Golden Pita Lebanese

Most of us are familiar with certain "hidden" restaurants that are only known to locals or those who are diehard eaters. I use the word hidden because they may not necessarily be visible from the street nor are they in a normally high-traffic area. Furthermore, some of these only exist to serve the lunch crowd. For me, I generally have my eye out for places to eat, so I seek out these hidden gems. Then I really have no idea how I could've missed Golden Pita (out at Lougheed Mall) all these years. From the times I visited the liquor store and more recently, Dollar Giant, what was I looking at??? A restaurant right in front of my eyes and I conveniently chose to ignore it?

Ignore it no more as Big D suggested I give it a go. Fine, so with no eating companions for lunch, I did the eat-by-myself routine once again. Sure, no one will notice the guy at the window with the big DSLR taking a picture of his Falafels...  Anyways, these were not bad. They were dense (like many falafels are), yet not overly so. There was a good balance of spices while the exterior was really crunchy.  Of course a plate of falafels would not be enough food...  So I also got the Beef Plate which included a veggie pocket, wara' inab tabbouleh salad, humous, tzatziki and pita bread.  The meat was moist and flavourful while the rest of the items were well-prepared.  I particularly liked the veggie pocket as the pastry was soft while the filling had a nice mixture of veggies including sweet corn.  On another visit, I had the Beef Shawarma and it consisted of fresh ingredients, tender beef and a great mixture of flavours.  I'm keeping the description short because of the next item...

I went back one more time to try their famed Chicken Rocket.  You know when someone raves about a particular food item and they give out this "foodgasm" face?  Well, Big D did just that.  It was a bit disturbing, but I got the idea.  Bam!  Yes, that's how the flavours hit me like a luxury SUV running a stop sign in Richmond. The combination of roasted chicken, onion, sumac spice, humous, tahini sauce, tomato, pickled turnip, feta cheese and hot sauce wrapped in a baked pita was more flavourful that I could imagine.  Depending on what was in each bite, there was the immediate hit of the hot sauce (I got spicy), then the tartness from the turnip and finishing off with the sumac spice, sweet onions and roasted chicken.  The humous brought the whole thing together.  Furthermore, since it was baked, the pita was crispy on the outside which added more texture.  I would definitely order this again.  In fact, as you may have already noticed, I keep going back to Golden Pita for eats...  That basically says it all.

The Good:
- Solid eats with good flavours
- Great people, super-friendly

The Bad:
- Not expensive, but not cheap either
- Small place, best to keep your party small