Pita Café
T

wo surprises awaited me 
when I last visited Pita Café, 
my favorite restaurant in 
Oak Park.
Since 1991, 
Lebanese immigrant 
Ali Chahine has 
offered a menu of 
reliably delicious and 
authentic Middle 
Eastern food and 
raw juices at his 
Pita Café restau-
rant on Greenfield Road, between 
I-696 and 10 Mile Road. Downtown 
Birmingham, north of Maple Road, is 
his second location.
So, Surprise 1: Oak Park’
s Pita Café 
has a Jewish manager. The young man 
is Adam Tabak, who graduated from 
the former Andover High School in 
Bloomfield Hills and earned his busi-
ness management degree at Central 
Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant. 
His family belongs to Temple Israel in 
West Bloomfield.
Tabak has worked nearly a year 
at Pita Café. He agreed with me that 
it has some of Metro 
Detroit’
s best Middle 
Eastern food. Which 
leads me to Surprise 2: 
I’
m crazy about ghalla-
ba, a stir-fry entree he 
praised but I’
d never 
tried before. 
Like most with a favor-
ite restaurant, I stick with 
tried-and-true items. 
According to Tabak, 
these are also the most 
popular: lemony crushed 
lentil soup, juicy deboned chicken and 
chicken shwarma sandwich lined with 
whipped garlic sauce. 
More recently, I discovered majdra, 
browned lentils and cracked wheat 
topped with sautéed onions and 
served with plain yogurt. So yummy! 
I also recommend the cauliflower 
sandwich.
But I was missing out on ghallaba, a 
slow-cooked dish unique to Lebanon. 
I first had a garden salad, comple-
mented by its vegetable oil-based herb 
dressing. I chose rice for my side. 
Then: ghallaba — seasoned pieces of 
chicken, fresh mushrooms, green pep-

per, onions, tomatoes and carrots. The 
dish was aromatic and slightly pep-
pery. I brought half of the large por-
tion home. Lamb, beef, salmon and 
shrimp are other proteins available, or 
order all-vegetable ghallaba.
A Starter Combo offers three classic 
appetizers: hummus, baba ganoush 
(spelled ghanooj here) and the afore-
mentioned garlic sauce. Spread them 
on thick, slightly sweet pita bread 
pouches, delivered hot from the oven.
The comprehensive menu ranges 
from lamb chops to salads to rolled-
up sandwiches to the shish combo. 
Many meal combinations simply 
consist of adding flavorful 
humus or smoky baba to 
something else.
Pita Café’
s high-pow-
ered juicer presses ripe 
fruit and vegetables into 
healthy drinks. “The 
carrot, orange, apple and 
beet combo is our most 
popular,
” Tabak said.
The Middle Eastern 
ambience at Pita Café 
starts with appropriate 
instrumental music. 
Chahine created a sense 
of old Lebanon with cracked sand-
beige walls, stone floors, wooden 
inlaid furniture and large brass 
antique pitchers and coffee pots. 
Dramatic chandeliers feature metal 
bell caps with descending strings of 
colored beads. The back dining room 
is entered through an archway framed 
in stone, repeated in “window” room 
dividers. 
Busy Pita Café is open daily in Oak 
Park, but not Sundays in Birmingham. 
Groups are easily accommodated. 
Servers are attentive, helpful and 
friendly. ■

dining around the d
nosh

COURTESY OF PITA CAFE

Pita Café
25282 Greenfield, 
Oak Park
(248) 968-2225
AND
239 N. Old Woodward, 
Birmingham
(248) 645-6999
pitacafe.com
$$ out of $$$$

Fresh Juice

Chicken Ghallaba

Esther Allweiss 
Ingber
Contributing Writer

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May 2 • 2019 43
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