Sahara Restaurant

BEWARE !!
I ordered shawarma sandwiches both chicken and beef one time, I got food poisoning !!!
I DO NOT RECOMMEND !!
Sultan across the street offers better food

Just go ahead and try, you will love it!
Every single item in the menu is worth to try, their Lahmacun (Turkish Pizza) is great!
I would also recommend soups! They are delicious!
But the best thing is their beef gyro! I love it.

best gyro. doner and pizza… we get iskender amd doner kenab. both of them were really testy… my friend get turkish peporrini sucuk pizza ot was very good.
atmosfer and muzik was nive

Food is outstanding and very filling. We always leave this place with food for the next day’s lunch. Our favorites are sac kavurma, Iskandar Kabob, Lahamajun, and of course their lentil soup. The fresh clay oven bread to start is a nice touch. We will be returning, with friends.

Stopped in on a random Thursday for dinner. Décor could use some work but the food is quite good. Ordered the pastrami pide and mixed grill. The staff is so nice and helpful.

Fantastic food!
My parents have been coming here about once a month for the past year. I finally made the trek with them, and it was worth it!
We ordered the Sheppards Salad and an order of hummus to start. Both were delicious and the plates were licked clean :)
We asked for a platter of mixed grill for 3 people — so basically, they brought out a platter with a huge amount and variety of their meats for us to share family-​style (on our request).
Their chicken kebab is SO juicy and tender. As were the veal and beef kebabs.
They brought out a complimentary serving of Kadayif dessert for us as well :)

Honestly– not good. I’ve lived in the Middle East and have been to many Turkish restaurants. This place used to be good but very disappointing.
Food: basic. Shepard salad was good as was the hummus. The bread was warm and tasty. I found a hair in my salad so I sent it back. The babaganush was without flavor. In fact, everything but the foregoing had no flavor, was dense, and simply sub par.
Service: awful. One waiter for the entire restaurant. He tried his best but was destined to fail given the staffing structure.
Location: not bad. Authentically placed in Paterson. However, there are better places in the area.
If you do go: have the baklava with Turkish coffee.

Their Iskender was terrible. Service was also very poor, waiter disappeared after serving the food and I had to go find him to order tea.

Food is ok, hot or miss. i had better. very dark place not sure if clean

Dont eat kebap here. They dont know anything about kebap or iskender and the yogurt sauce was horrible. However i must say their lahmacun was delicious and the sheppard salad was really good. The server tried to make up for the short coming of the mixed grill by giving us baklava for free and it actually tasted ok. Don’t think this place deserves 4 stars.

If I could give 0 stars I would. I ordered iskender which is gyro over a bed of yogurt and sauce. What was put in front of me was kofte (meatballs) slivered thin to look like gyro meat. There was about a spoon fool of yogurt under the bed of what was supposed to be gyro. When we asked for a bowl of more yogurt they said they didn’t have any. How? You are a restaurant that serves dishes with yogurt. I usually always say something when I’m not happy with my order but it was Ramadan and we were too hungry to wait for another meal to arrive.
Regardless the shepherd salad was absolutely delicious and the only thing my family even touched.
Iwill never everrrrr be visiting here again.

This is a Turkish restaurant with fantastic ambiance. We got the beyti, mixed meat (comes with doner kabob), and Iskendar kabob. The price is affordable for a cozy and nice restaurant. And the parking is good as well, even thought it is street parking.

I came back to NJ to visit and came here for dinner! It was the best as last time. The only difference I tried this time was their lentil soup which was so flavorful and delicious that I am looking up a recipe right now to attempt to mimic it. Additionally I had the chicken kebabs which were MMM MMM good! It comes with a salad and rice. Not a big rice person but the rice was really good as well. So go here and get the lentil soup and the hummus with choke Schwarma (which is what I had both times I went). Can’t go wrong!

The food is fantastic but the service is appallingly terrible. We had the luck of receiving cracked, broken, and *dirty* dishes, and terrible service. There were only two or three other tables of people, and yet the waitstaff failed to be attentive. They seemed quite unfamiliar with.
The food, on the other hand, is spot on. The beyti and istanbuli kabobs were absolutely wonderful. The chicken was amazing, and the prices are very reasonable.
I strongly recommend ordering the food to go. It’s truly amazing.

At the suggestion of Unilocalers I came here in the mid afternoon and asked for the early bird special, the waitress pointed toward the Sac Kavurma with lamb, peppers and onion and tomatoes with spices, it was offered with the lentil soup, which came with one kind of bread and the entrée that came with another.
What a fantastic meal it was– from the soup which was velvety, rich and delicately spiced (detected mint in it), served with a fresh baked to order wafer thin pizza-​like bread, to the Sac Kavurma with its savory peppers and tender lamb with onions and tomatoes with its softer, stretchy thin bread that you scooped up the dish with from a wide metal shallow bowl on a small pedestal.
I also tried this soda called Uludag– it was delicate, lightly sweet with a citrus and fruit flavor from a recipe created in the 1930’s, I loved it. Finished up with a turkish coffee, too bad they were out of baklava…
Fantastic meal, I had been to many other Turkish restaurants over the years and this one really stands out as different than many of them– very diverse menu and authentic feel to the place, taste of the food, and the bread was definitely different than ANY Turkish bread I had ever been served, made fresh to order– and for those who read that it was «bland» perhaps the other reviewers were smokers, or had a cold? The bread is sublime.

