Cedars Lebanese Cuisine — Restaurant in Camp Hill

This was not my first visit to this restaurant. My first was really quite pleasant. I had no issues and the food was quite good.

That being said, my second experience was vastly different. The lamb kabob that was serves to my fiancé and I was just off. It was gamy, overcooked and didn’t taste like lamb.

We didn’t make a fuss about it. We figured it was a one off since our first experience was a positive one. Just don’t order the lamb next time right?

As we finished up our meal, we witnessed the owner of the restaurant (who never introduced himself) speak extremely rudely to the woman who was serving us. He rashly demanded she wipe bird poop off a chair while he watched and he hands were already full.

The interaction was so abrupt and revolting that it infuriated my fiancé to such a degree that she asked the owner (who didn’t introduce himself when he sat down with her) to speak to her.

My fiancé then told him politely that she felt really offended with the way he spoke to our server. She told him that he disrespected her and that it offended my fiancé to the upmost degree. The owners response was “but she’s a waitress, that’s what she’s supposed to do”.

What the owner failed to realize is that my fiancé and I both have both been servers in the past. He had nothing to say to her besides what I described earlier. No “sorry you were offended”, no customer service or care shown at all.

Meanwhile, while this conversation was unfolding. I was sitting across the restaurant boxing up the (non lamb) leftovers.

I could see his body language and approached the front, check in hand ready to pay the bill. I sat down and shook the owners hand (which I now regret) and he said to me verbatim “if you do decide to come back here, you can’t wear that”. Referencing the tank top I was wearing.

I was shocked considering the content of the conversation I knew my fiancé was having. I was dumbfounded and my fiancé replied “were never coming back here”.

Let me make this clear. I was infuriated. There is nothing posted anywhere about a dress code and I’m an account executive who wears a 3 piece suit every day for work. We’re no bums off the street and he treated us like we were privileged to be at his establishment.

I’ve never been disrespected to that extent as a paying customer in a restaurant in my life. My family refuses to give money to anyone who would treat his staff with the disrespect that we witnessed.

As we left Cedars my fiancé encouraged the waitress and told her “you don’t need to work here. You deserve to be treated better than this” and with that we left.

This business is just simply all wrong. The owner is frankly a joke and doesn’t have respect for his staff or his paying customers. Shame on you sir. The best part of the experience was watching him fumble for a response while my fiancé...

When I first looked at this restaurant on Google, the reviews were mind boggling - either 1 star or 5 stars across the board. It was surprising, because I had such a great first meal, but I didn't want to give bad advice, so I waited until I felt really sure which side I was on. Well now I've gone at least 6 times since moving to Camp Hill last year, and I can say without qualification, this restaurant is excellent. The food is all outstanding. The stuff you normally like is better here than anywhere you've had it before (baba ghanoush or falafel for instance), and the stuff you've never heard of is even better than that! Try the green beans, the cauliflower, or the aged cheese dish. BYOB. The entrees are great, but we usually bring friends and get the mezza.

This restaurant has become our go-to place to take friends who come to visit, and everybody has loved it. Looking at the reviews, it seems like some of the issues that are reported are interpersonal in nature, so I would also mention that I have brought middle aged people, young people, 1 infant, 2 gay people, mostly men, mostly women. The owner has only ever been friendly and polite, asking things like "did you enjoy your meal" or suggesting we try the hookah sometime when one of my friends asked about it. At this point, I'm left with the belief that he's a normal guy who owns a restaurant and the interpersonal problems may have been with the reviewers here. Just a guess based on my experience.

The one thing that I will acknowledge, is that this is a sit down restaurant. I think it's very affordable (at least for the mezze, and BYOB helps), and I don't find it to be slow, but if you think it's going to be a spinning meat-on-stick gyro stand, you should know that this is not fast food. It is great food, and you should relax and enjoy...

We have been going to Cedar's for years and have always had great service and food. However, the last time we went I believe we had the manager as our server, and she was just plain mean and rude. She had a sour look on her face and dismissive tone the whole night she was serving us. Some of our table's food arrived an hour after the first half of our table's food. They were so hungry they had to pick off of our plates until their food arrived. When I told our server/manager that our table had been hungry and waiting a very long time after we already received our food, she gave a very snarky and sarcastic response. Her demeanor was so rude that our whole table was shocked and had gone quiet. Our water glasses had also been empty for two hours and were not filled until the end of our meal. Our bill was brought to us before we were able to ask about dessert since someone at our table was still very hungry. Every interaction we had with her was awkward and rude. We still had to leave an 18% tip because we had a party of 7. Our reservation was at 7:30, and we did not leave until close to 11 because the service was so slow and our table was neglected. We were not checked on once.

The other servers we've had were always great, but I did not see them there that night. I will not be going back because I do not want to management to profit from us. Why would you be in the service industry if you are going to be so rude to your customer's and ruin their evening with...