This profile is in active compilation — some details are awaiting a cited source.

Zhoug Mediterranean is an independent Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant at 16728 City Center Dr in Lenexa City Center (opened 2024/2025), founded by Hanif Lakhani — whose origin story tracks from Lawrence, KS, where he launched the predecessor concept The Fresh Mediterranean Company inside a gas station or convenience store roughly a decade before the Lenexa expansion. Parent company: Ethnic Food Concepts LLC. Menu: falafel, shawarma, long-grain rice bowls.

Description

Zhoug Mediterranean is Hanif Lakhani’s Mediterranean fast-casual concept at Lenexa City Center, a destination retail and dining district. Lakhani’s origin story has the hallmarks of the best KC immigrant entrepreneur narratives: he launched The Fresh Mediterranean Company inside a Lawrence, KS gas station roughly a decade before opening Zhoug in Lenexa. The concept rebranded and expanded under the Ethnic Food Concepts LLC umbrella, with the Lenexa City Center location representing its most prominent market position. Menu centers on falafel, shawarma, and long-grain rice bowls.

Related locations & history

Zhoug’s second storefront — a Kansas City, Missouri location at 3904 Bell St in the Volker/West 39th Street area — opened in May 2025 and closed in November 2025, after roughly six months.1 The space carries local weight: it was the longtime home of d’Bronx, the New York-style deli-and-pizza institution that operated there for 32 years before closing in 2022.1 Ethnic Food Concepts director of operations Jeremy Saunders said the company is “thinking through what could replace Zhoug” at the Bell Street address; no successor concept has been announced.1

The closure was confined to the Bell Street unit. The Lenexa City Center location (this page) remains open, as does the sister/original The Fresh Mediterranean Co. in Lawrence, KS.1 (The former d’Bronx tenancy at 3904 Bell St now has its own In-Memoriam Registry record: d’Bronx.)

Last verified: 2026-08-13 · Source: Zhoug Mediterranean official website menu (names + descriptions) + official Lenexa Bento online ordering (prices) · URL(s): https://www.zhoug.com/menu; https://zhougmediterranean.getbento.com/online-ordering/zhoug-mediterranean/menu · Confidence: High (item lineup from official site; bowl, wrap, platter, side, sauce-to-go, and drink prices from official Lenexa online ordering)

Zhoug is a build-your-own Mediterranean fast-casual concept: choose a protein (chicken shawarma, gyro, falafel, or kabob) as a bowl, pita wrap, or platter, then add a base, toppings, and house sauces.2

Bowls

Create a bowl with rice, hummus, or salad as the base, then sauce and toppings.2

  • Chicken Shawarma Bowl — chicken marinated with aromatic herbs and spices, slow-roasted on a vertical spit ($12.99)2
  • Gyro Bowl — seasoned beef-and-lamb gyro ($12.99)2
  • Falafel Bowl — crispy, tender golden-brown spheres of ground chickpeas; vegetarian ($11.99)2
  • Chicken Kabob Bowl — grilled chicken kabob ($13.99)2
  • Kafta Beef Kabob Bowl — grilled kafta beef kabob ($13.99)2

Pita Wraps

Official site lists shawarma, gyro, or falafel in pita with sauce and toppings. Kabob wraps are published on official Lenexa online ordering only (name + price; no first-party descriptions).2

  • Chicken Shawarma Pita Wrap — spiced chicken carved to order in fresh pita ($9.99)2
  • Gyro Pita Wrap — seasoned beef-and-lamb gyro in fresh pita ($9.99)2
  • Falafel Pita Wrap — chickpea falafel in pita; vegetarian/vegan ($8.99)2
  • Kafta Beef Kabob Wrap ($10.99)2
  • Chicken Kabob Wrap ($10.99)2

Platters

Comes with rice and two sides: hummus, salad, or 2-pc falafels. Choice of two sauces and toppings. Kabob platters are on official Lenexa online ordering only (name + price; no first-party descriptions).2

