Blind O.
Yelp
I made the mistake of asking my European wife to stop by and pick up a few things to see if Sevan could be our go-to market for Middle-eastern products and staples. I probably would have walked out right away since I am well aware of the range of prices for most of these items, from NY/NJ to Glendale and Westwood. Sadly, my wife has no idea about the prices of these foods, but we both found the food to be exceedingly mediocre and bland (although the Bulgarian Feta was salty, and provided in plastic wrap with no brine). The falafel was not good, otherwise, the quality of everything else was not better than you can find in Trader Joes or similar places, but at thrice the price. The other items, kibbeh, various dips, breads, all store-made stuffs were just ok. What is not great are the prices. I realize it's a strange time with regard to inflation, but I really haven't seen very small individual kibbeh, less than half the size of a normal kibbeh anywhere else, and priced at $4 a piece (no pine nuts or the like either). The falafels are a good size, but taste like cardboard and at nearly $3 a ball, even harder to swallow (we didn't even finish one). We were also charged for a few items we never received (nothing sinister, just charged for two pieces rather than the one we received/ordered, for example); it could be an innocent error, but I have no interest in driving all the way there to deal with it.
Also, my wife felt like the man behind the counter was simply overstuffing the containers. I wanted her to try a number of items, but when she asked for a quarter pound of this or that, the man turned away from her to fill them. She was surprised to see that they were all filled to the brim, more than half a pound (or more than twice what she asked for). I know, it's a pain to only put a 1/4 lb of something into a container for a customer, but instead of understanding that we were there to sample the quality of their food, decided to lose a possible long-term customer for short-term gain. I guess they made the right choice here though, because we definitely would not go back based on the wide sample of food we purchased and tasted.
Sorry, we won't be returning. The lack of tastiness and high prices do not warrant another try.