Falafel N Cafe restaurant and patio bar — Restaurant in Clearwater

I discovered the Falafel Café when I was looking for new Mediterranean restaurants to try on Yelp, and after seeing the photos of their food I knew I had to pay them a visit. One Yelper posted a photo of a Groupon they had for Falafel Café, so I checked Groupon & found a special for a Chicken Kebab Platter I used on my first visit. I ordered take-out from the restaurant, so I cannot comment on their dine-in service.

The Falafel Café is located on Sunset in Clearwater, on a plaza at the northeast corner of the intersection of US Hwy 19 & Sunset. The plaza is also home to Varsity Club & the Cinema Café (which have prominent signs). There is a large lot, so parking was easy. Signs at the Café indicated that they are open for dine-in, take out, and delivery, and I saw a small covered outdoor seating area. Inside there was a small dining room too. This is a very small Café, with a combined small kitchen/register area. Above the kitchen area are three large screens with pictures of some of the food they serve (only 2 screens were working). I love this idea, that way you can see what the menu items look like before ordering, which is especially helpful when trying a new cuisine.

Now on to the important part – the food! I ordered the Chicken Kebab Platter (with my Groupon) with 2 sides (rice and salad) and was surprised to see the amount of food that came with that menu item when I received my bag. It came with 3 small skewers of chicken with a few pieces of onion & green pepper and rice in a large container, a small container with a salad and dressing, and another small container with several pieces of pita (see photos for more details) – the amount of food received was a good value for the money. The chicken was flavorful and seasoned well, but a little dry. A small container came inside the box with the chicken and rice that I assumed was tzatziki (I’m not a tzatziki fan so I did not have any), but later tried it and found had a different flavor (reminded me of horseradish). The rice was a brown color, not white like their photos online – it was OK, but I will probably try a different side next time. The side salad looked more appetizing and fresher than most side salads I find at local restaurants – it included lettuce, tomato, cucumber, onion. I often find side salads to be 95% lettuce with other veggies included as more of a garnish – this one was a good mix of lettuce and the other veggies (see the photo), which is much more appealing to me & I’ll definitely order it again.

When I went in to pick up my order, I saw photos of their desserts on the screen above the register and decided I had to try their tiramisu! The tiramisu was amazing – rich and delicious, with the signature tiramisu flavor I love. It looked like the tiramisu may have come premade (possibly not made in house), but personally, as long as it tastes good I do not care where it came from – in fact, I would go back there again just for the tiramisu!

As for safety measures they are taking during the pandemic – I saw that outdoor seating available, but indoors I did not see any signs marking off tables/chairs for social distancing (but there was only one person there so it was not necessary). The woman working there (covering the kitchen and register) was wearing a mask, and hand sanitizer was available by the register.

They had large menus available at the register with colorful photos of some of their entrees. I really appreciate that they include small descriptions with the menu items so guests can feel more comfortable trying something new (and will not have to ask tons of questions...

Me and my husband were dining at this restaurant and were looking over the menu. We decided we also wanted dessert after we ordered our food. After our food was brought out, we let our server know we’d also like to have dessert. The woman with short black hair, who claimed she’s manager, let me and my husband know there is an automatic gratuity fee if we reached over $50.00 AFTER we sat down, ORDERED, and food was SERVED. My husband asked her, “where is the policy stated at?” She replied, “It’s just our policy. I just told you” He said “Yes, but where does it say? On the menu? Online? Or on a sign in the restaurant?” “Well, this is just our restaurant’s policy.” He replied “Well, how could you let us know about this after we already sat down, ordered, and are ready to eat our served food?” “I didn’t want to tell you yet because it looked like your order wasn’t going to reach $50.00.” My husband asked “how much is the gratuity fee?” The manager refused to tell him the gratuity fee. After we sat there and ate for a few minutes, my husband got up from the table and walked over to the front counter to ask her the same question. She still refused to tell him how much the gratuity fee is. She said “Look, I don’t want to waste my energy on this. Don’t worry about it.” I thought to myself, you have the audacity to say that when YOU were the one who started a problem. He asked if he could call and speak to the owner and she also refused. So he sat down and waited for our dessert to come. She gave us our desserts and coffee. We continued to eat in silence. After we paid and boxed up our leftovers, we were getting ready to leave. Before we left the door, my husband decided to say something. He walked up and said “the food was delicious but your service sucked.” “You didn’t want to tip anyhow.” My husband replied “that’s not the point. The point is you should tell your customers that there’s going to be a gratuity charge before you serve them the food.” “You can get out and don’t come back.” People, do not come to this restaurant. My husband was aware that it wasn’t the cooks fault. He even wanted to tip them $20.00 but we decided not to. The service was horrible. It even ruined our food and experience. We are GLADLY not coming back. You don’t have to tell us twice. Your service told us LOUD AND CLEAR the...

Ordered using bite squad and the food was phenomenal! Only issue was it took forever and it wasn’t bite squad’s fault, our poor driver waited over the extended wait time plus a half an hour after he got there for our order, that was bumped back time and time again, he finally got our order very very late when he could have been delivering others food but was kind enough to wait the additional time, came to deliver our food only to be called by the restaurant that part of our order was left out so he returned to get it. Though I felt terrible for the driver (I tipped him well:)) but the food was worth the wait! It was amazing!!! Granted didn’t want to eat dinner at nearly 11pm (yes nearly 2 hours from when they said it would arrive) after an already long day BUT I must say it was worth the wait! We ordered both the beef and chicken kabobs, chicken shawarma, macaroni beshamel, how wow she (app) and falafel and it was amazing! I personally didn’t like the falafel but everyone else in my family did! The rice was beautiful and very aromatic, the potato salad was yummy and of course the baba ghanouji, tzatziki, garlic sauces with pitas were taste bud overload! Taking the delivery snafu out of the equation this was such a delish meal! We laid everything out of the dining room table and with forks in hand and napkins on our laps ate family style and dug in! We never eat like this but it was fun just being able to take nibbles here and there and enjoyed a beautiful culinary experience! With fees, delivery and tips we spent nearly $120 but it was awesome trying something new and a little bit of everything! Next time we will go as a family directly to the restaurant! It was just amazing food that makes your...