Damascus House
This Little Arabia restaurant serves outstanding Syrian dishes – with an unwanted surprise at the end
While Damascus House isn’t Orange County’s first or only Syrian restaurant (see: Aleppo’s Kitchen, Filo Dessert Co., Le Mirage Pastry, Obaid Kitchen), it might well be the best we’ve tried so far. Opened in February 2025 as Damascus House Cuisine and more recently going by Damascus House, this roughly 40-seat, family-owned business opened right next to Harvest Fresh Market at Brookhurst and Katella – the informal southern edge of Anaheim’s Little Arabia district. Passers-by will likely notice the huge sign of locally famed Palestinian plaza neighbor Sababa Falafel first, but this Syrian take on Middle Eastern cuisine delivers equally memorable flavors, and doesn’t sit in anyone’s shadow from a culinary standpoint.
As someone in this kitchen appears to be a seasoning savant, this is the rare situation where we’d say that our photographs can’t do full justice to what makes Damascus House’s renditions of classic Middle Eastern dishes better than countless other local places with similar menus. Spread across seven total pages, the menu isn’t super long and feels mostly familiar, with entrees covering beef or chicken shawarmas ($22 to $24), kababs ($25 to $31), lamb chops ($32), nakanek sausages ($26), and wraps ($10 to $14), with appetizers including common dips ($9 to $12), kibbeh ($11 to $11.50), falafel ($12), and salads ($11 each). Several breakfasts ($12 to $32) and kids plates ($14) are also offered before you reach eight desserts ($8 to $12) and drinks ($3 to $8).
One of those drinks – mint lemonade ($7) – struck us as a fitting summary of Damascus House’s frequent superpower: flavor. Properly balanced but powerful lemon and mint flavors mingled with just enough sugar and viscosity to avoid tasting thin, watery, or cloyingly sweet. This was the sort of homemade lemonade that was good enough to drink down to the very bottom, including what was left of its ice cubes, then dream about afterwards. A cup of unnamed, unfancy hot tea ($3) wasn’t as memorable, but wasn’t bad, either; coffees, smoothies, and juices are also options.
Until the very end of our meal, all of the food we ordered was unimpeachable – delicious and seemingly good value for the prices. A set of five yalanji grape leaves ($11) were served cold but obviously house made, fresh and lemony with rice and vegetable stuffing, while separate mutabal ($9) eggplant and muhammara ($12) red pepper/walnut dips were generously portioned and paired with thin pitas. The muhammara wasn’t gorgeous but was the best in flavor we’ve found anywhere in the region, with strong spicing that added to the nutty, sweet red pepper paste’s potency. Berak b lahmeh ($11), a set of three ground beef pastries, was both visually appealing and hearty, cooked to an almost idealized golden orange and dusted with parsley just for color contrast. We would order all of these items again in a heartbeat.
Our group’s shared entree, the chef’s choice mixed grill ($35), combined kufta ground beef kababs, chicken breast shish tawook, and filet mignon beef cube shish kabab on a hot skillet with sweet onions and peppers; a side plate added salad, almond and basmati rice, garlic toum, tahini, a spicy dip, and two pieces of pre-spiced pita bread. Without getting overly granular, all of the meats were wonderfully cooked – at the fine edge of medium, so still tender and juicy – and each of the side items ranged from very good to great. This is a fun way to sample a swath of the entrees, and a pretty good value.
While the dessert menu offered a number of interesting options, including the semolina dough/ghee/ashta dessert madlouka, muhalayeh pudding, harissa, and baklava ice cream, we had limited time and stomach capacity left by the end of our meal, so tried only the pistachio warbat ($10) – two large phyllo dough triangles generously garnished with nuts and filled with bright, thick, lightly sweetened ashta cream. We would generally opt for an ashta-free version (essentially standard baklava) instead, but the cream added textural complexity and volume that partially made up for its plain flavor.
Given all of the positives above, it pains us to mention that there was one unexpected surprise – the only reason we would hesitate to recommend Damascus House to our readers. We discovered after leaving that almost all of the items we ordered were charged at 4-5% higher prices than were advertised on the menu (and listed above), a surcharge that wasn’t listed on the menu or disclosed before ordering. Though we noticed the restaurant’s payment terminal making brief reference to a small discount if paying with cash, we didn’t know or appreciate that we’d be overcharged beyond listed prices for using credit. For that reason alone, we’ll be unlikely to return to Damascus House, despite how much we enjoyed most of the items we ordered, but if something changes with the billing practices here, we’d certainly consider giving this otherwise very good restaurant another shot.
Stats
Price: $$
Service: Table
Open Since: 2025
Address
9904 Katella Ave.
Anaheim, CA 92804
714.867.6000
Instagram: @damascus_house_cuisine