Amardeen Cafe

We had lunch here! It was awesome! They have a good selection of dishes! Delicious! The service was great!

This place was recommended by one of my co-​workers. A group of us came for lunch and since we were all first timers here, we decided to share dishes to try more things.
We ordered: meat fataya, spinach fataya, meat bryani, and chicken kabob for 4 people.
The best dish was the chicken kabob by far. It is a bit pricey at $ 20 for this dish alone. The chicken was moist and served with rice, hummus, garlic sauce, and tomatoe. The garlic sauce was good to mix in and add flavor. The fataya though they do have pine nuts, for me threw off the texture having nuts mixed in. We didn’t really finish either one of the fataya. The meat bryani was ok, but also heavy on the pine nuts.
Overall it was ok. We were expecting more and it didn’t quite live up to it. Prices are also a bit more since they don’t have lunch specials.

Other than being in a shopping plaza and not the most fun destination, you can’t go wrong here! The service and food were wonderful. They’re happy to explain any dish on the menu and serve fresh food. The atmosphere is great and the have an outdoor patio too.

One of the best mediterranean resturants in San Diego. Their chicken Kebab wrap is a must to try!

This cute restaurant probably has the most legitimate, authentic Mediterranean/​Lebanese cuisine that I’ve tried so far.
While I personally love Americanized Greek food, this restaurant was a refreshing change. My friend and I ordered the Meat Shawarma plate ($ 24), which came with pita bread, and a side of either fries, salad, or soup. The Meat Shawarma consisted of both lamb & beef meet.
The pita bread was especially good as it was completely soft and not as thick as most. The tzatziki sauce, however, was not my favorite as I like a thicker consistency. Their tzatsiki was very liquidy and wasn’t as flavorful as I would personally prefer.
But overall, this is a nice restaurant if you are willing to spend a bit more, as it is a tiny bit pricy for what it is. It has a nice atmosphere and would be perfect for a date! It’s located next to Phở UTC and CVS in the Town Square plaza and also has outdoor seating.

We ordered the vegetarian platter and chicken kebab. Everything was quite tasty but the best items were the falafel and chicken. The falafel was perfectly crisp on the outside as well as fluffy and moist on the inside. The chicken was so juicy, tender, and flavor-​packed. The falafel and the chicken kebab were probably some of the best, if not the best, that I’ve ever tasted!
I also enjoyed the baba ghanouj for its smokiness and the tabouli for its freshness. It was mostly chopped parsley, not very fine, which I like. Dolma was way too salty. Hummus had too much olive oil. Garlic paste could have been more garlicky. Now I’m just being too picky. I urge you to try the falafel and chicken now!

Date of visit: 8÷13÷12 015
I came here for dinner with Stacey and Jose to explore another La Jolla restaurant. Since Stacey is allergic to gluten, Mediterranean food is always a safe choice as there tends to be rice with most dishes.
I biked here from Sorrento Valley, but I noticed that the parking lot tends to be packed since there’s a CVS and a lot of other small restaurants in the same plaza. You can also park on the street and walk in, which might be easier if you don’t want to fight for a parking space.
Cauliflower Tagine. Jose ordered this as a side, but note that it comes with almonds. Since he’s allergic to nuts, he didn’t get to enjoy this dish, but I had a few bites. This dish includes deep fried cauliflower that’s covered in tahini sauce and topped with sumac and roasted nuts. I thought this was delicious — with a side of rice and hummus, it could be a meal itself.
Lentil Soup. The soup was an option to go with the entrée and after reading all of the reviews about the soup, I decided to try it. The warm soup was a good start to my meal, and although it’s not my favorite, it still ranks pretty high in my list. It also comes with a lemon wedge, which provided enough lemon juice to add some lemony flavor to my soup. Definitely worth a try, but I’ll probably try the salad next time.
Lamb Kebab Entrée. The entrée comes with soup, salad, or fries (I chose soup), rice, hummus, and your meat choice. The lamb kebab was pretty good — I really liked the bell peppers to offset the heavy meat, but wasn’t a big fan of the large amount of onions. The meat itself was seasoned well, but not necessarily melt in your mouth good like other lamb I’ve had. I would still recommend this dish. I had a lot of rice leftover because the bell peppers and hummus were more than enough to complement the meat. The hummus is pretty good. I like the consistency better than the hummus at Vanoos, but as far as flavor, the hummus at Alforon is still better.
Overall, Armadeen is pretty good, although can be expensive. My entrée itself was $ 24, not including the two glasses of wine that I consumed. Since I had to leave early, I left $ 40 for my portion, which was a little more than I wanted to spend on a dinner. If you’re in the area, it’s definitely worth a visit. I’ll be coming back if Cam and I are in the area and craving Mediterranean food.

