Sahara

Falafel was good but not better than Mahmouns. The «pickled vegetables» and «garden salad» that accompanied the wrap was sliced pickles and wilty romain lettuce. Spinach pie, however, was really good.

OUT OF BUSINESS
Sadly I went to grab a bit to eat here today and discovered that they are no longer in business. I will miss them. I always got good food here and it was served in a timely manner.

Ugh– this is one of those places in new haven where the waitstaff seats you, and then forgets about you for the rest of the evening. We came here a bit late on a Saturday evening, and the place was empty save for another table of two people. We were starving and ready to order right away, but had to wait at least 10 – 15 minutes before we could even see the waitress to flag her down for our order… clearly this should’ve been the first sign of a bad evening, but given our starvation and the lack of customer service in this area generally, we ordered and waited.
I ordered the chicken shish kebab, and my husband got the beef shawarma with a babaganoush to start. Food was quite possibly some of the most bland meat I’ve ever tasted. Could have probably also used a refill on my water at some point during the night, but again the waitress was no where to be found. At the end of the highly disappointing meal we didn’t even receive the bill, and had to go to the counter to ask to pay.
Walked out promising to never ever ever come here again. There are way better alternatives to Middle Eastern food in New Haven, with friendly staff, better service, and MUCH better food.

Chicken kabob combo was decent not great. Hummus was good. Falafels were bland and gritty. Not worth $ 13.95 overpriced

I once made the mistake of eating at Mamoun’s. Then Sahara’s opened up. At the time you could get a falafel pita sandwich for $ 2.50. That was for the first 6 months to a year. But it was delicious falafel. (Unlike Mamoun’s)
I enjoy the lamb kabobs, and the falafel. But it’s actually a side dish that I discovered which is my very favorite. Mujadarah. This is a simple dish of lentils and bulgar wheat. It’s given as one of their sides. Me, my wife, and my kids love it so much. We now make it ourselves.
I’ve sinced moved away from New Haven. And I see some negative reviews. So I do not know if they’re having some management difficulty in recent years.
But the last time I went it was still quite tasty.

When you go to any restaurant on Saturday at 8pm and it’s empty you should know– save your tummy and turn around. Unfortunately, the people I was meeting were already there and looked pretty comfortable (not leaving at all)
Mini cup of Turkish coffee that’s the equivalent of two sips for $ 3.00– not worth the money.
Baklava– my teenage sister makes better. Dough wasn’t flaky… in fact I’d say that baklava was about 3 days old. It clearly was border line stale. No wonder there’s a free one with Unilocal check-​in.
I’m not thrilled about this place at all. There are many better options for Middle Eastern food in New Haven.

Came here by virtue of York St Noodle house being closed.
I ordered a lamb kebab platter. My bf got the shwarma platter.
Upon receiving my food I noticed:
Wheres my rice?
Wheres my grilled tomato and onion?
Why do only one of us have hummus?
I pointed this out to the waiter and he said that «i need to specifically ask if i want rice» That can’t be true, he fought with me about it for a little and then finally gave in to bring us rice.
My bf and I spent the entire time fighting over the miniature cup of hummus they gave us.
Glad this wasn’t a to go order where i wouldnt have noticed till getting home.
Overall, the food was just OK, but the service was horrible.

The Falafel and Hummus is great! It comes with salad that could be better but it was okay. Would come back for the Hummus to take home!

I couldn’t figure out a way to leave 0-​stars.
I’m not sure what the worst part was; The lettuce was brown and slimy. The lamb was dry and almost inedible. The tomatoes should have been thrown away days ago. I can’t imagine that dinner would be so bad. I’ll never order from these here again.

