Aladdin’s Natural Eatery

Nice place! One of the few good non-​asian restaurants in Collegetown.

Aladdin’s food is usually very good, but the portion sizes are horribly small for the amount of money you pay, ESP if you order take out. Don’t get the special pasta, especially if its ravioli because it’s a rip off for the amount you get!

Ordered the chicken souvlaki platter. Absolutely delicious! Clean and crisp taste with a well marinated chicken, cooked at a perfect moist finish. Homemade white sauce also amazing. I recommend this place to anyone looking for a good eat.

OK, so I graduated from Cornell almost 20 years ago, and I still come back to Aladdin’s when I’m visiting. Good to mediocre customer service, but even better moussaka. Clean, good ambience, reasonable collegetown pricing, and excellent solid food. Overall, love this place as a non-​chain restaurant option for Ithaca!

Aladdin’s is a totally fine meal, but it’s just that — fine. The pastas aren’t cooked al dente, but not cooked too much that they are mush. The sauces are good but not great. I had cavatappi with sundried tomato pesto which is one of my favorites on the menu, but the pesto is more oily than it should be so most of the sauce sinks to the bottom of the bowl and you’re left with some grated Parmesan and sundried tomato pieces. But the flavors are good and comforting so it remains my favorite option. My friend had the lentil soup which she loved and promptly finished. Aladdins is a good place for an easy meal or take out, but is not a culinary experience.

Well, the food was not bad (mediocre). I thought the portion was a little too small for the price.
The interesting thing was that by the end of our dinner, we were vehemently scolded by our waitress for being «rude customers». There were 8 of us and we were there to celebrate our friend’s birthday. We had some intimate and friendly conversations and we didn’t ask her to do anything outrageous during the entire dinner. Apparently, she overheard parts of our conversation on restaurant experiences at other places and tipping in general. She thought that we were not going to tip her well so she took offense and decided to confront us about it. She told us that we don’t deserve to eat at a restaurant like Aladdin’s if we don’t tip well (in fact, as a party, we actually had to each tip her 18%. We didn’t think that was bad tip…).
She also complained about giving us individual bills since, for some reason, it was extremely challenging to do at Aladdin’s. By the end, she emphasized that she goes to Cornell yet the majority of waiters and waitresses don’t go to college and she had to teach us a lesson on behalf of the rest of the poorly educated waiting community.
We couldn’t believe that we got a waitress like that and we had no idea why she thought that it was acceptable to just come and scold us the way she did. We had a really bad time near the end. The management certainly didn’t take our complaint seriously. They were apparently busy with things more important than customer experience. I don’t think any of us is ever going back there. It’s simply not worth it.
Overall, I wouldn’t recommend Aladdin’s if you value your night out and don’t want to risk getting scolded by your waitress!

The food was healthy. We got the gyro plate and a pasta dish. I also lost my debit card there and they kept it for me until I went back and got it! Yay Aladdin.

Love their pastas … Get the sundried tomato pesto with any of the linguini
Also the falafel salad and creamy vegetable soup are pretty good. Ask for the hot sauce with your falafel salad