The Halal Guys — Restaurant in Davie

Sadly, there isn't a Halal Guys in Miami but my husband and I like to make a special pit stop here as a treat on the way back from visiting family on the west coast. We've been long-time fans of the Halal Guys since we first tried it living in Texas and have had it in multiple locations around the country ?including the original truck in NYC). We find it pretty consistent flavor and quality-wise. This location in Davie is definitely one of the cleanest locations with very helpful staff. Fariyal (sorry if spelling incorrect!) always greets us with a cheerful smile and is very helpful with our orders. I am a spice-addict and love loading up on the red sauce - it's legit spicy and not for the faint of heart! This is what impresses me the most because most American chains that label stuff spicy don't ever seem to be truly spicy for me. It never fails when I go and ask for 10+ lines of the red sauce that the staff member pauses and looks at me to ask if I've tried it before. Even though we go so few times to this location, they seem to remember me I guess because I always order a psycho amount of this sauce! Probably if you've never tried it, you should really just do 1-2 lines or even get it on the side.

On our latest visit, we went to try the new spicy bbq chicken and honey sriracha falafel. I loved the bbq chicken since it's a great mix of spicy and sweet (I always add bbq sauce anyways to my bowl...that might admittedly be part of how I'm able to eat so much red sauce). The falafel were made fresh and were crispy and not greasy but still a nice soft texture inside. When ordering, we went to use my husband's birthday coupon for a free platter. Unfortunately, it didn't work since we didn't realize it couldn't be applied to a special platter like this limited edition spicy bbq one. My husband had already activated it unfortunately and we were going to throw in the towel, but Fariyal had a brilliant idea for us to just separately order a normal platter to apply the coupon and take it home! She even offered to pack the veggies and sauces separately and have it waiting for us after we finished our meal in-store. So helpful! We will definitely continue to make this our pit stop on the way...

I’m here all the time and I always get a decent portion of food and nice service however this time I can tell were newer people working who put much less food and who were much more rude let alone to me but to their own employees. The younger guy with the mustache that has some grey hairs in it was already complaining about his job while serving. The bigger black lady who seems like the manager, rung me up including my coupon for a free side and drink and everything went perfectly until I asked the guy with bad attitude for two sauces for my side of falafel.

The manager then scolded him for giving me free sauces in the past in which I defended him and told the manager it wasn’t him in the past who gave me free sauces which I didn’t ask for mind you. I was told by the guy that I can’t be asking for sauces out loud trying to turn that interaction into a lesson toward the customers saying “this is why you can’t do that guys it gets us in trouble” when I was gifted both those sauces in the past without asking, INCLUDING more falafel which you could choose in the app which they try to be stingy about once you’re in store.

I then responded that it’s inappropriate to blame the customer, especially publicly, for something so trivial especially after defending a worker who took an extremely long time just for two pieces of falafel anyway. At this point I’m very frustrated almost arguing with these people STILL waiting for my red sauce on the side which I asked for again and was given a white sauce by the man. The woman who rung me up then told me that those were extra after the huge inconvenience she and her coworker gave me in which I’m still waiting on the red sauce which was then hesitated to be given to me after the HORRIBLE service I just received.

If you’re going to visit this halal guys go when the two nice Hispanic women are working for excellent service and decent portions with no arguments...

We got 6 meals to go and so ended up being served by 2 servers. One was quiet and not particularly helpful when we said that we were taking a while to look at the menu since it was our first time there. They were playing music relatively loudly and the acoustics in the small location are horrible, so it was a bit hard to hear when we were speaking with the servers.

The falafel was fried fresh to order and was ready quickly. The side of hummus was generous (about 6oz), but only came with one small pita bread (which we didn’t realize until we got home). It was not particularly flavorful, as I am used to a hint of lime/spice. It was improved by the red sauce they offer. The chocolate baklava cheesecake was ok. Not very chocolatey and it only had a top crust of baklava, so it didn’t evoke any of the classic baklava flavors either.

The plates were pretty much all the same (except for the toppings in each). The lettuce and tomatoes were fresh. They don’t have any dressing or seasonings on it so if you like that, then you should add some of their white sauce. The chicken had a nice outer texture from the grill and was juicy but pretty flavorless. For a middle eastern restaurant, I expected some sumac or Zaatar or 7 spice - not just salt and pepper. The toppings are nothing special - raw onions, green bell peppers, jarred jalapeño, or briney chopped olives.

It wasn’t bad, but nothing special enough...