Celaborelle Phoenician

They have moved and taken over Hedarys on Hemphill
Go here!
The manaeesh pizza (with veg and feta added) is $ 9 and can feed 4 people. It’s SO good. Zatar spice. Mmmmmmm
Falafel is the best in town. Fresh and moist. Hummus is good too.
The frarej is half a juicy chicken
Their rice is really good (and I don’t care much for rice).
The sautéed veggies are so tasty.
The owner is very friendly
The portions are HUGE for normal prices. You’ll have leftovers for days. Every time I go I order too much food (4 – 5 people).
This place has yet to be discovered by the masses. And when it is, it would be worth the wait if it gets long lines like it deserves.

How exciting that they are taking over Hedary’s!!! See you this weekend with friends! And if you charge a few more bucks to bring in more help I wont mind one bit!!! Congratulations!!!

BEST food ever but I think they’re closed

Parking is very limited have to drive around looking for parking heard good things about this place too bad I didn’t get to find adequate parking

My favorite restaurant in town! Unfortunately Joe the owner told me he recently closed his doors for business because he doesn’t have enough help to run the restaurant.
Joe said he will be working at Hedary’s restaurant off of Camp Bowie going forward. I’m really bummed because Celaborelle was without a doubt a jewel of Fort Worth. I really hope it opens back up soon!!!

The previous reviewer explained the service very well. You have to roll with it and not be in a hurry.
That said, the prices can’t be beat, and the food is extremely fresh. My faves are the tabouleh, hummus with pita, and the falafel. The baklava is to die for. The prices can’t be beat! A falafel platter comes with a dozen falafel, rice, lentils, and red beans for $ 7 or $ 8, and it will feed three people (or two with big appetites). If you love Middle Eastern food, Celaborelle is not to be missed.

Before I start, I absolutely love Celaborelle. This is probably the longest review I’ve ever posted. I tried to add as much detail as I could. Keep in mind when reading about the service, that there are about 3 people who work here. One is the waitress who disappears for a while because she goes back to the kitchen to help cook. The other two are in the kitchen as well. I’m fairly sure that they are a family.
Where to start? I guess I’ll start with the obvious? The service. Almost non-​existent. When we walked in, there we no directions of what to do or how to order other than «Please order from the window». We were confused and were literally standing there waiting in what looking like a back kitchen at a restaurant for about 10 – 15 minutes. Finally I said aloud «WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!». One of the regulars laughed at us and finally told us the deal here: You have to write down what you want an order slip and give it to the chef in back through the little hole or «window» in the wall. The menu is a big white board with barely legible writing. Our brave friend wrote down her order first. The chef looks at the ticket and says pretty much «What is this? This doesn’t come with this order. Go back and try again.» So after about a combined 25 minutes of waiting around, writing down orders and re-​writing orders, our food was in and under way…
Now that that’s out of the way… I LOVE THIS PLACE… I think…
The interior: I wouldn’t go so far as calling it a hole-​in-​the-​wall as much as its very rustic. This is a restaurant built inside of an old, i’m guessing turn of the century, house. The exterior is in dire need of a good white washing but the interior is all hardwood floors and pillars. There are six tables. There is also little evidence of a working A/​C unit.
The ambiance: This is a place that is truly «regular’» friendly. Your 1^st visit here will be a little off putting. After you’ve got the routine down and know what to expect, this place is your little hidden gem! It’s BYOB or BYOW… I think it might even be BYOL! All the regulars that are there seem willing to help you out. We were told by a few regulars at the next table that the food takes about an hour to come out after you order. We all laughed but they were serious. They then went on to offer some of their ridiculously huge wood fire pizza to our table! The regulars here are so nice! That brings me to my next point:
The food: Sweet «oh face» baby Jesus! The portion sizes are out of this world. And CHEAP!!. It did take a while to get the food but it was well worth the wait. I got the 16 oz Lamb schwarma plate. That is a lie. It weighed a few pounds. When I was done, I had enough left over for 3 whole meals! My roomate ordered the same. It had a nice flavor but the meat was a little tough for my taste. HIs wifey ordered chicken kabob 8 oz. It was again, a lie. She’s got at least two servings sitting in the fridge. The chicken had a nice char, was cooked to perfection, juicy and you could actually taste the individual lebanese/​Meditarranean seasonings. Served over a bed of very complimenting saffron rice. My roommates sister and her mate were smart… they split a 16 oz steak kabob; Perfect to share for 4 people (I’m dead serious). All of the plates were good but probably my favorite plate was the steak kabobs. Great savory flavor with a nice kick at the end. By this point I think I’ve made it clear that you get a lot of food. There were 5 of use. We left with 8 full boxes of left overs… I’ll be fed for a week!
Bottom line: I understand all of the negative comments I’ve seen in other reviews. They are for the most part all true. You have to look at this place from a different perspective though. I think of it as visiting a relative’s house who is ridiculously good at making Lebanese food. You serve yourself in most ways. You seat yourself, Want water or something else to drink? You have to go to into the kitchen, grab a glass and shovel your ice and get it yourself. You need a togo box? Go back into the kitchen and get it yourself. I actually like it this way! Also considering how cheap the food is, I’d rather serve myself and let the staff keep making great food.

