Nuba in Gastown — Restaurant in Vancouver

Finally came in to give it a try. What a neat place! The vibe is super cool and unlike anywhere else I'd been, beautifully decorated inside and the music was great. The staff were extremely friendly and charming. Very nice ladies working front of house, very accomodating.

The food was another story. I first want to praise the presentation, because every item came out looking beautiful. The plating was really nice. I feel like that's where 75% of your bill goes, unfortunately. The food came out insanely fast --suspiciously fast. I'm quite sure everything we ordered was kept under a heat lamp, as we received everything within a few minutes of ordering. In a restaurant that busy, there's no way they got to our orders that fast. I've managed a few, and I was highly dubious about the service speed. We shared 4 appetizers (two ordered at a time) and were finished and out the door in 25 minutes. What?? Is this McDonalds?

The falafel ($14) was delicious, but again, there is no way you could fry 5 small falafel in the 3 minutes it took to receive them after ordering. They came to us barely above luke-warm. No fresh falafel cooks that dark that fast. Poor value.

The lamb kafta was delicious, but the portion for $17 was about 4 mouthfuls of ground lamb. I know food is getting expensive, but wow, we really got nothing for this one. Ironically, I imagine the $30 lamb shank would have been about the same amount of meat, so at least we scored there. Lamb is $14 a pound. We got maybe 5oz.

The Wild Tiger Prawns were... a joke. 5 prawns on a few pieces of arugula for $19?? Bruh. I didn't taste this "chili oil" it was apparently fried in. Whatever it was, it didn't cut through the prawn's natural flavour. "Served with spicy fermented shatta sauce.", yet they forgot the shatta. I didn't see any.

The hummus was tasty, but my brain had trouble with this one., For $14, you get about $4 worth of what tasted like Habibi's Lebanese Hummus straight out of the container (albeit plated beautifully!). At least the flatbread was bottomless, but even then, it had a particularly dry store-bought feel. Doubt they make their own here.

Look. You've clearly got a great thing going. This review won't change a thing, I know that. You've got plenty of customers downtown who make so much money that they don't care or think past their yuppie bubbles about how much things actually cost, how food is made, or how restaurants function. We love a mindless consumer, don't we folks? And on your end, I know food costs are up and rent is high downtown. We're all struggling. But when we spend $80 for what honestly felt like (very tasty!!) pre-prepared cafeteria food, just for two people to leave hungry, no amount of ambience makes that worth it. Absolute rip-off to anyone who cooks at home enough to know how much things cost. This is why we are so selective when we go out. Been gouged enough like this, we should know better.

If you want food from that region that leaves you full and doesn't drain your wallet, go to Abdul's BBQ in metrotown or something. $12 gets you a FAT shawarma wrap or platter with all the fresh veg and tabbouleh etc you could ask for, and is made with love from actual Syrians, not white hipsters in Gastown.

We hit the A&W up the road to cap the night off because we were still...

I've been there 3 times now and everytime has been pretty terrible. All 3 times the service has been exceptionally slow and pretty rude and there's been mistakes in our orders. Food is overpriced and there's mice in the restaurant.

The first time was for a work party so we had 2 large tables. The server basically ignored the table I was sat at for the majority of the night. The other table got their food before the server had even taken our tables order. When our drinks finally arrived the server didn't get the order right. Then half way through our meal a radiator on the ceiling above our table started leaking water onto the table getting into our food and drinks. We let the server know and she was super rude about it and didn't want to replace anything that had been leaked on.

The second time I went the service was incredibly slow again and the server messed up our order again. It took 2 hours (!!) for our food to arrive. We ended up missing a booking we had made elsewhere for after dinner. Even just asking for the bill took a frustratingly long amount of time cos the server couldn't remember who ordered what.

The third time I went I was only planning on ordering something small but apparently because we were in a big group everyone had to order the feast which is honestly very over priced for the amount of food you get. The food is tasty but it's not worth the money. Also the server took everyone's drink orders maybe 15 minutes after we arrived and we didn't receive them for about 20 mins ish. My partner didn't receive his drink at all and had to follow up multiple times. The server was just memorizing peoples orders but kept forgetting what people had asked for and kept having to come back to reconfirm. The cherry on the cake is that half way through our meal we see a mouse running around the restaurant.

I do not recommend this restaurant. I honestly never write reviews but after 3 bad experiences here I can honestly say it's a terrible restaurant. Don't...

Nuba is hands down some of the BEST food I've ever had in my life. My wife and I went here Friday night, it was extremely crowded, so the wait was a little longer then they'd predicted, but it was SO worth the wait! First thing's first-- drinks! I ordered the mojito and my wife ordered the malbec. My mojito was so fresh and crisp! I downed every sip of it. I was disappointed I had to drive, otherwise I would've ordered 1 or 2 more! For out entreé, we ordered the "La Feast" which was the vegetarian feast. Every single bite was so scrumptious. Seriously, we couldn't put our fork down until there was nothing left on the plate! The vegan stew was phenomenal and there was a perfect blend of tomatoes and vegetables to keep it savory, but light. The falafel was cooked and seasoned perfectly. The baba ghanouj and hummus had just the right amount of lemon. The mjadra was my favorite thing on the plate--which wasn't too hard because every thing was fantastic! It had the right amount of spices, lentils, and kick to keep eating forever! Both salads totally hit the spot, and they were so light and refreshing. Definitely come with an appetite because they give you A LOT of food! But after devouring the entire plate, you still don't feel heavy and tired like most meals, which was the best feeling! We usually don't eat dessert because we don't have room, but we decided to order the pistachio brown butter cake, and was not diappointed in any way! The mixture of pistachio, brown butter, blueberry compote and orage blossom whipped cream sounds like a funky combo, but it all came together in the most delectable way. It's such a shame we don't live in Vancouver, because this would certainly be a regular for us. Without a doubt, I'd recommend Nuba to anyone in the mood for superb Middle Eastern cooking and will certainly be back the next time I'm...