Baklava is a layered pastry made from paper-thin sheets of phyllo dough, filled with chopped nuts, baked until golden and crisp, then soaked in sweet syrup or honey. Each piece is small, rich, and sticky in the best way, with crackly layers on top and a dense, nutty middle. It’s one of the most loved desserts across the Middle East and the Mediterranean, and once you’ve had a fresh piece, you understand why.
We serve baklava at Shawarma House in Ocean Beach, San Diego, as the sweet finish to a savory meal. If you’re here to learn what baklava actually is, keep reading. If you’re just hungry, we’re at 4884 Newport Ave, open daily 11am to 8pm, and you can order online for pickup through Toast.
What baklava is made of
Baklava has three building blocks, and the magic is in how they stack.
- Phyllo dough. Dozens of paper-thin pastry sheets, layered with fat (traditionally butter) so they bake up crisp.
- Nuts. A filling of finely chopped nuts, most commonly walnuts or pistachios, spread between the layers.
- Syrup or honey. After baking, the hot pastry gets a pour of sweet syrup, often honey-based, which soaks in as it cools.
The pastry is usually cut into diamonds or squares before it goes in the oven, so the syrup can seep into every layer. Done right, the top stays crisp while the middle turns dense and sweet.
Where baklava comes from
Baklava’s history is genuinely contested. Cooks in Turkey, Greece, and across the Middle East all claim it, and the layered version most people know today took shape in Ottoman kitchens before spreading through the region, with nearly every country from Greece to Iraq making its own version. We won’t settle that argument here. We’re an Iraqi family cooking Mediterranean food, and to us baklava is simply the dessert the whole region agrees on.
Regional styles of baklava
Baklava is not one recipe. It’s a family of pastries stretching from the Balkans through Turkey and the Levant down to Iraq, and every region along the way has firm opinions about the right nuts, the right syrup, and the right cut. The differences are real, but so is the shared inheritance: the same layered idea, adapted to local taste.
- Turkish baklava leans on pistachios — the southeastern city of Gaziantep is famous for them — and a light sugar syrup brightened with lemon rather than honey. Pieces are cut small and precise, the layers stay shatteringly crisp, and the shapes go beyond the diamond: rolled logs, wedges, and coiled nests all show up in a good Turkish pastry case.
- Greek baklava favors walnuts and a honey-forward syrup, usually warmed with cinnamon and sometimes clove. Some Greek bakers traditionally build it with exactly 33 sheets of phyllo. The result is sturdier, spicier, and more honeyed than the Turkish style. If that’s the version you grew up with, our guide to Greek food in San Diego is a good next read.
- Levantine and Iraqi baklava — the style across Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq — goes easier on warm spices and perfumes the syrup instead, often with orange blossom or rose water. Walnuts and pistachios both appear, pieces run small, and baklava sits alongside a whole family of related nut-and-phyllo sweets sold side by side in the same shops.
- Balkan baklava — Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria, North Macedonia — tends toward walnuts, a generous pour of syrup, and bigger, softer pieces. It’s holiday food above all, baked in wide trays for Eid, Christmas, and family celebrations depending on the household.
Who invented it is an argument we stay out of. What’s beyond argument: every one of these traditions took the same three building blocks and made something worth defending.
How baklava is made, layer by layer
Baklava has a short ingredient list and a long method — most of the craft is repetition done carefully.
It starts with the phyllo. “Phyllo” is Greek for “leaf,” and that’s the standard: dough stretched or rolled thin enough to read through. Unlike pita bread, which is a soft yeasted dough, phyllo has no leavening at all — the lift comes entirely from stacking dozens of sheets with fat between them. Because phyllo dries out in minutes, bakers work fast and keep the waiting sheets covered with a damp towel.
Butter goes on sheet by sheet. Traditional bakers brush with clarified butter — butter with the water and milk solids removed — because it coats evenly and won’t scorch during a long bake. Each sheet, or every second sheet, gets a thin coat before the next one is laid down.
The nuts sit in the middle. Finely chopped nuts are spread in one thick band, or several thinner ones, between blocks of buttered phyllo, and then more layers are stacked on top.
The tray is cut before it bakes. Baked phyllo shatters under a knife, so the diamonds or squares are sliced while the pastry is still raw. Those cuts do double duty later as the channels the syrup travels down.
Then comes the temperature rule. Syrup and pastry should never both be hot: either cooled syrup goes over hot pastry straight from the oven, or hot syrup goes over pastry that has cooled. One hot, one not — that’s how the syrup soaks in without steaming the layers soft. The tray then rests, often overnight, while the syrup settles to the bottom. Rushing this step is how baklava ends up dry on top and soggy underneath.
How baklava is eaten
Baklava is rich, so it’s served in small pieces, usually a diamond or square a couple of bites wide. It’s eaten at room temperature, most often after a meal or alongside coffee or tea. Because it keeps well, it also shows up at holidays, weddings, and family gatherings, baked in big trays and shared out piece by piece.
The honest answer for how to eat it: with your hands, over a napkin, and slower than you want to.
How to serve and store baklava
Baklava is served at room temperature, and that’s also how it should be stored. The syrup acts as a preservative, so a covered container on the counter keeps it good for several days. Skip the refrigerator: cold stiffens the butter and turns those crisp layers chewy.
Across the region, baklava’s natural partner is something hot and bitter — a small cup of strong Arabic- or Turkish-style coffee, black tea, or mint tea. The bitterness resets your palate between bites, which matters with a dessert this sweet. That’s also why it’s cut small: baklava is meant to end a meal, not be one.
If you take a piece home from our counter, the same rules apply — room temperature, and eat it within a day or two, though it rarely lasts that long.
Baklava in San Diego
If you’re searching for baklava in San Diego, come see us. Shawarma House is at 4884 Newport Ave in Ocean Beach, open daily 11am to 8pm, and baklava is on our menu as the sweet finish to a savory meal. A good order here: a shawarma plate over yellow basmati rice with warm pita, then a piece of baklava with whatever room you have left.
We’re rated 4.7 stars across 650+ Google reviews. Grab a piece of baklava when you dine in, or add it to a pickup order through Toast.
Frequently asked questions
Is baklava vegan?
Traditional baklava usually is not vegan. The phyllo layers are typically brushed with butter, and the syrup often contains honey. Recipes vary from kitchen to kitchen, though, so if you eat vegan, ask when you order and we’ll tell you exactly what’s in ours that day.
What nuts are in baklava?
Walnuts and pistachios are the most common, and some versions use almonds or a mix. Every baklava contains nuts, so if you have a nut allergy, treat it as off-limits or ask before you order. If you want to know what’s in our baklava, just ask at the counter.
Is baklava halal?
Baklava contains no meat, so for most people the question comes down to the ingredients, like whether any flavorings contain alcohol. At Shawarma House, all the meat we serve is halal-sourced, and if you have specific requirements for dessert, ask when you order and we’ll walk you through it.
Where can I get baklava in San Diego?
Shawarma House serves baklava at 4884 Newport Ave in Ocean Beach, San Diego, open daily 11am to 8pm. It’s on our menu as a dessert, and you can order it for pickup through Toast along with the rest of your meal.
