Lebanese Taverna Cafe

Good food, nice staff, a bit pricey but overall good atmosphere and clean. Spacious, good décor, and was nicely updated as well. Food comes out relatively fast.

It’s awesome, I had their food from a friend’s home catering party. And we came back here and ordered stew lamb shank which is tender and juicy with big amount of rice and pita on the side.

OVERPRICED bland food. My chicken shwarma was completely dried out. Side salad lettuce was not fresh. Limp lettuce that looked like it had been sitting around for several days. To add insult to injury you get all of this with awful service. Carolina took our order and we were subjected to her nasty attitude; other Unilocalers have mentioned her rudeness — it’s that bad. She has a real problem should not be dealing directly with customers. Bottom line– don’t waste your money.

20−30+ visits here and counting as it is probably the healthiest food in the area. Vast interior with tons of seating. Order at the counter and grab a number. Food usually takes 5 – 10 minutes max to come out. I usually do some sort of vegetarian sampler. Pita bread always is tasting freshly baked and comes out warm. Hummus and baba ganoush are usually top notch. I wish they had pomegranate muhammara, which I think is the ultimate dip.
Ambiance is a bit awkward with the wide spaces and feels a bit cold as it is not super crowded at lunch. There is also a miniature market of Arabic goods that you can buy, very limited, but they do sell things like sumac powder, which is needed for fattoush. This spice seems to be hard to find.
I’ve had the other things on the menu and some can be underwhelming so I stick to mixed vegetarian platters.

If you love Mediterranean food, you should totally check this spot out. I ordered a chicken meal (quarter chicken-​dark meat) with a side of Lebanese rice and fries, as well as some spicy hummus. I licked my plates clean. The hummus was so fresh (tasted like they ground the chickpeas right there and then). I also enjoyed the Lebanese rice – it has a nice nutty flavor to it (almost like brown rice, but better). I also got to try some other dishes that my friends ordered, including the Msaka and the Kibbeh. I definitely want to come back to try more of their dishes. I like the fact that this is a «fast food» restaurant (in that your food comes out quick), but the food is pretty high quality.

Every time I’m in Silver Spring, I come here for lunch. I had a traditional mezze platter and really enjoyed it. The hummus and baba ganoush a both flavorful and creamy. I’m not a big fan of tabouleh, but theirs isn’t bad. I wish there were more grape leaves because they are tasty! My favorite part is the kibbeh. They are always so good. The shell is crispy and inside meat is juicy and flavorful. Also love the yogurt dipping sauce that comes with it. Bread was cooked nicely — puffed up just right. My only complaint is that the cashier was not very friendly and the food took a while to come out. I waited about 15 minutes for my lunch.

I tried the mix platter. The meat and chicken had a nasty smoke flavor. The Falafel’s are mediocre and the sauce served with it is sour. The eggplant was also sour. I make better tzatziki at home. The only positive comment I have is for the rice. The rice alone moved them up to 2 stars.
I’m glad I have better options in Alexandria.

This used to be a solid place. While never the greatest food they always had good hummus and falafel and I kept my loyalty card full. Unfortunately they changed their model. The new model is «less food, same/​lower quality, and significantly higher prices». So, forget about it. The mark ups make this place not worth it any more. Sorry.

While visiting Silver Spring MD, at the downtown Courtyard, I immediately jumped onto Unilocal looking for some Middle Eastern food to eat. This place popped up based on how close it was. I ignored the 3 star rating (shut up) and went to see this place for myself.
Very basic menu and kinda over priced. I’m not sure if it’s me or what, but I expected more, even from a Unilocaled 3 star restaurant.
Nothing wowed me at all and I probably won’t go back. Not that it was nasty, it’s just I want to taste SOMETHING yummy somewhere in a $ 40 dinner.
I got a chicken schwarma sandwich ($ 8), with a side of kibbie ($ 6), and a drink ($ 2). My wonderful wife got chicken kabob dinner with a side salad and rice ($ 13) and a drink ($ 2). We spilt some spicy hummus ($ 7).
The kibbie, schwarma, and kabobs were just average. The salad was small and plain with no flavor. Rice is kinda hard to screw up (except for my wife, haha). The hummus tasted out of a can with Cayenne pepper and dried red peppers on top. The best part was the bread you get with it.
We sat outside under one of the umbrellas which was nice. Well, minus the stale beer smell that kept wafting our way from somewhere or somebody. (It wasn’t me, either).
It was nice to try some middle eastern from someplace new. But that’s all I got to say about that.

