Petra Cafe — Restaurant in Fayetteville

A top choice for all four people in our family! Great food but only open for lunch 11-2 p.m. Very tiny: 3 tables and a lunch counter but a nice Town square close by for eating take out! Even w/ a lunch counter, not for inside parties larger than 2 or 3 at most...still so good! Best Mediterranean staples to be found in Fayetteville, Arkansas...& a favorite for my whole family of four ( or any smaller group of us). We often sit in couples for the food. In fact we debated over whether to share knowledge of our beloved comfort treasure at all!! ( Yes, we value it that much)! Be ready for a wait on a Saturday or most days if you are not alone. Faithful customers for lunch, as we have been for many years since moving here from NJ / NY, we started copying the practice of calling ahead & ordering take-out for dinner or picknick snacks for outings. It is that good. The food is fresh & the classic dishes have a personal quality that is consistent & addictive. The owner (?), often seen preparing the daily specials, is an unusually kind person, who has been accommodating from our first casual visit to our occasional advanced placement larger requests. He also selects polite employees; decorates with personal references to Petra, & indulges the staff with entertaining background music. The calm atmosphere & lovely spice & food smell of a kind that are rare in this area of the country create a casual oasis. It is one of my personal favorite places b/c it represents comfort food to me: the often unique MEDITERRANEAN resteraunts I grew up adoring in Birmingham, Al; then, sought out in my NE neighborhoods; & now, thanks to the Petra Cafe have been able to share with my sons. Every member of our family requests this lunch spot if two of us are lucky enough to have a day off or lunch hour free --- always first choice!...

Used to love this place but the servers were rude and distractes, one od them cussing and comllainkng when we enteres. It's a tigjt space but she kept bimping my chair. I moved my jacket so she wouldnt knock it off, but she still kept bumping me so i ate standing up. The hummus was flavorless. The falafel was dry and very small and didnt have any taste. When we asked why the falafel wasnt good, we were told it's because it's prepped in the morning and then microwaved. They were dry and powdery, not crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside. The tahini sauce was thin like water and just made the dry falafel more like soggy wheat. The atmosphere has always been sterile but now it's like the cheapest style dishes and cups like you'd find in a hospital cafeteria. Sad to see how much this place has gone downhill. I couldn't even give it 2 stars and I hate giving it only 1 star but there wasn't anything redeaming about our experience. I wish the server or cash register attendant had offered to make it right, then at lease we could say we had...

If I could give 0 stars, I would! We drove 3 hours to Fayetteville for a Dr.'s appointment and thought we would treat ourselves to some middle eastern food (being Chicago natives now living in rural Arkansas, anything that isn't BBQ is a real treat for us). We had dined at the Petra Cafe a few years prior and remember the food being great. Not this time. My partner and I both ordered the mayo platter however, what we received was hardly what you would call a platter-sized serving. It was more like a deconstructed sandwich! I instantly recognized the gyros meat as the same kind that comes in the frozen Kronos packages that you can buy at Walmart to make at home. The fact that the lady behind the counter was doing some serious microwave-cooking should have been a warning right there. The best part of the meal was the hummus - but even that could not get 5-stars because they literally served up a dollop with my meal. What a disappointment! We've heard great things about the Thai place nextdoor and will try that out next...