Little Arabia Restaurant

In 2014 – years after Anaheim’s Arab American district became informally known as “Little Arabia,” but years before that name became official – the restaurant Little Arabia opened in the corner of a Brookhurst plaza, offering Lebanese breakfast, lunch, and dinner dishes from 10am to 10pm every weekday (and extending to 11pm on weekends). More than a decade later, the restaurant remains a good choice to sample well-known Middle Eastern/Mediterranean classics ranging from baba ghanouj and hummus to falafel, shawarma, and kabobs, as well as the manaeesh flatbreads made locally famous by Al Amir Bakery and Forn Al Hara more than a decade earlier.

Though its interior is nicely decorated with seating capacity for at least a couple dozen guests, Little Arabia’s front facade is partially obscured by a mostly enclosed outdoor seating area with even more tables and chairs, enabling service of perhaps 100 total people at a time. An open kitchen reveals two large meat spits – seemingly beef and lamb – with the option of either digital, tablet-based counter ordering or folding paper menus at a table. Shelves in the back are stocked with sodas, oils, and preserved ingredients, and servers are constantly on the move between the inner and outer dining spaces.

By local standards, the menus are most notable for their nice color photography and generally reasonable prices, which keep meals in the $20 to $25 per person price range with one appetizer ($5 to $12) and a sandwich ($9 to $12) or flatbread ($5 to $11) – here just called “bakery.” Flatbread, wrap, and pizza options range from zaatar spices to ground beef, sojok (spiced lamb and beef sausage, shown), egg & cheese, labneh & veggie, or classic pepperoni & cheese; we ordered and really liked the sojok ($9.49), which had plenty of spiced meat paste across its four medium-sized slices.