Baba Saj Mediterranean, a family-owned Palestinian restaurant that opened in Chicago in 2013, is planning its first Florida location at 13585 Cypress Glen Lane in Tampa, with an opening targeted for later this year.
The concept takes its name from the saj, a domed iron griddle used across the Levant for baking flatbreads. The menu pairs that technique with a halal shawarma program built around sourced ingredients: 12-month-aged Aleppo pepper, Lebanese za'atar, and stone-ground tahini. The shawarma marinade, according to the operator, traces to a family recipe carried across generations.
Baba Saj holds halal certification. The operator's Instagram describes the restaurant as Chicago's top halal shawarma destination — a claim Tampa Bay Certified has not independently confirmed, though the brand has held that market position in its home city for more than a decade.
The Tampa address will be the brand's first location outside Illinois. No specific opening date has been set; the operator's social media puts the timeline as later in 2026.
Palestinian restaurants with a dedicated saj program represent a narrow category in the Tampa Bay market. When Baba Saj opens, it enters a Middle Eastern dining landscape that has grown across the metro but has few purpose-built Palestinian concepts operating at this scale.
