Naf Naf Grill

Very nice food. I love the freshness and how moist the foods are. Many Mediterranean places serve more dried up choices. The bread is perfect. I always enjoy my meal, leave full and happy one of my go to always places.

Average. Too many other choices in this area. OMG and Olive Mtn are clearly head and shoulders above.

The one thing I truly dislike about Naf Naf is their pita bread, which is the Wonderbread of pita, i.e. too soft, too fluffy, and too chewy. Otherwise, between Naf Naf and Olive Mediterranean Grill (OMG) (the two Mediterranean restaurants on this block of Sherman Ave.), I think Naf Naf has decent food for a cheaper price, while OMG has slightly smaller portions of better-​tasting food for a higher price. Service at both establishments is similar. You can’t go wrong with either choice, so pick the one that suits your situation.

Naf Naf reminds me of a Chipotle for middle eastern food. It is not the best but it does do the job when there’s nothing else available. Their Shawarma bowl is nice. Falafels are okay too. I prefer pita inn which is inexpensive and has better food when I really want to eat good middle eastern cuisine.

Nice choice in downtown Evanston, not much seating but food is good, quick and healthy. Had the Steak Shawarma rice bowl didn’t expect the steak, rice and veggies to be mixed together but it was great with the sauce on top. Fresh whole pita in its own pouch was a nice touch

Food tests good and fresh.
Staff is a hit or miss, for the most part they don’t seem to be to enthusiastic to serve you, or listen to your order.
The portions are funny, the pita stays half empty, and the bowls have nothing in them. When you ask for a bit more, it’s as though you’ve asked them to make a brand new order, and they end up adding a half a spoon if that.

I really enjoyed my visit to Naf Naf — I had falafels and they seemed pretty legit to me! Fresh, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside and beautifully seasoned. The service was quick and efficient, and the venue was clean and bright. A great place for a no-​nonsense basic fast casual dining experience.

Thought I’d leave a review as I’m here practically every week. As others have said, it is the Chipotle of Middle Eastern food. There aren’t too many combinations you can get here, but all the meats and toppings I’ve had have tasted great. The pita is soft and fluffy. It’s a good place for a quick lunch, and word seems to have gotten out because it’s always busy during the lunch hour.

Naf Naf is basically the Chipotle of Middle Eastern food. You can build your own meal in an assembly line style and the options vary for sauces and proteins. I’m partial to the chicken bowls with the cabbage. Regardless of what you get, the flavors are on point and similar to Chipotle, you leave with a pretty heavy meal.
The Evanston location is always dead when I go in there, but I typically visit late evening on a Sunday for a lazy dinner. Hopefully it stays open, but for now you can quickly grab a good meal for a good value.

I loved the food! I visited for the first time this week and I was definitely happy with the food. I went in with a friend during lunch time and they were not busy (It was a cold rainy day).
I got the vegetarian feast option and it really did not feel like a feast at all. The server was exceptionally watchful with the salad and added ¼ cup of it at best. When I asked if I could have a bit more he rolled his eyes and did it. He did the same thing when my friend asked for a bit more salad. I was taken aback by that behavior.
I enjoyed the food and it was pretty delicious — but I just couldn’t stand the behavior of the person who served us. Definitely a good place for vegetarians but the options are limited.

Just not very good. The quality of the meat is low grade, chewy and not flavorful. The veg has a weird flavor to it which to me screams ‘Not Fresh!!!’ And the sauces were just not balanced, the tahini not very tahini-​y and the garlic sauce so garlicky it burnt my taste buds and nostrils. Even the pickels taste funky, how do you mess up pickels?!? My favorite part of the meal was the Naf Fries which are like potato chips but not fully fried to crispiness so they are more like french fries.
Sorry Naf Naf, I wanted to like you but you just didn’t rise to the occasion.

I really like this place.
I like the falafel salad bowl — you get a quite large bowl of greens (exceptionally fresh!), 5 pieces of falafel, and add-​ons of your choice. I particularly love the red cabbage and spicy green sauce. I’m no expert, but I think the falafel here is really great! Very moist on the inside, with a greenish tinge (from all the parsley I guess), and just the right amount of crunch. It comes with a side of pita as well. At first I didn’t love how soft and fluffy it was, but it grew on me.
The one thing I’m unhappy about with this place is that hummus is not included… its an extra ~$ 2 to add it to your bowl. For a mediterranean place, I think this is absolutely insane, especially for a vegetarian option. The bowl is large and very filling though, so since I get more than one meal out of it, I guess I’m OK paying extra for hummus.

I love Naf Naf Grill and I don’t know why, but I think it’s delicious and fresh and flavorful. I do wish they would give a little more meat, but I guess they have to make money somehow.
I always buy an extra pita ($ 0.75) and save half of my salad bowl for a snack later, which makes it even more worth the money.

