LATEST NEWS: Campaign for official recognition of ‘Little Arabia’ progresses

By BEN BRAZIL STAFF WRITER

JAN. 30, 2021 4:04 PM PT

Kareem’s Falafel was the first Mediterranean restaurant on Brookhurst Street. His parents started the restaurant 26 years ago after emigrating from Nazareth, Israel. (Continue reading)

Alicia Robinson PUBLISHED: January 21, 2021

Kareem’s parents started their Mediterranean restaurant, Kareem’s in 1996 offering traditional dishes. When Hawari, now 24, took over he tweaked the menu . . . [Click to continue]

“Kareem and Nora take their heritage seriously. Their parents, Palestinian immigrants Mike Hawari and Nesrine Omari, opened Kareem’s in 1996, the first Middle Eastern restaurant in a neighborhood that was mostly bikini bars and run-down strip malls. Today, the area is known as Little Arabia and houses one of the largest concentrations of Middle Eastern businesses in the country outside of Detroit.

Nesrine is Little Arabia’s unofficial auntie, a ball of strong hugs and handshakes forged by decades of patting out falafels at Kareem’s for diners from the neighborhood as well as politicians including California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and famous musicians (Los Lobos guitarist Louie Perez, a vegetarian, says the falafels here are the best in the country). But for the moment, she sticks to the kitchen.”

2020

2018

It’s the lunch rush at Kareem’s Restaurant in Anaheim’s Little Arabia district and tables are packed with diners feasting on falafels and other delicious dishes brought out from the kitchen. “How was everything?” Nora Hawari asks a satisfied patron. “Great!” she replies. Hawari hands the woman her change from the order window and quickly begins wiping down the freed up table for the next group of guests. Taking a break from the bustle, the 23-year-old actress who helps run her Palestinian family’s restaurant, envisions a sitcom web series based on life at Kareem’s. With Yallah Habibi, an Arabic phrase meaning “Hurry up, Sweetheart,” Hawari wants to offer more than just falafel funnies.

Read more on my latest OC Weekly Stick A Fork In It Blog post.

Yalla Habibi Pilot by Nora Hawari

2016

2016

For the past 20 years, Nesrine Omari has dedicated herself to making the best falafel in town.

“Everybody knows if you want falafel, you have to come here,” said Omari, the Palestinian owner of Kareem’s Restaurant, on Brookhurst Street in Anaheim.

“Other restaurants have everything, but they don’t specialize in one thing,” she said. “I always say, ‘Specialize in one thing, make it good, and customers will come to you.’”

When Omari and her husband, Mike Hawari, opened Kareem’s in 1996, it was the first Middle Eastern restaurant in Anaheim.

“It was scary,” Omari said. “I thought, ‘Who’s going to come here?’”

At the time, Anaheim’s Little Arabia was burgeoning — the city’s Arab American Council and the Arab World Newspaper were established in the same year — so Kareem’s couldn’t rely solely on Arab customers. But almost immediately, Omari said, the restaurant attracted diners of all ethnicities.

While Kareem’s serves a range of Arabic food, including hummus, baba ghanoush, stuffed grape leaves and kofta, it’s the falafel — small, deep-fried patties made of ground chickpeas — that the restaurant is best known for. Omari said the recipe, which also combines cilantro, parsley, onions, garlic and “secret spices,” comes from “back home” and has stayed the same through the restaurant’s two decades of operation

2010

Since 1996 

For over 20 years Kareem's has strived to perfect his recipe for the greatest tasting Falafel. After serving thousands of customers, his Falafel became noticed by many locals, renowning it's self to be the most delicious Falafel ever eaten.