Le Souk — Restaurant in Montclair

This was supposed to be a nice evening over delicious Syrian and Mideterranean food and music, but the food was gross and the music was Indian. Such a waste for the trying-too-much decor. The young lady who took our order was courteous and friendly. That was the only good thing about the experience. Oh, that and the pomegranate spicy tea. The menu is modest and the choices are limited. I doubt this is really Syrian. Looks like one of those tourist traps except that it’s in Montclair, NJ instead of Montpelier, France. The chicken fattah was soggy and watery. It looked like breakfast cereal. The chicken with pomegranate sauce had a nasty smell and the sauce (which I believe was syrup and not cooked sauce) was watered down. When added to the chicken, makes it tingy, pungent and tastes rancid. The young lady waitress tried to convince me to order something else. I preferred not to and settled for the pomegranate tea and baklava. She nicely offered barazek (sesame cookies) and a piece of mabrouma. Such a lovely person. Keep her. Not the cook, who showed an attitude and started ranting in Hindi. So, no. Not really a good idea to eat there unless you have no clue what Syrian or Middle Eastern food is. Then, it would be easy...

You know being nice here is deceiving. Like everyone giving the rating because they want to be nice to them is not the right way to give reviews. This restaurant is run by people who have no experience in running a restaurant. The only thing professional about this restaurant is nothing. They gave us paper menus, which by the way they ran out of it so we had to make do with only one Menu. There were at least 3 items from 20 that they were out of. The waiters did not have any idea as to what we were ordering because they were not trained to take an order, meaning they were make shift people working there. FOOD was border line edible at best. If I were to leave everything aside and concentrate on food, it was again border line at best. at 8:00 PM if they are out of 3 out of 8 items on the menu then the place is not managed right and it shows. We went there because of the ratings, like I mentioned earlier that the reviews were given by people that are just...

Le Souk is a charming bistro run by delightful Syrian woman. She is an art teacher at a local State University in addition to the proprietor of this establishment, and you can see her training in the food and the decor of the restaurant. Her recipes are her rendition of traditional Syrian fare. Everything is handmade and prepared to order. This means that it may take a little longer for it to reach you, but it's worth it. The restaurant itself is like a Souk (market in Arabic) where you can eat, shop, and otherwise sit and chat. There are a number of Syrian and Eastern Mediterranean items for sale. You can see and feel that personal touches that she puts in everything. A word to the uninitiated: this isn't a typical restaurant in the classic sense. There are no waiters, food runners, dishwashers. Everything is done by one person with perhaps some help from another. If you want something like more bread or water, then you may have to to get up...