Manakeesh Cafe Bakery & Grill — Restaurant in Philadelphia

At the beginning I should say that my wife and I have been frequently going to this restaurant for over 4 years. It was not the most amazing food but generally we liked some stuff there especially the pita and we liked that fact that we can find things to order though we are vegan. The Algerian baker and the African American cashier were always on top of things and had never disappointed me. During the past years I invited many friends to this restaurant and since then many of them have been loyal consumers. During the past years the customer service was fairly fine though was not best I have seen. However, recently I had a horrible experience that I can't let it go. I never wrote a bad review before but I can’t help but give this place a one star because in my entire life and in all countries that I've visited, I have never had such a bad experience with a server before.

A few days ago I went there for a take-out order and a grumpy middle eastern man who I saw for the first time and who seemed the manager, took my order. He had a Lebanese accent and gray hair and beard. I don't think he was the owner because I have seen the owner before. This person was a real-life representation of disrespect, sheer rudeness and an insult to what is known as customer service. It is really hard to explain what happened in the limited time I set to write this review but in summary and from the get go you feel that you are unwelcome and this person complained that I “kept changing my order” though I had changed my order just once and only when he told me that he was out of the thing that I initially wanted to order(Muhammara). There was no line behind me so I was not interrupting anyone and the whole interaction took probably less than 1 min. At the end when he finished taking the order and repeated it to me it was wrong so I tried to correct it but he crudely told me that he will retake it again and arrogantly instructed me on how I should place the order. The whole interaction was extremely awkward and I really was just looking at him trying to figure out what was going on and what was the source of all of this anger and rudeness but apparently he didn't like that I looked at him so he yelled at me because this made him feel that he is an idiot! (literally he said this!) I cancelled my order and left, of course he kept barking at me. I think I won't ever set a foot in this place again. My wife told me that I should reach out to the owner to tell him about this because they should know about this person's demeanor but I decided to write this review instead.

After this unfortunate incident I went to another middle eastern restaurant and honestly it was cheaper and the food tasted very good and the service was great! We are in the process of exploring other/all middle eastern restaurants and so far we came across many good places!! Definitely will tell friends about them. Folks who want to visit this place should expect to be yelled at for merely trying to order food...

Last Saturday afternoon, instead of heading to our usual, conveniently located lunch spot, a friend and I ventured down Walnut Street past Supreme Shop n Bag to Manakeesh Café and Bakery at 44th Street.

We were surprised to find the small restaurant to be warm and comfortable, bustling with a sizable lunch crowd. The Lebanese fusion café featured a polished, well-furnished interior with welcoming yellow walls and artfully piled pastries and cakes on display. The restaurant was filled with Lebanese locals as well as many academic types, young professionals, and families.

Looking around the restaurant, we saw that most of the attendees were eating flatbread topped with meat or other mixtures. These flatbreads are called, not surprisingly, manakeesh. This dough is commonly topped with cheese or ground meat and folded into sandwiches. It can also be topped with zaatar, Middle Eastern herbs, and olive oil and served as a breakfast food. Manakeesh Café serves their flatbreads with many topping choices, including honey, nutella, labneh, a yogurt cheese spread, egg and cheese, and a variety of Halal meat.

As we waited for our orders, we watched the cook throw pull the flatbreads in and out of the brick oven. The busy restaurant staff lost my friend's order. Fortunately, the pleasant, courteous staff brought us free baklava to apologize for our wait. The baklava and manakeesh were well worth the wait. I reveled in the warm, soft flatbread mixed with the tangy ground lamb and beef mixture of my kafta order. My vegetarian friend also agreed that his hot cheese flatbread was delicious.

I enjoyed the café so much that I decided to return on a weekday morning. I found the atmosphere to be quite different. While the same pleasant staff members remained, the bustling restaurant’s environment had changed to a peaceful one, ideal for studying and quiet conversation. I was once again struck by how amiable the staff was as I watched one waitress pridefully adjust the empty tables’ tabletop decorations to just the right positions.

I was overwhelmed by the vast, diverse selection of pastries and sweets available. I asked the woman behind the counter for a breakfast pastry that wasn’t too sweet and a small coffee. She handed me Kanafe, sweet cheese baked into a mild white sweet bread with pistachios and a clear, sweet syrup poured over it. While I found the soft, cheese pastry cake a bit too rich for so early in the morning, I made plans to return for another at a better time of day and left contently sipping my...

I never write reviews but this ridiculous meal compelled me too.

Ordered the kofta platter and lemonade with mint for delivery. The food was good… except that the prices are exorbitant and make no sense. The base price of the platter is 11 dollars, which it turns out, only pays for the meat and a handful of thinly sliced pickles. Everything that goes with the platter is an upcharge of 4 or 5 dollars, but unless you want a lonely plate of two sticks of kofta, you absolutely must get the sides so one plate of food ends up costing 27 dollars. That would be okay if it was serving two people, but no, it’s just one plate of food. The salad was just okay and the rice was dry. The baba ghanoush was amazing, and the kofta was delicious, but for 27 dollars I expected twice as much food.

On top of that, I love lemonade with mint, but this was so not that treasured Middle Eastern drink, it really is just lemonade with two leaves of mint that didn’t flavor the lemonade at all. It was just plain lemonade.

Also, they charge a very high price for delivery so you’d expect that to be reflected somewhere in the quality whether it be careful packaging or temperature, but I just feel scammed.

So lame. Wish I could have...