I've eaten a lot of sandwiches, but none was ever as big or as distinctive as the ones at Pita-pocket Café, a new addition to the island's limited Middle Eastern food options.

At the modest Kailua eatery, opened in May, the Sher family serves freshly baked pitas bulging with the Israeli and Arab staples falafel or shwarma, along with scads of fresh vegetables.

The Shers — Tony, his wife Pascale Devaux-Sher and daughter Gwenaelle — are a restaurant family. Tony co-owned the late Zoe's Café in Hau'ula, Pascale grew up working in her parents' French restaurant in Fiji, and Gwenaelle — who took her first kitchen steps in her grandparents' establishment — attended Kapi'olani Community College's culinary arts program and was a Haleiwa Joe's line cook.

In a case of kismet, Gwenaelle left a waitressing job and Zoe's shut its doors at the same time, and parents and daughter entered a partnership to open Pitapocket Café — something Tony has wanted to do since he arrived in Hawai'i almost 30 years ago.

Tony is a South African expat and Pascale is French, so where does the Middle Eastern food come from? Most of Tony's family lives in Israel, and he grew up eating the region's cuisine, which he featured at Zoe's. The Shers based their short menu on typical Israeli recipes, but they emphasize a natural-foods approach in their preparations.

Every morning, Tony bakes about 150 shiny, tanned pitas. Soft and white inside, the flat pocket breads are surprisingly strong when stuffed.

The sandwiches begin with a layer of garlicky hummus, a puree of chickpeas, lemon juice and tahini (crushed sesame seed paste). Next comes a creamy tahina sauce, basically tahini combined with the same ingredients as the hummus. Then Gwenaelle packs in fresh veggies: raw red and white cabbage dressed in a mystery marinade, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, Kalamata olives and a secret, homemade hot sauce.

Finally, the bread is topped with falafel, those deep-fried balls of spiced ground chickpeas found from Jerusalem to Jeddah. And the falafel sandwich ($8; $11.50 plate) is my favorite — the simple croquettes' crunchy crusts give way to a soft interior (faintly resembling ground meat) that's enticingly aromatic with parsley, cilantro, garlic, onions and cumin.

There are two other options: shwarma and sabich. Not easy to find on O'ahu, shwarma, also a common fast food throughout the Middle East, is typically made from seasoned lamb or chicken. Pieces of meat are pressed together on a vertical rotisserie (the Shers imported theirs from Canada), forming a sort of giant roast. As it slowly cooks, juices oozing from the crevices, meat is sliced off. Pitapocket uses a combination of beef and lamb for their shwarma ($8.50; $12 plate), the lamb's gaminess tempered by the beef, making it milder than that gyro you may have had in Athens (or at the Greek Corner in Puck's Alley). The Israeli sabich ($8; $11.50 plate) is made of fried eggplant and hard-boiled egg (the island's only other version is at Mazal's Kosherland in Kalihi).

Pickles and beets go in, too (the sabich gets sauerkraut). If this all sounds overwhelming, ask for the plain "Tony's Special," which is hot-sauce-free.

Pascale, a vegetarian, explained that even though the shwarma is the only meat item on the menu, Pitapocket's fare is not diet food. I tried more than once to finish a whole sandwich in vain.

If you've got an average appetite, take a friend and share a sandwich plate, which includes couscous and tabouli salad. Pascale tops the fluffy, moist couscous ($5 a la carte) with a delicious ratatouille. For her unconventional tabouli ($8 a la carte), normally a mix of chopped parsley and cracked bulgur wheat with a squeeze of lemon, she tosses baby spinach and red leaf and Manoa lettuces in a nice, tart olive-oil dressing, and sprinkles the grain on top.

Bring a group and you can try the can't-stop-at-one, fried-to-order pita chips ($2) dusted with housemade seasoning, especially good with Gwenaelle's hummus-pesto dip ($6 includes 2 pitas) or the dip combo ($6 includes pita wedges) of hummus and baba ghanoush, a subtly sweet puree of roasted eggplant.

For dessert, I preferred a cup of espresso-like Turkish coffee ($2) with cheese blintzes ($5 for 3) over a pancakey Belgian waffle ($5) and Halvah Delight ($3) — vanilla ice cream topped with pistachios and crumbled halvah (a confection made from ground sesame seeds and honey). The strongly sweet, nutty halvah couldn't compare with the blintzes' delicate cream-cheese filling speckled with raisins and drizzle of boysenberry syrup.

Pascale's French sensibilities and background as a fused-glass artist show in the cafe's inviting garden mood created by plants, wrought-iron chairs and glass-topped tables set against tangerine and ivy-green walls. The couple's twin sons toddle about the room, adding to the homey feel.

The space doubles as a gallery selling works by local artists. Now on view are George Jacob's paintings of spiritual figures.

As the clientele grows, the Shers hope to introduce weekly fish and chicken specials. I just hope they'll offer free water along with their bottled beverages. The place has some drawbacks, such as a limited selection, occasionally long waits and a hard-to-read menu with squiggly writing. But now I know the next time I crave a juicy sandwich bursting with garlicky goodness, I'll head for the spot with spunky character and an independent vibe that's flying its five international flags high.

Reach Helen Wu at hwu@honoluluadvertiser.com.