Zaatar Fine Lebanese Cuisine

We went here on a WED night. The service was very friendly and answered questions about the menu easily. The menu was varied. We had the vegetarian sampler platter and the falafel platter. Both were well done. Atmosphere was nice. I will definitely go back.

Excellent dinner here last night. I was a smidge worried because this was my first time here and there weren’t many diners at 7pm, typically not a good sign. However the restaurant is attractive, if a tad cold feeling somehow. That was quickly offset by the warm welcome and super friendly service we received. Having just come from happy hour elsewhere, we weren’t that hungry. Not to worry, the vegetarian taste of Lebanon platter was perfect for sharing. The grape leaves were probably the best I’ve ever had, made from scratch and melt in your mouth good. Actually, everything was. Hummus, baba ganoush, cauliflower, falafal and homemade pita with zataar — which they happily brought more of when needed. 2 thumbs up. I’ll definitely be back!

This restaurant has a very Family vibe. The restaurant owners are there working/​serving/​cooking and are loving every minute of it. Its one thing eating good food but its another experience to almost feel like mom and dad cooked this meal for you.
They have a large vegetarian menu as well as a meat menu witch makes this place great for any friends.
The staff here makes you feel like family and they make sure you enjoyed everything ! The bread and hummus is so delicious !
Everything is fresh and made in house ! It really does make a huge difference !

We went on a week night during the holiday season after seeing good Unilocal ratings and surely we were very satisfied. The bread and the Zaa’tar dip was awesome. I ordered the vegetarian combination dinner and the fried cauliflower and the eggplant and the falafel with the hummus and baba ghanoush were made just right and served in perfect quantities. My husband ate the chicken kebab and it was very good too.
We will surely be back!

Nobody to be seen. A person that appeared to be the manager came out and ignored my group, a personal phone call is more important than customers I suppose. Really bummed, the food looked good in the Unilocal reviews.

Excellent location, excellent and friendly service. However, the food is NOT authentic middle eastern food. Flavors were very bland. Overall very disappointed with the taste.

Very nice staff and quick service. Clean and quiet restaurant. Very good food. Extraordinary selection of desserts that are displayed in a glass cooler in the front of the restaurant. Television screen with slideshow of Lebanon to keep you entertained. I will return.

We were really happy with our experience at Zaatar. After spending a few hours at Powell’s (aka Book Mecca), we were pretty starved and saw how highly rated this place was on Unilocal.Lebanese for lunch? Why not?
High quality everything, with great flavors and spices. Fresh pita is pretty key, and they deliver on that promise nicely. We can give thumbs up for the falafel and chicken plates for sure.
Looking forward to coming back, with my stomach grumbling just thinking about it…

Really great tasting Lebanese food. I had the chicken swarma which was cut into small pieces, great flavor. Great service and feels like a family type environment.

I rarely write negative reviews but I’ve got to be honest here. This was a poor experience all around.
I ordered thorough Seamless and my meal was delivered by Grubhub. I normally order delivery through Caviar and I’ll be going back to that.
I ordered the kafta plate and add hummus for a total of 17.95, expensive I know. I was expecting something marvelous but was let down when they forgot to add my hummus and the portion of food was very small. On top of that, the stuffed grape leaves I ordered for 7.00 came with 4 pieces that didn’t taste by any means authentic. They tasted like they were filled with Italian dressing that comes in a plastic bottle.
In total I paid about 32.00 for a meal that would have cost 10.00 from a food cart and would’ve tasted much better. I’m so disappointed.

I ordered the Zaatar Combination Platter for dinner. It is «Charbroiled skewers of sirloin lamb kabob, chicken tawook, and beef kafta kabob on a bed of basmati rice. Served with fresh pita and house salad. $ 20.75» The pita bread came out first, followed by the house salad, and finally the rest. The pita bread was bland as there was nothing to dip it with (no olive oil or hummus). The house salad was standard tasting and very fresh with that tangy dressing. For the platter, I enjoyed the beef kafta kabob the most out of all the other meats. Contrary to the name though, the beef kafta kabob was the only one that wasn’t skewered with a stick as it was too tender to be held onto a stick. I enjoyed the chicken tawook next. It was charbroiled nicely and not dry either. But be careful in holding the stick as the burnt parts of the skewer broke while I was holding it, almost as if they had forgotten to wet prep the skewer before hand. The sirloin lamb kabob was the least enjoyable as it was quite tough. It was just slightly gamey, but the toughness was what ruined it for me. Not sure if I caught them on a bad night with the lamb meat. Tahini sauce was served with the dish, but I didn’t think it went well with any of the meats on the platter, but it was yummy by itself. The serving size of this dish is meant for one person. My server was great that night, but it can be a little slow on weekday nights as there was only 1 – 2 waitstaff that night. The décor is on the fancier side so would work as a romantic date spot as well.

This is a really great fine lebanese cosine
The place is so lovely. The food is delicious andvthe stuff is so friendly
It was my first experience and ofcourse will not be last

Had the vegetarian platter — great variety and all of it was yummy! Each dish was portioned out in its own tiny plate. Really liked the roasted cauliflower. They also had a drink menu with some unique cocktails you wouldn’t find elsewhere. Small space, but clean and cozy. Service was attentive and friendly.

Just as good as it gets. I’ve found a really nice Lebanese place in Portland now and it is good to add this to a list with places such as Zahav, Munir, Mamnoon.
The service was top-​notch. Exemplary.
The restaurant is really well priced.
The food is superb! We had fresh pita, right out of the oven. The Mezze platter was brilliant. The best, the babaganoush. Next, the falafel, perfectly spiced and not oily at all. The hummus was good. The tabbouleh, I’m not a fan of but was nice. The cauliflower was a little disappointing though.
Overall, I will come here again, without hesitation.

