RESTAURANTE HAWA BLADI — Restaurant in Barcelona

Food: Unfortunately, my first one star review. I was very excited to try this place after reading some very positive reviews. However, it was very underwhelming. The hummus lacked so much flavor, as well as the chicken. The shawarma was also very chewy and tasted rubbery. Hummus with chicken is typically my favorite dish but I wouldn’t recommend this dish at all.

Service: When I tried to change the lamb for the chicken, the server did not let me. She insisted that if I wanted to get chicken, then I needed to order another dish that had chicken, but did not have hummus. I was very confused as this was the first time that I had a server tell me they couldn’t make a substitution. After several attempts to try to see how I could order hummus and chicken together, the manager came and was able to accommodate my meal preference. Maybe it was a miscommunication as it didn’t seem that she spoke much English or Spanish but the server was very defensive during the interaction.

Atmosphere: There was a very strong incense smell to the point where I got a headache. I appreciated the cultural music in the background and the decor, but I felt the incense was too strong. Also, the bathrooms were pretty dirty that I didn’t even feel...

Honestly, 2 stars only because they were so nice and happily accommodated to my current food restrictions. Unfortunately, the food was just plain bad. I took a combination plate that had hummus, falafel and 3 kinds of meat (chicken, beef and lamb). The hummus was the only thing that wasn’t bad. The 3 meats were all way over done and as dry as could be, some were also too salty and the the chicken also had seasoning that was just not good. The falafel seemed like it was one of those frozen ones that you just need to reheat at home, and was also very very dry. I actually come from a middle eastern country and so I know what should be expected from this plate, and unfortunately, this...

As a lebanese, I found the food to be not very authentic especially the chicken shawarma - it's rather Turkish kebab than shawarma. The service was good, but missing proactiveness - e.g. we ordered Taouk that normally goes well with garlic sauce and we had to ask for the sauce to get it. The atmosphere was cozy and the people overall...