cleopatra's restaurant

terrible service, great food. thisplacewill be out of business in less than a year, so if you want to taste some good food, and you have lots of time and patience for lousy service, you should go in and try it.

i'm from the middle east, i regularly dine in middle eastern restaurants all over the us (lebanese, palestinian, egyptian, iranian, even north african arab cuisine) and i'm confident that if you try any one of twenty dishes here you'll enjoy it. but you might walk out before you get your food or evenplacean order. it's that bad.

i've eaten here four times since february (they opened right around the new year), and every time the service has been abysmal. i waited tables for five years in college and after, and i make great allowances for unavoidable wait-staff problems, but thisplaceis ridiculous.

yesterday i took a party of seven for lunch, and had called the previous day to make reservations for 1:30. we showed up at 1:30, and waited until 1:50 to be seated. then we waited until 2:05 for the waiter to take our order. then we waited until 2: 50 for our food to arrive. we left around 3:30, two hours after arriving for a meal.

despite the fact that we were eating lunch, the waiter informed us that we would pay dinner prices (twice as much) for all entrees. no explanation.

but that's nothing compared to the miserable service. the menu states that entrees over $15 get pita bread with zaatar and olive oil. yet the waited brought nothing to the table for ten minutes. he didn't refill our waters, didn't stop to reassure us our food was coming (it wasn't) and in fact was busy eating while waiting on other tables. i can't remember the last time i saw a waiter chewing food while carrying plates out to customers.

so when i asked him for the pita with zaatar and oil, he said in a surly tone that he only did what the management told him to do, he knew that the menu promised these things, but he didn't normally bring them out. bizarre.

so then we waited 45 minutes for our dinner. while waiting we observed a family of three come in and stand by the door for about six minutes before deciding none was going to greet or seat them, so they left. the restaurant was about two-thirds full, yet the three waiters on duty seemed to be overwhelmed or absent, in turns.

when our food arrived, it was excellent. the beef kebob was tender and tasty, the grilled vegetables were seared nicely and crisp, and the two types of rice (white with vermicelli, or white with nuts and raisins) were both delicious.

the vegetarian entree we ordered was koshari (rice, lentil, pasta, tomato sauce, fried onion). it was nice, but the koshari i've eaten before always had chick peas and a light chili or pepper sauce, not to mention much more garlic, which would have made this dish more interesting and traditional.

i ordered the okra side (bamya) in tomato sauce and beef broth, and that came out with big chunks of boiled beef and far too little okra. lots of beef. i would have traded the beef for okra. the description in their menu doesn't even mention chunks of beef.

two of us ordered the chicken kabob, and it was very tasty. the chef had neglected to put one order on a bed of rice (the other had it) and the waiter (or course) hadn't noticed it, so that had to be brought out after.

i ordered the chicken shawarma on rice, and it was served with shredded chicken pieces in a mild tahini sauce, which i enjoyed thoroughly. the grilled vegetables that came with all the kabob entrees were perhaps the best part of each dish, which is wonderful if, like us, you like grilled veggies.

last, the beef kabob was incredibly tender and flavorful, melted in your mouth, and again came with the grilled veggies.

our waiter didn't check back with us for ten minutes after dropping the entrees, and never asked us if we wanted coffee or dessert. not that we were interested in waiting another half-hour for coffee.

the service was so abysmal that we won't go back. i've been there several times and the miserable service is not a fluke, it's the norm. the owner is a devout muslim and therefore doesn't offer wine, which most of our table would have enjoyed with the meal (we're used to lebanese restaurants or secular muslim places). the prices are relatively high for the decor and menu ($14-$26 entrees, $5-7 sides, $5desserts) with the biggest surprise being $10 for the lentil soup.

i regret the fact that i won't dine here again, as the food is well-prepared. but putting up with the unprofessional waiter and (apparently) under-staffed kitchen simply isn't worth it.