I wish I could say that I had the guts to try this place again on my own free will, however Colton, their new marketing manager, reached out to me regarding my last visit. He apologized, talked briefly about how they corrected the issues, and invited me back in to try them again.
This time I brought a co-​worker and we were greeted by a young waitress with a friendly smile. She instructed us that we could sit at any table we chose.
Menus & Silverware were already on the the table, and we were provided water almost immediately.
I have to say that the place looked much neater & cleaner. The salad & dessert case up front was spotless, and everything was covered and labeled clearly. There was a sign up indicating a credit card minimum and it was in plain view.
We ordered baba ghannouj & fried cauliflower to start, the baba ghannouj was silky in texture, light in color, and the flavor popped with just the right amount of smokiness. The pitas were warm straight from the oven. The fried cauliflower came dusted with cumin. I expected them to be battered in some way, but that was not the case. Regardless, they were lightly crisped and perfectly seasoned. I found it best to sandwich some baba ghannouj & cauliflower in between a piece of pita.
I ordered chicken & vegetables with couscous, which came out piping hot. The vegetables were seasoned just right and tender, and the couscous was light and fluffy.
My co-​worker got the falafel hummus platter and she commented that everything was delicious.
Kudos to Sahara for turning things around, it will be a place i frequent in the future for the many decent lunch specials.

Ended up at this comfortable casual spot last night after a happy hour turned impromptu pub crawl. Ordered a falafel platter to share with the guy. The two falafels on the platter were tasty, as were the salad, pita bread, and hummus. The lamb was chewy and didn’t have much flavor. We came around 11pm, maybe a little after, and this small restaurant was close to full with others who had enjoyed a night of drinking.

Not bad, but not great. There are a lot of options. But the service tends to be unenthusiastic to say the least, and they’ve actually been out of RICE a couple of times.

Great food. Great décor! Great service!

I stayed at the hotel across the street. Thought I’d pick up a quick lunch between meetings. Got their advertised shawarma chicken wrap and the hummus dip. I literaly had to throw out my purchase because the taste was inedible. Don’t go unless you like bland tasteless food.

Another favourite of mine for take out /​delivery when I was living in New Haven. It’s not outstanding food but decent, consistent and pretty quick. I’ve had the Hawaiian pizza, fried cauliflower, falafel, shawarma, kebeh, and more from here. Plus they have fresh squeeze mango juice.

Love the falafels!

wow. i’ve been pleasantly surprised by the number of fantastic middle eastern food offerings in the new haven area. you have mamoun’s for the cheap and fast (falafel wraps, quick platters, etc). and then you have sahara. aside from the «mediterranean cuisine and pizza,» which might sound off-​hand and amusing, it’s pretty legit. great dolmas. fantastic vegetarian platters. very dense falafel, but nonetheless tasty. wonderful mujadarah, which goes fantastically with their yogurt-​mint sauce. definitely a fan. will return soon!
that said, we did take-​out. no comment as to the actual atmosphere of the restaurant. the food is fantastic. enough said.

i’ve tried the shwarma and the king falafel wrap here. the falafel wrap is my favorite.
what makes it so good? the crispy fluffy falafels, babaganoush, hummus, tabouleh, romaine, and tomato all wrapped up for that perfect bite. party in your mouth! i also love the side of pickled veggies that come with the wrap. a good sized, fresh wrap for 7 bucks? cant beat that.

Ordered late night delivery and was pleasantly surprised by the generous and flavorful falafel and chicken wrap. Not quite as good as mamouns but good enough. (The falafel did not have as much yummy sauce as mamouns but it was more evenly distributed in the pita for sure)
Con was that the delivery actually took ~70−75 mins!
However, it’s difficult to find good NON-​GREASY midnight food around here and my order from here was packed with veggies and yummy and filling so will be definitely be ordering from here again.

This is one of those late-​night, open for pizza and falafel joints that stations itself next to bars. It’s also apparently a popular place for girls in short skirts to come and urinate Thursday-​Saturday nights.
I didn’t expected much but I was pleasantly surprised by their falafel ($ 7 for a wrap, $ 5 for a sandwich).
For one thing, they used a wholewheat wrap, which I loved. Normally I’d prefer a pita, but this wrap worked well.
The portion size was large (it was like a foot-​long) and the lettuce and tomatoes they used were both fresh and flavorful. The tahini also tasted great.
Most importantly, the falafel pieces themselves were smooth: not too salty, not too crunchy, and loaded with herbs and a rich green interior color.
The falafel sandwich, which is made with a white flour pita, is also pretty decent and much cheaper than the wrap (it’s also smaller). If they had a whole wheat pita it’d be perfect.
I think One Stop Market on Orange Street has better falafel, but Sahara Med is number two in my book, and easily beats out the better-​known Mamoun’s.