Obaid Kitchen

In mid-December 2024, Obaid Kitchen soft opened in Lake Forest’s Foothill Ranch neighborhood, bringing Syrian cuisine to a plaza with an appealingly diverse collection of Asian, American, and Mexican restaurants. When we visited in March 2025, Obaid had temporary “soft opening” and “grand opening” tarps up – apparently covering signage from its predecessor, The Garden Mediterranean Grill – but no permanent markings of its own. Though Obaid has had months to get established, the new restaurant felt like it was still not operating at full steam.

Obaid’s menu offers a fairly typical collection of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean options, ranging from tabbouleh and fattoush to dips, kibbeh, and falafels, plus schwarmas, roasted chicken, and kebabs. The hummus, eggplant baba ghanoush, and red pepper mohamara appetizers we tried here were the best parts of our meal – overly oily but generously portioned, strong in their expected flavors, and seemingly freshly made. If they’d been served with better-tasting pitas, they might have alone justified a future revisit.

The rest of the experience wasn’t great. Half an hour passed in the almost empty space before our food arrived; though we were seated by a server, he made no attempt to offer water or even cups before we asked roughly 25 minutes into waiting for our order, and later told us to fetch our own silverware and napkins. Gnats flew around the soda dispenser area, and occasionally around open tray displays of desserts, as the server alternated between phone and counter conversations, then disappeared into the open kitchen area, which appeared to have only one person cooking.