Old City Cafe & Grill

I meant to review Old City Cafe a while ago, but wanted to try them again before my review just to be sure, and yep, this place is great. Cranford is SEVERELY in need of more variety in it's food options, but there finally seems to be movement towards improvement, and Old City is one of it's best new contenders. It's was so bad in Cranford, that I've ventured to Edison on my food quests, and that's pretty much where we get a majority of our meals when we eat out.
I am so happy to see someone take a chance and open such a wonderful, unique place in town. I love Middle Eastern food, particularly Lebanese (I think Old City may be Lebanese, but not 100% sure) and the only place I could get it before was to drive 20 miles to my old hometown of Bay Ridge, Bklyn and satisfy my cravings there. Now it's right here, and it's also terrific to see vegetarian options here as well. I tried the falafel sandwich (would have loved to see a falafel platter on the menu, but alas, no) which was totally old-school and the way it should be done, with pickles (though I wished there were some pickled radish on there too, but certainly not a deal breaker). I also loved their smoky, smooth baba ganoush. I want to try many more things, particularly the Labne yogurt dip and see if they offer chicken shawarma (hopefully with toum -garlic sauce). For dessert I enjoyed the rose-water honey pistachio baklawa...man was it good, though I wish it was a larger portion. I will most definitely be back, especially since it's so close....and so good!

We moved to Westfield 2 years ago and were bummed to learn there were no "real" Mediterranean restaurants in the area. It's my personal favorite cuisine. We were thrilled to hear about Old City's opening and went there for dinner the week they opened. At this point, we've eaten there 5 or 6 times.
The food is usually amazing. My personal favorites are the grilled chicken and grilled filet mignon. The seasoning is typical Mediterranean is simply delightful. The filet mignon is always super tender. Great high end cuts of meat. When ordering a platter, you get a choice between salad or rice. The rice is amazing. It's a simple rice pilaf but extremely flavorful. Adding French fries as an option would be a very good idea. Every single time we are there, I overhear other customers asking for fries. It would also make the restaurant a little more kid friendly. The portions are very big. Honestly, a little too big. But amazing value for sure. Shawarma is spelled in various different ways and made very differently by people from different corners of the Mediterranean. The particular way (Lebanese) Old City makes it seems to be very dry and not my personal favorite. I also don't particularly care for their falafel. i think it's really a matter of taste while there is nothing wrong with Old City's recipes. I prefer the juicer Moroccan and Turkish variants. The baklava and esmelie desserts are mind blowing. I'm not exaggerating!
My only critique would be that the service is spotty and sometimes slow. The place seems to lack organization and system. The staff is friendly but often very confused. All in all definitely a favorite of ours.

For appetizers we got the hommus and the mouhammara dip, the hummus was ok but the  dip was delicious! The shawarma sandwich was good. My mother in law liked her Falafel. Please save yourself the trouble and  money dont order desserts. We ordered Muhalabia( Milk pudding), Essmalieh (dough with cream), Chefs Special (custard think of flan) and Riz Bi Haleeb ( Rice Pudding). We ended up throwing away everything except the Chefs Special Flan. Coming from a culture where rice pudding is traditional I was so disappointed as I can make it much better and I am no pro. We are daring in our culinary experiences but the Essmalieh was beyond weird. The fillo dough was shredded and had the taste and texture of uncooked ramen noodles I used to eat back in college. In between the crispy noodles was a cream that looked like curdled milk, and then topped with two maraschino cherries in syrup. My husband described it as a birds nest that cost us almost $7.

All in all we would come here again as the sandwiches were very good, we would just skip on desserts. Oh and they honored the neighborhood coupons and gave us no hassle.