Cedar Palace — Restaurant in Chicago

Edit per owner response. The owner is stating below per my response that as long as you don’t ask they will scam you. But they blame me for not inquiring? It is ILLEGAL in Illinois to charge more than 1% credit card transaction fee as I have just been made aware. They can only charge more if the transaction is less than the processing fee.so they are willingly engaging in illegal business practices. Given the owners entitlement responses I advise anyone considering dining here to take your business elsewhere. Doesn’t deserve 1 star. Service was friendly, and the food came out pretty fast. I live in the neighborhood and had been here once before covid when the prices were within the range of normal. They have literally doubled, and it’s outrageous. Hummos 12.00. A plate of tomatoes and onions 12.00. 26.00 for a plate of falafel or shawarma w rice. Then they charge a 3.5 service fee for using a credit card that is a tax deductible business expense. Then they brought that stupid credit card processing machine to the table. No itemized receipt was given with the tax and total. I was presented with the machine with the total. No breakdown of what was purchased. Since I ordered 2 items I calculated it and it was less than the total on the machine. The total included the tax. Then below it it had the auto gratuity or custom gratuity. The auto gratuity included the cost of tax. Totally reprehensible and scammy. They want you to tip on tax. Unreal. Then the service fee. Lots of price gouging here. I will not return to this establishment. I’ll drive up North and pay half and get better food. Edit after reading owner response: if you don’t conduct business the way I described then why do you do it? You know you do it. I am sure your rent is extremely high. I understand that. But you are really charging 12.00 for a small bowl of parsley and...

Great people, even better food. Yes, it does not get any better than this. I am not a foodie, I just eat food because well, it is something we are supposed to do. That might change after last evening's dinner. My daughter scoped this place out for me. She lives in Asia and wanted something to eat so, yes, she started researching places near her childhood home. She wrote to me, insisting that I (who is not really into eating, or eating out) get something to eat here. I am going to visit her next week so I felt obliged to give her a report. I texted her as soon as I ate the first bite. The food is amazing and yes, it is so good that you will want to tell people about it- but maybe people close by so they can share in this gem. I had the spinach which I learned was accompanied by this golden lentil soup. I walked there with my dogs, meaning we walked home at a dog's sniffing pace. The soup and the spinach were still pipping hot by the time we got home. The dogs wanted to share but as soon as I had the first spoonful of soup, I moved out of their reach. This soup is too good to be shared, even with (wo)man's best friend. I was full after the soup but thought, well I should try the main course. Wow- the container was so full- this was enough food for at least two hungry people. Still, it was so delicious I made a dent in the container. Yeah, grab your dogs, or better yet, go and eat in (the place is so inviting and the people so...

I’ve been trying to find a truly great Mediterranean restaurant for the past couple of years now, somehow this place slipped by. This place has the best Mediterranean food I’ve had to date. Dare I say home to the best food in general. Seriously, I could sit here for hours talking about how great the food is. I got the vegetarian combo which is very generous in its offerings. I don’t typically see such a variety in the ones other places offer, with grape leaves being a common omission. The veggies are also a very nice addition. Often times I’ll have to compromise. Sure one place has great baba ghanoush, but the hummus is weak. There’s no compromises here.

This is the kind of food you’d feed to medieval royalty if you wanted to keep your head. I imagine the recipes were crafted around that time by some sort of magical creature. Whoever is actually making the food should be incredibly proud of their craft.

You won’t regret going here. There’s a reason for the glowing reviews. I might cry if I ever hear about this place shutting down. If you’re still reading, I’m ashamed you haven’t dropped everything to start ordering. I’ll start a cult following if there...