The former Nile restaurant tucked in a nondescript strip mall on Odana Road became Petra Bakery & Restaurant early this year.
The Middle-Eastern menu includes pita bread sandwiches, wraps and grilled entrees. All the bread is baked in-house every day.
One of those breads is saj, a thin bread used for wraps. I tried it as part of the Zinger ($14.99), which contains spicy chicken tenders, lettuce, pickles, cheese and special sauce. (Note, Petra has now changed the Zinger to include regular chicken instead of spicy chicken and ketchup and garlic sauce instead of special sauce.) The saj was delicious, like naan that was flattened into a tortilla. This wrap was tasty enough that it didn’t need the garlic dipping sauce. The chicken was good despite not being spicy, which is a moot point with the menu change.
The meat shawarma tacos ($12.99) are interesting. They’ve got a lot of flavors and textures from the onions, pickles, tomatoes and tahini sauce, all resting inside some tasty mini pita. I only wish the shawarma wasn’t so tough. The tacos are served Tuesdays and Thursdays only.
The lamb shish kebab ($22.99) come with two skewers of lamb kebab, plus rice, grilled onions and tomatoes with a side of Arabic salad. The lamb had a good grilled flavor and wasn’t too gamy, though some pieces were a little chewy. The rice was outstanding, and you get more than you could eat. The Arabic salad is comprised of diced tomato and cucumber with perhaps some vinaigrette. I thought it was very fresh.
From the appetizers, I selected the baba ghanouj ($6.99). It’s heavy on the olive oil, so much so that there are pools of it you have to navigate through or around. Overall it has a smoky taste, which I have not had before in baba ghanouj. I wouldn’t order it again.
For those with a group of eight, Petra offers large grill platters, including one with five skewers of shish kebab, five skewers of kuftah kebab and eight lamb chops ($139.99).
Petra Bakery & Restaurant is open for lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday.
Tags: Middle-Eastern, west side
