Beirut Cafe: Lebanese Cuisine & Farr Better Ice Cream

The Gyro was amazing. Great deli atmosphere with awesome service and variety of food. Casual and laid back as well.

Their chicken, hummus, and homemade pita is amazingly tasty , fresh, and filling! The prices are very reasonable also. I've been here a few times and the food and service is always great!

I've already left these guys 5 stars, but I felt the need to come back and elaborate.

These guys do everything fresh and they value meal timing. That's something I have to appreciate as a restaurant worker in the world of upscale dining. The food here is absolutely delicious and reasonably priced. The meat pie is one of my favorite $5 lunches anywhere. Customer service is beyond friendly and I like conversing with the staff when they aren't busy.

This is one of the Salt Lake Valley's hidden gems in my opinion. I recommend it to all of my friends, and now I recommend it to the people of Google.

I'm also a lover of middle eastern coffee and the ability to get it here.

On a quick side note: my apologies to the staff for calling it "Turkish Coffee". That's what I knew it as growing up and while you guys didn't say anything about it, I realized as soon as it left my mouth it was an insult. My bad. Forgive my "white dude" mistake...

I’ve been wanting to try Beirut Cafe for quite some time now, and today was the day!
I had the mixed plate so I could try the different meats they had to offer. My favorite was the lamb. The rice pilaf was well seasoned. The show stopper for today’s lunch however was the pita bread. Warm and freshly baked, it was a great vessel for the rest of the meal.

Nice work, Beirut Cafe. I’ll be coming back to try some other items on the menu! ??

As the pandemic quarantine started to ease, and restaurants were starting to open their doors to dine in, we were definitely looking up new places to try. After a couple of quick searches, we came across Beirut Cafe--I'm not sure how we didn't try this place yet! After reading a couple of reviews, we decided to give this place a try. We called them up to make sure they were open for dine in, and headed their way. We decided to order at the restaurant, after analyzing the menu another ten times.

The restaurant is tucked away in a plaza, between a gas station and a self car wash. The plaza has some parking spaces in front of the restaurant. Inside the restaurant, it's divided into Farr's ice cream shop on the left and Beirut Cafe on the right. There's ample seating inside and outside the restaurant. After glancing over the menu again, we were ready to order. It's setup like a fast food place, where you order and pay in the front, and then wait for your food. We usually like trying as many items on the menu to get a holistic taste of their food. As they have various kabobs and shawarmas, we decided to order their Mix Grill (one skewer of chicken tikka, one skewer of lamb tikka, and one ground beef kabob), and Mix Shawarma (chicken and beef shawarma). Since we had to order and pay for everything up front, we asked for the Kunafa towards the end of our meal.

The food took some time to come, as there were only two workers that were shifting between the ice cream shop, restaurant, and the drive thru customers. The food was colder than expected when it arrived, especially there weren't any unforeseen delays after it was prepared, as we waited a long time. Initial observations were the portion size and the food arrangement on the plate. Portion was definitely on the smaller side, and the entree, side, and sauces were cramped on the plate. The Mix Grill meats were piled on top of the rice, a side of steamed veggies, and the sauces took up precious food real estate on the plate. The Mixed Shawarma was a similar setup, but instead of veggies, it came with hummus and pita. The kabobs and shawarmas were okay, nothing special. The lamb tikka was a little chewy and hard (under cooked). The steamed veggies were soggy with no flavor (no seasonings). The hummus had a lot of oil on top, and didn't taste like it was prepared in house. The pita was a little too doughy. The garlic sauce was strong, very garlicky. Maybe it would've tasted better if the food was warmer.

We were looking forward to the Kunafa dessert to make up for the meal. We tried Kunafa in many restaurants, including preparing it at home. This one was soaked in rose water and orange blossom water. Orange blossom flavor was something new for us. The orange flavor was overpowering, and smelled sickening. The Kunafa wasn't baked long enough, as it was still soft and mushy. Ideally it should be baked till the crust forms a golden crunch. The crushed pistachio garnished on top was very dark, looked like boiled broccoli.

Nevertheless, I'm glad I came across another ethnic restaurant in the area, but I expected better. The prices were higher for a fast food setting, and the smaller food portion. They have potential to become a better restaurant if they worked out the kinks. Probably not going to return for their entrees, but may check out other items on their menu (sandwiches and salad).