Zaatar is a comfortable, bright, delicious restaurant and my only complaint is that the portions are too large and I rarely have room for dessert. You really feel welcome here and the service is excellent, the ambiance simple and sweet. The outside tables are a plus. But it’s the food, fresh and tasty and intriguing. I didn’t try Middle Eastern food until I was in my twenties but it feels like comfort food, easy on the stomach and satisfying and affordable.
The lunches might be the best sit-​down bargain in PDX and the sandwiches are absolutely fantastic. The Arnabeet (cauliflower) sandwich has the most wonderful combination of flavor and texture in a freshly made grilled pita. So yummy.
The Mujadara is one of the best dishes I’ve ever eaten, made with lentils, rice, and caramelized onions and eggplant seasoned with garlic and lemon. It’s so good I have a hard time ordering anything else when I am here.
I have purchased desserts to go, and they are really worth trying, so if you are too full to eat dessert, ask them to box one up. The truffles are pretty tasty if you have room for a bite.

I am sitting here after my first meal at Zaatar’s. The lunch special was great. The chicken shawarma was perfectly prepared with a delicious salad complementing it. The dessert display of Lebanese/​French cakes and pastries is presented beautifully and it was hard to choose; however, the Praline Jaconde sponge cake was a spectacular treat.
The service is excellent. We will definitely become regulars here.

This place was super fun and tasty. On a hot Portland such as today, I ordered a Rose Blossom cocktail, it was so refreshing and not too sweet.
This place gets major points for having gluten free Pitas. My friend and I were in heaven! It was GF and delicious! Not many can seem to master this.
My only real complaint is that I ordered a lamb sandwich and there seemed to be a miscommunication, I ordered it with GF pita and he wrapped it up in a gluten pita and gave me a GF one on the side. It was too bizarre.
I would definitely come back, the food was full of flavor and didn’t leave me feeling very heavy afterward.
I will warn you that happy means that only one item on the menu is half off. Which was kinda a bummer.

This place is a winner. There are a tremendous amount of positives with a few things they need to work on. Here is my take:
1. Food: We had three appetizers all of which were wonderful. The feta plate was outstanding. The hot pita bread that they serve is purely addictive. A+
2. Drinks: They have a limited selection but what they have is topflight. A
3. Atmosphere: Warm and welcoming. A
4. Service: Here the professor in me has some suggestions. First it is clear they are committed and try very hard. What they need to work on is coordinating their efforts. One appetizers arrived only after we asked about it long after the original order arrived. Most folks tend to split the type of appetizers they serve. Additional plates (we had to ask) would help. Let folks enjoy their dinner… do not rush the ordering. B+
Overall this is really a great place. Prices are exceptional by the way.

True to its name – Zaatar – kick-​starts the road down to fine Lebanese cuisine with what else, «zaatar,» which is a mix of herbs with oregano, thyme, toasted sesame, other spices – a very appetizing traditional Lebanese dip to smother on fresh, warm pita! «Tayyeb» means delicious/​tasty in Lebanese!
My tongue smacked my lips every time I walked on by Zaatar, looking in the window at the Mezza – tabouli, hummus, baba ghanouj, arnabeet, and two servings each of falafel, stuffed grape leaves. Finally, we are savoring the taste of each scrumptious dish. We also loved the Lamb Shawarma sandwich – tender lamb seasoned and marinated, grilled and served with tahini sauce, hummus, lettuce, tomato, onion, fresh parsley, and pickles. Generous portions too!
Ghada, our server was delightfully funny and charming – made our lunch time entertaining, as I peppered her with questions about the menus, food and recipes. Good golly Ghada – you’re the best! We also met the owner, Andre, who I also bugged. Andre was easy going and ready to share his passion for the food, comes from family recipes that his sister-​in-​law, Amal, the head-​chef oversee. It is a fine family business in the Pearl with fine Lebanese cuisine.
I’m full! I’m glad we dropped in. My lips are not smacking anymore – at least for the moment or until the next time I walk down the street, look in the window at a big plate of –uum-​uum good – Mezza! OK, Elite Unilocalers (all), you call yourself foodies, then, by all means you must put Zaatar on your long list of places to eat at. Best regards! – text me when ya all check, check, check «check-​in.»

This was our first time eating here. We have our office right down the street from this place and we’ve never tried it so I put in an order for our team. We ordered:
5 chicken shawarma plates, a lamb gyro plate, falafel plate, vegetarian mezza, hummus and pita bread, and some kafta skewers and everyone was more than pleased with their delicious lunch. I called ahead and placed my order at around 12:37 pm and walked down to grab the meal and it was ready around 1:15 so not too bad for a larger order. She saw that it was just me carrying all the food back, so she found a box for me to put all of the food in. Also sometimes when I call in a larger order the service that comes along with it is rushed, stressed and not always so pleasant. Not here, she was so sweet to me, and accommodating.
Service was friendly and although I didn’t sit in to eat, the atmosphere was cozy and right on the corner so you could take in the sunshine and watch as the people of the pearl walk by.
I personally had the chicken shawarma plate + kafta kabob + pita and hummus and a bite of falafel and it was really yummy. We will def put in more to go orders for our team there. The boys were pleasantly surprised as we have had our fair share of not so great Lebanese Cuisine. They said that the meat and rice was moist unlike a lot of other places we’ve tried ordering in around the area.
And just now, I just received a follow up call from a sweet lady from the restaurant asking us how we enjoyed lunch and if we had a good experience with it. I thought that was really nice of her to check in on us after trying their food.
PNDLM thanks you Zaatar for providing a delicious lunch for us today. We will see you soon!