Alfanoose Middle Eastern Restaurant

I worked in Financial District for years and got vegetarian takeout often from the old location. Pricey and slow but delicious. On recent visits to the new location food seems to have gone downhill a bit.

This place is shady. I ordered a chicken shawarma sandwich and it came with small bones, cartilage and chicken skin/​fat. I would stay away from this place. There’s better carts offering middle-​eastern food in the area.

Their pace is just not acceptable. My sandwich order took 45 mins. It tasted good, but seriously, 45 mins to put some some meat and lettuce on pita bread?! Then I waited while the person behind the counter continued taking orders instead of bagging my sandwich and getting me it of there. Probably a good place if you have enormous patience and lots of time to stand around and wait…

This place was 5-​stars when it was on Maiden lane, since then, the food is still good but the service is chaotic. Anything with babaghanoush, or fried cauliflower is amazing, their falafel is so much more flavorful compared to others around. Just try to not get annoyed by the pace.

This is really the worst halal food I’ve ever had. I had chicken sharwama platter. It was close to $ 15 damn dollars. And it was yucky and nasty.
The chicken was cold and bland and tasted old. The pita bread was so hard that I felt like I was chewing rubber. And the rice was just whatever. Only thing good was the hummus. But I can get that at the supermarket.
Disappointing and so expensive. Just go to a halal cart. No wonder they are so empty during lunch hour on a weekday

I only give it two stars because the food was actually good — not worth the price and dining service. You have to go up to order. And its not upscaled. $ 7 for a chicken sandwich is a bit overpriced compared to higher competitors in the area.

Ordered online because I know they take forever to finish an order… Wait 20 minutes and call to see if my order is ready, she says «Okay, we’ll make it for you now.» Uhh? I get there 10 minutes later and not only is it not made, but she asks the cook and they don’t have what I ordered. Sigh. Such a shame ’cause their foods actually pretty good.

I was in the city and I was craving some Arabic food so I Unilocaled and I found this was the closet one to where I was, I didn’t read the reviews I said let me go check it out myself I saw the place had 3 big busy tables 3 families are actually eating so I said YES this must be good! I went inside no one welcomed me to the restaurant, I didn’t know whether I wait to be seated or go inside and order long story short I went inside figure it on my own you need to order and then they will bring you the food. The person who takes the order is very rude he started off what you having no hello no nothing. I ordered then he got mad because I asked for soda he was like next time u order u tell me everything one time. I didn’t reply I didn’t say anything I sat and waited for my food to come which I cannot complain it was delicious, however the tables are dirty, the place inside is dirty, the music they playing was horrible no Arabic music or tastey of music and it was loud, I could barley hear my husband cross the table. And the person who is in charge cleans after ppl who ate, he smokes and he comes to serve the food. OMG!!!
Dirty place and horrible service. But good food.

Inside is spacious and clean. Food was very tasty, but a bit more expensive than the average. I ordered a lamb platter and it was about $ 20 total after a drink. Service is a little slow. It took a while for anyone to ask me what I wanted to order with the restaurant being empty. In all, the food is great but there are surrounding aspects that can be more attractive. PS — I liked what seemed to be the manager check in after meal.

We have ordered food (kebab wraps and lamb wraps) from here a few times for office business lunches. The food has always been very tasty and everyone in our group has enjoyed the wraps/​sandwiches. The only issues we have had is with the execution of the orders and delivery. Once they were an hour late with delivery and the last time about 45 minutes late. We are located 6 blocks away from them, so this should really not be the case.

The food was pretty good, but the service was terrible. And confusing.
After getting a sample they were handing out in front of their store, I decided to go buy a falafel sandwich. After taking my order, I waited 10 min before realizing there was no one in the kitchen area doing anything and the cashier was just standing there, taking more orders. Eventually some people walked into the kitchen. There seemed to be some movement of indeterminate purpose, mostly putting more meat on the grill, moving things around. After a few pointed looks, one of them seemed to get it and started making my sandwich.
That kind of service would be annoying anytime, but when you’re deliberately handing out free samples to drum up more business? Maybe be ready to actually make the food.

