U PiCK Cafe

The food is flavorful and nicely cooked. Chicken and beef kabobs were both very tender and juicy. My son will be going to school in Pasadena in the fall. I will definitely go back when I visit him. Friendly staff to boot. Shorted one star for ambiance, but not terrible.

We had a plate of beef and chicken lule with Greek salad. The portion was huge and very delicious. Very fast and friendly service. We loved grilled vegetables especially!!! All around a very pleasant place to eat great food!

Always superb and satisfying. This place makes me happy. Today I tried the chicken kabob and lule with rice and substituted tabouli for the grilled veggies that are also good. For desert I had a coconut ice cream to treat myself since it was my birthday yesterday :-) I am loving the coconut in this ice cream! So delish!

A serviceable place to grab some Mediterranean at a reasonable price for Pasadena. Clean and efficient, good portions and average taste. Not one to go out of your way for but it will do if you are in the area

I ordered the beef and chicken kabob platter and a med fountain beverage. Came out to $ 17.16. Kinda pricey in my opinion but the flavors were very good. French fries were fresh not soggy! I would definitely eat here again, just a bit pricier than expected.

Got the chicken kabob with rice and hummus for $ 7.99 + tax (you can pick 2 sides). Didn’t like the hummus. It was just tasted like beans and didn’t have other flavor. You get 1 slice of thin and long pita that I wasn’t really a fan of. The chicken pieces were very tender and good one of the better kabobs that I have had. The onions were fresh and flavorful. The people were friendly. The garlic paste smells like what you spread on garlic bread and tastes like it so don’t think of it as regular garlic sauce.
4 stars for the meat and service
I wouldn’t get the hummus and the pita was tough

Super friendly service, delicious food, and very reasonable prices! The owner Martin is my kind of guy. I came in not exactly sure what was best to order. I told him it was my first time and that I wanted to try a signature dish if they had any and he took it from there. He gave me the beef dish number 11 (I believe). The rice and hummus and other sauces melded perfectly with the beef and we’re all wrapped up in a pita style wrap. One of the funnest parts was in ordering a mint yogurt drink. I shook up the carbonated beverage and then Martin expertly poured the exploding drink right into the cup. All throughout the dining experience Martin checked in on my family and made sure we were having an phenomenal first dining experience weekend. As we left Martin called me back by name, he shook my hand, and shared some very encouraging words with me.
In conclusion, I’ve never had an owner of a restaurant be so attentive and hospitable! Martin is a magnanimous man and you’ve got to meet him for yourself and check out the unsuspecting yet oh so amazing restaurant!

Hands down the best kabob ever! Chicken and beef Combo with the double rice is what I always get. I LOVVVVVVVEEEEEEEE this place! The pizzas are good too but I go for the kabob. The flat bread is great too the onions the cucumber and tomato salad I love it all! The service is great the restaurant is clean they have some pretty big TVs you can watch from. The service is great always friendly. The guys their who I think are either managers or owners are always nice, greet you with a smile. The chef too. You get a very welcomed vibe there. But the food is amazing! Highly recommend this place.

Ever since my favorite Middle East/​Mediterranean eatery (Pita! Pita!) closed, I’ve been on the hunt for a new one in the Pasadena area. My wife had eaten at UPick before and gave it a favorable review, so today we dropped in after taking our dog to a nearby groomer (Wet Paws in Altadena, if you’re interested).
Long story short, it’s no Pita Pita, but it’ll do. The place is clean, staff is friendly, prices/​portions are reasonable. My wife ordered the falafel plate, I ordered a falafel wrap, and the Baby ordered a chicken breast wrap. My order came with two sides, so I picked grilled veggies and hummus. My veggies consisted of a grilled tomato and (I think) a grilled poblano pepper. Both veggies were pretty tasteless, so I dragged them through the rather oily hummus in an attempt to give them flavor. Next time I’ll probably get tabbouleh or even fries. My wife and the Baby both liked their orders.
I don’t know that I’d go out of my way to come here, but if I were hungry and in the upper Lake Avenue area again, I’d probably return.

