Akhis Authentic Shawarma & Kebab

While most of Pacific Beach's dining scene is built around quick refueling after a session or late-night Garnet Avenue bar crawls, Akhis operates on a different clock — the kind that requires marinating meat overnight and hand-rolling falafel every morning. It's a small operation tucked into a Turquoise Street plaza, but the attention to detail reads more like a family-run Middle Eastern spot than the quick-serve shawarma chains that pop up near college campuses.

The **chicken shawarma bowl** gets the most repeat orders: spit-roasted chicken layered over rice with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, and a rotation of house-made sauces that regulars insist you order one of each. The **koobideh** — ground lamb kebabs seasoned with onion and sumac — shows up less often on PB menus, and here it's charred just enough to get crispy edges without drying out. The **falafel** is fried to order, which means a slightly longer wait but also means it arrives hot and crisp instead of sitting under a heat lamp.

What separates this from the Mediterranean-adjacent spots closer to the boardwalk is the specificity: they're not trying to cover Greek, Turkish, and Lebanese in one menu. The focus is Persian and Levantine done right, with vegetables that taste like they were prepped that morning and sauces that don't come from a squeeze bottle. The staff tends to check in while you're eating, which in PB usually signals either hovering or genuine care — here it's the latter.

Parking is easier than most Garnet Avenue spots, and the outdoor seating works year-round. It's not a post-sunset scene — more of a mid-afternoon refuel or a weeknight dinner when you want something flavorful without the wait times that come with the louder spots closer to the pier.