Value: 5
Food: 4.5
Desserts: 2
Don’t be put off by Cindy’s review of poor service. We ate together and she places a much higher emphasis on service than I do. (different utility functions).
Free appetizer for Unilocal check in! I forgot what it was, some bread with some very unique spices,
Baba gannouj was nothing to write home about, it was passable the eggplant was not smoky nor creamy enough.
I really, really loved the kafta and red snapper. Wow, those huge meatballs… with the outstanding roasted veggies, and caramelized outer crust, it was heavenly. Absolutely brought tears to my eyes, how did they roast those mushrooms and peppers so well?
The red snapper could have been seasoned better though, it was quite bland, but surprisingly fresh.
OTOH, the baclava sucked. I didn’t like it. Dry, flaky, and like eating a rock, it tasted very synthetic and not at all like the baclava in the middle east. Perhaps i’ve been spoilt. It could have been a very good sugar cube, but it was a terrible baclava.

Great value for the food but horrendous service. The wait was so long and there were flies inside the office. Yes, the food is good. Kafta is savory and the red snapper was delicious. However, it was very overrated. I was disappointed because the ambiance was kind of gloomy and empty. The two flies that I continually had to swat didn’t help at all.
The portions are humongous though! And you won’t have to pay a lot for the food. A lot of locals seem to like it but… I don’t think I’ll be coming back. There was literally one waitress for 6 tables and she disappeared quite frequently.
Also, there’s huge SELF-​SERVICE. Like you seat yourself, you write your orders, you pick up your drinks, you get napkins/​take-​out boxes, etc. I don’t know if I’m used to this…

I came with my boyfriend right when they opened after visiting the Modern. He had never had Mediterranean food and he doesn’t like vegetables. But he loved all the food we tried. Everything tasted very fresh. Even the lemonade felt like it was just made. Falafels were great. We also had the Manaeesh which was my favorite. And the chicken kabobs were well seasoned and juicy.
Granted, it looks a little spooky and questionable. The chef was super friendly with us and answered all our questions. He even gave us some of the Manaeesh seasoning to try.
This place is a great hidden gem.

This place gets 2 stars bc I believe that some of the people I saw eating were whole-​heartedly enjoying their meal. After placing our order, sitting down at an uncleared table, and waiting 20 minutes with no service, not even drinks, I found the server and asked how long the wait was and she said an hour and then asked me where my order was. Unique service indeed!
I guess you have to get there right at five in order to not wait forever. The food looked amazing and I can’t wait to eat it… One day.
They need another cook and more than one server.

Wow… Simply wow… This little place is awesome, the hummus with meat– awesome, lentil soup very good not awesome, the shawarma sandwich awesome, Turkish coffee awesome… I so full my gut hurts… Wife and I ate till we could not then brought two boxes and a cup of lentil soup home. All for the small price of $ 28.
Best Mediterranean food I have ever had stateside. The cook must love to cook because there is no way he is making money. Service was quick and we shared a table with some strangers great conversation…
I Love This Place!!! Don’t want to tell any one about it but got to keep this place open. Please go…
Wait if you have to, but two/​three people can share a meal. This is a must stop.
No tv no wifi yes you must speak to strangers.
Serve yourself water, tea, get your silverware, way worth getting your callous butt of the seat.
Again wow.

