Shiraz Mediterranean Restaurant

I know the sign says "mediterranean" restaurant, but come on. When you call your place Shiraz, serve doogh, and have a sign inside that says khosh amadin (welcome) written in Farsi, it's Persian food even if for some reason "mediterranean" sits better with the masses and you slap a gyro or two on the menu.This is the McDonald's of Persian food. You place your order at the counter, pay, they toss it onto a plate, and you're done. I prefer this method sometimes as I don't want to deal with a formal restaurant just for some kabob and khoresh. But like the golden arches, you get grease and lack of flavor. The food is decent, but just decent. It has potential. It just needs...something. Salt, lime, torshi maybe? Travel half an hour more and hit Westheimer for some better options.

Well, from the outside, you would be scared. It is in a shopping center that is a little run down. Don't let that fool you. The food here was pretty good, I would go again. It was affordable. The owner is super nice, very good customer service. I had the beef/lamb gyro and some hummus. Both dishs were great. The gyro was a very large portion.

When Lauren R. called this place the McDonald's of Persian food, she was right on. I am a BIG fan of Mediterranean and Persian food, and this place can satisfy in a pinch. However, even though I really want to like it more because it's SO close to home, I can only give it 3 stars.This place mostly leans towards Persian cuisine. They have gyros, but they also have the rice dishes (dill rice, cherry rice, etc) and kebabs. For my meal, I had a gyro and my bf had a beef kebab. The gyro meat was very tasty, but like John W. mentioned, the meat was kinda cold. Since we were the only people in the place, I figured that they probably weren't gonna "fire up the grill" for just two people. Shame. I was not a fan of the tzaziki sauce (I assume that's what it was) they served with it. It did kind of taste soured. The kebab meat tasted pretty good. They gave us a lot of pita bread in one of those containers for tortillas. It was also...pretty good. We also got a box of the cherry juice from the grocery store to split, and it was pretty good. I am a big fan of fruit juice, though.I really liked the owner, he was very sweet and he had a cool voice. I realized later that he kinda sounded like Borat. Irrelevant, of course. Anyway, I want to come back here and try the eggplant stew or something else. The prices were VERY reasonable (around $7) and they (I should say he) offer some of the dishes on special.

CRAP! What happened? This SHOULD be my update to my mental review of this place. I ate here quite a while ago, and thought it was amazing! The customer service was great. The owner was very nice and took the time to explain the "menu" to me and make sure I made a good choice. The food was so fresh, flavorful and amazing. The owner came by to check on us and make sure the food was good. Fast forward to this visit. I have been hyping up Margie for quite some time about this place and we finally stopped in. It started well enough... I was greeted by the same personable nice fellow and I ordered the same Kabab plate for 2 and was told AGAIN that I made a great choice. We found a seat and I noticed the place was in better shape than last time, the condiment bar wasn't as sketchy and I felt like it would be safe to eat from it. We waited for what seemed like an eternity for our food, I was starving and Margie wasn't looking forward to meat and rice. I tried to assure her that this stuff was great, absolutely amazing and that her taste buds wouldn't be disappointed. Out came the food... CRAP!!! We were presented with the, I guess ground beef kabab, the chicken, a pile of gyro meat, to big plates of rice and a joke of some grilled veggies. The ground beef had good flavor and a good not over done still moist texture. I liked it, and liked it more than the options I have had at other places. But, it was cold. The chicken kabab looked the part though looks is where it ended. It was cold, tough, over cooked, dry and to add insult to injury lacked any semblance of flavor. The owner came by on his customary "how is everything" trip and I tried to be polite and tell him this. He looked offended and offered to go back and make me some "sauce" to moisten it up, but that's how the chicken is supposed to be. I don't know how they do things, but I can't imagine anyone actually seeks out dry overdone tough chicken. The gyro meat, if you found a piece that wasn't burnt, but not ice cold it was the best out of everything. But... most was either over cooked, or cold. BLAH We bought the kabab for TWO, and the only veggies we were given was a quarter of a tomato, onion and bell pepper. Maybe other people are OK with this, but that's the amount that should be on one kabab. We got 2. Its just not enough. As for the rest, the rice was good. Thankfully.... it gave Margie something to eat. The cucumber sauce or whatever it was turned out to be a little runny and I question whether or not it was past its prime. What could have also saved the meal was the pita bread. But it was hard and stale. What a waste. I really really wanted to sit down and write a 5 star review for this little hole in the wall place. But I can't. I am so bummed that the owner didn't seem to want to make our visit better when we complained about the food, he was in a hurry to go back to eating and visiting with his friends and family. I hate that we didn't speak up about the rest of it, but given his reaction to the chicken, I don't know if it would have mattered. Its really a shame as this place on a better day could be a diamond in the rough, but more than likely, after today I wont be back.