Café Méditerranée

Location

113 D Street

Hours

Mon - Thu, 11:00 AM - 9:00 PM

Fri - Sat, 10:00 AM - 10:00 PM

Phone

(530) 759-7007

(530) 759-1080 (Fax)

Payment Methods

Cash, credit for orders $5.00+

Café Méditerranée, owned by Ashot Manukyan, is a pleasant Middle-Eastern eatery with more of a "restaurant" feel than Sam's Mediterranean or Ali Baba and with only slightly higher prices. But for those higher prices, they throw in a couple of sides, which makes this actually a decent value. They specialize in Armenian and Greek casual dining including kababs, shawermas, falafel, and pastries. Sides include muhummarah (a mix of pomegranate and walnut), hummus (ground chickpeas), a smokey eggplant-based appetizer called babaganoush, a sweet potato salad that has bits of apple or pear, and with a side of tzatziki.

The dessert selection is quite broad, and includes an abundance of delicate treats you can't buy elsewhere in Davis.

Comments:

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2005-07-22 17:26:56 My favorite restaurant in Davis. The food is great, grab some shawerma, rice, some hummus and some cucumber and yogurt dip, throw it on a pita, and you have one of the most satisfying meals you can get for around 10 bucks. I love it. The best ethnic restaurant in town, 100%. —AmandaCaudle

2005-09-06 22:21:53 The beef shawerma is the bee's knees. —DatNguyen

2005-09-07 01:53:44 This is a classy joint. —JesseSingh

2005-10-24 12:51:39 This place has the best chicken on earth, and the guy who owns the place likes to wear brightly colored jogging suits. By far the best place in Davis to eat if you are tired of the usual mexican/chinese. —ZacMorris

2005-12-08 14:12:16 They have a dessert that looks like shredded wheat covered in honey called Kataifi. Its probably the best dessert item you can find in an ethnic restaurant in Davis. The potato salad is definitely not something someone would think of getting at a place like this, but it was innovative and good. The eggplant appetizer is the best I've had in Davis, and although their Chicken is good, I found their Beef Shawerma to excessively dry, but flavorful." — CraigBrozinsky

I really think the dessert you refer to is kataifi. It's a traditional Greek pastry, probably second in popularity only to baklava. These are healthful too. —SteveDavison

The dessert referred to is Gadayef. It's almost the same thing as baklava, but has shreaded philo on top instead of the leayers in baklava. It is not 'healthful', but delicious.

2006-05-16 08:54:00 My wife and I took a friend here to dinner who was visiting from D.C. We all loved it. I had the lamb kabob, and it was great. The lamb was really tender and the rice was tasty. The people that work here are really friendly too. —AdamSchneider

2006-06-22 22:42:41 I love this place! The food is delicious and the owners are very friendly. I get the chicken kebab plate every time cause it's so good! My only complaint is that the pita bread is sold singly even with a large order of hummus. Not nearly enough. Desserts are great too! The baklava and shredded style are heaven! —MomsHome

2006-11-15 17:29:35 Great dishes but limited in their warm vegetarian options. My wife adores the chicken here. Desserts are fantastic as well. My biggest complaint is how stingy they are on the pita bread; Mediterranean restaurants in other cities usually give you a basket of pita. I easily fork over an additional 50 cents once or twice in the middle of a meal because I haven't managed to wipe my plate clean yet. But agreeably one of the better places to eat in Davis. —VivekMathrani

2007-02-22 18:59:11 This is one of my favorite restaurants here in Davis, the chicken breast plate with green salad and the egg plant ikra is my favorite!!! —AllisonTakeuchi

2007-03-03 01:45:47 Though I honestly prefer sams for the kabobs and main dishes, this place has great desters, the best baklava that I have found so far. —DavidPoole

2007-04-06 04:07:30 The muhamara is so delicious and unlike anything I've tried before, I spread it on a pita. The rotisserie chicken is also amazing, with lemon and some kind of sauce it's just heavenly. —EdHenn

2007-04-07 13:20:10 They also have a $5 corkage policy, which is not bad considering many of the restaurants in Davis trying to sell you a $6 bottle of Woodbridge for $25! We love to snag a bottle of our favorite wine and split one of their generous dinner plates. Splitting is highly recommended because if you didn't save room for dessert, you screwed up. —BillyBudd

2007-05-16 23:40:42 I would definitely recommend this restaurant. The environment and ambience is nice. The prices are pretty low if you decide to get a single item instead of getting a full meal (combination). Even then, it's still pretty inexpexsive. The patio out back is very nice when it's cooler. —BreeButler

