Cedars in University District — Restaurant in Seattle

Specializing in Mediterranean, Indian, and Pakistani dishes, Cedars is one of the best restaurants in this genre of food in the Pacific Northwest. I'd challenge anyone to find one with better service or better cuisine.

I use to come to Cedars once a week or so when I lived in the area. I moved with my wife and child to San Diego for a number of year, and we could not find anything nearly as wonderful as the experience with Cedars. Now that we've been home (Seattle) for a few years, we are delighted to see the ownership of this wonderful establishment was passed to the caring hands of people who treat their customers as wonderfully as they treat their food.

Sadly, we live in another part of Seattle and can't visit as frequently, but it's a genuine treat when we can. I asked my wife what she would like for our anniversary dinner and I was so glad she picked take-out from one of our favorite restaurants. (It's still the COVID era, so we aren't eating-in.)

SERVICE Gracious. Friendly. They are the epitome of kindness on every level.

FOOD Over the years, I've tried nearly everything on the menu. My favorites pre-meal favorites include the spinach naan with the cilantro dip, the chicken pakoras, which are heavenly perfection, the vegetable samosas, but you can't go wrong with any of the appetizers.

I wish I could order everything on the menu at one time and just feast, but I went with the every-delightful Royal Biryani Chicken, the classical Mughlai dish cooked with chicken curry, basmati rice, saffron and cashews. Hours later, I can still taste the savory flavors. Of course, I couldn't resist a little of my wife's amazing Vindaloo Chicken, though hers was mild and I like mine as close to authentically spicy as possible. The American palate is not as developed for such refined authentic seasoning, but I personally love it. It warms my heart, in more ways than one.

I am so glad to see Cedars is still continuing to survive this COVID status. Oh, and one thing to note - please, please, please, order your own pickup rather than through delivery services. Delivery companies employ people, which is great, but they take a huge cut of the business away from restaurants, which is also hurting their survival. You can order online for pickup and the restaurant retains 100 percent of the revenue, which goes into paying their staff sustainable wages. Also, be generous with your tips. Independent restaurants don't have huge amounts of capital. Their margins are often very thin, so the tips really nurture them more than...

Was very excited to eat here as it looks cozy and friendly. Not very happy with how this dining experience turned out. The service was lacking throughout the entire time. Took forever to place our orders which is always frustrating when you first walk in. We ordered the Makka plate (humus, falafel, grape leaves, etc.), Garlic Naan, and Chicken Tikki Masala. This order had so many errors;

#1 The Makka plate was the saving grace for feeding us, but still failed to impress. This appetizer was $17 dollars!! It came with 4 small pieces of falafel, 2 grape leaves, and one small piece of pita bread. The disproportionate levels of each item, made the pricing steep. The tabbouleh salad was not good, but everything else tasted like it should have.

#2 The actual spices for the Tikki Masala were amazing, BUT we ordered chicken and I don’t know what was served to us. We do not eat red meat, and some pieces were clearly pork. We even asked our server to confirm that it was chicken, but she insisted we were given the correct food. Some pieces were clearly brown with a red center. We didn’t eat this meal, and were not given any kind of service in regards to it.

#3 Felt very neglected during our meal and the struggles we were presented with, this didn’t make it any better. We starting to pile our dirty dishes on the table next to us, because nobody was clearing the table during our transition from the appetizer to entree. We were not asked how our meal was or checked on, only interaction was with ordering and chicken issue. We were given refills on our water, after we asked for the check. Also grabbed our own to-go boxes, because of how long it took for someone to help us.

Don’t know if we just got very unlucky, but very upset with this restaurant. Only thing I would recommend trying is the Naan bread, this was delicious with the hummus. Other than that, do not recommend the price point, service, or quality. Paid almost $50 bucks for a meal we could not eat due to dietary restrictions....

First off we come in and they have no menus. We have to scan it in the server won't help you with anything because she doesn't know anything. You have to put in that you want to talk to the server on the online menu. They take forever to come if you need help. But the food came out in the timely manner.

The reason I gave it two stars is because the garlic naan, some tangy sauce and the mango chutney were delicious. This pickle dish that we got was the most disgusting thing ever. I've never had pickles that were so incredibly hard. And I love pickles so it's weird when they're like rock hard.

So this is where it gets disgusting. We're checking out. First off they took forever to come and check us out. Our server gives us stuff to take the bread home. Well we wanted to take the sauces home because they were basically full and well over 8 oz of each left. She comes back with a 1 oz container of each. I said I don't want to waste these. That's a waste of money and to throw them away. Stupid. She said oh no they won't get thrown away. I said wait. You reuse these. She nervously laughs and said sometimes we reuse them but not always. I must have looked horrified because I was. She quickly ran away and then came back with two more one ounce things of each. So we left with just maybe 2 oz each of each of the sauces.

Hopefully they don't reuse the disgusting pickles which I'm sure they would because how would you know that somebody was reusing pickles or sauce. I would never go back there. I mean we double dipped on one of the sauces. My kids are always sick. One of you might be getting sick because I might be sick secretly. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Also, the water was literally placed in a window facing the front area. So like a foot away from us. I could be talking and spitting and eating and spitting my food. Sneezing and coughing into all of your guys's water that goes to your tables. Which is disgusting. It should never be that close to somebody eating.

FYI yes we took the sauce home. Don't...