Our History

Zatar owners and chefs Kelly and Waiel Majid opened their first restaurant, Europa, with two other partners in July 1995. The partners have since gone on to pursue other ventures and Waiel and Kelly decided they needed a fresh beginning. Frankly, it was also the feeling of "burnout" which inspired them to take their seven years of experience with Europa and give the space a facelift along with a new name and some inspired changes to the menu. They thank all of their very loyal clientele who have become like family and who discovered them despite the tiny storefront, bad signs, lack of advertising, and proximity to the frenetic intersection of Shattuck and University. They hope you will continue to join them on their next adventure!

Chef Waiel Majid, raised in a village in Northern Iraq, grew up appreciating food prepared with fresh ingredients plucked straight from the family garden, local souk, and baker’s oven. Waiel built a clay oven in his backyard at the age of nine to bake his own bread and has been cooking ever since. Kelly, also raised in the country and a lifelong avid gardener, also taught herself to cook preparing food she raised in the garden.

Kelly and Waiel’s food is prepared in this old world tradition of connecting food with nature; for them, the preparation of a dish begins with the planting of a seed. In their terraced, sunny hillside backyard they grow most of the herbs, vegetables and fruits used in the restaurant. They also raise chickens for fresh eggs. In addition to the organic produce, they use only naturally-raised meats, organic milk for their homemade yogurt and cheeses, and even organic extra virgin olive oil. For Waiel and Kelly organic farming just makes incredible sense; it’s good for the environment, good for us and the food tastes better! Zatar also features some wonderful organic wines on the wine list.

Our Garden

Upon opening the first restaurant we expanded our organic home garden to supply the restaurant kitchen. Although much of the produce has always come from the garden we neglected advertising this fact because we always thought of cooking in the restaurant as an extension of cooking for our family. When diners would ask, "How do you get your vegetables so fresh?" we would tell them about the garden. Their enthusiasm inspired us to share the garden. Now people come to us for garden advice, we pass on seeds and extra produce to them, and we invite regular customers interested in visiting the garden to our annual garden party.

We are fortunate to have a small house but a huge backyard in East Oakland where the temperature is more tomato friendly than in Berkeley. Our yard is a steep hillside which receives full sun. Pomegranates, plums, pears, figs, almonds, persimons, grapes, apricots, cherries, raspberries and quince occupy the top of the hill, while the rest is divided into vegetable terraces. Of course, tending to over a half acre of vegetables and fruits is a lot of work! But, as in the kitchen, we love to get our hands dirty and do the work ourselves. This is the main reason the restaurant has the unpopular and limited hours of being open Wednesday through Saturday only. However, regular customers know that we will open the restaurant for special parties of ten or more. Some even spontaneously show up at our house for dinner!

If you'd like to contact Kelly or Waiel, please call (510) 841-1981, or email kelly@zatarrestaurant.com. Or just stop by the restaurant!