I have not been here for a while. A total disappointment. I do not expect this place to give me anything like I had in Lebanon. I only just realized that as I updated my review for this place, I gave it a 1 star also 2 year’s ago. I went to this place was I had to change my summer wardrobe and it is located right in Silver Spring Plaza. I had a Chicken entrée which comes with rice and salad, and pita. The chicken was so blend, it had no taste not even salt and a bit of lemon favor that was it.
The worse is that the table counter was so dirty that it is greasy…
I am not going back.

I’ll start off with we went when it was relatively empty. No more than 5 customers. And service STILL gets a zero. Honestly, is it that hard to be nice to people simply ordering the food that walked up to your counter? We didn’t ask for anything customized or not on the menu but the cashier’s rude handling of our order made it seem like we were bothering her at 4pm. Set aside how she wanted to charge us for the empty water bottle we obviously brought in.
Aside from that, we ordered Ouzi (baked until tender lamb in shards with spiced rice. Think biryani if you eat Indian food more often.) came with soggy tomatoes but also a delicious yogurt sauce with crisp cucumber bits in it.) I would happily eat this more frequently. Yum!
Also ordered beef/​lamb shawarma sandwich with fries and a salad. Sandwich was loaded with meat, don’t recall seeing anything else honestly and that’s just fine with me. I just think if it had the yogurt sauce from Ouzi itd been perfection. The bread is the pits served with hummus that is basically paper thin and all air inside. It’s NOT delicious naan like you’d get excited for at an Indian restaurant. It’s just basic here. We did love the fries. Those were done fresh and served hot. Crispy on the outside edges, soft in the center. Whatever the side salad served was just odd. Some strange vinegrette over the lettuce and cucumber made it soggy. Disappointing and not worth wasting precious stomach space for. Eat more fries or pita with hummus.
The pita did grab the hummus well. For a $ 6.xx snack, it’s pretty good.
We also grabbed a $ 2 rice pudding. HIDDEN GEM. The right amount of sugar, just enough to make it sweet and call it dessert. Definitely floral tasting with the rose water in it. If you don’t know rose water, think of what an old paper flower bouquet from the 90’s might be scented like. That’s what you’ll have a hint of in each bite. Nonetheless I loved it. As did hubby and our infant.
The date and raisin drink hubby enjoyed. I didn’t. Infant didn’t. In case you’re a raging fan of it, look up Roo AF Zah or however it’s spelled. Just not my thing.
will we go back? Maybe for hummus and the sandwiches when on discount (mon & tues I believe) and to split a rice pudding. We spent about $ 40 for 2 to eat with appetizer and shared dessert which isn’t bad but I’d rather go upstairs and get some hibachi usually if I have that much to spend.
Also, hubby tipped right at ordering with that cranky cashier hoping there was service to come after worth tipping. No. No service. Maybe I’m missing something but next time I go there’ll be $ 0 tip if I see her face again but I hope I don’t.

Great lunchtime portion size. Food was fresh wit beautifully cooked lamb. Service time during weekday lunch rush was very good. Definitely worth a visit. Some of the best Lebanese food around!

I usually get the chicken salad at Moby Dick, but the location in Silver Spring closed so I wandered into this place. I decided on the shawarma salad sans feta cheese; I was expecting a nice big salad full of grilled chicken, tomatoes, onions, and fresh lettuce, but what I got was what seemed like old lettuce, bland chicken and some olives that were actually pretty good. The lady at the register was very nice and gave me some tomatoes on the side, at the time I ordered she also informed me that the dressing has feta and advised me to try the lemon dressing, which was actually pretty good.
While I really didn’t enjoy my salad, the bread was quite good and I may go back to try something else, but I definitely won’t order the shawarma salad again.

