cleopatra's restaurant

terrible service, great food. this place will be out of business in less than a year, so if you want to taste some good food, and you have lots oftimeand 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 even place an order. it's that bad.

i've eaten here four times since february (they opened right around the new year), and everytimethe 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 this place is 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 lasttimei 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.

inconsistent and disappointing. cleopatra's aspires to be more than your average mediterranean diner, and their prices reflect this. however, their aspirations fall short because they lack consistency and quality control. across two visits, i received mostly unexciting food, with problems ranging from cold food (my girlfriend thought at first the dish was supposed to be served chilled it was so cold,) to inedibly overcooked meat that was almost entirely char (the kafta kabob). that said, not all their offerings were failures. items that were good included the grilled vegetables, the vermicelli rice (on one of the occasions), and the vegetarian musakaa. although i tried several other things, they were generally mediocre and not worth much mention in a short review. i think cleopatra's could be good with some more attention to detail, but they're making such glaring errors that i suspect that they won't be focusing on nuance anytimesoon. for my money, i'd rather scoot over to mythos. you won't be going to a "nice" restaurant, per se, but i think you can count on the food a lot more.

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 lasttimethere). 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 (this place is 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 wholetimehe 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 the place next door saffrons was wonderfull. needless to say we will try that place next.

we came for lunch and we went for the buffett option, it was terrible!! we waited for a very longtimeand 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 this place it's cleoterrible!!!

i recently had the pleasure of eating here. all of my food was freshly made to order & i could definitely tell. every bite was worth it. my waiter was also amazing. she goes by the name of ty. she welcomed me immediately with a bright smile once i stepped in & served me with such kindness. since it was my firsttimevisiting she helped me choose a dish by explaining the dishes i pointed out & gave suggestions. she was very knowledgeable of the menu & how the dishes were prepared. the entire visit she continuously checked on me made sure everything was to my liking. i definitely recommend having her as a waitress. she made the experience that much more worth it & i actually can't wait to visit again because of her service. overall, i will surely be visiting again & highly recommend this restaurant to others.

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 this place only egyptian restaurant in town and everytimei go in there i always have the best service and treated like i am one of the family. my complements to the chef.

used to be good. we have been there 4 times - last winter and spring and again in october 2013. what a difference. the falafel is soooo dry and overcooked. yuk. the beef swarma was so tough that it couldn't be chewed. we always love the baklava and thistimeit was different - dry and tasteless. expensive meal and not worth a dime. will try the one on wendover,

it's a rip-off. and a slow one at that.. june 2012:
i will start out by saying that the food was quite good. but everything else about our experience was poor, which makes me sad, because we were quite excited to try it.

we went for a sunday lunch. we ended waiting at least an hour for our food once we ordered it, and we ordered nothing special. the waiter kept apologizing, and he even brought us small salads for free while we waited. the restaurant wasn't especially busy, and i heard him apologize to everyone else, too, so we weren't the only ones sitting there for a long time.

our waiter was a nice guy, but our (small) tea glasses were emptied a couple times and sat for sometimebefore we got a refill.

when we got the food, it was quite good, which was the only saving grace about our visit. i got the lamb/beef schawarma, and my friend got the shish kabobs.

when we got our bill, i asked why it said $15.95 instead of $10.95, as i was expecting. my friend's was much higher, too. he told us that they didn't do the lunch prices on the weekend. nowhere on the menu does it say that -- it just says lunch and dinner, and there aren't even times listed to show when one ends and another begins. (we were there at 1, so we fell into lunchtime.) also, i just doublechecked the menu online, and the dinner portion for mine should have been $14.95, not $15.95 as i was charged. i never would have had lunch there if i had known that my total bill, not including tip, for one person would be $19.11.

oct. 2012:
i made the mistake of going back with my husband, just to see if anything had changed. it hadn't. thistimewe went back at lunch on a weekday, instead of on the weekend. the service was still excruciatingly slow, and the quality of the food had actually fallen. i got the schawarma again, and it wasn't as good as it was the firsttime-- it was a bit overcooked and dry this time.

also, their menu has not been updated to reflect that lunch prices do not apply on the weekend, which is misleading to customers.

best in greensboro!. this is by far my favorite restaurant in greensboro. i have been 3 or four times and it is always excellent. the first couple of times i ordered the vegetarian sampler. the portions are huge and everything deliciious-falafel is one of my favorite foods and they have the best in town, and great musaka. the lasttimei went i got falafel and fewl. fewl is a delicious dish humus-like dish made with fava beans. the server was great, and even the salad was exceptional! i heard multiple people asking about the dressing because it was so delicious. i don't eat meat, but the people who i have eaten with said it is excellently seasoned. the atmosphere and music are very pleasing. the owner was also very nice, and he was kind enough to answer all my questions about where to buy fava beans and how to cook them.

delicious food. had the lunch buffet firsttimei visited and i was so impressed i had to return for dinner......rex explained the selections on the buffet perfectly and the nice thing is the waiter fixes your plate and brings it to the table. i am not a fan of buffets because i don't like to serve myself when i go out to eat so this style was perfect for me. the food was delicious, the baklava was superb and the staff is extremely knowledgeable for anyone who is unfamiliar with the cuisine

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 firsttime- and the coconut was amazing. it's a treat to have a different place to 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!

impressed. went to cleopatra's for lunch today with my dad. it was our first visit. we chose the tour of egypt sampler and rex our server explained what was on it and suggested the sides. he was spot on, everything was delicious and so much of it that both of us took some home. the food is very flavorful and spicy, not hot but very rich. he even brought out some bread the chef was experimenting with and asked us to rate it. it also was fabulous and we complimented the chef who even took thetimeto come out and thank us for the review. the prices are reasonable and i will be returning and encourage everyone to try cleopatra's

wonderful restaurant! great atmosphere!. from thetimewe 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 the place to go. the only thing i would suggest is maybe to offer hookah as an option with dinner. other than that it was wonderful!

completely blown away. i never had egyptian food before, so i was apprehensive. i was confused by most of the items on the menu. just like going to an italian restaurant for the first time. the server suggested a sampler plate and it was plenty of food for my date. really we had enough left over for another person or lunch the next day. best portions in town. everything was hot and delicious. somebody really puts thetimeinto making everything perfect. the chicken was my favorite. it was seasoned with something i had never tasted before. truly amazing. the sausage was amazing as well, it was an explosion of flavor. the lamb sample was small, but i understand it was to sample it. but to get like 5 items with the best rice i've ever had for around thirty dollars was so worth it. this makes a great date spot and a everyday eat. will be a devote cleo fan after this.

i eat falafel where they make it. cleopatra's falafel was light air and perfectly cooked. the service is wonderful and the owner delightfully pleasant. nexttimewe shall bring our own bottle of wine since they allow that and don't charge bottle fees.