About Shawarma House

Shawarma House is a family-owned, fully halal Iraqi-Mediterranean restaurant at 4884 Newport Ave in Ocean Beach, San Diego. We slow-roast beef and chicken on a vertical spit, hand-shave it to order, and make our sauces fresh in the kitchen every day. The recipes come from our family — Iraqi-Mediterranean cooking with Levantine and Mesopotamian roots — and we cook them the way we’d cook for our own table.

The short version: real shawarma, made the slow way, served by the people who own the place. Owner-operator Mathios Yonan is here, hands-on, seven days a week.

Who we are

We’re a small, family-run kitchen, not a chain. Everything we serve is Iraqi-Mediterranean food built on family recipes — warm spices, slow-roasting, and bright house sauces. It’s the food these recipes were built for, cooked the way it’s meant to be cooked.

Why Ocean Beach

You’ll find us on Newport Ave, in the heart of Ocean Beach — a neighborhood that takes its food seriously and shows up for the small places that do it right. That’s exactly the kind of room we wanted to cook in. Drop in and you’ll usually find Mathios behind the counter. We’re open 11 AM to 8 PM, seven days a week, and you can always reach us at (619) 642-0298.

How the food is made

Good shawarma can’t be rushed, and we don’t try to. Here’s what actually happens behind the counter:

• Marinated, then slow-roasted on a vertical spit. Beef and chicken are stacked on the spit and slow-roasted as it turns, so the outside crisps while the inside stays tender.
• Hand-shaved to order. We carve the meat off the spit when you order it — not in advance, not off a tray. That’s the difference you taste.
• Sauces made in-house, fresh every day. Our toum (whipped garlic paste), tahini, and hot sauce are made by hand in our own kitchen daily.
• Fully halal. Every bit of beef and chicken we serve has been halal-sourced since the day we opened.

Our halal commitment

Halal isn’t a special menu here — it’s all of it. All of our beef and chicken has been halal-sourced since we first opened our doors, and that hasn’t changed. There are no separate “regular” trays to ask about. Whether you’re dining in, ordering pickup, or catering an event, you can serve the whole table with confidence.

What to order

A few dishes regulars come back for:

• Combo Plate — beef shawarma, chicken shawarma, and gyro on one plate. The best way to try everything at once.
• Beef Shawarma Plate and Chicken Shawarma Plate — the classics, slow-roasted and hand-shaved.
• Cream Chop Plate — our house specialty: chopped chicken in a creamy garlic sauce. Also a Pita Wrap or Fries. (Contains dairy, so it isn’t on our gluten-free-friendly list.)
• Falafel Plate — crisp, hand-formed chickpea fritters; fully vegan.
• Shawarma Portion Fries — fries loaded with shawarma. The easy crowd-pleaser.

Vegan and gluten-free-friendly

We keep a full vegan menu — Falafel, Vegan Shawarma, a Vegan Cream Chop, hummus, tabouli, fattoush, and plant-based sauces — so plant-based guests get the same flavors as everyone else, not a dry plate on the side.

We’re also gluten-free-friendly: we’ll build plates over rice with no pita for guests avoiding gluten. The honest caveat is that we cook in a shared kitchen and are not a certified gluten-free facility, so we can’t promise zero cross-contact. If you have a severe allergy, tell us when you order and we’ll be straight with you about what we can and can’t guarantee.

Owner-operator: Mathios Yonan

Shawarma House is run by owner-operator Mathios Yonan — not an absentee owner, but the person you’ll often find behind the counter and in the kitchen. When you eat here, you’re eating food made by the family that owns the place.

Our guests have left us 4.7 stars across 650+ Google reviews — and we read every one.