Petra Cuisine

Hands down best Shawarma in Portland!!!
Drove up from Salem, and found this little gem today.

The food IS delicious !! They were out of every dish we were interested in ordering.
No fountain drinks
Only canned our bottled soda
No diet flavors
The owners are a very nice couple that we really clicked with
Rude teenagers like to hang out here

Full disclaimer: I’m a bit of a germ-​o-​phobe. If you’re not, I envy you, but this review isn’t for you.
I stopped by Petra because it’s open later than a lot of other quick service type restaurants and I love Middle Eastern food. However, I never actually got to eat my food because I was too grossed out watching it be prepared. The guy preparing my lamb would snivel, then rub his nose, then itch something, then handle the register, then go back to preparing food all without washing his hands or wearing gloves. After I paid and took the food back to my hotel room I couldn’t bring myself to eat it.
So, if you’re OCD like me, you might look elsewhere. If you’re not, give it a try. The guy was friendly and from what everyone else says, the food is probably pretty good.

Went to this place after my friend told me about their falafel and gyros. I am so glad I did!!!
The food is just absolutely delicious. I have become a regular at this place, so much that the owners know my name and call me daughter which is so sweet! I even call ahead and order in advance and they are always so quick with their service!
Everything is fresh and delicious, and I have not tasted Mediterranean food half as good anywhere else.
They are a small family owned business, so although not a lot of people know about it, if you do you are lucky! The owners treat you like family there and the prices are very good for the quality you are getting.
So far I’ve tried the falafel, gyros, chicken and lamb kebabs, blonde rice with chicken, and hummus. Everything is so good!!! I hope they stay around for a long time.

First time customers, and will definitely be returning! I’ve been eating falafels for over 50 years, and this is by far the BEST one I’ve ever had!
Extremely sweet man and woman working there, very friendly and attentive.
I ordered a falafel sandwich, and it was delicious! The pita was thinner than usual, so it was wrapped almost like a burrito, then grilled until the pita was toasted & warm. It never got soggy, in spite of the flavorful sauces and fresh vegetables inside!
I would have paid much more than $ 4.50 for this delicious meal. Definitely worth the price, and will be returning many more times.

I went into this restaurant for gelato and bought a gyro. This restaurant was great. Hand painted art on the walls from a local artist. Fresh food and super service.
The owner was super friendly and hospitable. I ordered the chicken gyro, which was carved off the shank. It was so scrumptious. I forgot to oder a drink, The owner gave me a Pepsi on the house. He said don’t worry about it. He was super nice. Great customer service and conversation too. I’m definitely eating here again. I’d recommend everyone try Petra you won’t be disappointed.

My husband and I go all the time… The owner and his wife are always sweet and the food is delicious… Esp the shwarma and the lamb shank!!!

I really liked the food and the service. Very friendly service! Loved the gyro!!! I found my gyro place!

This little cuisine gets a big 5 stars in my book, 1 star for the welcoming and the kindness of the owner, 1 star for the amazing freshly homemade from scratch felafel (certainly the best I ever had!!!), 1 star for their house hummus made right in front of your eyes, 1 star for their delicious rice (perfect on an upset stomach), 1 star for a simple yet fabulous snack place where to find beautiful North African fine food.

Great food. Good quality and very kind staff. Will definitely go again.

If. you’re looking for. authentic Greek food, you’ve found the right place. The freshest food and very friendly owners. Every time I come here, I learn something new about Greek culture!

Best gyro I’ve ever eaten. So flavorful, the lamb never tastes old to me, like I’ve experienced in some places. At Petra’s the service is always impeccable, the gyro is too good… I can’t seem to try much else. I did have the falafel sandwich once and wasn’t impressed, and when I took a friend they were delighted with the chicken dinner they ordered. Simple, well-​done Mediterranean food, and don’t forget the sage tea… It is soothing, hot, and sweet and during the cold, rainy winters, this is my favorite place to sit, sip and munch. Thanks, Sami!

tried this restaurant twice. the first time i was impressed by the Mansaf (a traditional Jordanian dish made of lamb and served with rice and cooked yogurt). the lamb was so tender, it would literally melt in your mouth. the second we ordered a gyro plate, chicken shawrma and a veggie meza (hummus, mutabbal, falafel and dolma). served fresh but tasted average. the place is clean and simple, the service good and the staff very friendly.

Best Gyros downtown for sure. Excellent customer service for sure. Multiple options for vegetarians. Plates are pretty big so be prepared to bring your appetite, or to have some awesome leftovers. Surprisingly this place is on the cheaper scale, but comes through with the highest quality of Mediterranean in PDX!!!

The lamb shank and dolmas were very tasty and the staff was friendly.

The Baklava! Oh, the Baklava! I’ve never tasted such Baklava, and every time I eat a piece I see visions of angels descending from the heavens and setting a little plastic dish in my hand… then I feel the Devil tempting me to furtively sneak back for ‘just one more… no one will know.’
I haven’t had anything else there besides the Baklava, so I can’t speak to the rest of the food, but my coworker who introduced me to the Baklava eats there all of the time and loves it.
Try the Baklava!

I’m a regular at Petra Cuisine, and their beef/​lamb shawarma is some of the best I’ve had.
A friend and I recently had lunch there and finished with gelato. Lunch was excellent, but the gelato was definitely old, with obvious ice crystals. Ick.
I give the food four stars, but avoid the gelato (which I will NEVER do again).

Have not given their Mediterranean food a chance, but I can tell you that the gellato they sell tasted like it was incredibly old. My friend and I both felt ill not long after. Avoid at all cost!

I hate to bag on a business that seems small and family-​owned, but I just had a pretty bad experience with them this afternoon. Rotten tomatoes in my shawarma (literally — upon tasting them I pulled them out and saw the gray spots in them), just not fresh and not good overall. It was also extremely hot inside the shop — although I got to-​go, I had to wait for a bit for my order and it was pretty unpleasant.
To top that off, I was overcharged. Maybe the girl who was ringing me up just made a mistake, but she overcharged me for BOTH items I got — so 2 mistakes, 2 for 2 on mistakes. It was only a dollar total that I was overcharged, but it made me feel awkward as she was ringing me up. I noticed right away that the prices she was keying in were wrong, but am generally not up to quibbling over a dollar. But at the same time, there are businesses/​individuals who add a little on routinely, knowing that people usually won’t challenge it even if they do notice, and reaping the gains.
So maybe it was a mistake, but there was only one menu up front, so how do you not know the prices? And honestly, the food wasn;t worth the STATED price, so it pissed me off in retrospect that it was inflated a little more.
This place left a bad taste in my mouth and bad feeling in my stomach — both literally and figuratively. The only reason I stopped in was because I didn’t have cash for the carts (and their vastly superior food), and I will definitely NEVER be coming here again.

I was actually on my way to the Phở Le food cart but since it was closed I started wandering the streets of downtown for another food place. We randomly made it into this little shop and we’re glad we did because it was surprisingly delicious!
I ordered the falafel wrap ($ 5.50). The falafel was interesting because rather than having it whole, it was broken up. At first I thought it was too salty but after adding a drop of habanero hot sauce every few bites, it was absolutely delicious!
Bottom Line: If you’re downtown, try out Petra because it is a pleasant surprise. Oh, and put a few drops of hot sauce because a little bit goes a long way.