Savor Scout › Food guides › Syrian food
How to find good Syrian food
Syrian cooking shares a lot with Lebanese food, but Aleppo in particular has its own tradition — more spice, more sour pomegranate, more kibbeh — and the Syrian kitchens that have opened across the US in the past decade are some of the best Middle Eastern food available.
What separates a good one from a bad one
- Kibbeh in several forms — Bulgur and meat shells stuffed with spiced meat and pine nuts — fried, baked or raw. A long kibbeh list is a serious Syrian kitchen.
- Muhammara with real Aleppo pepper — Red pepper, walnut and pomegranate molasses dip. Should be smoky, sweet, sour and gently hot.
- Pomegranate molasses used freely — Its sour depth runs through Aleppan cooking. Dishes that taste of it are a sign of the region.
- Shawarma carved to order — Off a turning spit, with garlic toum and pickles, wrapped in thin bread.
- Sweets made in-house — Many Syrian restaurants run a sweet counter — knafeh, baklava, maamoul. A busy counter is a good sign.
What to order
- Fried kibbeh — Crisp shells with spiced lamb.
- Muhammara — With warm bread.
- Chicken shawarma plate — With garlic sauce and pickles.
- Fattoush — Salad with toasted bread and sumac.
- Knafeh — Warm cheese pastry in syrup.
Where to find Syrian food
Open listings put 69 Syrian restaurants across the US. These are the cities and campuses with the most of them.
Cities with the most
A few to start with
- Reem Alsham — Paterson, NJ
869 Main St, Paterson - Mal Al Sham — El Cajon, CA
388 E Main St, El Cajon
Counts are listings in Overture Maps open data (September 2026), counted by the town in each address. Independent places only in the examples above, and they are a starting point rather than a ranking.
How Savor Scout looks for it
The search reads for kibbeh, muhammara, Aleppo and Syrian, separating Syrian kitchens from the wider Mediterranean category where they are usually filed.
Looking in a particular city?
Each of these opens Savor Scout with the location already set, so you can say what you want and it searches from there. It covers 1,000 US cities in total — these are simply the largest.
- New York, NY
- Los Angeles, CA
- Chicago, IL
- Houston, TX
- Philadelphia, PA
- Phoenix, AZ
- San Antonio, TX
- San Diego, CA
- Dallas, TX
- San Jose, CA
- Austin, TX
- Indianapolis, IN
- Jacksonville, FL
- San Francisco, CA
- Columbus, OH
- Charlotte, NC
- Fort Worth, TX
- Detroit, MI
- El Paso, TX
- Memphis, TN
- Seattle, WA
- Denver, CO
- Washington, DC
- Boston, MA
- Nashville, TN
- Baltimore, MD
- Oklahoma City, OK
- Louisville, KY
- Portland, OR
- Las Vegas, NV
- Milwaukee, WI
- Albuquerque, NM
- Tucson, AZ
- Fresno, CA
- Sacramento, CA
- Long Beach, CA
- Kansas City, MO
- Mesa, AZ
- Virginia Beach, VA
- Atlanta, GA
- Colorado Springs, CO
- Omaha, NE
- Raleigh, NC
- Miami, FL
- Oakland, CA
- Minneapolis, MN
- Tulsa, OK
- Cleveland, OH
- Wichita, KS
- Arlington, TX
- New Orleans, LA
- Bakersfield, CA
- Tampa, FL
- Honolulu, HI
- Aurora, CO
- Anaheim, CA
- Santa Ana, CA
- St. Louis, MO
- Riverside, CA
- Corpus Christi, TX
Related food guides
Lebanese food, shawarma, Mezze
When you might want this
- Where to eat with a big group
- Where to eat when half the group is vegetarian
- Where to take friends visiting from out of town