AVI CUE
Middle Eastern restaurant · Studio City
11288 Ventura Blvd, Studio City, CA 91604
Highlights
Wagyu shawarma sandwiches, arayes, and fries with complimentary coffee.
Wagyu shawarma sandwiches, arayes, and fries with complimentary coffee.
"Chef Aviad Yalin’s spit-roasted wagyu beef shawarma pop-up now has a permanent home in Studio City. The wagyu shawarma sandwich is the main attraction, served in a warm pita with tomatoes, onions, and parsley, and drizzled with tahini and amba sauce. Avi Cue’s small but impressive menu also offers loaded shawarma fries and ground wagyu-filled arayes. Any gluten-intolerant diners can order shawarma over a a bed of refreshing, lemony arugula salad." - Mona Holmes
"Street food always makes for good Labor Day party cuisine; it’s often designed to be eaten while standing up or walking around, meaning the host needs fewer seats. And the shawarma sandwiches from this Sherman Oaks purveyor of wagyu fit the bill perfectly, with slices of the delicate meat and traditional Middle Eastern toppings stuffed into pita. But don’t ignore the arayes, either, with ground beef filled into a pita and griddled. A few orders of these, and your group of friends will be pleasantly stuffed themselves." - Robert Spuhler
"Even if there’s a line out front, meals at Avi Cue in Studio City happen at lightning speed—we’ve never spent more than 20 minutes inside this order-at-the-counter shop. The bare-bones menu starts and ends with a shawarma sandwich, arayes, fries, and a nutella-stuffed dessert pita. Skip past the ground beef-stuffed arayes (the $7 price tag feels steep for what is essentially two bites of food). Instead, if you’re by yourself, focus on the sandwich with juicy, spit-roasted wagyu beef, tomato, onion, parsley, tahini, and tangy amba. It’ll keep you full well past dinner. " - sylvio martins, brant cox, nikko duren
"Chef Aviad Yalin’s spit-roasted wagyu shawarma pop-up now has a permanent home in Studio City. The wagyu shawarma sandwich is the main attraction, served in a warm pita with tomatoes, onions, and parsley, and drizzled with tahini and amba sauce. Avi Cue’s small but impressive menu also offers loaded shawarma fries and ground wagyu-filled arayes." - Virali_Dave, Jessie Evans
"Shawarma is having a moment in Los Angeles, spurred on by spots in the San Fernando Valley and South Bay strip malls, specifically. It’s easy to understand why, given the ubiquity of the dish globally and its ability to pack big flavors into small bites. But there is no one in LA doing shawarma quite like Avi Cue, the master of the wagyu spit. Right now, his meaty pita sandwiches may just be the best bite of food anywhere in LA. Owner Aviad Yalin’s Studio City strip mall space — really just a light refresh of a closed Tacos 1986 location — hums during the day with chatting customers and the pulsing background sounds of feel-good Israeli music. A small line tends to form just before the doors open at noon, with diners peeking through the glass to watch the spit in action. It rotates slow and purposefully, glimmering in some places with fat and offering dark brown patches in others. Yalin, thin and smiley and usually wearing a T-shirt that reads “Relax! It’s wagyu,” mans the layers of meat — electric shaver in hand. His team packs the ribbons of beef into warm half-pitas, serving sandwiches the way Yalin intends: heavily spiced and with only tomato, onion, and parsley tucked inside. Tahini and amba sauces line the top, giving creaminess and zip to the whole thing. Even though the pita sandwiches are served on those zigzag metal taco holder things, they’re rarely put down between bites, lest a bit of meat sprinkle out from an open edge. At Avi Cue, every bite counts." - Farley Elliott
