After googling "best falafel in Louisville" we ended up in Hikes Point at Al Watan. When pulling up to the restaurant I was a bit unsure if I was at the right place based on the appearance and the lack of prominent signage. Once inside I realized that this must be a seat yourself establishment as there was no hostess/counter person. Â The decor and atmosphere are definitely not the most desirable, however the place is clean and comfortable. I knew I was over ordering when I chose the Lamb Gyro, full order of falafel, & a hot tea, but that's what to-go boxes are for. My lunch arrived fairly quickly and it was delicious! The falafel was divine and exactly what I had hoped for. Now I have been there several times! Al Watan may lack the warmth that other Mediterranean restaurants have but I wouldn't change it a bit, it's a hidden jewel. The prices are fair with excellent portion sizes. The staff may not always be the friendliest but in my experience they have always been competent and I have never wanted for or needed anything. It's a great place to take your friends and family for lunch, personally I love to go alone and study.
Review Source:Best mediterranean in town! Â I've been going to Al Watan for a couple years and, while the food remains consistently great quality, this location's ambiance continues to improve.
The wait staff is sometimes overly friendly. Â Other times, it seems that I've caught them on a bad day. Â They are still trying to be friendly, but it's just not shining through. Â Still -- they have the best mediterranean food in town and the best value mediterranean food in town.
Go there. Â Now.
The decorum doesn't speak to the food here. Â You get good food for your money. Â The gyro's are probably the best in town. Â There is only one complaint I can make and it's that the meats are slightly over-cooked. Â I've only ordered the meat dishes once and have been back multiple times for gyros, so maybe it was a fluke.
Review Source:I had a <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Frestaurant.com&s=c5fe485af4df376130bee54f875814d79c4d7913e1258123b1206d2bdbf4873b" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://restaurant.com</a> coupon, so decided to try this place out. Â The food was good, but the service and decor ARE ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE!!! Â I literally believe they couldn't give a rats azz if we had dined there. Â We actually had to go over to them to ask for service. Â All we got were rolls of the eyes and silence. They came out, slapped down our food, left to the back and never came back. Â Same thing when paying. Â In fact, I had to go knock on the kitchen to find them. Â More rolls of the eyes and not one word was ever said. Â I'm a New York City transplant and am used to bad customer service, but this was BEYOND BAD, not to mention the place is a total dump inside. Â Yes, the food was great, but the HORRENDOUS customer service and run down decor ruined it for me!
Review Source:The restaurant is not bad, I like the falafel because this is not something that I usually make at home. Their tabouli is alright too. I also like that I can grab a baklava to savor since this is difficult to make. I wish I knew who they ordered their huge sheet try of baklava from. But that would get me into trouble since it is so yummy!
Check out the grocery next door if you want to take foodstuffs home for your own preparation!
Thank you Matt R. for introducing me to this place! It had been a while since my first visit, but I went back this evening with a friend and had another cheap and tasty meal. We split a salad and three plates plus a piece of baklava each and the total bill was $27. Upon typing this I realize that's not really a great deal for a dinner at a Mediterranean place in a tiny strip shopping center...well I suppose it helps to say that we each took home leftovers? Ok, if we were feeling like less of pigs we could have easily eaten a nice meal for under $10.
The Baba Ganouge is simply an inspiring use of eggplant. Well, at least it is to my typical usage of it drowned in parmesan. They may describe the eggplant in this dish as mashed on the menu, but that is not the case. Nope, it's actually served in tiny grilled chunks mixed in with some tomatoes, onions and more. Love it!
Side note: meat at hole-in-the-wall places is always kinda scary to me, but I've had the hummus with Chicken Shawarma a few times and my sensitive stomach has yet to regret it.
We ordered several different items: stuffed grape leaves, falafel, hummus, hummus & chicken shawarma plate, pita bread & the chicken shish plate that comes with rice & salad.
The hummus was good, the chicken shawarma was ok, and the chicken shish portion was decent, but the rice was bland, the stuffed grape leaves were too lemony, the salad was a joke, and the falafel tasted like they'd been frozen 10 minutes prior. Â The food was 2 stars, at most.
The service and condition of the restaurant were both pathetic and deserve a half star. We actually ended up going behind the counter ourselves for drink refills because the staff completely disappeared after our food was served, and they didn't emerge until I yelled into the back that I needed to pay before leaving. Â This place is run down and looks like it doesn't see too many customers.
Surely there are better options for mediocre-at-best Arab food in Louisville.
Al Watan seemed like the perfect little dive--the kind that I am totally into. Â But I was not exactly whelmed by the food or service experience. Â I know my recent great experiences at other middle eastern restaurants have opened my eyes and lifted my expectations. Â
We ordered the falafel appetizer, kibbeh appetizer, gyro platter and the shashoka. Â
The falafel: Â crunchy, greaseless-ly fried, but a bit bland. Â
The kibbeh: Â one per order, football shaped, crunchy wheat outside with flavorful spiced meat (beef and/or lamb?) filling inside. Â Again, greaseless-ly fried. Â My favorite item of the meal.
The shakshoka: Â a popular middle eastern breakfast item of eggs soft poached in tomato sauce. Â It comes with pita bread on the side for mopping up the sauce. Â While the eggs were poached perfectly; there was no real discernible flavor in the sauce. Â The thought of "I could have done this at home" kept popping up in my head as I picked up the salt shaker for the dish.
The gyro platter: Â unremarkable...just like every other kind of carnival gyro I have had. Â I wonder if this version of gyro is just like the fried rice and sweet and sour chicken at every generic Chinese restaurant: if you want the masses to come through that door, you'd better have it on the menu.
All in all, it is A-OK for me. Â Since there are so many other middle eastern choices in town, it'll be a while before I return.