Alright, who butchered the garlic paste?
That’s not garlic paste. It more like plumbers putty. Disgusting!
Steak kabob is absolutely delicious.
Chicken kabob is OK, but I’ve had better.
Hummus lacks flavor. Not to many sides to choose from either. So I got a extra helping of hummus.
Yeaaah.rice counts as a side. Says who?
And with this whole meal you get one very tiny razor thin folded pita bread.
So when you ask for a second pita bread the girl seemed reluctant to give an extra piece at first.
Same with the turnips. They barely give you a few and when asking for seconds they barely spare a few. Place is a bit pricey. So in the photos you see that I put the extra side of turnips on top of the other one.
I would come back for the steak kabobs only.

4.7 stars.
this place is almost always (nobody’s perfect right haha) good to very good. consistently. The order takes some time because they cook the meats after you order. It’s never pre-​heated-​reheated (seems like). That’s why it takes so long. But that’s why it tastes so awesome. Definitely one of my top 5 spots in Pasadena area. Highly recommended.

I’m a regular at u-​pick. I eat here a few times a month. The food is great, but lately I’ve been feeling ripped off. The kabobs seem to be getting smaller and smaller. At first I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it or not, but it’s now confirmed.
Today when I opened my take away box of the beef kabob combo, I was exceptionally disappointed. There were only 5 very small pieces of meat. And I mean SMALL, the literal size of my thumb (see pics) and I have tiny hands. I compared my plate to photos on Unilocal as well to make sure I wasn’t assuming, and my kabob was significantly smaller than the photos posted.
Paying $ 13 for 5 tiny measly (but delectable) pieces of meat and rice and a can of soda is way too much for what it is. The price does not reflect the value anymore, and I am throughly bummed about it.
I’m so disappointed. I honestly love Upick, but I can’t justify eating here so often when the entrée is more like an appetizer. :(:(:(

(Free side with Unilocal check in)
Located next door to The Slaw Dogs on Lake Ave with street parking and also parking in a back lot (small plaza parking shared among other businesses).
My husband and I came by here on a Monday (2−29−16) around 1:30 pm for lunch. We decided to bring one of our dog’s with us for lunch, which they do have one bench outside. After we browsed the menu, we ended up getting:
#5 CHICKEN LULE KABOB, $ 7.99 (+$ 1 for rice= $ 8.99) prior to tax– This plate normally comes with rice, but my husband wanted his 2 sides to be yogurt dip and grilled vegetables. So I paid an extra $ 1 for rice. There was only 2 pieces of the chicken lulu kabob on this plate (but that seems typical of Persian places being skimpy on the meat) but it tasted quite moist and flavorful. It also tasted quite eggy, which makes me think that they must make some kind of batter on this meat in egg. The rice was well worth paying the extra $ 1 because it was good. It is more than just plain white rice because it is lightly seasoned with something that makes it good. The grilled vegetables was disappointing, as it was a while tomato and a whole pepper. I would have preferred strips of zucchini, squash, etc instead of this. I wouldn’t recommend getting this side in the future. The yogurt dip we had was excellent. This plate comes with a piece of lavash bread.
#30 FALAFEL PLATE, $ 8.99 prior to tax (with shirazi salad) — I am a big fan of falafel and this place definitely did not disappoint. The flavors of the falafel were there. You can tell it was made in house and not from powder out of a box. The flavor of the chickpeas and seasonings used was perfect and made right. This plate normally comes with a salad and a side of tabbouleh. I am not a fan of tabbouleh so I opted for the shirazi salad (diced cucumber and tomatoes) which tasted excellent. The salad that comes with this plate also was great too. The hummus that also comes with this plate was creamy and well seasoned. This plate also comes with a piece of lavash bread.
Side of fries, got this free with my Unilocal check in (but you can choose whichever side you want) — I decided to get fries since we pretty much had all the other sides on our plate. These fries were pretty good, but not incredibly memorable.
— — — — — — — — —
(Total= $ 19.60 after tax)
Portion size of the food (with the exception of the chicken) was pretty generous and a pretty good value for the price per plate. Food was delicious and wait time for our food was not bad at all. But I did not like that they had forgotten to give us the side order of grilled vegetables with my husband’s plate initially and so I had to go back inside to remind them. Again, I wished the grilled vegetables were something else (mentioned above) instead of how it was plated. But oh well, just won’t order that again.
All in all, the food was good overall, so we will come back here in the future.
By the way, there is free WiFi here (need to ask for the password, but I didn’t use it so don’t know if it was fast or not) and the women’s restroom (at the back of the restaurant) was clean upon this visit.

