Aladdin's Café Restaurant & Catering — Restaurant in Portland

I met up with my future husband here after his first day of work due to the desire for something flavorful and new…yes, of course we were hungry. I saw the pictures of all the food on Google, the picture of the dancer showed me that this place has culture and good community. The high reviews of this place solidified my choice to go and give it a try.

A good amount of parking, a clean lot and a homie feeling that welcomed us through its doors. There are ornamental lanterns, charms and trinkets of the Mediterranean culture that catches one’s eye and leaves you fixated. The owner kindly welcomed us in and to have a seat anywhere we liked. They have regular tables and cushioned booths decorated with pillows, which is where we decided to sit. As we were sitting we were given our menus, and immediately the mural on one side of the room had me daydreaming into a world outside of the US, into a place of beauty and history. Looking at the menu it was a challenge to choose what to eat, everything sounded delicious and full of flavor. I wanted it all! But we decided on the Flaffels which were served with Tzatziki and small slices of pickles 👌 So deliciously homemade. Before that we were served our option of soup or salad and both things were perfect. The lentil soup is something I will be getting again. I swear some people just slop it all in a bowl, but this place, everything about it was well thought out. The cook and the owner have a passion for cooking, you can tell by the presentation and how things are sliced. Everything is fresh. The seasonings are perfect. We never had to ask for anything because it was asked of us before we even thought of it. Wonderful service! Then the main course came…omg. Seared lamb shawarma with onion, yellow saffron rice and dipping sauce, excellent ⭐️ We were full but we ate the whole thing until our bellies hurt 🤤 To top it all off, even after we declined dessert, he brought us the Christmas Baklava 😳 Such hospitality and customer service. A lady came in for an order to go and she said, “Take all my money hahahaha!” Then she looked around as she walked out and said for us to have a great night. When regulars come in and love the owner, you know this place is consistently good. 😊

I’m so happy we got to share this enjoyable experience together. My hubby even said this is one of the best places he’s been to. You got new regulars now! We’ll...

I want to share my feelings about the chicken rice bowl at Aladdin’s Cafe. I don’t know for sure how long Aladdin’s has been around but I’ve been down the road from them for about a decade. And I can state without reserve they have the best chicken rice bowl of all time. It’s absolutely delicious. A good sized portion of tender, perfectly seasoned chicken on top of delicate yellow basmati rice is drizzled with a house made garlic sauce. This rests on top of salad greens tossed in a very light balsamic dressing. Then you get portions of hummus, baba ghanouj AND tzatziki. To compliment this, fresh tomato and cucumber. And then all of this magic is topped with pickled turnips, red cabbage, pepperoncini, and red onion (unless like me you hate red onions which will get the lovely owner to joke with you: chicken rice bowl, extra extra onions). You would think there are so many flavors going on here that it couldn’t work but instead they all compliment and work together perfectly. Also, this bowl is huge. No matter how hungry I am, it always feeds me twice. It’s just a knockout meal hands down. For vegetarians-you can get this same scrumptious bowl with falafel (which I’ve tried and is also very tasty). So please consider stopping by this lovely neighborhood restaurant for the best chicken...

I went to this place last Sunday, May 6th on the evening to pick an order from GrubHub. The older man with grey hair who looks like the manager or the owner was very rude and unprofessional. As soon as I entered the restaurant, I greeted the owner/manager of the restaurant with a big smile. I am fluent in Arabic, so to be friendly, I even greeted him and spoke to him in Arabic. He didn't even bother to respond to my greetings, ignoring me completely. As I was waiting for my order, I also witnessed him being rude, mean and disrespectful to two other customers who came in right after me. This angry & unprofessional man should not be dealing with customers or human being at all, he has no skills on how to interact or deal with people. He should stay back there on a computer screen. As he made me wait for the food, I can see through the window, a women who looks like his wife working in the kitchen with a Hispanic man. I can see the way she was treating the Hispanic guy with no respect. I feel bad for him, as I know these kind of people often treat their workers like slaves. However, the young man who brought me my order, who's apparently the owner's son, was very kind and respectful. My recommendation is that let the young man deal with customers, and have the angry owner behind a...