Free pita sandwiches as Naf Naf Grill opens in King of Prussia

Source: Philly.com, Michael Klein

Tuesday, Sept. 6 marks the King of Prussia debut of Naf Naf Grill, a Middle Eastern fast-casual eatery out of Illinois that expects to open two more locations – in Center City and Mount Laurel – by the end of the year.

The shop, across from Wegmans in King of Prussia Town Center, offers free pita sandwiches from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on opening day.

Food is customizable. Start at one end of the cafe line with a pita (baked on premises), basmati rice, Romaine lettuce, hummus, or couscous. Then add chicken shwarma, steak shwarma, or falafel, and top with salads and garnishes, such as chopped salad, purple cabbage, sumac onions, or pickles. Sauces go on last, including tahini, garlic sauce, amba (a mango pickle sauce), s’khug (a fiery Yemeni hot sauce also known as zhug), or harissa (a hot chili-pepper paste).

Fries are hand-sliced potato chips (and hold up very well to travel). Pitas are pillowy soft, almost like injera, and work well absorbing sauces and dips including the baba ganoush.

A second Naf Naf is due in October at 1919 Market St., while a third Naf Naf is due this fall at 7000 Midatlantic Drive in Mount Laurel, near the Anthony’s Coal-Fired Pizza.

Quick history: Friends Sahar Sander and Elan Burger opened the first location in Naperville, Ill., in 2009, and two devoted customers who worked nearby, David Sloan and Justin Halpenny, talked them into expansion. Besides Chicagoland, Naf Naf is now also in Minneapolis, Minn., and Madison, Wis. The company took on an investor, a private-equity firm, last year.