Jerusalem Cafe

This is the first time I write a review on Unilocal.I went to the Jerusalem Café in Chaklov and I ordered the beef and lamb lunch special. With the portion I got I don’t think that should cost $ 10.00. The garnishes were spread on the plate to look there’s more, not. The meat one piece of lamb and one piece of beef and I doubt if they total 3 ounces cooked.

Very yummy food we really enjoyed it we came for lunch I do like the Schworma better than the kebabs just a richer full of flavor. Clean and staff Great knowable able to explain each and ever thing in each plate. the only reason I did not give this place 5 stars was the seating chairs/​benches could be nicer. Walls are painted beautifully. I think it’s a must to try

Great customer service… very friendly. Chicken and lamb special had great favor and nice portion.

Pricey, small amount of protein and the manager tore up our pita with his hands. not going back anytime soon.

If you are hungry please go somewhere else. Slow service. 14 $ for some bytes of chicken and very small rice. We have to stop by somewhere else for food after dinner. Very disappointed.

Funny story — we bought a Groupon for Mediterranean food. For some reason, my brain told me to go here. We were seated — the restaurant is a little janky… could use some massive updates — and a man started asking us a ton of questions we couldn’t answer. He then decided to surprise us and asked our meat preference. After about 10 minutes we realize we’re at the wrong damn place. Fortunately the cooking process hadn’t yet begun, so we were able to leave without guilt. I am reviewing this place based on atmosphere and service. We will definitely return to eat as it seemed like it was going to be delicious. I’ll update my review then.

Solid Mediterranean restaurant in an area not loaded with great food. Portions aren’t huge but what they serve is tasty and fresh. Their schwarma is not in the style I’m used to but still good. Essentially sautéed chicken thighs in a good spice mix. The lamb kabob was pretty average; I’ve had a lot better although I know I’ve been spoiled having lived and been around LA, which has some top notch Mediterranean food. I really like the service here though. Authentic, honest, a little brash and just my style. I would return if I was back in the area craving Mediterranean, but I would go out of the way.

I love eating here! The hummus is wornderful. Very smooth and not too salty. My favorite dish is the Siniha. Also, the Turkish coffee is lovely. The service is good. I have bee here several times and I have never had any complaints! I highly recommend this place!

Went here for lunch. The food wasn’t as good as people say it is. The portions were kids meal sizes. And in my opinion over priced.

Yeah… I don’t think so!
Stopped in for lunch here after hearing good things and seeing good reviews. There aren’t a lot of Middle Eastern options in the Vancouver area, so if there aren’t many, than the few there are should be pretty great, right? Wrong!
I ordered the falafel lunch plate and the first thing I noticed was the sticker going over the original menu item with handwriting on it. I peeled back the sticker and turns out rather than print and laminate some new menus they opted for the sticker to show the new price, an increase of $ 1. Never a good sign when you do that, really cheapens the look and feel of your restaurant. I should have known better and left right there.
Food came out quickly, and I instantly felt ripped off. The plate hardly had any food on it. 4 – 5 fork fulls of various cabbage and parsley salads, a dollop at best of hummus, and five thumb sized little falafels that were obviously from a bulk dry mix. No green garlicky goodness you come to expect from traditional and well made falafel. Pita bread was decent, but it was warmed up from a package, not house made. Sorry to say this, but you can get better quality at a food truck. Cutting corners ends up cutting your profits!
If you can believe it, the lunch was $ 10!!! Add in tax and a tip and I was out $ 12. For that price for lunch there should be a decent value, so I don’t appreciate it at all. It was like they took the fixings normally reserved for one sandwich and just spread them out over a plate. As a customer, I’m pretty offended and I will not be returning to Jerusalem Café again. Compared to any Middle Eastern restaurant in Portland, this is pretty low and I don’t like having to say that, because I know how much work goes into running an eating establishment. It’s a ton of hours, very labor intensive, and you don’t always make much money.
There are some nice points however. They have a very clean restaurant, and it’s very nicely decorated and it has a very welcoming feel and in no sense did I get the feeling they were intentionally trying to rip anyone off. They just need to seriously have a look at what other restaurants are doing that serve their same type of food and rethink things. They tried to have a Jerusalem Café in Portland but it went out of business in a matter of months. Now I can see why. A real shame because good Middle Eastern food is a very welcome thing.

Great welcoming, the owner and his wife were super nice. The Chicken and Lamb Kabob were yummy, along with the hummus and white rice! The prices were also very reasonable.
Definitely going back for more.

