Laylaki Restaurant — Restaurant in Erbil Central Subdistrict

In short: for anyone who’s experienced good Mexican food before, go in with low expectations and willing to spend a fortune. Get a margarita during happy hour.

Longer review: I have been excited about a Mexican food restaurant coming to erbil for months now, ever since I first saw their sign announcing they were “coming soon”. Unfortunately after my first two trips dining here, and spending about $75 each time, I do not plan on returning unless I hear that certain things have changed.

For reference, I’m originally for Texas (close to the Mexican border) and grew up on delicious Mexican food. Obviously I was not excepting the same amount of quality here as I would find there, nevertheless there are certain things I judge ever sit down Mexican restaurant by.

This was the first place out of hundreds of Mexican restaurants I’ve been to, where chips and salsa is not free and given as soon as you sit down. This is the first thing I grade “sit down style” Mexican restaurants by, and since it wasn’t even brought, it didn’t look well for them. Then I opened the menu, and saw a picture of a delicious looking large bowl of guacamole; I then tried to order it but it turns out that even though it’s advertised with a picture on the menu, it’s not actually something you can order. Second strike. I saw the fajitas which is another “go-to” for a first time at a new Mexican restaurant. The price on them was looking expensive and in $USD ($15-17 I think), but I figured the portion size would make up for it. The came out sizzling hot on a traditional cast iron fajita skillet, but only filled up about half as much as you would normally expect for that price point. It tasted decent, just left me feeling hungry. (Could’ve been the lack of chips and salsa too haha 😂)Third strike. Tortillas are not something hard to make yourself, so I was disappointed at the ones that were served tasting like the cheap carrefour ones that come in a ziplock wrapper. Also, my wife has a gluten allergy, and Mexican food is normally a safe place to eat with all the corn flour options. This unfortunately didn’t exist either. (I mean there was something they called a “corn tortilla”, but neither one of us recognized it as a tortilla... what ever the dry and easily breakable wrap was) Fourth Strike.

Now for the things I DID like about our dining experiences. The service has always been friendly, and there are good drinks on the happy hour menu. The traditional margarita on the rocks is better than the blended option. Also the atmosphere here might be the nicest thing they have going on. While atmosphere does matter, it’s last on my list of what makes for a good dining experience. Some of the worlds best Mexican food is found in “whole in the wall” places.

The things that would need to change before I return:

•serve chips and salsa to all guests upon arrival •add bowls of guacamole to the menu •I doubt the price will change, so I would say portion sizes need to go up •have homemade flour and gluten free corn tortilla options coming in different sizes (fajita and burrito)

Really these are the 4 simple things that I think could bring this restaurant up from a 1 star to a 4-5 star dining experience. If they change, I will gladly return 😊 For their sake I hope they do since there is certainly a lot...

Visited 2 times for Business Lunch special starts from 12 pm till 4 pm, which only cost $20.

I liked the options which they have made, and the quality and the quantity of the food were satisfied for me. In the menu which says ‘Including’ 1 Glass of Margarita and other 3 things, you can have all of them instead of choose just one of it, so don’t forget it. And for coffee, you can choose Iced coffee without extra pay, which is hard to fine iced coffee in Erbil, so it is a best choice.

The waiters were kind and friendly as they served all the food and keep comes to the table and check on you whether you are okay with the food and need...

Great restaurant! (Went during Ramadan so menu was different) So you basically pay 40,000 IQD per person and you get a 4 course meal (you choose your protein for each meal). It starts with bread and Cold appetizers, followed by hot appetizers, main meal and then dessert (plus coffee or tea at the end) There was not a single bad course here everybody enjoyed this traditional Lebanese food. Everything was uniquely seasoned and nothing was bland. The service was top notch and everybody was super friendly. I’m still going to give it 5 stars but I do wish they would serve alcoholic drinks with dinner, Americans love...