Petra Shawarma

I really wasn’t very impressed to be honest. We dined in on a fairly quiet Monday night (3 of us), and waited nearly an hour for our food, which is far away from what you’d be expect for what is basically a kebab shop! I ordered the lamb shawarma, with spicy lamb. Possibly there was a mix-​up there because the shawarma was so plain and boring tasting, not spicy at all nor were there even just good flavours. The salad was dressed nicely, but I think it’s a problem when the side salad is more interesting than the kebab! Maybe stick with the vegetarian options if you go there, my friends seemed to enjoy their felafel. Overall, I’ve had much nicer, cheaper Middle Eastern food with a much shorter wait. 2.5 stars.

Slightly overpriced kebab shop. ($ 20 for a mixed kebab) I will say though — the falafel was tasty and crispy to the bite. Wouldn’t rush back here — but they were the only thing open at 4pm on a Monday along the main Kingsland strip (lots of places here close in between dinner and lunch service). We ordered the chicken kebab ($ 15) it was like a pressed sandwich, served with salad on the side and a spoon of hummus– with no other sauce options. The falafel ($ 6 for 7 pieces) also didn’t come with sauce (you had to pay $ 5 extra for hummus). Overall… Not horrible — but definitely expensive for what you get.

Finally got to dine in here recently and had a great time. The dining room/​atmosphere is not up to much, but the food is really good. We had the mix platter (hummus, falafel, salad, pita, haloumi), and chicken shawarma, and both were great. Hummus was really tasty, and the salad was surprisingly good, with lots of sumac and an orange dressing. The lady made a point of explaining that these are shawarma Jordanian style, and boy were they good — especially with a bit of hummus stolen from the mix platter. I had a piece of baklava also, which I found a bit crunchy and a bit too sweet. Can’t wait to visit to try the hummus petra which involves whole chickpeas ‘swimming’ in the hummus, and sounds fantastic.
Whilst possibly not the ideal place to take a lover or potential lover for a romantic night out, it is worth the visit for the food. Perhaps takeaway is the right call.

If you are after your typical 2am kebab — you know, the kind that is drenched in sauce and stuffed full of dry doner meat — this is not your jam. Instead, come here expecting fresh, made to order and packed full of flavour authentic Middle Eastern dishes.
I am still making my way through the menu but my favourite dish to date is definitely the Lamb Shawarma — a delicious flatbread wrap stuffed full of grilled meat, herbs, pickles, tahini and a delicious garlic sauce. Incredibly satisfying but still somewhat healthy or at the very least, nourishing. Also worth a try are the Kooba — bulghar wheat dumplings stuffed with spiced lamb. I think they could do with a little more seasoning but nevertheless, they’re pretty damn tasty.
Although Petra’s décor suggest it’s more of a takeaway joint than eat-​in restaurant, for a mid-​week dinner I think it’s legit. You will have to dine off paper plates but they have some preeetty sweet sequined chandeliers and if your lucky you may even be treated to some never-​heard-​before K. Perry remixes.

I really love middle eastern food, i’ve been to Turkey and spent time in Istanbul and fell in love with the freshness, fragrance and flavours. The problem with Middle Eastern in NZ is that it’s too westernised, so I never eat it, ridiculously huge servings of Shawarma’s and Kebabs packed full of averagely cooked fatty meat, soggy salad and too many sticky sweet sauces. I was so excited to hear about this place and it’s authentic dishes and flavours.
The actual place is very fast-​food looking and not much atmosphere but the food is truly delicious. Smaller servings than your average. The Kooba (meat filled dumplings) with a crusty exterior were excellent and came with a yummy garlic yoghurt dressing, the hummus was thick and and lemony that smooth consistency that’s impossible to find. The main events were the Chicken Musakhkhan and the Lamb Shawarma — both were alot smaller than most places but so much more flavour and salad on the side which I really liked. The meat in both were cooked to order and really delicious.
The owner was really lovely and recommended we try the typical non-​alcoholic beer that was peach and apple flavoured — so so so sweet but seemed to go really well with our food.
I highly recommend you try this place ASAP!

I was really looking forward to trying this place out but unfortunately I was left disappointed.
To be fair, the food is rather decent although I find the price very steep. My partner ordered a Vegetarian meal $ 16 and it was just a small portion of rice with wedges of lemon and a vegetable soup. My falafel meal was $ 14 which is not a lot of money but there were only 4 tiny falafels with a dry flatbread and some oily hummus. The falafels were nice but only 4 measly pieces? The worst is actually the cardamom tea that we have to asked 3 times for and every time we were told it’s on its way. We finished our meals and was just waiting for another 10 minutes for the tea. The place became more crowded and we didn’t feel comfortable hogging a table so we asked for it to be in takeaway cups. The owner apologised when we left but our evening was already ruined and we are just not coming back. I don’t usually expect much service if I spend less than $ 20 on a meal but this is just too much. I will keep going back to my trusty Shefco on dominion rd.