Habeebi's

At my last block club meeting, one of the members lamented that when you look down Bryn Mawr, all you see is dollar stores. Dollar store, dollar store, dollar store. This person needs to look again. Certainly there are some dollar stores, but only a few; and a dollar store here and there can be a good thing.

Already, for several years, the Bryn Mawr Historic District has been home to Francesca's Italian restaurant, Johnny Sprocket's bike shop, and a Starbucks. Recently, I've discovered Ben's Noodle Shop (a Thai restaurant). And a few more eateries have opened up in the past year: Flourish (bakery and sandwich shop), That Little Mexican Cafe, and Habeebi's.

I first noticed Habeebi's a couple weeks ago as I was getting a loaf of bread from Flourish across the street. At the time it must have just opened. I decided to give Habeebi's a try last Friday, and here's my review...

Habeebi's is a very casual sit-down restaurant. You order and pay at the counter, then wait for the food to be brought to your table. They also do carry-out. The dining area is furnished in a somewhat plain, yet appealing, manner. Prices are pretty reasonable at around $8 per entree.

I ordered the combination plate and a side order of hummus, and my companion (a.k.a. The Girlfriend) had the fatoush salad. The food was excellent. However, not all was well. We took cans of pop from their cooler and asked if they could supply us with cups and ice. "Oh, sure... No problem." But they didn't follow through and actually give us the cups until we asked again later. And we waited a long time for our food. To their credit, they understood there was a problem and gave us a complimentary plate of baba ganoush. But even this they didn't get quite right; the extra baba ganoush wasn't served with extra pitas. So what were we supposed to do -- eat it with a knife and fork?

It's not that the staff was lazy. On the contrary, the guys behind the counter were running around in a frenzy, mostly putting together take-out orders. But they were either so understaffed or inefficient that they struggled to serve a mostly empty dining room. I hope that they will correct these problems in time, but until then, I would recommend Habeebi's for take-out only.