Trapped at Berkeley

Near Telegraph and Durant. Eat a Pita is located on the outskirts of the Durant Square — the ‘Asian Ghetto’ — and serves a variety of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern dishes. The restaurant has sitting-room for approximately 20 people, and when I was there for dinner, it was about half-full.

True to its name, Eat a Pita offers quite a variety of pitas, as well as meat dishes and salads. Like most restaurants near the Asian Ghetto, Eat a Pita offers some bargain-priced items: their $4 pitas are a great meal on the go. However, be prepared to wait before running off; service was relatively slow, so it might be advisable to call in your order ahead of time at (510) 841-6482. For the patient, slow service might actually be a plus, since you can watch your order being prepared and cooked, guaranteeing freshness.

I tried the shish kabob dish, which consists of two lamb kabobs served on rice with sides of salad and hummus. For $8, the quantity of lamb meat was somewhat disappointing, especially compared to Steve’s Korean BBQ, which was less than half a block away, and the meat was not as tender as it could have been. Sadly, like many Asian Ghetto meat dishes, the lamb meat also wasn’t very flavorful — I resorted to supplementing my dish with a large helping of the free hot sauce.

A couple near me ordered the combination dish, which appears to be a bit of all the different meats that Eat a Pita offers. It looked much better than my dish and was also a lot cheaper, so it might be a better choice. I won’t know for sure until my next visit, but for now, I am somewhat disappointed.

Rating: C