Glendale.
Still, even when I was loving them, they often would not open on time, and didn’t answer their phone. They often got call-​in orders wrong, but I forgave them. I just put up with enough of their excuses and my self-​explanations and reached a breaking point. You can make good food, but if your customer service is terrible and you can’t be bothered to be open when you say you are – then why should I pay money for food at your business or give you a rating you didn’t deserve?

I’ve never had to try so hard to try a restaurant as I have with Soumarelo. The reviews for the rotisserie chicken here is pretty great so I’ve been interested in trying it. Once, I stopped by before the stated closing time and it was closed.
When I finally caught them open, I picked up a rotisserie chicken, side of mushroom salad, white rice, and garlic sauce. The chicken was presliced and sitting in a chaffing dish. I didn’t see any chickens spinning anywhere — there was no smell of roasting chickens, nada. It was pretty average stuff — average skin, average marinade, average taste. I don’t see what the fuss is about. The mushroom salad was canned mushrooms marinated with a tomato, onion, and dill mixture. It was salty and very pungent.
The service at this place is really weird. I called on my 2^nd visit to make sure that they were open and told them I wanted a whole chicken. When I came in a little later than I told them I expected to come in, I was chastised and told they gave away some of my chicken. They had more so I’m not sure what the big deal was and why they acted like my phone call was a binding contract. The cashier was very chatty in an uncomfortable, self-​aggrandizing way.

Did the Unilocal $ 10 for $ 20 deal, which made the two $ 10 Gyros plates we had a great lunch price. They’ve got some fierce comparisons with my local Gyros proprietors, and for that reason alone, it’s hard to rate them more highly. There was a store-​bought quality to the meat and hummus, which nevertheless tasted fine. I would return for a Unilocal deal lunch, or possibly the rotisserie, which seems to be more well regarded.

It’s rotisserie chicken… It was good, but nothing that special. I would suggest just heading to Costco and get the same thing for $ 5.
It may just be my opinion, but I can never give Chicken at a restaurant a review that is better than 4 stars. As we just took the food as take out, there really was nothing memorable to this meal. Not bad, but I doubt I will be back…

I would write a full review on the place but when I got there it was closed! I arrived around 5, well within business hours. See from my car that the place says «Open». I go up to the door, pull on the handle and it doesn’t budge! Peek inside and it’s dark with no one, yet multiple signs on the windows saying it’s open.
I suggest if you do decide to even try this place you call and make sure they actually feel like opening that day. Definitely won’t be going back, open or not!

I wanted to redeem my new Groupon that I purchased for this place recently. Unfortunately, this place was closed. I came to this place on a Wednesday at 11:15am. The door had posted hours stating that it was open at 11am on a Wednesday. I was thoroughly disappointed that they were not open. Not only that, I made a trek to come to this place to have it be closed. It is not a good business practice to not open your store. I tried to open and knock on the door but it was definitely locked shut. You would think that there would be at least prepping food in the store but that was definitely not the case.

I got the whole chicken deal (8.99) that comes with 16 oz rice, 4 pita, 2 garlic sauces and 2 sweet & sour sauce. This can feed 2 – 3 people.
+ Chicken was tender and juicy
+ The guy said they don’t add chemicals to tenderize their meat
— Don’t open weekends :(
— Parking may be hard, park in residential
— Inside looks a little shabby but he says they’re going to remodel soon!

The chicken is good. It was soft and juicy and some of the skin was crispy. I also enjoyed the hummus and pita bread.
However, the shawarma plate was so disappointing. It looked like a pile of meat scraps… almost like ground beef (you can see in the photo I took). The owner (or worker?) saw in my face that something was wrong and asked me to confirm that I ordered the shawarma. I said yes, but that I did not expect it to look like this (does not even look like the menu!) and I asked if it was ground meat. He said no and explained something that I did not understand about sandwiches (what?), but anyways, I said it was fine. I’m not a shawarma pro so I thought maybe there is shawarma that looks like this.
The shawarma meat was sitting on top of rice. The rice was sitting in a brown puddle of grease which came from the meat. That really ruined the bottom part of the rice. If I had been eating off that plate alone, it would have been wayyyy too oily to enjoy. The rest of the plate had hummus, salad, peppers, french fries and pita bread.
Despite this, I think the employees were trying hard to give us good service. We had to wait 40 minutes for food, so they brought out complimentary hummus and pita bread. They were friendly, and the same guy, who I talked to about the shawarma, asked me at the end of the meal how it was because I looked so confused. I explained that I’ve always had shawarma sliced up… and he said he would do that for me next time I come back.
I’m still skeptical about the shawarma I got today for dinner though… Was he trying to pass off meat scraps as shawarma??? I feel like I should be angry. No one else posted pictures of their shawarma for me to compare. Maybe just stick to the chicken!

