Ariana Kabob & Gyro Bistro

Excellent, that it what really describes this food. I had been craving gyro and falafel recently and did a little Unilocal searching for a place and found this one near where I was driving. Their falafel was the best I’ve had for a very long time and their Greek gyro was massive and very full of flavor. I see that they also offer grape leaves as a side, I will order those next time. This place is really worth the drive.

Meh. Not bad. Would eat there again if I was in the area and had a hankering for middle eastern food just not worth a 20 minute drive.

Try this place for sure! Delicious! Fresh, authentic food! Great kabob meal with a salad and bread. Recommend the rice with carrots and spices with your meal. Family run. Good service.

This place is seriously the BEST Mediterranean food I’ve had in the US. I was spoiled before since I was born and raised in Europe and was so to speak ‘right at the source’.
Staff is warm and welcoming (we got takeout but will definitely dine in next time).
My boyfriend and I both got the gyro, he got fries, I got a small Greek salad w/​mine. Not only was everything carefully packaged, but to my surprise, the Greek salad was seriously next level. Wow! Gyros — ⁶⁄₅ EXCELLENT. Tzatziki– 6÷5… And don’t even get me started on the hummus because it was FANTASTIC.
We will be back many, many times and hope you will, too! KALI OREXI!

Our experience at Ariana was absolutely delightful. The owner was such a kind woman, she made us feel right at home, and even treated us to some complimentary tea. The food was divine; super tasty and fresh! We’re very tough critics when it comes to Afghani food but this restaurant is really worth visiting. The menu is a lot of fun, with creative options that will please every type of foodie. We will definitely be back!

I’m updating because the owner reached out. The owner seems to care, and I feel like that is 90% of doing well in the restaurant business. I will give the place another shot, I just hope they make some improvements.

This place is pretty darn great. You walk in to a well decorated but not overwhelming room with TVs and spacious tables, order at the counter from an extensive and varied menu, and get delivered hot, cooked to order food right at your table.
I got the spicy chicken korma: while it wasn’t spicy in a hot manner, it was absolutely delicious. I absolutely loved the mix of the traditionally Arab pita with more Eastern/​South Asian flavors of the Afghani rice and flavorful curry. The salad was pretty standard for a Med salad, but whaddya expect?
The real star of the meal was the gyro and fries. My girlfriend ordered that and it was one of the better gyros I’ve ever tried — they don’t skimp on anything and the fries are seemingly hand cut, battered (!) and cooked to perfect, cripsy perfection.
We’ll be back. We’re fortunate to live right down the street!

Great place and the food is very good. You definitely get your money’s worth from the gyro. I’ve been to too many places where they skimp on the gyro meat, not here. The fries are fantastic as well.

Greek Gyro almost had too much meat if such a thing is possible. Overflowing pile of gyro meat, Greek veg & house made sauce on the side. Seasoned fries were a delicious, crispy side dish.
My significant other had the Spicy Gyro which he said slowly got spicier but had no immediate heat, also thought the meat to veg ratio was a little off. All in all, great takeout option, will be visiting again.

This is one of my favorite places to grab a quick bite to eat. Their Gyros are awesome! They have great specials too.

Great food and friendly service.
So glad to have it in the hood.
We will be back!!!

Really good Mediterranean food! Hot and freshly cooked, seasoned just right. I always enjoy anything I order.
Small dining room without a lot of ambiance, but the food is consistently hot and tasty. Recommended.

Great Gyro’s and Kabobs DB affordable. Why go to Dino’s when you’ve got the real deal right here.

Stay away from this place. Read all my reviews, I am extremely fair and what I am about to write is being kind. Entered the place at lunch time. No one was in the restaurant but the owner. He obviously didn’t like us for some reason. We ordered a couple gyros and presented our 2−4−1 coupon for the Entertainment book. He said with a straight face. «I was told not to accept these anymore.» Really? This is the owner working in a place that looks like it is behind on the utilities bills. So let me understand the situation. You pay money to be in a coupon book. A new customer takes time to drive to your establishment. You decide you would rather have zero dollars from the only customer in the place because you prefer to have sixteen dollars. As I left the place he kept saying it was my problem that I did not like the outcome. No sir, it is your problem. I will never be back. If anyone reads this and opts to go somewhere else, your problems keep mounting. If there was a zero star option, Ariana Kabob & Gyro Bistro would be the first zero rating since I started reviewing local establishments. And it is true that I did not get to taste the food, I did see a couple gyro boxes being created for pickup and thought the portion for $ 8 was very small. I conclude with one of my favorite sayings in life. Mean People Suck.

Things have improved dramatically, a gift for which I am grateful.
I love this kind of food, and having a good place nearby whenever I need some comfort food is a godsend.
Keep it up.

Came for lunch earlier this week. This place is LEGIT. Huge gyro, tasty fries (although they are just sysco fries I suspect)
I was blown away by how clean the place was. Usually shops like this are not…
Friendly, prompt service. I am going to make this a regular spot!