the location is not convenient for starters. the broke down van in the parking lot is definitely not there to make the impression better. my wife and i both enjoyed the fact that the colors and decorations were interesting but the sound system was not functioning. we usually like to order different dishes and taste each others' food but the waitress advised us after we had dug into the menu that the only meat that they had is chicken. while it was cooked differently it was somewhat disappointing and the sides were flavorless. i would like to give them another chance in the future and hope that they get more food options and some music to make theplaceseem more inviting.

location is a little awkward for a restaurant which probably explains why i think thisplacewill be closed in 6 months or less. there just can't be much traffic in a business park after hours. 

we were the only patrons in the restaurant, and the service was still exceptionally slow! if it was a real authentic cooked meal i would expect it to take a long time, but what came out could have been made in 15 mins or less. 

the food, could have been much better. much better! my husband and i are very familiar with this type of cuisine as well as middle eastern cuisine and expected something authentic. instead the food came across as though they cut several corners to keep costs down- probably because they are going under. the wait staff was polite, there's a positive. 

we ordered fried eggplant as an appetizer. you could tell it was fried in old oil and gave off a gross flavor. for entrees we both ordered lamb shish kebab, but we were actually served beef- and not a very good cut either. my husband ordered stuffed grape leaves and was served stuffed zucchini instead. they didn't even care that it wasn't what he wanted. the vermicelli was moist and tender but flavorless. the tiropita, or as they call it "cheese in fillo" had good flavor but was obviously made in bulk, frozen for weeks, then pulled out and microwaved then fried on the outside to seem fresh. 
the tahini sauce is so weird, and mostly a substance other than tahini. the garlic sauce would have been good if it wasn't just crushed garlic in a bowl of vegetable oil. 

i believe this restaurant could make better food if they weren't penny pinching, the owners trained their chef and made everything fresh. overall the cost did not constitute the quality of food at all.

bad service bad managment. 2/22/15 we went out for a girls day lunch we got to the resturant and sat down right away at 1:20. the waiter asked us what we wanted to drink i ordered a sweet tea with extra lemon and asked about the buffet they showed on the website (this was our first and last time there). he said he didn't know it was his first day ( he was the only wait staff there and had had no training at all ). when he came back he said yes they still had the buffett and that what they do is bring you a salad soup and a plate full of everything and when your done they bring you more. that sounded odd but whatever sounds good. by the way still no lemon for my tea. it seemed like an assistant manager type person brought our salads ( no silverwear ) and i asked for the lemon and a fork. he went and sat other people and finally brought silverwear ( still no lemon ). suddenly they turned the music up so load i couldn't here the person next to me and it sounded like a night club. we asked the waiter could they please turn it down (thisplaceis small and we were right under a speaker) and the lemon please. tweanty minutes later my friend went and got me the lemons. we noticed other people leaving and asked them if they were leaving cuz they hadn't got there food since we had been waiting over 40 min for ours they said yes. the main dish came out ( and the music got turned back up to night club standards again) and it was good only 2 peices of grilled zukinie meat and lots of rice. my friend talked to the manager about the riduclas services and it was kinda crazy the new guy had no training or help and the other people that worked there weren't helping at all that well we just weren't happy with our experiance at all. he pretty much dismissed her like she was beneath him and told her i give you little discount but that all. wow we weren't looking for free food but a little curtasy would have been nice. the "bufett" was suppose to be 8.99 what they gave us was 13.00. when i confronted them about it they said that is sunday brunch and it clearly states 2 pages past the lunch specials were we didn't even look (and under the lunch special page it does not state that it is only for certain days) that the "bufett" is not served on sunday and that pretty much prices go up on sudays. i told them that is not clearly stateing anything and that when the new waiter asked them they told him yes this is how it is done. got the bill down to what we were originally told gave the waiter a great tip poor guy had over 10 tables to himself on a first day but kept a good attitude and great smile the whole time he was the highlight. another patron told me she had been there several times but the service and food had gone way down and she would not be back but theplacenext door saffrons was wonderfull. needless to say we will try thatplacenext.

