Raffi’s Mediterranean Cuisine

With the exception of Mexican food, there is probably no cuisine that I find I either love or hate with the consistency of Mediterranean. I've had meals of grape leaves, grilled veggies and roasted halibut that left me nearly speechless, muttering something along the lines of "Why don't I eat this food more often?"

I've also had far too many meals of dried-out kabobs, flavorless falafel as firm as a fist, and stale pita bread. Meals that likewise left me saying "Why does anyone eat this food?"

As a consequence, I don't eat Mediterranean all that frequently. (A quick Google search of the 836 previous posts I have written reveals that I have only referred to one restaurant as Mediterranean: Pita Pita, a restaurant I certainly love.) But the other day I was helping out an old coworker of mine with something in Sierra Madre. We talked about what to do for lunch. There are several restaurants in that town at which I do not mind eating, but I have no desire to get food to-go from any of them. (To be fair, I feel that way about most restaurants everywhere.) He suggested Raffi's and I said sure. He ordered the chicken kabob plate and I ordered a sandwich.

Raffi's is in a shopping center in the northeast corner of Pasadena. (It's not possible to go any farther east; it's only possible to go about a mile farther north.) I ordered the food, drove up there (a three minute drive) and waited less than five minutes.

There is plenty of space available for parties and catering events, but the area for ordering and picking up is quite small. After waiting less than five minutes, the lady handed me a heavy plastic bag.

"This is mine?" I asked incredulously. The thing might have weighed five pounds and the total for the two of us was just a little over 14 bucks.

"Yep," she said.

Three minutes later we started taking things out of the bag.

The pita bread was outstanding, fresh and warm.

In a ball of foil the size of a softball was an assorted of pickled vegetables.

I ordered the soujouk sandwich. Soujouk is a dry sausage spiced with garlic, cumin, red pepper and various other spices. (It's not quite as powerful as basturma, but it can get pretty flavorful.) I've eaten soujouk on pizzas and slicked with olive oil on pita bread, but in a roll with pickled vegetables and garlic sauce has always been my preferred method.

The sandwich came wrapped in two separate foil packages, each containing a half of the sandwich. 

The sandwich was made up of soujouk, pickles and tomatoes. Of course I removed the tomatoes.

I added pickled turnips, carrots and peppers and a healthy amount of the provided garlic sauce.

The sandwich was outstanding, one of the best soujouk sandwiches I have ever eaten. The sausage had plenty of spice to it but was not too hot, and the pickled veggies and amazing garlic sauce complemented it wonderfully. For five bucks, this is one of the best deals I have had in a long time.

My buddy loved his kabob plate. There was plenty of chicken and it was moist and flavorful. He didn't comment on the rice, tabouleh or hummus, but he ate almost all of it and proclaimed himself "stuffed." 

I'm not ready to say that I love Raffi's after just one visit, but I certainly loved this lunch. That's a part of town where I don't really have any favorite restaurants, but I will absolutely return for another sandwich or two. They were fast, friendly, the prices were great, and the food was delicious.