We came here with a Groupon, and we’ll be back, because the food was amazing! I have to agree with other Unilocalers, though, in that the customer service needs some work.
We ordered the veggie sampler plate and the coconut shrimp, which was way too much food, and we proceeded to eat pretty much all of it. So authentic and good! The hummus was so fresh that I felt sad about the lackluster grocery store hummus in my fridge. The potato samosas were just a little bit spicy and addictive. The falafel was very flavorful and perfectly cooked; often, I find that falafel just tastes like generic fried stuff, but their falafel was tender and full of nuanced flavors. And that Afghan rice… mmmm! As for the coconut shrimp, which came with a coconut-​pineapple dipping sauce, these fresh and juicy little buggers put the Red Lobster version to shame. Even the French fries were memorably crispy and tasty.
As for the customer service… folks, would it hurt to crack a smile? We’re all excited about having a neighborhood Middle Eastern place and want you to succeed, so please make us feel welcome. Also, please learn what’s on your own menu. We didn’t get the Tzaziki sauce that came with our dish, and neither did another patron, and the girl behind the counter incorrectly stated that this didn’t come with our orders. According to the menu, it did.
Hopefully this kind of stuff can be chalked up to growing pains. I’m definitely willing to chance it for another dose of that hummus and those coconut shrimp.

Dichotomy is the first word that comes to mind.
My wife and I entered the Afghan establishment in a strip mall that kind of looks like an Oriental food restaurant from the outside.
We had a $ 22 Groupon to spend and the inside menu is large but it has all these handmade signs on tape attached to it stating that pizza is not available and all sorts of other items. It was really weird, pretty hack.
We were the only ones in there at noon on a Saturday and during our 40 minute visit, one guy came in for a take out gyro.
We went to put our order in and the guy that maybe looked 29 was texting while we were telling him our order. «Are you f’ing serious? At least look at us while we put our order in!» Dear Lord, what happened in the ten years between when I went to school and when these kids ten years younger went. They are all entitled jerks. Anyway, soap box done.
The cook behind him was all over it though! He was awesome! I ordered the gyro and lamb platter with Afghan rice and my wife got the hummus plate. She loved the hummus and the plentiful amount was taken home to a happy husband. She gave me a hunk of it and it was fantastic!
My gyro meat was amazing! Super juicy and just the perfect amount of fatty. The dichotomy came in with the lamb, it was way under cooked. I asked for medium and it seriously took about 2 minutes of chewing to finish each bite. The second piece I had was a little more well done and much better. Note to Ariana, leave it on the burner a little bit longer. The Afghan rice was very tasty. I really loved it! Perfect seasoning and some craisenettes to sweeten it up. Lovely, really perfect.
The Tzatziki sauce was amazing! Every drop was perfect. The yogurt mixture can be put on anything. So good!
The kid behind the register became a little nicer when he brought out our food, but the fact he was texting half of the time that he was taking our order really irked me.
If he was putting our order in some kind of app or something, I apologize, but we walked up and he was on his phone. In my mind, when you see a customer walk into your building, you put down the frickin’ phone. They do it at the gas station, at least do it in a customer service driven business.
Overall, everything but the lamb and order taking was 4 star, the other two were 2 star, so hence the three stars.

Let’s start by saying that I love Middle Eastern food, so 1 star to this place is a sad thing for me to do. First of all, little Junior there needs to get out of the customer service business, because he thinks he owns the world. He has the attitude of a big club owner while he is managing the cashier at his parents’ restaurant. When I asked him to please continue cooking the half cooked lamb that I got, and he said «that’s just the way it’s served, medium rare, but ok.» Did anybody bother to ask me first how I wanted it?
Which takes me to the food: my girlfriend ordered a gyro sandwich, which was ok but not much better than what you would find at the mall. Now, I was feeling adventurous and decided to try the marinated lamb kebab. Wow, a shoe sole was more tender and tasty. This was plain horrible; the steel fork had a hard time cutting through the meat. Oh, and I paid $ 14.99 for this with the side of rice. WHAT A RIPOFF. I know middle eastern and Indian restaurants are not cheap but for the same price you can eat a PF Chang’s and get your money’s worth. And they will not take 30 minutes to bring you the food like they did in this place.
No wonder they need to use Groupon to lure customers to this place. The place was empty when we came in and was empty when we left. Needless to say I wont be coming back.

It is soooooo good to have a gyro/​kabob place so close to home. I don’t know why Minneapolis is so gyro adverse. You can get a gyro on almost any street corner in NYC or Chicago, but not so much here.
The gyro is pretty standard fare, the beef/​lamb combo is on a spit that gets carved down as the orders come in. It is topped with some lettuce, tomatoes and onion. I would love to see more veggies, as the meat portion is quite large. The tzakiki sauce is one of the best I have ever had. Very thick, light garlic essence and the lightness of the cucumbers make it oh so memorable.
I had both the spinach side and the dahl side. Neither blew me away. I was hoping for some flavor from herbs but got next to none.
Welcome to the neighborhood Ariana!
Next time I stop in I hope you are willing to show me the food that you and your family love to eat, not a bland bunch of spinach and lentils. Your gyro is good, but I am sure you can do better.