Pita Puff - What's in a Name?

If it weren't for the always enticing words of Mike Sula, I would have written off Pita Puff as the latest gyro, dog and burger spot geared towards feeding nearby North Park University students. Instead, I paid attention and, along with a few other LTHers gave this spot, which is located in the former Dawali space on Kedzie, a fair trial for lunch and I'm glad we did!

We started out with some mezze; some cucumber Mint Yogurt Salad, Tabbouleh and an Appetizer Sampler. Across the board, they were all great. The cucumbers and other veggies seemed to have a slight pickled taste to them which added an extra dimension to the dishes.

Cucumber Mint Yogurt Salad


A simple dish, beautifully presented. As I said, the slightly pickled cucumbers were a perfect foil for the thick yogurt sauce.

Tabbouleh


This was a solid version. What set it apart was the presentation. Rather than just a bunch of salad on a plate, the tabbouleh was scooped into four leaves of romaine lettuce and artfully served. One thing I noticed about all of the food being served at Pita Puff was how artfully it was presented on the plate.

Appetizer Sampler


If I were eating solo at Pita Puff, this platter would be my order. It had a little bit of everything that makes me happy in a Middle Eastern restaurant. Hummus (their's is a rather thick version with not too much tahini), Baba Ghannouj, Ful Madammas, Falafel (fresh fried and kind of dense in a good way) and, the star of the show, Masaka which is a grilled veggie salad that completely won me over. Like the cucumber salad, some of the veggies seemed to be slightly pickled before being grilled and served at room temp.

Pita Puff Pita Bread


The meal was served with a basket of warm, fresh pita, probably from one of the bakeries down the street.

We rounded off the meal with a few other dishes.

Hummus with Shawerma


The beef/lamb shawerma is noteworthy and worth ordering again; perhaps as a sandwich.

Kufta Platter


The kufta was excellent! It was well seasoned and had a nice smoky taste. This platter came with both dill and yellow rice, some grilled veggies and Jerusalem salad.

Classic Falafel Sandwich


We ordered this sandwich as a novelty item simply because it came with french fries inside. It turned out to be a great sandwich that easily could feed two or three people. At only $4.95, it definitely deserves to be on the lunch under $5 list.

Pita Puff was a pleasant surprise. It's now at the top of my list of Kedzie Ave. Middle East places. I'll be back often!

Pita Puff
4905 N Kedzie Ave
Chicago, IL 60625
(773) 267-4200

stevez wrote:If it weren't for the always enticing words of Mike Sula, I would have written off Pita Puff as the latest gyro, dog and burger spot geared towards feeding nearby North Park University students.

Not if you browsed the Elgin Lunch Assistance thread. I was happy to see the article from Mike and stopped in a few days ago as I'm a fan of the original location. Unfortunately the newly opened city stop is where the good ends in my experience. No charcoal grill and cold vegetarian grape leaves instead of warm meaty ones. Add chewy beef shawarma and it made for a letdown.

The beef was chewy but I liked it--too often this type of meat tastes like meat cheese--soft, mushy, etc. We didn't try the grape leaves so no thoughts on that. But everything else I sampled was terrific--I especially loved the cucumber yogurt dip and the baba, ful and the veg dish on the sampler, along with the kufta. As for not having a grill, they must have something since the onion and tomatoes that came with the kufta had both the look and taste of a grill on them. May not be real charcoal but it was delicious. Guessing the "no charcoal" is because of the lease or was cost prohibitive to do in the existing kitchen. But I didn't miss it.

I thought this was going to be a new Kronos item, a deep fried gyro like a Pizza Puff! Oh well, the search continues....

Da Beef wrote:Not if you browsed the Elgin Lunch Assistance thread. I was happy to see the article from Mike and stopped in a few days ago as I'm a fan of the original location. Unfortunately the newly opened city stop is where the good ends in my experience.

I guess I'm going to have to schlep out to Elgin to see what I'm missing, because the stuff served on Kedzie was really good. I can see where that kufta cooked over actual charcoal would really be something special.

chitrader wrote:I thought this was going to be a new Kronos item, a deep fried gyro like a Pizza Puff! Oh well, the search continues....

I solved the deep fried gyro a while back, although it's not a Kronos product:

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=38468

The name does seem familiar.

Also motivated by Sula's report, Swing Bossa and I ate there this weekend and were very happy with our meal as well. We had the Jerusalem salad, fuul, falafel sandwich and fattoush salad with chicken shawarma. I especially loved the fuul, and the fatoush was perfectly balanced with the mint, sumac, dressing, and super crunchy and toasty pita bits. This will definitely be a go-to spot for us.

stevez wrote:Pita Puff was a pleasant surprise. It's now at the top of my list of Kedzie Ave. Middle East places. I'll be back often!

Pleasant surprise indeed! Enjoyed all aspects, food, service, ambiance, value, even plating, which I thought a cut, multiple cuts actually, above the norm for a seemingly modest Middle Eastern restaurant

Pita Puff, count me a fan!

