Jerusalem Cafe

I’ve been here several times now and I’ve yet to walk away disappointed. The food is phenomenal. Order the makluba and I promise that you won’t be disappointed. The food is incredibly flavorful without being over powering. Finish off your meal with the baklava and an Arabic coffee and you’ll leave full and happy.
The service is as warm as the decorations. It’s quickly become by favourite spot for work lunches.

I tried out Jerusalem café for the first time this past friday evening. It’s a beautiful space, which is especially astonishing if you remember the souless coffee shop that used to be housed there.
There were three of us, and we ordered hummus and fatoush to start. Both were nice, fresh, and bright tasting. The hummus was accompanied by a generous amount of pita.
Sadly, our mains didn’t live up to the same standard. We each ordered something different, and shared all three. The makluba chicken was incredibly dry. Almost inedibly so. The kufta (minced meat in a patty with a few pieces of potato in a tahini sauce) was much better, but still not something I’d go out of my way for. The third dish was stuffed zuccini, which was served in a tomato-​y broth. It had good flavour, but not very filling, and my friend said he would have been very diasppointed and hungry if we hadn’t decided to share entrees.
Service was friendly, and while not fast, not overly slow either. I really wanted to love this restaurant, as it’s clear that they’ve put a lot of effort into the space, and it truly is a lovely room, but our meals simply didn’t live up to the surroundings. I’m hopeful it was an off-​night, and will try to go back another time to see.

b.y.o.b. also very good baba ghanoush and fava beans.

My first effort to get out to try the Jerusalem Café was marred by tragedy, the death of the owner last week. Today, however, I returned to see if it was open again, and it was. I got off to a rough start, a bird actually pooped on my helmet as I was walking to the door, and that made my first exchange with the owner’s son a little awkward, he thought I’d been in an accident at first or something.
A few napkins later, I sat down for lunch, a dish called makluba, a Palestinian meal of rice, potato, peanuts and chicken served with a tomato and cucumber salad that was simple and tasty. Now, I had to google makluba when I got back, and the recipe I found was nothing like what I had for lunch (it apparently involves eggplant as well), but presenation wise it was the same — sort of «flipped out» of a pan on a plate «upside down» which is what the name literally means.
In addition to some uniquely Palestinian offerings, better known options like falafel, hummus, and so on. I figured it was best, however, to try things you can’t find everywhere else in Halifax instead.
In all, a delicious meal, and a friendly place. It’s a little off the beaten track but close to my work so I’m planning to make it a regular stop for something different.
Couple points — it’s halal, no liquor license. While they have debit and credit cards, they ask cash only for under $ 10, which isn’t terribly unreasonable.

My roommate and I checked this place out soon after it opened. The décor was amazing. As others have said: the owner has poured his heart and soul into the place. Really great. I’m looking forward to going back to order a coffee and read a book in the comfy chairs they have going on.
When we first went in we sat at a table and waited for awhile before we had any service, but when we did finally receive service: wow! Our waiter was the owners’ son, and he was fantastic.
We had explained to him that we did not know anything about this genre of food. We were not sure what we wanted, so he brought us to the desert bar and let us try every single kind of desert that they had. All were quite lovely, and very sweet as honey was the sweetener used for the majority of them.
My friend and I did not know what to order for dinner, so we asked them to surprise us. They brought out a lovely homemade tomato soup with potato in it. The main dish consisted of a rice dish (they shaped it like a star *cool*) with mixed vegetables and peanuts. Delish. Sadly, I forget the name of the plate. It was good. I would want to try something different next time, but solely because I had not had anything else on the menu.
While we were paying the bill our wiater had us try some of their falafel. WOW! I don’t think I’ve had a falafel that was so tasty. It was very flavourable, and had a wonderful crunchy shell. I definitely recommend it. I wished I had ordered it for my main!
Lasltly, because it was the grand opening week the owners sent us all home with some cake (Costco cake, not their own — but still very sweet).

During my third visit, the service was a reasonable speed! So excited to report this. It was, I must say, excrutiatingly slow before. My friends and I were shocked at the speed! And I’ve sinced tried the hummus and turkish coffee. Both awesome, although the turkish coffee made me feel wiggy.