2007-06-06 19:20:56 Used to be good, now its terrible. Hummus is watered down to almost a drink like texture, and because of their previous surge of popularity in 2005 they have been raising their prices by over 25% since then. Bad customer service, slow service, small portions compared to how much they charge. And every 2 out of 3 times meat is burnt. TWO THUMBS DOWN. —StephenSa

2007-06-11 19:15:32 hmm im surprised i havent reviewed this place. The falafels are worse here than any other place in davis (dry and burnt). The chicken is quite good, and their sides are decent, but id say for the most part slightly overated. I perfer Sam's Mediterranean Cuisine —MattHh

2007-06-11 22:06:09 To add my two cents, I have heard nothing great about their food, generally that most things are nothing special or worth much writing about, so though I have no personal experience, I will relate the experience of my friends on the matter. Secondly, their desserts are delicious, I come here to grab some sweets to go with my coffee at Mishka's, probably the only good bakalava in town as far as I can tell. —DavidPoole

2007-06-30 05:45:08 At lunch yesterday, the pita was dry—both the pita around my "wrap" and the pita they served with an order of hummus. That, in my opinion, is pretty much unforgiveable. —DavidRobinson

2007-07-27 20:41:09 I just ate there with me and my girlfriend tonight. I had the half rotisserie chicken plate with potato salad and babagunush and she had chicken kabob with salad and yogurt dip. (+) I'd go back for the food (+) ambiance is good enough for a high-end grad school date or a place where you can take your parents and pay for the bill (+) mens bathroom was clean (+) the dessert section is better than ciocolat IMHO since it's more "meatier" desserts (-) little or no service since it's a walk up order counter. —atwong

2007-08-14 19:40:56 i enjoyed the food very much. i haven't tried any of the other places like this to compare yet. —JackkiCox

2007-09-17 20:59:05 My wife and i tried out this little cafe tonight. It definitely wasn't worth some of the raving that it seems to have gotten here, but wasn't terrible either. It is most assuredly a cafe, you order at the counter and pay before sitting down, and you have to remember to grab your own utensils on your way to your table. It's kind of like fast food meets the Mediterranean with a cafe dessert counter. The food was OK, but not anything to write home about. The beef Shawerma was very dry and fatty, but the chicken kabob was pretty juicy. Both my wife and I give it a 5/10. —BC

2007-09-18 23:16:58 The food is really good (grade=A) and the service is good, very helpful and friendly employees (grade=A). I have been there many times—specially dinner time. I am gonna take my family and my friends to go over there again. Just try and take it positively—do not be picky!!!! Besides, the price is not really bad, it is standard for California. From a good customer :). —SoMeOnE

2007-10-08 12:20:48 They have awsome baklava for dessert and dinner or lunch meal is great also. I always order 1/2 chicken plate with taboule and humus. Yummy..... this restaurant is my favorite restaurant in Davis. I love it so much. —viviancute

2007-10-20 04:31:57 Awsome..... the place is cool. The owner is very friendly. The food is great. The service is wonderful. I love this restaurant. —Patricia

2007-11-11 11:13:23 We love this place. Great wraps and feta, and those little grape leave things are awesome. Reasonably priced. Two can eat for $20 and have a nice meal. The staff is really nice. They do get crowded though. So go at an off time or you will have little bimbo students try and cut in front of you in line all the time. At least we know UCD undergrads can put their cheating skills to work in real world situations. —LouisM

2007-11-12 23:42:46 Yes... the staff is very nice to costumers and ask the customers if they need anything and so on.... I think it is great. But, I saw one kitchen worker yelling rudely at a waitress. It was so unprofessional—yelling at her in front of a lot of people. This place is nice to have some food but I just feel so sorry for the waitresses. —viviancute

2008-01-07 16:00:22 I have eaten here about 5 times and it is always really good food the chicken shawarma is my favorite. My only complaint has been when I get it to go and they forget to put in the cucumber dip in the bag last time I double checked the bag and they forgot it again but when I complained the wanted to give me 2 orders of the dip for free. I will keep eating there as these things happen plus I love the chicken shawarma. —LongtimeDavisite

2008-01-12 21:40:47 I really love their food—I have eaten there many times—I cannot count it. I love the chicken shawerma with 2 sides (yogurt dip and ikra) and the lamb chops was really good, too with some wine. I really like a waitress who works there (I guess she is a Philipino), she was always nice, friendly and very helpful. The owner also was so nice—he always said the same sentence every time I went there "hi guys, nice to see you" OR "How are you doing today" :) —Lorna

