Pita bread, with or without a pocket, has become so widespread that there are countless restaurants, whether small independents or large chains, that incorporate the name of the popular Middle Eastern flatbread into their names. Most of the names are pretty straightforward, a few involve a certain level of wordplay, and one local operator has chosen coronation with the name of Princess Pita. That particular restaurant has a presence in both Mesa and Tempe, with the latter location of the Princess across the street from Priest/Washington station on the A Line.
Princess Pita is part of a small cluster of restaurants in the Papago Park Center, a small shopping center that serves the workers in numerous office buildings in northwest Tempe, as well as visitors going to nearby attractions like the Phoenix Zoo, the Desert Botanical Garden, and the Hall of Flame museum. A diagonal walkway leads from the rail station through the parking lot to the restaurant’s door. A bike rack is found next to the Starbucks a few doors down. The restaurant itself has neon signs in the windows in shapes of favorite items like kebabs.
Those signs on the outside are about 90% of the restaurant’s decor with the other 10% being a few photos of food on the walls of the utilitarian interior. That makes sense because Princess Pita is a counter service establishment focused heavily on daytime lunch traffic. Although the food is generally good enough to linger over, most customers are in and out quickly as their work schedules dictate. The menu is on screens over the counter where customers place their orders. Although a self-service tablet is available, most customers order directly from the staff.
Appetizers from the overhead menu include familiar favorites such as creamy hummus, either plain or topped with meat in a “deluxe” format. The sambusas, fried pockets with a minced vegetable filling, are crisp and come with tangy tzatziki sauce for dipping. Other choices include meatless dolmas, falafel studded with sesame seeds, a smooth lentil soup, and salads such as Greek or fattoush. While all these items can be ordered separately, a vegetarian platter with several of them combined in the same generous meal is also available to order as an entree.
Most items, whether meaty or meatless, combine in one of two formats: a pita wrap with a side of fries or a platter with rice, pita, hummus, and salad. The gyros deluxe wrap is a vehicle for tender, seasoned meat with abundant lettuce, tomato, tzatziki, and pickles bundled inside the bread. The accompanying fries are crisp with a bit of skin left on the potatoes to help them retain their shape when topped with feta, garlic, and parsley in a Greek variant. Shawarma comes in both chicken and beef with the option to try both side-by-side in a combination platter.
Seasoned, thin-sliced meat also appears in an alternative format described on the menu as a “traditional shawarma wrap.” In this format, a thin layer of bread encases chicken and garlic sauce tight, allowing maximum absorption of flavor while ensuring structural integrity. The resulting wrap is then sliced into pieces allowing it to be readily shared at the table. One distinctive item not available in any sort or wrap format is lamb, a popular meat in Middle Eastern cooking, available only on a platter in either a tender, braised shank or grilled chops.
Kebabs are another emphasis here, and they’re available with chicken, beef, and kofta, a seasoned ground meat mixture. All are good and the steak is exceedingly tender, but the poultry is an unexpected star here due to its moist, flavorful preparation with just a bit of smoky char. If undecided or just plain hungry, all three can be sampled as part of a kebab trio. While the kebabs are fashioned with chicken breast, Princess Pita does not run away from the bird’s dark meat. The chicken garlic entree features marinated thighs grilled and served with garlic sauce.
For a place with “pita” in its name, the bread here is serviceable but not the standout one might expect. It’s a somewhat thick version of disc-shaped starch without a pocket. The thinner pitas used to wrap the traditional beef and chicken shawarma wraps seem a bit more successful, and that may explain why those items stand on their own without included sides. Nevertheless, the entree platters have so much going on in terms of rice, salad, and sauces that meals are generally more than satisfying in terms of both quantity and quality of food on the plate.
Desserts on display at the counter include, as expected, multiple varieties of baklava, as well slices of cheesecake. The best of both worlds is a baklava cheesecake with a bit of honey flavor infused throughout the creamy interior, not just the pastry layer that forms the crust. As would be assumed for any establishment with a halal menu, there is no liquor license. Appealing beverage choices include a house-made lemonade and an orange spice iced tea. Together, they make an appealing Arnold Palmer with multiple notes of citrus enlivening the drink.
This second site of Princess Pita is an offshoot of the restaurant’s original location in west Mesa, where there is also a market. There is now a third location elsewhere in Tempe based on more of a Chipotle-style build-your-own model. This particular princess is a streamlined version somewhere in between the two that serves a full menu in a quick service model designed to appeal to weekday office workers and weekend visitors to Papago Park. The result is a decidedly non-prissy princess that works to please her people, with or without pockets.
1158 W. Washington St., Tempe AZ 85281
https://princesspitaaz.com
PHX Rail Food 