As other reviewers have stated, Sahara is located right next to a group of wholesale produce vendors in Paterson. Don’t let the location turn you off; the waitstaff is attentive and courteous. Although the décor is unimpressive, the food is excellent, both in taste and in value. And if you don’t feel like dining in, take-​out is always a solid option.
The lahmajun is still an excellent deal at just $ 2.75. All the kebabs are juicy and flavorful with a nice char, and all the kebab in lavash sandwiches are extremely large for the price — $ 4 to $ 4.50. Babaganoush, hummus, and cigarette bourek have been consistently delicious every time. The Iggy «eggs, onions, and parsley» was very interesting, with a flavor I couldn’t quite place. For grilled meats, you can’t go wrong with the Beyti, Kofte, or Adana kebabs.
Baklava was tasty; Turkish coffee here was so-​so. Highly recommended — nearly everything we’ve tried at Sahara packs a lot of bold flavors.

SOLID Turkish food!
Service: A: they were very patient, fast and friendly!
Food: A-​: While there bread was great, their entrees came with a piece of large doughy bread that did not taste much like anything, BUT it is very authentic to Turkish food which is why I kept the rating so high!
Their chicken was extremely juicy and well-​seasoned, as was their lentil soup.
Babaganoush was mild and spicy salad (ezme) had a very nice smoky taste perfect to eat your meat with.
I also loved their gyro meat and mixed meat pide (which is like a calzone of stuffed bread with three different types of meat, some peppers and melted cheese). DELICIOUS!
Their moist Balkava and turkish tea was a great end.
Ambiance– B: it could have had a nicer feel to it but the wooden cabin-​like paneling could easily be covered by pictures/​tapestry/​turkish rug or ornaments.
Price: we ordered two appetizers, two soups, large meat pide, lahmajun, two large salads, five drinks, four entrees, baklava and three teas and four 6 people the bill was only $ 100!
Conclusion: Stop by or take-​out… they seemed to be heavily focused on take-​out, although on Friday night ¼ of the place was full. I would hope it would be more people for the quality of their food but hopefully it will be!

Excellent price\value, good food, lacking in charm.
I almost did not find this place; it is hidden behind scaffolding with a temporary banner, while work is being done on the building façade.
I stopped in for lunch on a Sunday during Ramadan, so the place was empty except for the staff and me. Tables are nice enough, blue and white tiles. Paper napkins. Walls are covered with rough sawn planks which is rather odd. Several inexpensive-​looking tapestries hung on the walls. Air-​conditioning was turned off on a warm afternoon. Nice background music; something Arabic. I was able to get wi-​fi via xfinity.
I ordered the foul which I liked (only the second time I have had this dish so it is difficult to judge). For my entrée I had the Adana Kebab which came with decent rice and a good side salad. The kebab was good and a generous portion but not special. Excellent bread. Turkish tea was blah, I have had much better. They charge for bottled water which is a minor issue. Service was just OK. Cheap enough at $ 18 before the tip; ordering from the dinner menu. Halal; no alcoholic beverages allowed on the premises.
I will try several other Syrian-​Turkish restaurants in the neigborhood before giving this place a second chance.

Stopped here for lunch on a Saturday afternoon and the place was empty. It was around 2:00 or so.
The décor is, now what did another reviewer say…“interesting”. But let’s get to the food.
We did the fried cauliflower with yogurt sauce as a starter and some traditional bread. The vegetable was done francaise style in a light egg wash and fried til golden. It was scattered on a plate with a red tomato based sauce and yogurt drizzled around it.
Mains were the pide, one with lamb and the other with an Arabic cheese. Both were like pizzas, and very good. the lamb was a bit strong at first, but turned out to be good. The other was like a white pizza, and the cheese was mild and bubble when coming out of the kitchen.
Service was OK, as he mumbled a lot. But he did say «Thank you very much» before we left.
We’ll go back and try something else when we crave some arabic food, definitely. This one’s a winner.

In the mood for Turkish food, I turned to my trusty Unilocal app. When I arrived, I was a bit surprised, the restaurant is located in the produce wholesale market area of Paterson, a industrial area, that reminds me of third world markets…
Found street parking around the corner and entered the restaurant… What you will not find… Fancy or even updated décor. What you will find… The most delicious Turkish food I have ever had in NJ!
We ordered shepherd salad, lentil soup and I had the chicken with peppers (not spicy in the Thai sense), everything was perfectly marinated and tasted delicious! The portions were on the large side, next time I will be sharing, but will definitely be back :)