Truly the best Mediterranean I have had in the metroplex! This is the type of place you need to come to for a long leisurely laid back dinner! The owner makes everything fresh and from scratch and by himself! I will write the basic review first, then if you wanna read more you can!
Kafta plate is perfection, falafel is best I have ever had, portion sizes are huge! Hummus and pita are just phenomenal! Walk up and order by writing your items from a whiteboard menu and submitting to the kitchen window.
Now for the extended! It is sooo worth the wait! He makes his own bread, I think it is pita, it’s incredible! We ordered hummus, «small» falafel app (which came with 8 large ones) kafta plate, chicken swarma, medium cucumber tomato salad. The portions sizes are monstrous!
This is a walk up and order your food at a window joint. The menu is a whiteboard that lists everything so it is quite small print. You write out what you want on the paper provided and then turn it in to the chef for approval! DO NOT TURN AWAY until you have received approval! You will sit and the food is brought to you.
Then prepare to wait 30 mins to an hour!
The kafta kebabs were cooked to perfection! Swarma was seasoned well and had beautiful big chunky vegetables! Hummus was a hearty consistency! You could turn that plate over and it wasn’t gonna budge! Great flavor and tasty pickles as a garnish! THE PITA (or what I think is pita) IS MADE FRESH TO ORDER ON THE PREMISES
The «medium» cucumber and tomato salad we ordered was two full dinner plates! The dressing was so flavorful! All round great choice!
This place is not in the greatest of areas and it is an old house that has definitely seen better days. It could do with a face lift and probably a good scrub down, it is not dirty, it is just old! But is truly a rare gem!

After much raving by friends and strangers, I came here for dinner on a Tue night with 2 friends. Ordered one of the specials — swai fish — which came with zucchini, yellow squash, tomato, onion, carrots and spiced yellow rice. Granted, the entrée was 4 times as large as at normal restaurants, I was moderately disappointed at the taste. I felt like salt pretty much drowned out any multi-​dimensional taste to the dish.
On the plus side, you had leftovers to last you for days. I am not however going to judge this place by a single dish — I’d be open to trying the beans and rish dish, vegetarian entrée, hummus and pita, falafel, Lebanese salad. I saw a couple share what looked like 4 crowns of broccoli. It was ridiculous. And the prices are dirt cheap — it’s no wonder it’s hard to get return!
I do like the owner — he doesn’t judge you for being a newb at ordering ethnic/​Lebanese/​Phoenician food.
Warning: Parking in front of the restaurant may be difficult.

Don’t let the outside fool you! The food is delicious! Be sure to arrive when they open at 5pm. The tables filled Up fast around 6 or so! Its hard to distinguish what it’s what on the menu. I ordered some roasted carrots and sauteed mushrooms for an appetizer… bad idea. When this food arrived it was enough to feed 4 people… each plate. My boyfriend ordered falefal plate, that was enough for 3 people and my tilapia came with rice and veggies, that was enough for 2. This was obviously our first time here. We left with 6 to go boxes. Hahaha. Food was excellent! Took a while to get our food but we weren’t in a rush. We were enjoying our wine. It’s BYOB! score! We have enough food for the next few days. Our Check was only 20 bucks too! I recommend this place and will definitely return. Next time, I will surely order much less! :-)

I have no idea how I missed this place, but I’m glad I found it.
If you are hungry go here!
If you want great food go here!
If you want buy one get one free Baklavas go here!
If you like huge portions for cheap go here!
Sadly, places like Terra Mediterranean Grill (highly overrated IMO) will always out class a place like this, but people are missing out!
I took my wife here and at first it seemed a bit sketch, but luckily we don’t let much stand in the way if we are hungry. Ha.
Food was great. We had the Falafales and let me tell ya, it’s the best I’ve had. Ever. That alone is enough for a dinner portion. We clearly didnt read the other Unilocalers giveing us heads up about that. So we also ordered the spicy kafta platter a d it was huuuuuuugeeee! And full of flavor.
We also couldn’t pass the buy one get one free Baklavas. We got the pecan and the pistachio. Both were big and delicious. Pista was our fave though.
Please go here and spread the word about this place. They deserve it!

Exceptional food, everything is made to order with the freshest ingredients available, and it makes all the difference! Several people have mentioned that the food takes too long to be served, I personally would NEVER complain about having to wait 30 minutes for food that I knew was being freshly prepared.
People also like to complain about the way the menu and ordering process are operated. These lovely people are able to charge such fantastic prices for their food by cutting costs that aren’t essential elsewhere, like on individual menus and the additional wait staff that would be requires to take and place an order. So would you rather place your own order and pay $ 8 for a full dinner portion or have someone place your order for you and pay $ 20 for that same exact meal?
That being said, I have become a regular and I will continue to support this fantastic establishment! I certainly don’t mind placing my own order! I’m looking forward to bring colleagues here for lunch later this week, I know they will all love it as much as I do!