So sad and disappointed. Dinner started off pretty great, but ended with a surprise — curly black hair baked into the pita bread.
Honestly, flavor profiles were pretty good, service was nice, but prices are super inflated for the dinner plates ($ 24+ for a chicken plate) and everything reasonable is small in portion.
My boyfriend and I split the maza platter, it seemed to have a little bit of everything which I enjoy eating in that semi sampling way. But when I ended the meal with the hair in the picture, there was just no saving the meal. We left quietly and won’t be returning.

Two words. Rami & Roula (ok three words if you count the «&»).
They are the funniest and best siblings working in the restaurant industry.
We visited Amardeen Café some weeks ago after a movie at Arclight. It was busy on a Fri night but we were able to get a table quickly.
We ordered:
BABA GHANOUJ
I don’t eat Mediterranean food often but feel that every baba ghanouj I’ve tried has never been the same. This eggplant dish tasted a bit too smokey for me but I enjoyed the creaminess of the dish.
GARLIC SPREAD
The spread indeed is fluffy but it needed more garlic-​intensity.
MEAT SHAWERMA
Friend really liked this wrap as he was starving after a long day’s work. Poor guy. He said the pita tasted warm and the meats tasted overall tender. I’m not sure if the fries are made in house?
SHISH KEBAB MIX
We choose chicken, koufta, and shrimp. The shrimp was my favorite with the koufta being second (favorite). The chicken breast was grilled too long and tasted a bit dry.
Service was great and the vibe of the restaurant was fun, relaxed, and laid back. The guys have been back for dinners and have tried different items. I hope to return soon and have another gut busting laughing meal.

Do you love garlic sauce? They make their garlic sauce from scratch and it’s amazing. I love garlic!
This is a great place to visit for shawarma wrap and steak fries. It’s what I order every time I visit. Yum!

A little pricey but pretty good food. Being middle eastern myself, the fattoush was under par. But the spinach pies (fatayer), warat seomi (vegetarian stuffed grape leaves), and kabobs were great. Decent service as well.

This place is great!
I really hope the best for this restaurant as it’s one of the those hidden gems in the local neighborhood! My Indian roommate highly recommended me this place a few months back but having not have the greatest experience with past Mediterranean/​Lebanese food, I was a little skeptical. But, after my first time here, I was in love and vowed to come back often!
Although small, this restaurant is well-​established and has nice décor! It’s a great place for couples and small groups! Staff is very friendly and helpful in recommending dishes.
I ordered the meatball appetizers and falafel, and both are amazing! Not too heavy (even though they’re fried), they’re great starters! I love the sauce it also comes with. As for main courses, the shwarma wrap is great as well as their rice dish heaped with lamb! Their meat has lots of flavor, and I especially love the yogurt sauce all the dishes come with! That sauce is addicting! It brings out the flavor of the lamb a whole lot more and balances the heaviness of the meat. All around great dishes! The naan is always very good and fresh!
I love the parking lot where this restaurant is located as it’s full of some of my favorite local restaurants! Definitely check this hidden gem! You will not be disappointed.
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I have been a regular customer at Amardeen ever and have not once been disappointed in the past couple of years.
Having Amardeen’s Lebanese food as a pregnancy craving, my son now has developed quite the affinity for Lebanese food n taken to it like a fish to water!
The quality of food remains consistently excellent and a lot of the wait staff become familiar with the regulars by face if not by name.
This continues to be my go to place to find good authentic Lebanese food and I hope they don’t change a thing!!!

Had food catered to us from here for lunch.
Chicken kebab — Marinated Chicken tenderloins, masterfully cooked, as chicken breast can be so easy to over cook and dry out, these were very juicy and tender.
Koufta kebab — ground sirloin mixed with a bunch of spices, i loved eating this one with the garlic sauce.
Beef Kebab — cubed beef, was nice and tender.
Spinach fatayer (baked Spinach Pies)
A mixture of spinach, onions, tomatoes, walnuts, sumac & lemon juice stuffed in a light fluffy dough. Its a vegan dish; It was good for not containing any kind of meat maybe better if they fried it but thats just me.
I wanted to order the kebeh ball, (ground meat stuffed inside ground bulgar wheat and deep fried) it would be both fried and contain meat! but we had vegetarians in our group so we had to get something for them. Next time i’m getting those fried kebab balls! I’m hoping this is the same thing I’ve had in Turkey, they were D-​lish.
I loved the garlic sauce and hummus i put it on everything! I also liked how their pita bread was much thinner and less fluffy than what you’d find at a greek restaurant, it was kind of in between a pita and a tortilla but still delicious.
The only thing i didn’t care for was the salad, there was too much dried seasoning sprinkled over the top of it.
The baklava was a bit different than the greek kind that you’re used to, these are rolled, but they are Delicious! These would be great to bring to a potluck.