On October 16, 2015 I took 10 of my visiting Middle Eastern friends here for a Halal lunch. That ended up being a huge mistake.
After ordering directly from the menu it took over and hour to get our food. When I approached the owner to find out what was taking so long he informed me that he had to send one of his employees to the grocery store to get items for our meal. Other patrons simply demanded refunds and walked out. I should have walked out as well but I am not familiar with Halal restaurants in that part of town and the reviews looked okay. Boy was I wrong.
When our food finally came, one of my friends had a hard piece of plastic in his food about the size of a nickel. When we approach the owner about this he simply shrugged his shoulders and took the piece of plastic with him. At the end of the meal he appeared to want to make things right by offering sweets and tea. Only to find out that it was not a gesture of apology but simply a way for him to make more money.
When I went to pay the bill the owner simply looked at how many people I brought in with me and charged $ 45 per person. Everything we ordered was directly off the menu and we should’ve been charged accordingly. There was no compensation offered for the hour we had to wait or the plastic piece my friend discovered in his meal.
I will NEVER bring anyone to this restaurant again. The owner cannot be trusted. I would caution you to think twice before spending your money at this restaurant.

Worst place ever! SLOW SLOW SLOW!!! I went in to pick it up at the schedule time. I had to wait another hour for the food and during which 3 other customers came up to get refunds.

What happened to this place. I used to work on wall street and loved this place they had some of the best falafel in the city. Now a complete dump, owner was there sitting talking in a foreign language with one of the workers Falafel was bland fatoush salad was covered in fried pita chips still soaked in oil. I saw small roaches in the bathroom after I ate which instantly made me queasy if I went to the bathroom first and saw that I would not have eaten here. Stay away this place needs new management and some more.

I’ve ordered regularly from this place for a few months but no more. One night last week, I ordered at 6 and gave up at 8:30, after the first delivery guy kept arguing that I wasn’t where I was supposed to be (umm, I know where I work) and a second delivery guy never showed up. The next night was supposed to be a makeup. I talked to the manager at 5pm and asked him to deliver by 7. Good thing I ended up working late! Dinner showed up at 8:45 and was incomplete: one dish and the beverage missing. When I called to complain, the manager laughed at me!
Don’t waste your money, and more importantly your time, on this one.

They took 2 hours to deliver. Were rude on the phone and honestly not gojng to order again

Ordered an hour and a half ago. An hour ago they said it was out for delivery. Still hungry and without food.

Mohammad is back !!
I have ordered food here almost weekly for the past 3 years. I was just very pleasantly surprised to see Mohammad is back in the kitchen, the food is back to being outstanding.

Came here with a group of 6 and there was plenty of seats at 12:15 — was this a warning sign? It actually got a little busier as the hour went by.
I love Mediterranean food and had high hopes for this place. I decided to broaden beyond my go-​to order of shwarma and get the kefta kabob sandwich. I asked them to include tabbouleh in my sandwich. The sandwich is a decent size for $ 8, probably about 6 inches or so. However, all I ended tasting was something really spicy and pickles. I’ve never had spicy Mediterranean food, so I’m confused if my kefta had spicy spices, or if the tabbouleh was spicy. I can handle a little spice, so this was bordering on too spicy for me. The saving grace was the decent amount of kefta meat I got.
The platters my companions ordered looked good and the portion size seemed proportional to the $ 13 price. But they all lamented that they thought the platter came with hummus and were all sadly mistaken.
Not sure if I’ll go back to this place — hopefully I can find a better Mediterranean restaurant in the financial district!

Not sure what was going on here… I went in (by myself), had a seat. cause I was ready to throw down… there was a patron, and what appeared to be the owner and his friend. The ‘owner’ would return to the kitchen many times and order the seemless guy around. I sat in the restaurant for all of 15 minutes and I recieved no service. The ‘owner’ even sat across the room from me and proceeded to stare at me. The place is all of 700sqft.
I got up and left. I would prefer not to rant and pull the race card but seriously, why do ppl migrate to my country and proceed to discriminate against me or not show me the level of respect when I come to spend my cold hard cash? oh wait, the name at this establishment is called AlfaNOOSE. I guess they must have some ties to the KKK.
Oh I know what the real issue is. I’m too attractive of a lady to be seen dining out alone. something must be seriously wrong with me. im a leper! (now im actually being a drama queen!)
alfanoose suck it!