Cedars Restaurant & Outdoor Hookah lounge — Restaurant in Dr. Phillips

I found this place when I was at a conference in Orlando few weeks ago. I went there with a friend to try the food, and it was okay (although as Lebanese, I can tell you that Lebanese food can be much better). The server, who claimed that he was one of the owners, was trying to be kind and he was very "chatty". He told me that he can customize orders the way I want and he really did. The next day, I took my friends there as they were eager to try Lebanese food. For me, the food was not that impressive but at least my friends were happy to try Lebanese food. Yesterday, I had some Lebanese friends visiting from another state and I thought it would be nice to have dinner with them at a Lebanese place. I live in Gainesville so I had to drive around 2 hrs to Orlando to get there. We were 4 people and we wanted to order the Lebanese feast which includes 6 appetizers and mixed grill. We wanted to replace some of the appetizers (which I did before at this place) and we didn't mind being upcharged if necessary. I went to talk to my "chatty" friend (who recognized me for sure) telling him that we want to replace Humus with Baba Ghanoushe, and I was surprised that he told me in a very rude and impolite way that he can't do this and I had to take it as it is. I went back to the table and we were served the appetizers and then the mixed grill. The kafta kabobs were extremely spicy (unlike before) and my wife couldn't eat it. Not only that but they gave my wife 2 kafta kabobs instead of 1 kafta and 1 steak. When I spoke to the server, he seemed not to believe what I was saying and he started to check everyone's dish. It seemed that he thought we're making this up to get more food. I was really frustrated by his behavior and when I told him that, he started arguing and arguing ....before he finally replaced my wife's plate. My evening was ruined and I will never ever step a foot in that...

Please read to save yourself some time! So if you’re able to score a table and dine here it is a lovely place, THE STAFF AND SERVICE IS NOT. Visiting friends in Orlando for the weekend and we all knew we wanted to have a Saturday evening dinner here. So early Saturday morning we called to reserve a table, the girl on the phone sounded like she was very busy and said she would call back but never did. About an hour later we called again, and this time the girl said ok and confirmed our reservation at 7:30 pm (on speaker with our whole group of 7 friends listening to the conversation). We drove 30 minutes out of our way and arrived exactly at 7:30, just for the entire to staff to tell us our reservation didn’t exist and the place is fully booked for the entire weekend. The manager brought out his clipboard/reservation list, which was a sheet of paper covered in a bunch of sloppy unorganized writing, half of which is scribbled out. As much as we explained ourselves and as clearly frustrated as we were, they weren’t willing to accommodate us or fix the situation in any way. They just kept saying sorry and repeating that the place is unfortunately booked. You might be thinking well maybe they made a mistake this one time on a busy day. THIS WAS NOT THE FIRST TIME! All of us in our group have all experienced this before on separate occasions! We figured we would reserve anyways because we do love the place and the atmosphere when we do dine here, and what are the chances something like this happens again right? Well apparently it happens often, and it’ll be the last time it happens to me as I won’t be returning. This restaurant VERY CLEARLY needs to be more organized and have a better system of keeping track of their...

I have been coming to Cedars since 2010. Every time that I am in the Orlando area I make sure I make at least 1 stop to have the best Lebanese meal hands down. Lately I even get out of my way to make a stop in Orlando If I am driving up or down the State just to go eat at Cedars, even if it means deviating and adding time to my drive. This last time around was particularly special. We were coming from the Tampa area with our 2 small dogs and I called ahead to make sure I could be seated in the courtyard. The staff was very accommodating and welcoming (as usual) and we met Sergios, our server for the first time, to whom we made changes and added to our order several times, very patiently, he catered to all of our requests. Aside from the fact that the food was superb (as always) the service was excellent (as usual). My wife has been all over the World and many times in several countries in the middle east. She says that she cannot remember the last time she had such a good restaurant meal, not only middle eastern cuisine but in general. Without going into hard core Lebanese dishes (which I have had in past occasions at Cedars) and sticking to the usual known ones... the simplest one being their house salad... I cannot explain with words the level of excellency in its preparation and taste. Anything else I may add to this comment would be just that, words. I have recommended Cedars to a lot of my friends, business associates and acquaintances when I hear that they are going to the Orlando area or passing by and almost all of them call me back to let me know how amazing their dining experience was. Thank you Cedars, thank you staff and thank...