If you told me that I wouldn’t die of a heart attack I would come here every day!
Love their food!!!

Very kind staff and great quality of food. Made to order.
and garlic spread is amazing.

I’m so torn. I love their food here, love love love the kebabs. But they really need to step up their game in the delivery aspect.
This negative review is for their delivery service; on several occasions, my office would order food from here via the Eat24 online ordering service. Each time they would estimate a delivery time of about 45mins, and on two occasions, our food arrived 2hrs after we ordered it. This is a major inconvenience, because we are a medical facility, have a set lunch period and we were unable to have lunch on those two occasions. Many of my colleagues instead, took their ordered lunch for dinner.
What doesn’t make sense, is that the first time we ordered from them (about a year ago), they were prompt and corrected mistakes in our ordersorders VERY promptly. I don’t know what happened within the last three months that causes this decline in their delivery service.
This two-​star review is based solely on their delivery service.
Otherwise, their food amazing! Their chicken kebabs are the most tender of all kebabs ive ever had. Next time I’ll just order for pick up, to avoid a 2hr delay in getting some delicious food in my belly.

I honestly thought it was just ok. I did not like that they serve you on a styrofoam plate and plastic cutlery for eating in. I understand the to go order but its just not enjoyable to eat on this environmentally unfriendly business. It makes me fell think of their business ethic. As for food, it was alright. I am a fan of middle eastern food but this one did not impress #4. The meat is juicy from the fat but its not seasoned well.
All in all its a pass for me.

The kabobs are juicy and tasty, but a little on the fatty side. The rice is buttery and decent. French fries come crispy and well seasoned. Garlic cream is rich.
The restaurant is clean and casual, prices are a little steep considering how casual the place is. Service is friendly. It’s alright.

We dropped by for dinner on Wednesday night and the place was pretty sparse. But it was only about 20 mins later that this place started to fill up and a lot of people do take out from here. I counted about 4 – 5 take out orders during the 30 – 40 mins that I was there, dining in.
After perusing the menu and looking over the images on Unilocal.We settled on the Chicken + Beef Kabob Plate and a Chicken + Beef Lule Plate. The meats were definitely good. I love how they cook your food after you order. Everything tasted fresh but I wished they would like the meats stay on the grill a tad longer for the maillard effect to kick in.
The sides were okay. We got the hummus, rice on one plate, fries and cucumber yogurt on the other plate. Counting hummus as a side dish is really scandalous. It’s hummus, it’s a dip not a side. The rice wasn’t as fluffy and was kinda mushy for my taste but it wasn’t too bad.
In total it was $ 27. $ 14 for the Kabobs and $ 12 for the Lules. Not too pricey but definely not cheap either.
For checking-​in with your Unilocal app. you get a free side appetizer which we opted for Tabbouleh. It was decent.

Great flavors within moist, well cooked meats… all the ones I tried (beef kabob and the lule) are both very delish. Both of my friends like the lule over the kabob because of the soft, succulent texture, but they’re both well made to me. Not huge on their «veggies» (just a pepper and a tomato grilled… ehhh), but it wasn’t the star of the show so I won’t dock too much for that.
They don’t give a whole lot of hummus for your side though, which I was bummed about… however the hummus wasn’t ERMAGAWD either so I guess it wasn’t a bad thing that we got less. Ah well.
Overall, it’s a nice place to go if you’re craving some Mediterranean food in Pasadena, but I’m definitely spoiled by another location in North Hollywood, so it’s not my OMGOMGOMGMUSTEATNOW choice.