worst service ever!. i made a reservation online, and still sat there for 15 minutes and didn't even get asked what we wanted to drink. the only 2 waiters there were horrible and not attentive to anyone. the family next to us were upset and annoyed about it as well. my wife and i walked out at the 15 minute mark and went somewhere else. sadly theplacewasn't even crowded, it was 1:30pm on a sunday.

we came for lunch and we went for the buffett option, it was terrible!! we waited for a very long time and finally when the food arrived we were very disappointed, the chicken was so dry and tasteless the kabob was not better, the management don't care,i would stay away from thisplaceit's cleoterrible!!!

fantastic. cleopatra is a lovelyplace,i feel a warm atmosphere ,service is excellent this is the best chicken shawermah i ate, definitely i will come again.

love the new special. what brought me in today was the new special two sandwiches for only 7 dollars what a deal. they were very filling and i had a great time. can't wait until i come in again. love thisplaceonly egyptian restaurant in town and every time i go in there i always have the best service and treated like i am one of the family. my complements to the chef.

a lovely, littleplace- warm atmosphere and fantastic food. the service was phenomenal! thank you, tammy! seriously - the best falafel ever. we will definitely be back!

pricey, but you get what you pay for.. it had a nice decor with some cool egyptian themed nicknacks and nice music. the service was good and the server very polite, friendly, and knowledgeable. the food didn't take too long to come out and was excellent when it arrived. there was a fair selection of vegan/vegetarian options, though not a lot. i got the felafel and fewl and it was very good. they had a nice selection of drinks- tamarind, rosella, guava, and mango. the guava juice and rosella were excellent, though expensive. although it was pricey in comparison with aplacelike ghassan's, it was much tastier and you got a good amount of food for your money. all in all, it is a great restaurant to go treat yourself to a nice meal and try something different. if you are used to 5 star restaurants in new york you might be disappointed here, but you probably have unrealistic standards.

super. this is a little gem for greensboro - the staff (we had rex) was so knowledgeable and personable and made it fun - the outside seating is lovely - the food was just great - best baba ganouche and falafel i've had - desserts are so authentic it's like you tried baklava for the first time - and the coconut was amazing. it's a treat to have a differentplaceto go, not another cookie cutter. we tried several dishes and liked them all very much, can't wait to go back. also try the rose petal tea. i took an order out as well and the person who received it was very happy, and thought they didn't like middle eastern before this!

wonderful restaurant! great atmosphere!. from the time we came in and left it was great. wonderful fresh food, great tasting also. great environment, very clean and tidy. the waitress was extremely nice and helpful. checked up on us every ten minutes or so. music was good. overall, a great experience. would definetly recommend it to everyone i know. and i will be going back soon. if you want good authentic arabic/middle eastern food, this is theplaceto go. the only thing i would suggest is maybe to offer hookah as an option with dinner. other than that it was wonderful!

nice little place. we've passed thisplaceseveral times and often thought about stopping to try it out but never made it. we finally made up our mind to try it last week and we weren't disappointed. we both ordered things that we were not that familiar with, and while there were some misses, it was more the fault of us figuring out what we would or wouldn't like. overall it was a good first visit and the staff was very friendly and helpful. we will be going back to continue to try new items on their impressive menu.

amazing and authentic. i've been there both for lunch and dinner.. the portions for dinner left me a little wanting, but the food was still amazing. the lunch was great and very reasonably priced (the tour of egypt was amazing and worth every penny). definitely add thisplaceto your "rotation"! best in its class in town.

last and certainly not least - the staff is and service are amazing. i've had the same server both times and he's been one of the best folks i've encountered in the restaurant industry - same with the owner!

cleopatra's is my favorite restaurant, which says a lot. i consider myself a closeted food snob (guess that secret's out) and this is theplacethat i crave at lunch, dinner, late at night, anytime/everytime. i laughed a little when an uber-hippie friend recommended "this awesome egyptian restaurant", and since have repented by taking him there. the veggie kebabs, lamb, hummus, vermicelli rice, schwarma - everything - is amazeballs. even my 8 year old loved it. don't forget the baklava. so go already! eat!!! and you're welcome for finding you your new fave dining experience.