Liban Cafe — Restaurant in Gauteng

Great setting and good service wasted on a restaurant with terrible food and mediocre sheesha. Good: the staff is friendly, the owner is involved in the restaurant and the location is nice. The bad: the food is unimaginative, bland, imbalanced and just not well-prepared.

For starters we ordered the hummus which was overloaded with lemon that took away the flavour of an otherwise good starter. For mains we ordered a lamb and a beef dish. The meat was very gamey and was not prepared to the standard we've come to expect from other Lebanese restaurants. The food didn't truly match the Arab style of cooking. I've had better Lebanese food at restaurants like Shaam and Baalbek. I've had better sheesha pretty much everywhere (although this is never consistent anywhere).

The price I paid for all this would have been completely fine but the food and sheesha just didn't justify the relatively expensive menu.

I sincerely hope they change the chef and come up with a new menu that can rival other Lebanese restaurants. Otherwise it's just another pretty looking restaurant on 4th avenue with no substance.

Update 10/10/19: They have significantly improved their sheesha so I have increased their rating from 2...

Another place on my to eat list was Liban Cafe and Restaurant

We were in the area and a bit peckish so decided to get something light. Sometimes it can be the best thing.

Lovely simple elegant decor. Friendly staff.

We ordered the chilli flatbread (onions, tomato, chilli paste, and Lebanese spices). No I am not going vegetarian even though my latest posts seem otherwise. To this we added the Mixed Bakers Platter (2 Rakakat, 2 Sambousik, 2 Spinach pies and 2 fried Kibbeh) Now I know you going to ask what on earth is that, right?

Rakakat - cheese rolls stuffed with cheese Sambousik - deep-fried beef pies Spinach Pies - Spinach pies 😂 Fried Kibbeh - minced meat and crushed wheat balls stuffed with meat

The flatbread was flipping amazing. Simple yet so full of flavour and the flatbread was just right. I had to have a coffee at thus point so had a Cappuccino with cream.

I enjoyed the deep fried pies. The Kibbeh lacked some flavour. Cheese rolls were freshly fried so it was warm and yummy.

Will hopefully go back for a proper meal.

Thanks to Abigail for her service, will hopefully see you again...

The food was enjoyable, but it didn’t justify the price. We chose the sharing option, which cost 550 Rands and offered a variety of flavors. Honestly, I would have preferred spending that amount on filet mignon or prime rib from the restaurant across the street. Their pizza, priced at over 200 Rands, was underwhelming compared to the better and more affordable options available at Doppio, which costs half as much.

The service at our table was handled by a polite and soft-spoken server. While she was courteous, her service left me feeling rushed. She would clear away dishes as soon as we finished, which felt intrusive at times. Even though she asked for permission before taking plates, I was still eating from mine when she approached. While she wasn’t pushing us to settle the bill or leave, the overall experience felt hurried.

Additionally, a 10% gratuity was automatically added to our bill, despite there being just two of us. While this is the standard minimum tip, it wasn’t mentioned by the server, and we almost ended up tipping on top of it.

Perhaps my expectations were...