The Amardeen Meza Platter! Get it! It is only $ 28 and the two of us were stuffed! The chicken and meat schwarma are on point! And the garlic sauce to go with the bread and the hummus and the meat and the… all of it! I don’t even like falafels and I enjoyed this meal very much! You could probably share this three ways and it would be a good meal for all… they even brought us more bread! (though we didn’t need it). This was a great order since it gave us a chance to try a lot of different items on their menu. I’ll definitely go back to try more items on the menu!

This seems like a great spot for a legit, inexpensive meal under $ 10 if you’re shopping at the nearby UTC mall and don’t want food court food. I normally just stick to Veggie Grill by Macy’s (which I love) but am glad that I can consider this place now as an option.
A friend recommended we stop by for a quick dinner recently and we both ordered schwarma wraps. The wraps come with a side: salad, fries or soup and we both opted for the lentil soup. I really loved the big bowl of hearty soup. I got the meat schwarma which had charbroiled beef and lamb. I found the meat to be kind of tough and wish it were more tender. The actual wrap enclosing the meat and red pepper/​onion/​sauce was delicious and chewy, tastes homemade, not prepackaged pita bread. The wraps are $ 7.50 for multiple vegetarian options and about a dollar more for meat options.
Although the wraps were café prices, Amardeen is a full restaurant with good service in cozy well decorated atmosphere. There are pricier, more robust dishes where you could enjoy a bigger or fancier meal.

Great service, great food, nice location. Their hummus is superb! I really like their Ouami lamb. They are fast (in and out for lunch in 50 minutes).
Difficult for parking at noon tough. Other than that, I definitely recommend this place.

Delicious food! Had the lamb biryani which was very good but I thought the rice to meet ratio was a little off and it was a little dry for my taste so I got a side of yogurt.
Friends got meat shawarma wrap, lamb kebab, kafta sayneyeh and Halibut — all looked good and tasted good. Humus was very good but a little under seasoned for my taste.
Service was good but a little slow — it was lunch time though so it didn’t bother us. We also order the coffee which was really strong and smelled and tasted great. They bring it out in a traditional pot and make it an experience.
The tables are so pretty! Lol. The ambience is very pretty. Had the peach drink which was too sweet but had good flavor.
I would def go back.
PS: Really cute servers! Ahaha one guy had the most gorgeous eyes ever!

I had lunch at Amardeen the other day for the first time. Surprised that I haven’t been here sooner since it’s so close to work. It wasn’t really busy so we were able to get a table (for 2) right away. Although not too busy, it still took a little while to get our bill since it appeared that there was really only one server for all of the tables.
Food:
They offer an $ 8 lunch special on any of their chicken wraps (chicken shawerma, chicken kebab, chicken breast wrap) that comes with a side (soup, salad, or fries) and a drink. Pretty good deal for $ 8! The salad was pretty good, but it a little too much dressing on it for my taste. When we asked about the difference between the shawerma and the kebab, our server said it’s pretty much the same thing, the shawerma had more spices and it is cut into pieces while the kabob had bigger pieces. The chicken shawerma was pretty good and had a nice garlic sauce in it and tomatoes. It wasn’t too big though, but it did fill me up.
Service:
Seemed like it was a family owned/​run business. One gal asked us what we’d like to drink when we first sat down but she couldn’t take our order. We were never offered any refills while we were there and we had to go ask someone else for our bill when our server didn’t return with it like he said he would (we told him we had to leave for a meeting and were in a bit of a hurry).
Even though service wasn’t the greatest, I’ll definitely check out Amardeen again since it’s close by and reasonably priced for good Mediterranean food.

I don’t know if it’s just that I love Mediterranean food, or the places I go to are always top notch. This place is comparable to Aladdin’s, but with lesser service.
I came here for a work dinner, so we had a pretty big (and loud) party. We made reservations for about 20 and they had our table set up for us right on time!
We had ordered hummus and pita for the entire table, and various appetizers. My favorite was the falafel, and of course the hummus and pita. By the time we’d gotten through with appetizers, I was so full that I actually couldn’t order an entrée! That pita and hummus is so fresh that it’s hard to stop yourself!
Because our party was so big, we got pretty loud throughout the evening (unintentionally of course) and were actually asked by another table nearby to keep the volume down. The waiters and waitresses never asked us to keep it down even though I’m sure we were causing a huge ruckus. The service was great, but they definitely didn’t go out of their way to make us feel welcomed the same way that Aladdin’s does. This is really the only reason why I prefer Aladdin’s over Amardeen, although I like the location of Amardeen much better.