  • Chicken Shawarma Platter — marinated with aromatic herbs and spices, slow-roasted on a vertical spit grill and carved to order ($16.99)2
  • Gyro Platter — tender slices of savory seasoned beef and lamb, slow-roasted on a vertical spit grill and carved to order ($16.99)2
  • Falafel Platter — crispy, tender golden-brown spheres of ground chickpeas seasoned with house spices and rolled in sesame seeds; vegetarian/vegan ($14.99)2
  • Kafta Beef Kabob Platter ($17.99)2
  • Chicken Kabob Platter ($17.99)2

Bases

Bowl bases on the official site (no separate base prices).2

  • Basmati Rice2
  • Hummus2
  • Salad2

House Sauces

Included with bowls, wraps, and platters. To-go sizes on official Lenexa ordering: 2 oz ($0.69) / 8 oz ($4.99) for tahini, toum, tzatziki, and zhoug; harissa unpublished (sold out at capture).2

  • Zhoug — fresh cilantro, jalapeño and a hint of garlic2
  • Harissa — North African chili paste; spicy2
  • Toum — creamy garlic sauce; vegan2
  • Tzatziki — yogurt, mint and cucumber2
  • Tahini — nutty, lemony sesame sauce2

Sides

Official extras names + Lenexa online-ordering prices. Hummus small and pistachio baklava were sold out with no published price at capture.2

  • French Fries ($3.99)2
  • Zhoug Clean Green Salad ($7.99)2
  • Hummus — large ($8.99); small unpublished (sold out at capture)2
  • Pita Bread ($0.69)2
  • Pita Chips ($0.99)2
  • Basmati Rice — small ($2.49) / large ($3.99)2
  • Sesame Falafel (5 pieces) + 2 Sauces ($5.99)2
  • Gyro Meat — small ($4.99) / large ($8.99)2
  • Chicken Shawarma Meat — small ($4.99) / large ($8.99)2
  • Kafta Beef Kabob ($4.99)2
  • Chicken Kabob ($4.99)2

Dessert

  • Baklava — pistachio or cashew; no first-party price (pistachio baklava sold out on Lenexa ordering at capture)2

Drinks

Fountain 20 oz ($2.99) and bottled drinks ($3.49) from official Lenexa online ordering. Sweet tea, Gatorade lemon-lime, and Dana yogurt drinks were sold out with no published price at capture.2

  • Fountain 20 oz — Pepsi, Pepsi Zero Sugar, Starry, Dr. Pepper, Orange Crush, Mug Root Beer, Wild Cherry Pepsi, unsweetened tea, craft lemonade, strawberry dragonfruit, Mountain Dew ($2.99)2
  • Bottled — Topo Chico lime, glass-bottle Coke, Vimto, Pellegrino ($3.49)2

Note: wrap, platter, side, sauce-to-go, and drink prices from official Lenexa Bento ordering 2026-08-13. Kabob wraps/platters and extra meat/kabob sides are published on the order menu only — no official-site descriptions, so those lines stay name + price. Kabob burritos appear on Lenexa ordering sold out with no published price and are omitted rather than guessed.

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Kansas City Star via Yahoo — “KC restaurant closes in historic location. Owners hope to change concepts” (Nov 2025) — asserts: Zhoug’s 3904 Bell St, KCMO location opened May 2025 and closed November 2025; the building was d’Bronx’s home for 32 years before d’Bronx closed in 2022; Ethnic Food Concepts director of operations Jeremy Saunders said the company is “thinking through what could replace Zhoug”; the Lenexa Zhoug and the Lawrence Fresh Mediterranean Co. remain open. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. Zhoug Mediterranean — official menu; official Lenexa online ordering (Bento), zhougmediterranean.getbento.com (accessed 2026-08-13). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20 ↩21 ↩22 ↩23 ↩24 ↩25 ↩26 ↩27 ↩28 ↩29 ↩30 ↩31 ↩32 ↩33 ↩34 ↩35 ↩36 ↩37 ↩38 ↩39 ↩40 ↩41 ↩42 ↩43 ↩44 ↩45

More from the Registry

In Lenexa See all →

See also

  • Registry
Categories

On the record — ks.city/registry/zhoug-mediterranean-lenexa · record updated 2026-08-13