Jamarcus T.
Yelp
Sometimes yelp steers you wrong. In the case of Baraka Shawarma, the reviews definitely live up to the food you're chomping down on.
I paid Baraka a visit while out and about looking for lunch and this is definitely a hidden in plain site gem. Located in the Memorial center strip, Baraka is in the furthest left corner of these shops.
The interior is much larger than I would have thought from the outside storefront, making you and all of your friends having no problem stopping in for a meal.
Speaking of meals, I ordered the following:
Combination Shawarma ($7.49)
Chicken sambusa ($1)
Beef sambusa ($1.49)
So starting out with the Sambusa, I should first say that all of their sambusa (there's a veggie too) are $1.49 each, but if you buy 2 of them, they're $2.49. These were both lightly fried triangular shaped pieces stuffed with beef or chicken. More veggies are stuffed in with the chicken, as it looks like only carrot slices are found within the beef. Both of the sambusa were delicious, crispy and were bursting with flavor. I'd highly recommend these!
The Combination Shawarma gets its name from being filled with both chicken chunks and lamb, and also filled with lettuce, onion, and sauce. The size of the regular is very generous in terms of the food you get. After eating it I was stuffed. Nice flavors, tender meats and an all around fav for me.
Located off of memorial drive, in the Memorial Center, there's a couple of exits here and one is a red light exit, in case you want to turn left onto memorial. Parking here is shared and so you'll find a spot i'm sure.
I went on a weekday afternoon and even though there was one person ahead of me, it still took me about 20 minutes to get out of there. I'm not sure how staffed they were, but I only saw 2 people, one placing all the orders and one in the rear. Either way, I stood for several minutes before I was addressed. With that said, if you're looking for fast service, that doesn't include Baraka.
At the end of the day, I do like Baraka Shawarma, and I was happy to stumble over them. Good flavors, large interior, here's hoping they get some more foot traffic .