Jerusalem Restaurant — Restaurant in Peoria

I was told about this restaurant before I even visited. In fact, I’ve known its existence since last fall. Unfortunately, being a student from a 100+ miles away made it almost impossible to come home much. I’ve always been a supporter of local restaurants of my city, it’s a bonus if it’s family owned, authentic, and ethnic. They don’t have much of those in Peoria. I finally got to experience this restaurant first-hand in the summer, when I came back home from school. The first thing I ever ordered was a chicken shawarma sandwich, 6pc. falafel, and baklava. The chicken was well seasoned with middle eastern spices and the meat was juicy. The falafels are a hit and they were made fresh, and the baklava was the best baklava I’ve ever had, it’s even better than my own mother’s. Within not even a whole 48 hrs. passed and I came back a second time. The restaurant itself is clean and vibrant. Not noisy or cramped. You order up front, the food gets served to you, and you can choose to pay until the end of your meal. Since the restaurant is family owned, the owners are nice and like to personally check how your dining experience is. I get a friendly, and inviting atmosphere whenever I visit. I was here a lot over the summer and I’ve tried almost every dish and I honestly haven’t been disappointed. If you’re new I recommend getting a secret menu item, which is the salad sampler. There’s a variety of salads and it’s cheaper than to get one whole order of salad. Always check their Facebook updates for specials since it’s not daily and it’s something that shouldn’t be missed. It’s worth checking this restaurant out, go...

First time eating here September of 2022.

Ordered 2 chicken shawarma entrees and a beef shawarma entree. They will charge you $1.00 for a bottle of cheap mega-pack water, no tap water available. Or you can settle for a $1.25 can of Soda. This was the first red flag to escape for me prior to ordering.

The food came extremely fast, I'd estimate less than 5-10 minutes after ordering.

The fries were just mass produced commercial frozen fries. The pita bread was very dry and cracked as soon as it bent. Hummus was very bland. The actual Shawarma was dry and the quantity was very small. The beef shawarma was much drier and I definitely would not recommend that dish. The salad was super tiny and basically tasted like oil.

Six dry crusty falafels were included with 4 different dipping sauces. These were comparable to flavorless hush puppies.

Near the end of our dinner experience, my wife found a black hair in her dry beef shawarma.

I wanted to leave at the very beginning from my intuition and observations, I wish I didn't stay long enough to order. Total damage for two people (one chicken shawarma, one beef shawarma, and one water) was $35. My friend paid separately for his chicken shawarma. No discount or apology for the hair stuck in my wife's shawarma... I did not...

I've never written a review before, but felt my experience here was important to share. I went to Peoria for the first time last week to visit a friend. We ordered a few things (around $60?) and overall the food was good. It is nice to have a halal option around and I don't want them to lose service. However, what wasn't so nice though was how we were treated. We asked to pray at the restaurant as we realized we were running out of time. They gave us a prayer mat. We waited the longest of the customers to get our orders, so when the cook (maybe the owner?) approached us, I assumed he was going to apologize for the wait. However, actually told us not to get mad, but that it was haram (impermissible) how we prayed, because we were not dressed appropriately. He said we had to wear hijab to pray (which we were?). I understand he meant modesty and I respect the sentiment, but why was he looking from the kitchen at what we were wearing? Why approach us to berate us after we supported the restaurant? I went back in to reason with him, but he doubled down and did not apologize, leaving us to feel very shamed for even asking to pray at a Muslim...