I enjoyed sharing the same meal above with stevez and gang. I am certainly no expert on Middle Eastern food, it seems one of those cuisines which I rarely crave so I only get a chance to try it a few times a year. I don't think I was as wowed by everything as much as the others seemed, but everything was at least above average, some more above than others. I definitely see myself returning, if for no other reason than the other offerings in the area have become old and boring to me.

Forgot to mention the homemade hot sauce which wasn't particularly hot but was pretty delicious. Almost like another dip. Wish I'd taken some home.

boudreaulicious wrote:Forgot to mention the homemade hot sauce which wasn't particularly hot but was pretty delicious. Almost like another dip. Wish I'd taken some home.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that as well. I have quite a heat tolerance and got quite a bite of heat from it. It was my favorite part of the meal!

laikom wrote:I enjoyed sharing the same meal above with stevez and gang. I am certainly no expert on Middle Eastern food, it seems one of those cuisines which I rarely crave so I only get a chance to try it a few times a year. I don't think I was as wowed by everything as much as the others seemed, but everything was at least above average, some more above than others. I definitely see myself returning, if for no other reason than the other offerings in the area have become old and boring to me.

Thanks to all for your reports and recommendations. I am focusing on Laikom's quote because I have had a very similar relationship with Middle Eastern cuisine (collectively-speaking, especially the restaurants I've experienced in Chicago, and I'll even add Greek spots, which I know are geographically different). To me, the food has always been "fine", and I'd even request it a couple a times a year because it had been awhile, but nothing was ever memorable. That all changed when I went to Israel last year. I was excited about the trip, but not the food. Friends and family who had been many times, and who knew my love for food, assured me I would love the eats there, and I was still skeptical. To this day, I'm not sure exactly what won me over. There is always the possibility of the "travel effect" (I think my term, haven't googled it), by which everything takes better when on vacation, or perhaps it's fresher than what tends to be served here. Regardless, I have been longing for a similar stateside experience, and am hoping this will be the place.

Not sure it will quite live up to that but what did it for me was that you could tell everything was freshly made, good ingredients, carefully prepared and presented. It looked good and it tasted just as good. Seemed pretty unique to me, though the dishes were very typical. Now just need to see if they'll keep doing what they're doing.

Pita Puff................In a word- don't bother.
(OK- more than 1 word- )

As a long-time fan and supporter of Dawali, I find it very difficult to find any comparisons to the
high quality of food that "used-to-be" served at 4911 N. Kedzie.

In this example of Fattoush we ordered-(with out lettuce= per my request)
I found the taste to be - no taste.
Actually missing, were the sour element(s) brought from both The Sumac and Lemon juice.....
there was some lemon juice- but not of any distinctive note-
this salad was as exciting as "The Salad Bar at Treasure Island".
Also- I disliked the fact that all of the elements of the salad were cut the same size.
It made my experience much more "institutional".
Finally, at this time of the summer- when Fresh Tomatoes are at their PEAK - these tomatoes were as tired as what
you'd expect in December.
Also lacking, were the toasted Pita "croutons" missing any salt or seasoning.
Overall- a HUGE disappointment.

On to our entree-a combination Shwarma plate.
When Shwarma's been on the spit awhile-it's texture isn't the same as when it's fresh.
Also Chicken Shwarma especially, can be prone to "mushy-ness" when not
cooked soon after being seasoned (a malady of over-marination...
This Chicken Shwarma was inedibly- mushy.
And- when I noted this - our Romanian waitress
had the cook griddle it to crisp it up- which wasn't what
I had in mind- (....maybe taking it off the bill- perhaps?.)

Schwarma Combination Plate @ Pita Puff by Man_of Steel, on Flickr

I just fail to see how others could "rave"about this place.
Granted - I didn't try the falafel.
Nor did I check out the new cooks (not a "chef") hummus.(...OH! !- I do miss Chef Nassser's
Balsamic basted & Grilled Portabella vegetarian version of "Hummus Ma Lahma" !)

As a huge food of food of The Levant- I found this food- prepared with out The "alma" or soul of
a Middle Eastern Chef- and analogous to Food Court food.
A big THUMBS DOWN to Pita Puff- won't be seeing me there- anytime soon.






Fattoush w/OUT lettuce @ Pita Puff by Man_of Steel, on Flickr

I made my first visit to this spot since Dawali vacated. On the plus side, fresh pita and a good smoky baba ganoush, and yes, good housemade hot sauce.

Unfortunately, things quickly went downhill. Dry chicken shawarma. Even worse, the falafel - perhaps the worst I've ever tasted . . . really bland and too dense. I couldn't even taste them in the pita so I removed a couple to eat separately . . . didn't help.

Luckily, I have plenty of other spots in the area to get good Middle Eastern.

the photos above your post look wonderful though

Swung by the Kedzie location today and found that the space is now occupied by an orthodontist office.

ekreider wrote:Swung by the Kedzie location today and found that the space is now occupied by an orthodontist office.

Is their falafel any better???

BR wrote:

ekreider wrote:Swung by the Kedzie location today and found that the space is now occupied by an orthodontist office.

Is their falafel any better???

lol