2008-01-26 21:50:09 So tonight was Cafe Med. Good times. My dinner-buddy ordered the veggie plate and I got the beef kabob dinner. Both were delicious and surprisingly satisfying (and I have big appetite). The hummus was good tonight, but I've had better (and thicker). Not a fan of the runny stuff. I recommend the lentil soup. If you like pepper, do what I do: Add a ton of pepper and it becomes even tastier! —CurlyGirl26

2008-01-29 14:07:58 I went there to have dinner 2 nights ago with my family who was visiting me, I took them to this place and my family just hated it. We ordered some fallafels and they were BURNT and the tahini sauce was watery and sour—horrible taste!!!. The potato salad was the worst (watery), and chicken kebob wasn't really tasty at all. I was so dissapointed and I am not coming back.... —randiv

2008-01-29 14:13:46 add one more opinion..... I prefer and recomend Sam's Restaurant —randiv

2008-03-01 14:36:56 The owner quite rudely told a group (of six) of us to not come back after a year of meeting there on a weekly basis. He said that "STUDENTS AREN'T WELCOME HERE". He stated that ordering coffee and side dishes were not substantial enough to justify our presence and that we should go elsewhere. Could be understandable were this cafe EVER BUSY when we met. Week after week we were quite literally the only people there. All of us were confused because we thought that this place was a for profit business. The owner is unnecessarily unpleasant. The perennial "Help Wanted" sign in the window makes sense now. —egoideal

2008-03-01 18:06:22 i've eaten here before with co-workers and friends...and i'm a very picky eater (meat and potatoes only, please) LOL............anyway, I *always* get the chicken schwarma and french fries. I've always enjoyed it too. I'm not sure about anything else on the menu as i've only had the chicken. The only comment/(not really a complaint) i would have is whenever we order fries...they *ALWAYS* have one or two drops of ketchup left in the bottles (all of them)...it's surprising. LOL maybe it's just bad timing on my part....anwyay, thumbs up for this place from me. —michaelG

2008-03-27 09:33:01 Do Not Tip on Credit Card. The owner keeps those tips for himself. The last time an employee complained, there were suddenly not enough hours for them. If you want the staff to receive the tip it has to be in cash. —Cecil

Thanks for your information. We'll not coming back amymore....

2008-04-02 20:57:31 Tonight was awesome! The food was great and the service was spectacular. I'll tell you why. I wanted to pick and choose a few items. Not only did they accomodate me, but at a reasonable price. And they were so nice about it, too. I highly recommend this place. Oh and order the Greek salad. It's tasty. —CurlyGirl26

2008-04-18 22:19:03 One of the gentlemen who works there (co-owner?) looks like Luca_Brasi. —DukeMcAdow

2008-04-18 23:27:46 Café Méditerranée is one of the best available Middle-Eastern restaurant. kababs are just awesome, i have become a reular vistor over the year. —clubJWP

2008-04-20 18:41:37 awesome, quiet place to eat and relax. Food is great, and the service is pretty good. If you like Mediterranean food then this place is a definite must! —ASQWIK

2008-06-01 00:33:28 YUMMY. I had the lamb and the chicken. The sides were awesome and the pita was fantastic. It was all so tasty! —Esther

2008-06-03 19:10:07 its true that the credit card tips do NOT go to the cashiers, but they DO go to the cook- who is not a co-owner and probably doesnt make as much as he deserves without the tips. —HannahYang

2008-06-06 08:59:27 Love the chicken caeser salad. Very different because the chicken is roasted and still warm. The croutons are not good though and they should just skip serving them. The schwarma is good as well and it is great to have choices for sides. All have been good. —LokiAbbi

2008-06-26 21:52:54 I really wanted to like this place, especially because of all the good reviews, but I wasn't crazy about the food here. Sitting on that patio staring at the funeral chapel every time I glanced up might've subconsciously had something to do with it, but primarily it was because my chicken wrap had a very dry pita and wayy too much tahini pouring out the bottom everytime I took a bite. The desserts did look promising, but I probably won't be going back to try one anytime soon. —SRB

2008-07-01 11:30:34 I really enjoyed the hummus, tazaki and mushama(sp?). I found the atmosphere quite nice for davis and the service was great. I'm definetly going back again. —JamesLDownie