I’ll make this short and sweet:
1. The prices are high.
2. The portions are pretty small.
3. It takes a long time to get your food.
4. The service is unfriendly.
5. But the food tastes pretty good.
There are too many great Mediterranean places in DC with better prices to come back here. I don’t see how they’re going to stay in business with a subpar experience like that.

The atmosphere is very warm and inviting. They have a lot of options to choose from as well as a decent selection.
I ordered the Kia Platter that consisted of Lebneh (great), cheese fatayer (great), kibbeh, and M’saka salad (great flavor but not my favorite)
I felt like the lamb was very very dry and tough. I will go back here and try other things.

I got take out here. The food was very disappointing. I ordered the quarter chicken of dark meat with potatoes. The chicken was under-​seasoned and the
Skin was not crispy, very flaccid. The potatoes were just boiled with almost no seasoning. My girlfriend got the chicken kabob. Im pretty sure the sauce was Tostitos salsa or at least it tasted that way. The rice was under-​seasoned as well. Pretty much no flavor or spice all around. This is about as far from lebanese food as you can get. Dont waste your time.

Had not eaten at Lebanese Taverna in Silver Spring in quite a while and had never done carry out before. Finishing up our shopping at the Farmers Market it was a little early for lunch so we decided to do take-​out. I know we enjoy their food, but we still had one more stop before we went home so I was concerned at how well the food would hold up. My chicken kabob platter and husband’s falafel sandwich were packaged carefully and they tasted as good as if we had eaten in the restaurant. When we first unpacked things I didn’t see any tomato sauce but the chicken was already in the sauce, not in a separate container, so that made me very happy. The food was packed in a «tv dinner» style tray so the chicken with sauce, the rice, and the salad were all separate and not running into each other. I also got two pita rolls and a sauce which my husband ate. His falafel sandwich was still warm in the wrapper and he proclaimed that it was delicious.
It’s counter service only and the staff was friendly. The cashier admired the bouquet of flowers we had purchased from a vendor and we had a brief chat about that. The wait for our order was only about 10 minutes. The restaurant is much larger than the Rockville one and was laid out nicely. It was bright and clean looking. They also have wine and beer. I lamented to my husband that I didn’t know why we didn’t pick up dinner there more often. Well, now that I know the food carries out nicely we can fix that!

Its easy to come here and order some quick delicous food. The hummus and pita bread is great, along with the falafels. My favorite, however, has got to be the chicken schwarma — the sauce they use is just so creamy and delicious — plus it comes with salad and fries –mmmmmm. This is a place where you order at the bar and then pick up your food when it comes out — casual and semi-​fast. If you want more of a dining experience, check out the Bethesda location — its a sit down restaurant and nice too.

Out of all the food options in that area in downtown Silver Spring, this is probably one of the better and healthier ones. There’s that American something grille there… whatever it’s called, but it will probably be huge portions and fatty.
I had the Kafta sandwich. and it was pretty good. Not going to say it was the best tasting pita sandwich ever, but decent. Price is reasonable too.
I tried this soft drink there that a friend of mine said was very common in Africa, but it turned out to be just cream soda flavored! Mega disappointed, but this has nothing to do with the restaurant per se.

The food here is decent. I’ve never been wowed, but they ride the Mediterranean flavor train and it works. It’s always packed on the weekends, especially on Sunday, when they open at noon and are full by 12:30. The décor needs some work, with huge windows lighting up a poorly patched ceiling and a few hookahs on a shelf. The restaurant is arranged kind of oddly with a bench that bends across the middle of the eating space, and the service is kind of slow.
The pita is light and filled with air like half of a neck pillow, but parts get overcooked and are somehow chewy and crispy. The hummus was pretty good, and I had a falafel sandwich one time that was the best thing I’ve had here. Some people swear by this place and often suggest it as a dining option, but I don’t see it.