Aladdin's Natural Eatery

Alladin's is tucked into a tiny strip center in Grandview, near several other popular restaurants. This Middle Eastern cafe features the character and personality of an independent owner-operator, including warm and professional service, but with the menu, marketing, and operations smoothness of a chain.

The menu is extensive and diverse. They have a very large number of soups, salads, sandwiches, and plates, so there is something to please everyone, especially vegetarians. We had the lentil soup for starters, and it was among the best of any I can recall. The falafel salad was well prepared, and matched well with the tahini yoghurt dressing.

I had the shawarma salad, and frankly it was only ok. It offers lightly seasoned char-grilled beef and lamb strips over mixed greens with sliced tomato, cucumber, and calamata olives topped with feta cheese, scallions and their house dressing. The meat was a little dry, and I just didn't love the salad dressing. But the ingredients were very fresh.

We had an excellent server who knew the menu well, and was very attentive. Our food was presented very quickly, as was the check when we were ready.

The whole tab, with drinks, was $27, not cheap and certainly not competitive with fast food places. But Alladin's is a cut above fast food, a nice sit-down cafe experience, and priced accordingly.