The food was good but the service left a lot to be desired. I will go back here to give it another chance for 2 reasons - I believe every restaurant deserves a second chance unless the experience was that horrendous or if you got violently ill after eating there. My second reason is my love for Mediterranean Middle Eastern food and my pursuit of the best one in town.
Food: We ordered the chicken shawarma plate with hummus, lamb shish kabob and falafel plate. The hummus and shawarma were delicious. The pita bread was soft and tasty except it was cold; when I brought it to the attention of the server, he said that's because it's fresh...which didn't make any sense to me. Anyway, he took it back to the kitchen and lightly toasted it. In all my life of eating Middle Eastern food, I've never eaten cold khubs (pita bread) at a restaurant. The lamb shish kabob was visibly charred and was clearly over-cooked so it was tough as leather. The falafel was good but nothing special - it was missing the coriander and/or parsley that not only gives it that unique flavor but also the green color you see when you break open a falafel. It actually looked and tasted remarkably like the falafel mix brand I've bought and used to prepare falafels in the past (which incidentally they sell at the bakery). I will go back and probably order take-out next time.
Service: You walk in and nobody greets you. You sit at a table of your choice and wait..still no one comes out to attend to you. I finally walked to one of the diners and asked what they did to get service - she said to walk up to the counter and wave to get their attention from the kitchen (where everybody seemed to be). I placed our order. When the food finally came out, we didn't have napkins, weren't offered any drinks/water, nobody came to check on us at any time..I ended up grabbing napkins from a nearby table leftover from when someone else had eaten before.
The food was affordable and 2 out of the 3 things we ordered were good; so was the pita bread except for it being cold. I will go back to give it another chance but be warned - the service is not great. But as one other reviewer mentioned, this place is still way better than Grape Leaf food-wise...
Alwatan is not just another middle eastern hummus and kabob kind of place; not at all. Quite a variety of fresh salads which we sampled by ordering the salad combo. The tabouli was loaded with fresh mint, lime, parsley and exploded with flavor. And i am just begining to scratch the surface of their menu. We will be heading back to Alwatan very soon to try out other offerings from the wide selection of salads and plate meals. This is a must do especially for the vegetarian folk looking for a balanced well easoned meal!
Review Source:best. Â baba ganouj. Â ever. Â creamy, rich, lemony, and filled with roasted eggplant and pungent garlic. Â pair this with the fresh, warm, thick pita bread from next door, and you just may not want to share.
however, sharing is caring, which is why you make sure your friends get the hummus (just as creamy as the baba) with the high-piled, tender shawarma. Â the salads are fresh and delicious, too.
This is a great place--my favorite Mediterranean restaurant in Louisville. I like it better than The Grape Leaf, actually.
My favorite item is the hummus with shawarma. It comes in both steak and chicken. For $7.49, you get a decent amount of grilled meat, surrounded on the plate by a ring of hummus. Saves having to buy a hummus appetizer to go with your entree! The pita bread that comes with this meal (and with the hummus appetizer of course) is really high quality--better than you can get at any grocery store.
The restaurant is located next to My Lucky Liquor, but to the right of the restaurant is a bakery and small grocery store run by the same people.
I've added a copy of the menu to the photos above.
MR says: the best mediterranean restaurant ever!
MRS says: this restaurant is a diamond in the rough. The location isn't spectacular. It's in the Hikes Lane neighborhood near Bardstown/Buechel Road. The inside setup is simple so as their decor. Menu is a typical tri-fold sheet but don't be fool by the simplicity and quaint setup. Food is spectacular. Reasonable cheap entrees loaded with great flavors and awesomeness!!!
We ordered two entrée: combination kabobs (kefta, chicken & lamb) and chicken shawarma. We ordered a "Plate" of baba ganoush as our appetizer. They gave us a mountainful of pita bread. Very generous on the bread. What makes this baba ganoush exceptional and way better than Grape Leaf is the chunky and flavor of the eggplant and other veggies like tomatoes and onions. It was refreshing. Very tasty.
The kabobs was amazingly delicious. I LOVE the KEFTA the most. It's ground beef with spices. Goes well with the rice. Entrée comes with a side salad. It's fresh. The salad had cucumbers diced nicely. Really good light dressing ~  it's like pickled.
Next to this restaurant is Alwatan's bakery/store. Please check it out. They have wonderful pastry and sweets. Best best best baklava and honey pistachio desserts. They have grocery items like Turkish crackers, chocolates with hazelnut, and preserved fruits like fig. Worth checking out.
Al Watan is one of the best kept secrets in the Louisville dining scene. Â I've been going there for the past four years and have never had a bad meal. Â It truly is a family owned and operated restaurant. Â
The atmosphere has improved a lot in their new location (which is right next door to the old one). Â There are about twice as many tables, a much larger kitchen, and a much more welcoming feeling than then old place.
The food is impeccable. Â The hummus is phenomenal. Â I make my own hummus and have had the dish in many restaurants, but all other hummus cannot stand up to Al Watan's. Â The bread is wonderful as well. Â
I almost always get either the Chicken Gyro, Lamb Gyro, or Shish Taouk sandwich, all of which come with a fountain drink and french fries. Â The quality of the meat, in terms of taste, spice, and texture is awesome. Â Their sauces are excellent as well!
My wife has had the Mujadrah (house special lentils and rice) a lot recently. Â She always has enough for one meal in the restaurant, along with a full to-go box for the next day. Â The spices in this dish are both exotic and strangely welcoming and familiar. Â If it's not already obvious, I could eat at Al Watan everyday of the week.
When you go, be sure to stop by their grocery store after dinner. Â Try some of their homemade baklava, buy yourself some spicy arabic coffee or tea, and browse several aisles of lentils, beans, and every interesting spice you've never heard of. Â The smells will keep you coming back for more!
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