by Sarah R.

I had high hopes for this Middle Eastern restaurant. I was walking by a few weeks ago and noticed you could get hookahs there, and so I was interested to try it out. I went with a friend last week, and the food was 4 stars, but the service was 2, so I averaged it out to three. There were only two other occupied tables when we arrived, and my friend and I were the only ones there by the time we left, so the bad service wasn't due to them being overwhelmed. At first, our waiter was attentive. He seated us, got us water, and offered to take our order. We needed time to look over the menu (which has a photo of each dish next to the name and price), so he went away, and took quite a while to come back. The food came out after a reasonable amount of time, but then he disappeared, and we never saw him again until we went up to the counter to ask for to-go boxes. Then, we sat and sat and sat, and finally went up to the counter again to ask for the bill.On the plus side, the atmosphere is cozy, and the food was good. My friend got the beef shwarma plate and really enjoyed her meat, rice, hummus and spicy pickles. She also got the yogurt salad and let me try some. It was an enormous serving and was absolutely delicious.I got the vegetarian combo plate, which was around $7. I got hummus, baba ganoush, two falafel patties, and a couple of pita rounds which were hot out of the oven and really good. I thought the baba ganoush was nice with a smoky flavor. My friend tried a bit and said it was pretty good but that she thought the eggplant was under-ripe. The hummus had a strange nutty and almost perfumey taste to it, but it was still good. The falafel was the standout. It was crispy and hot on the outside and soft and flavorful on the inside. If I bother to go back, I'll definitely get the falafel again.Bottom line: the food is worth your time, but the service is sub-par. I recommend getting take-out.