The Cedar Tree

I bloody love this place. Yes, it’s scruffy and the owner/​waiter guy is rather unusual, but the food is fantastic and it’s BYOB so it means you can stuff your face and still end up paying a reasonable price. We usually just get a table full of starters and have them mezze style. And the owner/​waiter knows all the numbers off by heart and likes to show off about this, which is also great. Not enough cheapo BYOB ethnic food places like this in Manchester: D

Wanted to like the place, and the food’s decent enough (fresh made falafels!) but not the best, and wickedly overpriced– I think we paid £1.20 per falafel.
Then, on the top of it, having to listen to the owner shout at his daughter & tell her she’s worthless. well, it wasn’t International Women’s Day, but it should have been.
On the up side, there’s a BYO policy. But probably best avoided.

Hmmm… not sure about this place. We just tried a few hot starters as we were a bit peckish and not up for a full main. They were tasty enough and the falafel was at least fresh, but I’ve had better. It seems quite overpriced for what you get, the same 4 songs were on loop and the place is pretty drab. The main thing that turned me off though was the waiter, who I presume was the owner, was quite nice to us but there was some sort of loud domestic situation happening in the kitchen that was very audible in the seating area. His daughter got a nasty earful which didn’t really make for a pleasant dining experience. Perhaps it was a once off but it’s really disuaded me from returning unfortunately, c*

The Cedar Tree is the only Lebanese restaurant in the centre of the city as far as I’m aware. It’s a small café-​style venue that serves all the best of Lebanon’s national dishes including Shish Taouk, Tabbouleh, Shawarma, but also a few that I hadn’t tried before coming to this restaurant. In particular, the Kibbeh Sajj (wheat and lamb mince with onions and pine nuts) and Faroug Meshwi (whole baby chicken, grilled and served with garlic sauce) won favour amongst my dining companions.
We also ordered Hummus, Baba ghanoush and Moutabal with our mains which to me are staples in Lebanese cuisine that always serve a good measure of quality — which in this restaurant’s case was very high indeed. Okay, so the service leaves a lot to be desired but the friendliness of the staff make it almost an endearing quality… almost! The décor too could do with a facelift, but again the emphasis is in the most important place — the quality of the food — and the BYO policy make it a cheap night out.