Between early and mid-September, Santa Rosa got a halal Afghan kitchen on W. Third Street, a Turkish grill on W. College Avenue and a Middle Eastern maza restaurant in Montgomery Village. A spice shop opened downtown on Mendocino Avenue in the same stretch of weeks, stocking za'atar and berbere. Sonoma Magazine's Sept. 8 roundup listed the first two side by side, one as "just opened" and the other as "opening this week."
Together they put this style of cooking on three different corridors of the city at once, and each place covers a different part of the day. Here's how they fit into a normal week.
Late morning on W. College: Turkish breakfast that starts at 11
Aladdin Grill is at 2101 W. College Ave., Suite 110J. It opens daily at 11 a.m. and closes at 8 p.m., and you can order online. On the September list it was still "opening this week." Its own site now shows it open, with a full menu.
The menu detail that sets it apart is an all-day Turkish breakfast: menemen, gözleme, three-cheese börek and Turkish tea. The doors open at 11, so in practice it's breakfast at lunchtime that runs until close. That makes it an easy weekend late-morning stop. It also works on a weekday, when one person wants eggs and another wants a kebab.
For the lunch-and-dinner crowd, the menu has:
- Hand-shaped Adana kebab made with beef and lamb
- Halal shawarma wraps
- Falafel
- Chicken and lamb shish plates
Weeknight dinner on W. Third: an Afghan menu built for takeout
Over at 2478 W. Third St., Afghan Kabob Cafe is the second location of a halal restaurant that started in Tracy. It's open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., so it serves dinner an hour later than Aladdin Grill. The phone number is 707-575-9296.
The menu is deeper than the name suggests. Beyond lamb, beef and chicken kabobs, the Santa Rosa menu lists:
- Chapli kabob, lamb chops and a salmon kabob
- Qabuli Uzbeki with lamb shank
- Biryani in chicken, lamb, goat or vegetable
- Karahi and curry
- Bolani, manto and ashak
Aladdin Grill leans toward wraps and grill plates. The W. Third menu has more braised and rice dishes, like the lamb shank qabuli and four versions of biryani, and those hold up for a family dinner picked up on the way home. The two restaurants are close enough to try back to back in one week, and they don't duplicate each other.
A sit-down table in Montgomery Village
Olives & Agave opened in mid-September at 909 Village Court, in the space that used to be Cascabel. Its first weeks look different from where it is now. Sonoma Magazine's fall dining roundup reported it was serving dinner only, with lunch "coming soon." The restaurant's homepage now says lunch and dinner are served daily, and you can reserve a table.
This is the one of the three for a slower meal. When it opened, Sonoma Magazine described tapas and Mediterranean dishes drawing on Spanish and Middle Eastern cooking, including empanadas next to the spanakopita and fried kibbeh. The current menu is built around maza: hummus, baba ganoush, muhammara, labneh and falafel, then kafta, lamb shank tagine, mansaf and a whole branzino.
So the three places split up roughly like this. Aladdin Grill covers late morning and quick plates. Afghan Kabob Cafe covers a weeknight dinner you carry home. Olives & Agave is where you book a table for out-of-town guests or a birthday, and you can do it on the east side without driving downtown.
The pantry downtown: Sonoma Spice Queen on Mendocino Avenue
The fourth piece isn't a restaurant. Sonoma Spice Queen opened a Santa Rosa shop in early September at 404 Mendocino Ave., Suite D. Owner Wind McAlister brought her organic blends, rubs, chiles, peppercorns, salts and sugars north from her Petaluma store at 9 Fourth St. Sonoma Magazine noted that the shop fills the gap left when Penzeys and Savory Spice left Santa Rosa.
It ties in with the three restaurants because of what's on the shelves. The housemade blends include Middle Eastern za'atar, Ethiopian berbere and Lebanese sabah baharat, along with more than 50 single spices such as saffron, paprika and cinnamon. Her best seller is vadouvan, a French curry blend of nearly a dozen ingredients, including turmeric, ginger, coriander, garlic and curry leaves. McAlister grinds, mixes, packages and labels each blend by hand.
The store took longer to arrive than first planned. An April announcement in Sonoma Magazine aimed for mid-June, and it actually opened in early September.
The four stops on one page
| Stop | Address | Daily hours | Start with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aladdin Grill | 2101 W. College Ave., Suite 110J | 11 a.m.–8 p.m. | Menemen or börek with Turkish tea; Adana kebab |
| Afghan Kabob Cafe | 2478 W. Third St. | 11 a.m.–9 p.m. | Qabuli Uzbeki with lamb shank; bolani |
| Olives & Agave | 909 Village Court, Montgomery Village | Lunch and dinner daily; reservations online | Maza spread, then lamb shank tagine or whole branzino |
| Sonoma Spice Queen | 404 Mendocino Ave., Suite D | Check the shop's site | Za'atar, sabah baharat, vadouvan |
The Olives & Agave site gives hours in more than one place, so check it before planning a late lunch. New restaurants often change their hours in the first few months, and the same goes for all three.
Fitting them in between Halloween and the tree lighting
The timing helps. Ross Street Live, the car-free block downtown between Mendocino Avenue and the parking-lot exit behind 427 Mendocino Ave., runs through Saturday, Oct. 31. Downtown Santa Rosa's calendar ends that run with a Halloween lineup on the block. After that, an evening out moves indoors, and the city has three new dining rooms that opened just in time.
The next big downtown date is the Winter Lights Tree Lighting at Courthouse Square on Friday, Nov. 27, 2026. The Santa Rosa Metro Chamber lists it as free, with entertainment, holiday food and drinks, family activities, Santa photos and the lighting itself. More details are still to come. Sonoma Spice Queen's shop sits on Mendocino Avenue downtown, which makes it an easy stop that evening for anyone picking up a holiday gift or getting ready for a lot of cooking.
Here's one way to try all four in the four weeks between Halloween and the tree lighting:
- A weekend late morning at Aladdin Grill for Turkish breakfast, which starts when the doors open at 11.
- A weeknight pickup from Afghan Kabob Cafe. Order biryani or the lamb shank qabuli for the table, and keep in mind the kitchen is open until 9.
- A reserved dinner at Olives & Agave when guests come in for Thanksgiving week.
- A downtown stop at Sonoma Spice Queen on Nov. 27, before or after the tree lighting.
If you know of a Santa Rosa opening that belongs on the next list, or you'd like to talk through which side of town fits your routine, Michael Pellegrini is glad to connect, with no pressure.
