We've been driving past this place for a year and a half to make fun of its "Coming Soon" sign. Today they finally had a soft opening. It's raining, the whole street is torn up for water main work, and the sidewalk was also torn up, so it's possibly the worst day for a restaurant opening possible.
Inside is very clean and pleasant, with a few other tables of people braving the rain and construction for the opening as well. Assorted booths and tables, lots of natural light.
There is an electronic ordering kiosk. I hate these but at least this one doesn't work yet. The employees were having a hard time running the POS system but we got our lunch order in and waited. No diet coke, but they have a bunch of super fancy Crodo Italian sodas.
Tabouli: second best we've had in the cities, right after Babani's which is unfair as Babani's is magical and has had the best tabouli for over twenty years. But this tabouli had a generous proportion of parsley vs. bulgur wheat, plenty of tomatoes and fine chopped onion, almost too much salt but not quite, and a good helping of olive oil and lemon juice to make it wet without drowning it.
The server brought out warmed pita to go with the hummus. Hummus was very nice, well textured with a couple of ornamental chickpeas, fine chopped herbs, a nice glug of high quality olive oil and a visible sprinkling of ground sumac which I don't see enough of.
The Ali Baba falafel sandwich is 50c more than a regular falafel sandwich and appears well worth it. The falafel could be slightly crisper but the inside is green with parsley and the crust is properly browned. The sandwich is rolled up like a burrito in what might just be a tortilla, or maybe a white flour lavash if such a thing exists. The insides include red cabbage, pickled veg, cauliflower, an grilled eggplant (I don't think it's quite baba ganoush, just eggplant). It's disturbingly close to how I make my own when I can be bothered to haul out my deep fryer.
The beef shawarma was cut into very fine shreds and lightly seasoned with the house za'atar. Oddly this was the plainest thing on the table but it was still good. Comes with a (correctly) thin and lemony tahini sauce. The rice side (when you choose rice or fries) is very well made with an herb overtone I can't quite identify. It's a little yellowish; maybe saffron instead of turmeric? This is my first time eating there so I can't say for sure.
The baklava was ordinary, but good ordinary.
Everyone who worked there was very pleasant and unnecessarily apologetic about the rain and construction.
This place is a great addition to the north end. Yes, Krungthep is across the street and also fantastic, but Rice Street alone has what, 6 or 7 Thai restaurants, and I could not find a good shawarma to save my life. Well, now I can. read more