Marhaba Grill — Restaurant in Minneapolis

4/5 food & service, but -100/5 for their clientele.

If you're an American and want to eat here, be prepared for mean, prolonged stares by their Somali clientele (Which is the vast, overwhelming majority of this restaurants customers). Me and my family have been here 5-7 times, and EVERY single time something discriminatory occurs (No over-exaggeration).

My mother informed me of one incident where this Somali family was being seated next to us, and the oldest male looked at her, and conjured a face of annoyance and said "I don't WANT to see HERE" to his waiter. Wish I was at my table when it occurred, we'd have had a nice talk.

I find this utterly contradictory considering if they were to dine at a traditional American restaurant where the customers were predominantly American, and we treated them that way, they would be B'ing and moaning about discrimination and unfair treatment.

For this reason, I cannot recommend this restaurant. The food is pretty good, even great some days depending on the chef. Some days it's bland, some days it's amazing. Their employees have always been very nice, too. But due to their clientele/environment I can't recommend it. At least to any Americans.

P.S. I've had zero issues with any of the other non-Somali's at this restaurant, and before anyone labels me an Islamophobe, I am a...

Exceptional. We started out for Glam Doll Donuts, saw a Mexican bakery (Marissa's) down the street and got distracted. By the time we bought our Mexican pastries, it was lunchtime and Marhaba was across the intersection.

Understand one thing about Marhaba and you will fare much better there: don't expect much from their "American" food (looking at you, fried chicken wings). Everything else is very, very good. They do a Mediterranean buffet better than The Marina a few miles north. I didn't think that was possible and here I sit full an so very much corrected.

Things I needed seconds of (some of which I had, some of which I was too full to do again): baklava, catfish, lamb Kafka, tabouleh, gyro meat, meat samosa.

$42 for 2 adults and 2 preschoolers on some mysterious pay per year of the child's age system. So probably somewhere around $15/person with a soda. If the quality of the Mediterranean food wasn't so high, I would have dropped a star for the price. In this case , however, I have nothing to complain about: I feel I received an excellent value food:cost. I would repeat here on a date night without kids as the food is lost on their mac n cheese and chicken...

I have known the proprietor, Mohammed, since he was the head chef at Big Marina on 49th and Central Northeast. He's a good kind and generous father, excellent chef, and you people Uptown are extremely lucky to have this place here end capping eat Street. This place is known for its Mediterranean fare, hummus, baba ganoush, tabouli, Gyros, sambusas, grilled chicken, roast chicken, Kafka, pot roast, BBQ rib tips, arguably some of the best mashed potatoes, three kinds of seasoned rice, countless other dishes. You need to bring an appetite, and expect to overeat if you plan on going with the all-you-can-eat buffet option. A more practical and dietary way, is to make your selections ala carte to go, even if you just sit down and eat. That way you take a measured amount, it controls the overeating, and it's more frugal. Mohammed doesn't mind either way, DIY card method means you're less likely to waste food, and as a Muslim, wasting food is considered a sign of disrespect for the gift of the meal, from Allah. I usually get a decent size lunch, for less than $10, ala carte. But enough with words let your eyes...