The Haifa Room — Restaurant in Toronto

Yea gonna have to mirror the review on poor customer service. Falafel is good but not overtly special.. but what i saw :

-staff working with masks down often , and the use of bare hands to handle food on the first soft launch days which then switched to gloves

-Rude staff experience twice , once the dude just huffed at me unimpressed that im ordering , he didnt seem to want to be there .. it was a strange experience.. the 2nd time i offered to pay with Cash which most small businesses want, and he just shrugged dismissively and goes "i guess cash is ok." .. when its clear the register had tons of cash..

yea we get youve got a trendy spot and great marketing but you keep treating people this way - you wont last too long..

EDIT : - changed review from 2 to 1 star

went in yesterday with my partner to try to give this place another chance with an indoor experience.. we were there on a saturday night early evening with the place not packed to the brim at all.. Our experience was very very disheartening and can be summarized in the following points

-food was delicious without a doubt - but portions were the absolute smallest ive ever seen from an eating establishment anywhere - especially with their price points.. this is cheap arabic finger foods.. yet they price them as if they were truffle infused foi gras bits.. its a bit ridiculous.

-for 2 people we ordered 4 dishes - which came with a tiny single piece of pita for 2 people.. a piece the size of half your hand , it was the tiniest pitta piece ever.. and to be shared between to people.. all 4 bites of it.. for 4 dishes.. ?

-service was horrible - we were tended to by a woman who basically rushed us out in 25 min.. She cleared the dishes, then brings us the bill pretty quick without us asking.. Then 2 minutes after paying as my partner motions to grab the water bottle to fill her glass , she swoops in and grabs it before she does and never brings it back.. We complain about this aspect to her and she laughs it off saying she filled it and forgot to bring it back - without any apology offered.. the wine was also served torwards the end of the meal.. ?

We left feeling hungry enough to get a slice of pizza after.. spending nearly 100$ on an evening where we were rushed out in 25 minutes... Its an appalling standard, and pathetic to bring the name middle eastern around such an establishment. Middle eastern restaurants pride themselves on hospitality.. Yesterday we felt unwanted and unwelcome...

I will never be coming back...

Food is good but overpriced for the quantity served. Service is abysmal. I'm all about paying $$$ for good food, but this just wasn't worth it, especially when staff are this rude.

Service was horrendous. We walked in, put our name down for a table and returned after about 30 mins and were told there were still no tables available. Totally cool, we understand and we're super polite and friendly throughout. There was space at the bar so we asked if we could sit there. Our server was very rude initially. When we told her we would be fine sitting at the bar, she walked away from us and we didn't know whether to follow or not. She threw a couple of menus carelessly at what would be our seats and that's when we realized we were supposed to follow. She then tossed a couple of glasses and a carafe of water and walked away again. It was a little jarring to be honest. We ordered the kofta, broccoli, and cabbage roll and a drink. The food did not come out together, the very small koftas came out first (after quite a while) and just sat there until the pita and remaining dishes staggeringly followed after at least 15 minutes. Unacceptable considering the limited seating and large number of staff in the kitchen.

Sitting at the bar, we saw the bartender pop a few olives in her mouth and proceed to make drinks and cut fruit for them...not the most hygienic. I definitely don't want dirty hands touching my food/drinks.

Overall, the food was good flavour wise but they need to step up their service and expectations of staff, especially in an open concept kitchen.

Photos...

I hate to be that guy, because I know your Google reviews just opened, but I need to be honest to help you succeed.

The Haifa Room is a unique fellowship between Palestinian and Israeli restauranteurs, though their main selling point fell short for me; their food.

I came in at opening today. A decent line-up. No one really had any idea where to line-up since there was no direction, but it is what it is, the place just opened. I ordered the Zaatar Fries, Turkish Orange Soda and Falafel Sandwich on the “schnitzel pita” which is literally just a panko deep-fried regular pita from Sababa’s. While the food was good, there was nothing really impressive or memorable about it. The falafel was good, but there is definitely better (Parallel and Sababa’s are my personal favourite and Falafel Yoni from Montreal). I think this place is just a side-hustle for the owners in my opinion. No real effort put into seasoning their Israeli salad or onions. Throwing a hot pepper with the stem in is probably not the safest thing, but I imagine it’s there more-so for the aesthetic. Zaatar fries were frozen Cavandish fries, which barely had any ZAATAR. Nice garlic sauce though.

Why not make home-made fries and fresh pitas when charging $20 for a sandwich, fries and a drink?

I think it’s worth the support and the collaboration is a great initiative and pull for the owners to make money, but the food could be better given our cultures literally live and breathe this...