Aladdin's Eatery North Hills — Restaurant in Raleigh

Came here because the reviews and photos of the food looked good. DONT BE FOOLED, there is way better Mediterranean food elsewhere. I wouldn’t recommend this place. This is the Mediterranean equivalent of a Panera. It’s got a fancy store front, it’s making you feel like your being healthy, but it’s ultimately just “fine” and at a good price point to make you not hate it. With slightly more effort and slightly better ingredients it could be really good.

Their menu was a book like the Cheesecake Factory and I wish it had pictures because so many of the items looked entirely different than what you’re picturing. They have pictures of the food on the menu online, why not in store?

The appetizer Loubie Bzeit was basically canned green beans, canned diced tomato, thrown together with some garlic and oil and italian seasoning. It tasted okay but from the menu description we were expecting fresh green beans and were very disappointed in the slop that felt like someone made a soup and gave you only the chunky parts.

I should have known we would be disappointed when they brought out the pita bread and it was cold and looked like grocery store pita bread. It was like 1-ply pita bread. It had the same texture as my gardening gloves. Awful.

Ordered the “Flavor Savor Special” to try the most different items. The beef Kafka tasted like the color Gray. The chicken tasted like you could have grilled it at home. The rice tasted like ready rice from a box that someone microwaved.

In summary, if you’ve never had Mediterranean food before and you went to this place you would think...

My friends and I came in today for lunch. The person at the counter (Ashton) was helping another customer and the store was empty. I’d eaten there a few days before and was told to seat myself so we did the same today. Ashton immediately goes to the back complaining to her co-workers that we had the audacity to seat ourselves. So when they came to the table to take our order I felt compelled to explain how previously I’d been told to sit anywhere. They said, very obviously annoyed, that I still should’ve waited for them and walked off. So my friends and I decided we weren’t going to stay and we walked out. We passed Ashton and said sorry we will just leave. And they responded with “okay, bye”. The whole interaction was extremely disrespectful and off putting. I will not be back to this location. Ashton needs to be trained on their customer service skills. Very disappointed as I was bringing two people who had never been there before.

Update: 11/2024 they still haven’t replied to my email but instead they installed a big sign at the front desk that says wait here to...

Didn’t know what to expect when I went here—menu looked amazing online then got here and place seemed sort of blah. But when the food started rolling out I knew we were in for a treat! We started with vegetarian sampler—omgsh!!! Dolmas = dwali were so full of flavor, babaganoush was just the right amount of smokey yet creamy—best ever I tasted, to be sure! Hummus was right on, falafel was incredibly good—crisp on outside but still moist on inside and with a lot of flavor. Tahini was interesting in that it had yoghurt—loved it that way. For entrees we had shish kebab salad and Mediterranean lamb plate. Both were excellent ! Good quality meats nice presentation. Good quality control on the salad and the rice was wonderful with nuts and cinnamon. They have a small but good beer and wine menu. Don’t let appearances fool you —this place is three thumbs up. Our server was the only one but she did an excellent job —never kept us waiting. I’ll take understated decor any day when everything else is...