A true hole-​in-​the wall! Cheap, huge portions, and delicious
Their portions are HUGE. I didn’t believe other reviews, but immediately regretted ordering so much food as soon as it came out. My boyfriend and I ate til we were stuffed, and still took home 3 boxes.
My recommendations: Mtabbal (Baba Ganoush), falafels (HUGE plate for only $ 3.95), and the beef shish kabob plate. It is only $ 10.95 for a 16oz portion of the beef shish kabob plate, and it comes with rice and grilled vegetables. This will feed two people — the portion is THAT big. This probably would’ve costed double what it did at any other Mediterranean restaurant.
I’ve also had the hummus, which was just ok– nothing special. I also don’t recommend the chicken schwarma plate. The first couple bites were really delicious, until we realized how oily it was. There was enough oil to fill a whole separate plate. Wasn’t sure if it was just cooked poorly that day, but we gave it another chance on a separate occasion and it was just as oily.
Tip: don’t come with a big group (no more than 4 people). There is just one guy cooking and his wife helping out — you will wait FOREVER for your food. My boyfriend and I were the only ones there at the time, and it took 30 minutes for our food to come out. If you do decide to come with a group, carpool since parking spots are limited

Parking is limited at best. This is a family owned business with the chef and his wife running all aspects of the business. There were 3 other tables of loyal and local customers on the rainy day that I stopped in to try lunch here during my two hour visit.
Having read prior reviews, I knew to read the menu on the board and to seat myself. Then, the waiting began.
The waitress came probably 5 or 10 minutes later and took my order and rushed off. When she returned 45 minutes later to literally drop a coffee on my table with some hummus, I merely asked if this was normal (to wait 45 minutes without so much as a water). The owner came out sweating profusely and raised his voice to me asking me if I was complaining (which I was not) and inquiring why I would complain about waiting 45 minutes with no water for food that was being prepared for my order and that other customers would get their full orders before my appetizer or coffee could be prepared.
When I did taste the hummus, it was good and it was fresh. The pita bread was piping hot and fresh. The tabbouleh was massive and fresh also but the bulgar wheat was undercooked and crunchy. The Turkish coffee was okay but only granulated sugar to put in it and what I thought was a metal creamer container (I don’t put creamer in that type of coffee so I never opened it) had more servings of coffee in it as I found out upon leaving.
I had ordered kafta with a side of grilled tomatoes for lunch and it came out with the salad. The first bite had gristle in the meat so, that was pretty much the end of the meal for me.
This seems like a place that was thriving at one time and perhaps is in need of a restaurant business makeover or a restaurant intervention as it seems to have potential.
If you are willing to wait, order directly from the chef and ask for items such as water the first time you order. Hopefully this business can turn things around and hopefully you have a better experience than I did.

Do you know how you think of something and it gets stuck in your brain until you satisfy whatever craving you have? Well for the past few months falafel has been stuck there. Not sure why, because I probably haven’t eaten it in well over 20 years. So it’s an odd thing to crave it. Lately I’ve been trying newer and healthier items. Vegetarian is foreign to me. I like meat. I love a great burger. So to try veggie options is not my norm.
During one of my random Unilocal searches a month ago I discovered this place, but I didn’t visit until today. I had taken a look at the menu online and saw kabobs, hummus, labni and of course falafel. In my limited experience with falafel, it has always been chickpeas. Their version is chickpeas and fava beans. As the reviews before have stated, HUGE PORTIONS, CHEAP PRICES. I orderd some labni (yogurt that is dried to a cream cheese consistency), a falafel sandwich and a piece of baclava. I didn’t even pay eight dollars for everything. I got it to go and the food came in two bags… wow.
The labni was exactly what I thought it would be and it came with a fresh piece of pita. It reminded me of plain greek yogurt but a whole lot thicker. It was really good. They have another version that they serve that has garlic and mint mixed in called labni matoon. The falafel sandwich ($ 3.50) is gigantic. A large pita with several warm and soft falafel balls with romaine lettuce, tomatoes and another pickled vegetable and was served with tarator (a sauce made from sesame paste, garlic, lemon juice and parsley sauce) The sauce is tart and tangy and ties it all together. I did like the falafel itself. Moist and crisp and really good. I also needed a little sweet to complete this meal and had a piece of baclava. Layers of phylo and macadamia nuts with a rose and orange blossom syrup. Sweet, salty and just a perfect way to finish off a really good meal.
With such options as manaeesh, ftayir, shawarma and of course kabobs there are many, many new foods to try and I will return, with others because I can’t eat all of this myself.
Enjoy.