Iv been there twice and both times have been very pleasant. I went my first time with some family who had already been there. I’d never had that type of food before and to be honest I wasn’t expecting it to be too great but it was all delicious! You have to get the baklava for desert

Funny owner or manager :) the appetizers were good though the pita bread would better be softer. Appetizer are included in the entrée items. I ordered kofta kabob and my husband order maisa kabob. Kofta was made of lamb and beef. The serving size was not enough actually. Less than one fourth of a medium plate was kofta, ¼ rice (again less than expected), ¼ chopped green veg, ¼ tomato salad. We had to use pita breads given with appetizers to finish our food. Maisa was a good chicken and beef preparation. Liked the manager guy.
Faced no wait time on a Saturday night.

We really like this place! The owner and staff are friendly and welcoming and the food is always very fresh. We’ve ordered about four or five dishes and never been disappointed. In fact, we are mostly surprised how good things are here. Come try it!

I was pleasantly surprised with this restaurant. After reading a lot of the reviews about the horrible service, I was very hesitant. But alas my friend wanted to try it anyways so on we went. The waitress came off a bit brash and short but after talking to her she was quite friendly. We asked if they had a lunch menu. She told us they don’t usually offer it on the weekend but she let us have it anyways. I ordered the chicken and lamb special for about 10 dollars. It was pretty delicious. The portion was right. The taste was right. Overall I had a good experience.
They do seem a bit pushy. Yes, I thought the whole moving the special sign thing was a bit weird too. But they seem to go out of their way to accommodate as much as they can. It is a good restaurant. I will definitely come back.

This used to be my favorite middle eastern restaurant. We’d been there about 4 – 5 times over the past 2 years and it was a great value and delicious every time.
Probably won’t go back again. Went last week and the portions for my hummus pita were so bad I had to send it back. A new pita came out which was a little better but not by much. My side salad was on the smallest plate I’d ever seen in my life.
My daughter’s side of pilaf was on a same tiny plate and it was $ 3. Measly.
I don’t know what happened — same people were there that I’ve always seen — portions are WAY SMALL now and not worth it.

My friend and I visited this restaurant on Sunday. I had the personal mazza and she had a lamb dish. I got an 8 or 9 inch plate with 1 spoon each of red cabbage, green cabbage, potato salad, red salsa type stuff, hummus, cucumber tomato salad and tabouhli. My total was $ 17 because i had a guava — lemonade. My friend had a measly portion of lamb, a pile of rice and a pile of cucumber tomato salad. Her total was $ 21. We were there with one other party of people and they turned 1 group away because they were closing. My friend didn’t get to order what she actually wanted because they were out of her meal of choice. Also, the server hovered over us because he was in a hurry to close the kitchen. We’re thinking maybe they really didn’t have much food left and kind of just gave us bottom of the barrel. The food wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t amazing either. It most definitely wasn’t worth the price we paid. I’m super disappointed.
I called to speak to the manager on Tuesday. I wanted to give them a chance to make things right. The manager let me know that I should have just asked for more food if I was still hungry!!! He also stated that he didn’t really think I was unhappy because when I was there I was smiling and engaging and didn’t complain. Right, I didn’t complain because he made it clear the kitchen was closed. I’m not sure how he would have served us extra food since he made it very clear they were in a hurry to close and that their chef was gone for the night.
I really wanted to like this place since it’s so close to my home. I won’t be going back. They are over priced and their service is terrible.

Casual atmosphere, delicious food, very friendly and personable service. We rarely venture over to Vancouver, and there are probably more quaint and cute places than the strip mall where we happened to find this place, but I would absolutely come here again.
Falafel sandwich was not quite like any I’ve had before, with bits of pickled sweet cabbage. If I’d realized that came with the dish, I probably would have asked them to omit it, because I normally hate cabbage of any kind. But this turned out to be a very delicious accent.

I had the garlic chicken off the lunch menu. It was delicious and fresh. The meat had a ton of flavor, but the portion was a little small for the price. The owner said the dinner portions are more my style.
The owner also was very helpful and made sure we were well fed. You could tell he was from the region all the food was made from his personality. I will visit again.

Just finished a marvelous meal at the Jerusalem Café.
We Ordered:
1. Mezza Plate — delicious, savory and even came with a friendly tutorial of how to eat it! Family size was easily enough food for 4 + a taste of everything. Falafel was killer.
2. Chicken & Lamb Dinner Plate — savory, flavorful without too much spice. Fair portion size for $ 13.99
3. Handmade Pistachio Bacchlava — OMG, best I’ve ever had. So flaky & not overly sweet.
Our server was awesome and so friendly. He even made a special order of mini «burgers» with fries for my picky 5 year old. His wine recommendation was perfect — the house Cabernet was outstanding. I will definitely be making the drive back to Vancouver for this place.