I was really excited to try «the chipotle of middle eastern food,» but it’s not as good as chipotle or most of the other local middle eastern places! If I want Chipotle, I’ll go to chipotle, and if I want falafel, I’d just drive over to Pita Inn (king of middle eastern). My falafel was gummy and my salad was mostly just a giant bowl of lettuce. The pita was too soft and missed that delicious chew you get with good pita. Plus, it was really expensive! I don’t want to pay more than $ 5 for a falafel. Also, it wasn’t a great eating experience– it was messy inside the restaurant, with overflowing trash and a broken coke machine.
Was it bad? not at all. I definitely ate my whole meal, and it tasted pretty good! But the concept wasn’t great, and the food just isn’t that good. There’s so much better middle eastern food in the Evanston/​Skokie area, and I’ll just be sticking with that.

Was obsessed with Naf Naf when they first opened, but coming back, it just isn’t as delicious to me anymore… both the falafel and chicken shawarma pitas were well portioned and I could tell the ingredients were fresh, but something was missing in terms of flavor. I might be spoiled or my taste buds might have changed, but I’ll still come back for decent prices and quick friendly service.

My issue with Naf Naf seems to be with employee training and management. Naf Naf has great flavor and solid product. My issue is that it is not cheap and they are incredibly stingy with their portions. When you order a rice bowl it is going to cost you $ 8+ without a side or a drink. If you want to add hummus it’s an extra couple bucks. You would think that $ 8+ dollar bowl would be loaded with fillings. They are incredibly stingy with their meat portions and surprisingly they even get chincy with their filler items too. Would it kill you to put more than 4 pickles in my bowl? I would come here daily if the prices were cheaper or they weren’t so cheap with their portions. End rant.

We walked in at 12:30 pm on a Saturday and the placed was packed. Northwestern was playing Michigan later that day and the place was filled with fans. I had the beef shawarma pita with basmati rice and my daughter had the falafel pita with Naf Naf fries. The pitas come with an assortment of toppings (hummus, baba, cabbage, cukes, etc) the falafel was really good. Crispy on the outside, and moist on the inside. Really quite good. The shawarma was also great. We use Pita Inn as our baseline for comparing quick middle eastern dining and we both thought the sandwiches were better but my daughter likes the Pita Inn rice better. Naf Naf is also a higher price point but only a couple of dollars. The one thing we both agreed on is their Pita kicks butt. Warm light and fluffy. We will definitely be back.

This is basically a middle eastern Chipotle. You choose a salad bowl or rice bowl or pita, a main ingredient such as falafel or shawarma, and then pick the accompaniments. There’s not much point in choosing the pita, because the bowl comes with a pita anyway.
The falafel was nice and crunchy. I had it on a salad, which would have been rather dry and bland had I not added hummus, which is $ 1.50 extra.
Combo meals come with a drink and a side. I chose the fries, which were actually house made potato chips. They would have been good had they been fresh and crisp, but mine were soggy.
For about the same amount of money I could have gone around the corner to Olive Mountain and had table service.

Eh. This location is a letdown after the delights of the Niles Naf Naf. My chief complaint is the Veggie Feast. Here in Evanston it costs a dollar less, but for that paltry savings you get four falafels instead of six and an astonishingly bland cucumber salad instead of brilliant taboule. Also, the clerk drizzles sauce (your choice of tahini, red pepper, et al) over the bowl, which is not cool. Give the customer the option of sauce on the side.
So shame on me for not reading the menu more closely, but I didn’t make the food; I only ordered it. While the hummus and baba ghannouj are of similar quality to Niles, the falafel and red cabbage salad are two steps down.
Some good news is that the Naf fries are awesome. Actually, that is the only good news. The restaurant itself is smaller, darker, and dingier, and the employees were taciturn shading towards brusque.
If this location lived up to its Niles forebear, it would be a worthy successor to Pomegranate on Orrington Avenue. As it is, I think that Evanstonians got the short end of the stick there.

New restaurants in Evanston tend to have a rather quiet opening, but Naf Naf opened with a bang. I heard that they were giving out free pita/​shirts from 11am-​3pm today for their grand opening, and I got there at 11am. Thought it would be rather empty if I got there right on time (maybe a small line), but I was completely wrong (guess I underestimated the power of free food) — line was already well out the door.
My friend told me that I HAD to try this place, and I even heard someone say they came all the way from Wilmette for the grand opening. My first thought was that I would be disappointed by the food — overhyped things in general tend to lead to disappointment. Wrong again.
I got the chicken shawarma pita with hummus, purple cabbage salad, sumac onions, pickles, hot sauce, and tahini sauce, with a side of naf naf fries and a drink (all free!). I always hear people rave about shawarma in general, but I’ve always been disappointed — I’ve tried it several times before (including the famed chicken and rice in NYC). BUT I loved my food at naf naf. So many flavors and textures in one meal — loved every bite of it (so much so that I ate well past my bursting point and pretty much had to hobble up to class).
The service was efficient and extremely polite. The owners (?) were in the restaurant as well asking how people liked the food. Interior is clean. Also like how you can watch staff make the pita bread when you’re in line (although I felt kinda creepy pressing my face up against the glass).
Welcome to Evanston, Naf Naf Grill! Will be back :)