I went there today with my family with Groupon voucher and must say all the other Unilocalers were right about this place. Arthur the Chef was welcoming, respectful and very friendly. Even though they were out of certain items and menu needs to be updated on Unilocal,he made us feel welcome. Food was delicious (Beef Lula Kabob), Jalapemus, rice was sooo good and pita chips. Don’t get scared with exterior look of this business, they are simple, friendly and food is cooked fresh at affordable price. I would definitely return and you should too:)

I had a similar experience as the previous reviewer… used to frequent this place always, loved their amazing chicken kabob plate and hummus. It was closed for quite some time for ‘renovations’ or whatever, and recently re-​opened [unbeknownst to me]. Ordered take-​out on a whim a while back and was super stoked to hear that they were open. Some sort of change in ownership had taken place, seems to me…
Chicken kabob: Was extremely undercooked, actual parts of meat were flat-​out raw. Had to microwave the chicken when I got home — although the seasonings and marinade were delish, just as they were before.
Rice Pilaf: Not bad, although seemed a bit plainer than it was before.
Hummus: Didn’t seem too much different than before.
Greek Salad: Far less ingredients and flavor than before, and was COMPLETELY missing the salad dressing. Dry as a bone. Boo…
Didn’t get the colorful, Armenian pickled veggies that they once served with this entrée.
Hopefully this place can turn it around, I’d consider giving them another try.

My favorite mediterranean place to go to!
Amazing chicken! A must have!
Make sure to call in your order in advance if you want to pick it up, because it takes awhile if you order everything there but at the end the food is delicious and worth it!

We came here because so many people said you have to try their chicken. So we finally did. What a nightmarish experience it turned into.
The good:
–The chicken was good. Not the best, but good, and a decent price.
The bad:
–I wasn’t in the mood for meat, so I got the falafel. It was dry it turned into paste in my mouth. YUCK! It was truly foul. The sides were not much better.
–The price for what you got sucked.
The ugly:
–CUSTOMER SERVICE WAS APPALLING! We asked for a rotisserie chicken. The guy almost yells at us that he does not sell rotisserie chicken. Well on the window outside it says you do. He insists that he sells chicken, not rotisserie chicken. It only goes down hill from there. The menu is a bit confusing. He got very upset with us because we were not ordering quickly enough, and we didn’t understand the multistep process. He also got upset with the people ordering after us for the same reason. I felt so confused and badgered.
–Did I mention how bad everything that wasn’t chicken was? Truly terrible.
Will I come back? NO!

Rather than going to visit the busy and pricier Zankou, I decided to go here instead with a friend and toddler in tow. We ordered the full rotisserie chicken and the gyro plate. If you order just the rotisserie chicken it comes with 1 side order of buttery rice pilaf, a whole bag of pita bread, garlic sauce and a sweet/​spicy sauce. I honestly prefer getting the ½ chicken plate since it also comes with hummus and salad to nicely complement the starch and protein.
The place was pretty dead for a Wednesday night and wish it would get more business at night… but the location is pretty bad/​dead at night. I wouldn’t be surprised if they just do 11−6pm hours instead. The garlic sauce isn’t as crazy as Zankou’s but I actually prefer the one here.
Anyway, good food, great prices and also $.35 per scoop ice-​cream. Can’t beat that!

At a higher price, Soumarelo would fall to a three. Everybody keeps comparing their food (namely the chicken) to Zankou, but I’ve got to ask: is you out of your mind? Not «are», «is» — it feels more meaningful that way.
Zankou’s got Soumarelo beat by a long shot when it comes to flavor. Better hummus, better garlic sauce stuff, better chicken, better beef, everything. Fortunately for Soumarelo, however, they present a slightly better value than Zankou. Slightly.
The biggest complaints here seem to be about the service and the cleanliness. Look: this place is a ghetto little joint, clearly, and expectations seem to be running WAY too high. It seems more like a little liquor store that happens to sell chicken than an actual restaurant. Bring a date here if you plan on being dumped because she thinks you’re a cheap fuck. In other words: it’s a take-​out-​only kind of joint. Is the guy «clean»? Who the fuck cares? It’s like having your big Armenian friend make BBQ for you at the park. Except he’s not really your friend… And he’s not a very happy guy either… In fact, you have no idea why you’re at the park with this unhappy, fat man, but at least he’s cooking good food for you… As long as he’s not picking his nose and then shoving his finger into my chicken’s ass, I’m okay with it.
The website is pretty funny. There’s a picture of a seat with tables, and the nice blue color leads you to believe there’s some kind of warm, fresh atmosphere here. But no, it’s literally like all the furniture they have, so they took a picture of it (okay, I’m exaggerating a tiny bit, but you get the idea).
Call your order in, pick up in 20 minutes, enjoy. $ 9-​$ 10 will be more than a meal for one. Good food, great value, excusable service and cleanliness. I’ll be going back, but Zankou’s definitely higher up on the rotation.

This place had more variety over Zankou and the place near me, Zuzu. They have several salads to pick from including cabbage, kidney bean, eggplant, etc. They have muhammara (walnut red pepper dip), jalapeño hummus, mutabel. Under entrees, they have a pressed cheese sandwich as well as a presed soujouk sandwich. I liked that. I would not go out of my way for it, but I wish the one near me had more salad and sandwich choices. But I found the food and hummus to be pretty much the same as the one near me. I think the garlic paste was not as garlicky which was a bit disapppointing. But he had signed hockey photos up of Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown, so I had to let that slide.
We ordered the ¼ chicken plate and the falafel plate. The falafel plate generously had 6 falafels, which I found crisp and not too dry. My thigh and leg was kinda small, but very moist and tender. The muhammara was not as spicy as I like and more on the sweet side.
If you go at lunchtime during the week, prepare to share the place with all the highschool kids. It was teeming with them and every single one of them only orders a box of french fries. They are missing out on some good food.