Holy Land Cafe — Restaurant in Lenexa

We probably just had a mediocre one time experience, and I still plan to come back and give this place another try. My son and I came here for a lunch to celebrate him making it 8 days without smoking... Cold turkey! The meal started off excellent, but went downhill from there, unfortunately. First off, I'll say service was excellent. Quick, and very attentive to us. We were given a table very quickly even though they were fairly busy. We started with our favorite appetizer, baba ghanoush. It was tart exactly like I like it and had excellent eggplant flavor! And the pita slices delivered with the plate were warm, soft, and very tender. Perfectly cooked! We both thought this was going to be a real winner of a middle eastern/Mediterranean restaurant. The rest of the meal was not. I ordered the falafel and hummus plate. My son ordered the beef Shawarma plate. What made both plates not so good was mostly that the pita bread we received after the baba ghanoush was extremely tough, like it had been microwaved, or was not fresh. What we got with our appetizer was excellent, but what we got with our meals was far from it. I've eaten falafel at numerous restaurants around the world and at street carts in Manhattan. I've had a range of tastes in falafel. These were a little overcooked for my taste, which made them drier than I expected. The flavor was okay, but the dryness was not. And the hummus... Just average. It was smooth and creamy, but just didn't have that distinctive great olive oil, lemon, sesame (Tahini) and garbanzo bean flavor I expect from a great Mediterranean restaurant. To me it was a little bland. My son said the toughness of the pita bread just ruined his sandwich. So, bottom line, I'll be back once more to give this another try, but not because this meal...

First visit 5/12/18, my introduction to baba ganoush. Good stuff. Nice decor. Owner teases customers "Sorry no more napkins/plates), confusing sometimes but that's his "thing", adds something to the experience, maybe.

Second visit 9/28/18: Food on combo appetizer platter was lovely, the meatless dolmades made a vegetarian so happy today. One problem: shawarma on one of our orders was skimpy and much of it was so dry it was like rocks (we also disliked that they spread the hummus so thin to make it seem like more on the plate). We should have asked for replacement, I'm sure they would have helped.

There was apparently some confusion on the quantities, as we ordered 2 one-person combo appetizer platters, and never having really eaten here or ordered the dish, we did not know that the waiter assumed we wanted combo appetizers for 4! We did not suspect. I guess we supposed this was a restaurant with generous portions.

I do not really fault anyone but I will suggest waitstaff write down an order and double check with the customer. Not fun to get the huge bill and realize you did not get a great deal, after all. However, I am told by the member of my party who paid the check that we were reluctantly given a discount to "make us happy". So, I absolutely am not holding it against them, simple communication error.

However, I will recommend this place for delicious food, atmosphere, and mostly attentive service! Just be wary about...

I love the Holy Land Cafe! It's one of the only places I can get a casual vegetarian or semi healthy meal that also tastes great. Their hummus and their baba ghanoush are some of the best that I've had. I also like their gyros. The prices here are very fair and reasonable. The service is always fast and friendly. They have space for casual dining. They are located at the end of the strip mall and there is almost always adequate parking. One of my favorite items to order here is the appetizer sampler platter for one or for two. It is completely vegetarian and completely delicious. It contains their cucumber tomato salad with vinaigrette, spanakopita, baba ghanoush, hummus, and pita bread. I wish I worked closer because there are lunch specials are really my favorite. You can still get their lunch specials for a slight markup at dinner. They also have different kinds of baklava for dessert. There are two things here that would improve this restaurant. First of all, if they had some kind of vanilla ice cream to go with the baklava it would really take it to another level. Secondly their hours are not late enough for dinner. we just came back from Europe and people start eating dinner there no earlier than 7:30. Holy Land Cafe closes for dinner at 8:00. I understand that during COVID people restricted their hours a bit but now that everything is more relaxed holy land needs to extend their hours later than 8:00. Holy Land I...