When a restaurant is packed at 5:15 p.m. on a Tuesday, you know it has it going on.

And when the Michelin Guide bestows upon it a Bib Gourmand, then you know it’s definitely worth a special trip to try.

That’s definitely the case when it comes to Mazra, the family-owned Mediterranean restaurant with locations in San Bruno and Redwood City.

I visited the latter one last week, and came away marveling at the food, service, and price point.

The restaurants were founded by brothers, Jordan and Saif Makableh, after they managed to talk their father into letting them transform his Green Valley Market in San Bruno into the first location of Mazra.

Arabic for “farm,” Mazra aims to celebrate the agricultural and food traditions of the Levant, the region encompassing Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, and Jordan.

The restaurant may be fast-casual, but it doesn’t slack on service. There is a self-serve area, where you can pick up your own glasses of water or cups of hot tea (on the house). It also has shelves of take-out containers and paper bags to grab easily to transfer any leftovers to take home. It wasn’t but a minute after we sat down, though, that a server brought us a carafe of water plus glasses. And at the end of dinner, just as we were getting up from our seats to retrieve some takeout containers, another server saw us and immediately brought us what we needed.

You can order on your phone via a QR code or walk a few feet to the front of the restaurant to the cashier to place your order in person.

The restaurant is halal, so no alcohol is served. Instead, settle in with the strong cinnamon and cardamom-laced black tea. If it’s a warm night, you can get an iced version for $4.

Settle in with the falafel mezza sampler ($24), which is served in a large star-shaped plate with divots holding creamy hummus, smoky tasting baba ghannoush, creamy dill-scented tzatziki, fresh tasting tabbouleh, bright pink roasted beet dip, and Arabic salad of chopped tomatoes and cucumbers, as well as pickled vegetables. A stack of warm pita is at the ready to slather, smear, and dip to your heart’s and stomach’s content.

The sampler also comes with a half dozen of some of the best falafel I’ve had in a while. They’re hot, crunchy on the outside, vividly green inside, and so herbaceous and nutty tasting throughout.

The whole heirloom cauliflower ($14) arrives with a steak knife stabbed into it to make cutting easier. It’s wonderfully charred and smoky tasting, with creamy tahini brushed over the top. It’s not to crunchy or too mushry, but the perfect tender texture.

For the mains, I went with the chicken shawarma plate. Crisp, thin slivers of smoky, flavorful chicken are piled atop basmati rice with pickles, slices of red onion and some forgettable slices of tomato. It comes with pita bread, plus your choice of two sides. I went with more of the vibrant tabbouleh, and the roasted veggies, which consisted of very smoky tasting al dente broccolini and carrots. It comes with containers of hot sauce, which definitely has a kick, and garlicky toum. All of this for $22, a real deal in this day and age.

My husband opted for the double kebab plate ($26), choosing the lamb and beef kofta kebabs. Both were delicious, especially the succulent lamb. The plate came with the same rice, pickles, pita, and sauces. For sides, he chose the nicely crisp french fries and the hummus.

The only other thing we could have used? Probably a larger table to hold all the food. No surprise that I can’t wait to go back again.