Shuk — Restaurant in Antwerp

How that place managed to be so overrated is a big mystery to me. The food is decent but don't expect anything grand, it's still simple street food, correctly executed (i.e. the same thing can be said of many a decent kebab house). It would deserve 3 or 4 stars if the prices were not so ridiculously exaggerated. As one reviewer noted, they charge you for everything, even several euro for harissa, which is utterly silly and ensures you really don't feel you are in friendly, levantine eatery but in something closer to a rip-off enterprise preying on an uninformed public.

Other reviewers mentioned the "friendly" service, where I only saw not-particularly-trained students paying little attention to customers, and who could blame them given that they are probably paid peanuts. The reviewers who post that kind of misleading euphemisms should question their contribution to a downward spiral that is only benefitting unscrupulous bosses. Anyway, students need jobs so that's that, but the service you will get at this venue will be in line with what you get in other places with the same policy, waiting times included.

Overall, difficult to recommend this place unless you are in that area and absolutely and urgently need Mediterranean food and would pay any price for any simple stuff from that region. In those particular circumstances, you may be pleased that it's reasonably...

HORRRRRIBLE!!! I was expecting so much from this place, but unfortunately we were terribly disappointed!! The space to eat is extremely small, all tables are squeezed beside each other and you barely have space to move, it's suffocating!! they claim it's "real middle Eastern food"... But I didn't see any Middle Eastern people inside, hence... The food didn't taste as real middle Eastern!! I think the owner is American... She probably should have opened a fast food instead!! We asked if the meat was halal.. No, it's not (middle Eastern, eh!!), we asked for rice... They didn't have it "today"... But I have the feeling they never do!! In the end we ordered sweet potato which was showered with 7 kg of harissa and the spice covered any other taste. I personally ordered roasted cauliflower... It was a simply boiled piece (they did not even cut it!) and they put 7 kg of TaHina and 7 kg of zaatar on top.... Hence, it was disgusting, I couldn't even finish it. We also had to beg for bread, which is normally served along the meal, in REAL middle Eastern restaurants. We thought to take a piece of cake, to wash away the flavour of the awful dishes... It tasted like burned chocolate, worse than what we ate before!! We paid 50 euro and left unhappy running looking for another place to eat, we wasted money, I do NOT recommend it, there are much better...

We had quite the spread during our meal – shakshuka, falafel, batata, and the good old classic hummus. Out of everything, the shakshuka and falafel totally stole the show for me. But I must admit, the batata didn't really hit the mark for my taste buds, probably because I'm not a big fan of sweet potato.

Now, let me tell you, the food here is made fresh to order, which is great, but it does mean you've got to buckle up for a bit of a wait. And speaking of waiting, while we were waiting for the food, some of the staff members got into a pretty loud argument, and it honestly made things a bit awkward.

On top of that, those indoor chairs weren't exactly the comfiest. I'm thinking maybe trying out the outdoor seating next time could change up the whole vibe of...