BFS Restaurant

First, let me start by explaining that my Grandfather was from Lebanon, so I’ve grown up with this style of cooking and cuisine. BFS IS A COMPLETE JOKE.
I had first tried BFS a couple years back and can’t remember what my experience was, but this one sticks out in my mind for multiple reasons. We just so happened to have a Groupon for $ 40 worth of food and what a waste that purchase was on top of what we spent out of pocket at this restaurant.
Let me make something clear for those of you that THINK this is good food. ALL OF IT IS FROZEN AND RE-​HEATED with the exception of their Vegetable dishes such as salads and accompaniments! That little tidbit of information came DIRECTLY from our Waitress when we asked about how the Lamb was prepared for the Kibbe. To make matters worse, the Kibbe isn’t prepared with Lamb, it’s BEEF. That should be a crime and clued me in on how this experience was going to be.
For what they charge for a plate of food is absolutely ridiculous considering that more than half of the plate is the side dishes rather than the meats. The $ 40 Groupon we had bought us two dinner entrée’s. TWO.
I can’t go on any further in detail because I was absolutely enraged with the experience, so I’ll just list the rest.
— Service was TERRIBLE
— The «Cooks» were in street clothes, cooking in the Kitchen
— All Desserts are FROZEN, RE-​HEATED, and then plated
— Drink refills are NOT FREE
— «Authentic» dishes are NOT AUTHENTIC
This was probably one of the worst experiences I have ever, EVER had. Please, stay away and save your money. If you’re really looking for a taste of the Middle East, I’ll gladly invite you to my house on a Sunday for some REAL FOOD.

This was the worst meal I have had in a long while, made even more bothersome by the outrageously inflated prices. It isn’t just that we waited forever for our meals and they arrived lukewarm. The plates were not aesthetically pleasing at all — meat and fish came with a slopped on serving of couscous or rice, plus some quartered vegetables like peppers, zucchini, onions, that were huge pieces, nothing to get excited about there. When I pay upwards of $ 20 for a plate, I want the whole experience to be memorable. No salad, no rolls but cold pieces of pita were put on the table — pita also flavorless. The lamb was so tough you could not chew it, the swordfish so dry and overcooked that the only way it would go down was to drown it in sauce, the rice had to have been instant rice because I don’t think regular rice can taste like cardboard like this did. It’s pretty bad when you can’t even choke the rice down. Out of a Greek/​Mediterranean restaurant we were looking for flavor — lemon, garlic, capers, olives — we found none. We overheard another customer complaining to his wife that his meat was all gristle. The worst part was that when the waitress asked how it was and we all said tough and nearly inedible she did not even apologize or ask if she could do something else for us, Never again! What a complete and total disappointment.

I’ll start out by saying that BFS is a wonderful place that I recommend to everyone!
I had never heard of it before last week and stopped there for lunch. They specialize in Mediterranean fare and they have many lunch specials that feature flavors from that area. They also have an extensive line of delicious-​sounding sandwiches (apparently one of the names for BFS is that it stands for Big [Blanking] Sandwich). We each ordered one of the lunch specials and got an appetizer sampler that included various salads and hummus. I ordered the Gyro platter and it was fantastic. The food is very fresh and flavorful and the hummus was amazing. Everyone else loved their meals as well. The service is also very good; one of the owners waited on us for our meal and was very kind.
I would also highly recommend getting dessert there. My girlfriend had a raspberry torte and loved it. I got the chocolate and peanut butter mousse and I could eat that every week for the rest of my life, delicious!
I highly, highly recommend going here if you’re a fan of Mediterranean fare and just good food in general!

BFS has to be one of the worst restaurants in the capital district! The food was cold with a lack of flavor, very small portion sizes and very expensive. My date’s vegetable lasagna had salami on top and the chicken my brother ordered was dry and flavorless. I swear the Moussaka did not contain eggplant. I usually don’t complain about the atmosphere, but there was nobody in the restaurant, yet there was no parking (we took the last space) and we had to move both our table and the woman next to me just to get into our seats. I was served pepsi in a plastic bottle, not appealing. Don’t go to BFS, it’s awful.

So good … I got the falafel wrap and hummus as an appetizer. Very good! and they have a coupon on their site to print off which is buy one entrée get one free. yay

Man what a rip off. I was in the area visiting family and was looking for some quick, cheap food. I used to eat at BFS six or seven years ago when I lived in Albany at least once a week. I recognize that inflation could cause a climb in prices, but this was ridiculous. Ten dollars for a falafel wrap? Are you kidding me? Not only was the wrap expensive but it was pretty lousy as well. I’ve had way better falafel sandwiches for under three dollars. The only reason I’ll go with two stars as opposed to one is that the cook was willing to make a vegan tahini sauce… which also sucked.

My wife and I are big fans of Middleterranean cuisine and we had a very good first meal at BFS.
We started off with a sampler appetizer which had two each of dolmas, kibbe, and spinach pockets, as well as hummus and a Mediterranean salad. The dolmas were good, though I don’t normally like them so others might find that they’re missing something. The kibbe was delicious, but I’ll get into that more with the main course. The tasty spinach pockets were not quite like spanikopita (no feta that I could see, for one thing) but were wrapped in what seemed more like bread than pita. The hummus was also good and came topped with paprika, a lemon slice, and a sizeable pool of olive oil. Alongside our appetizer we were given a bread basket with a handful of room-​temperature pita and some not-​so-​fresh bread. I used some of the bread to get the rest of the garlic sauce off of the plate — it wasn’t up to par with Phoenician’s, but it was much too good to let any go back to the kitchen.
I had also ordered a Moroccan mint green tea. It was prepared behind the dessert counter near our table and brought over right away — loose leaf tea dropped into an empty tea bag in a large mug. I was offered more hot water later but I turned it down, figuring I wouldn’t get much more out of the leaves with so much water. The tea had a faint mint scent and a very pleasant, smooth taste — not at all grassy or too earthy like cheap green tea.
For my main course I ordered the baked kibbe. It arrived as a two-​layered 4×2×2 meatloaf, and I nearly scarfed it down. The amount of seasoning, particularly the cinnamon, was just right. It went well with the tzatziki sauce (which was pretty standard on its own, but a nice complement to the kibbe). On the side were a chickpea salad, hummus, and tabbouleh, all of which were very good.
My wife ordered the (boneless, pre-​sliced) leg of lamb. I had one piece and it was very good; it was cooked medium and very tender. The garlic sauce again was very tasty, as were the rice and vegetables (steamed cauliflower and carrots).
The food was great, but it was expensive. As much as we liked it, we would not go back without another generous coupon (we had picked up a $ 25 off coupon for $ 1 through another site’s promotion). Each of the entrées was about $ 20 and the sampler appetizer was $ 12 (other appetizers were $ 8 – 9, and lunch dishes were $ 8 – 10). I think I get a better value, though with less variety, at Phoenician’s and other places. If each item had a couple dollars knocked off the price I’d be going back a lot sooner.

It’s difficult to find a restaurant that satisfies my diet (vegan) as well as that of my parents (my dad hates vegan food, pretty much). So when I go home it’s not always a trivial task to find someplace to eat.
I enjoyed BFS Restaurant, although I would never go if my parents weren’t paying. This place is expensive!
It wasn’t quite what I would have expected from a Middle Eastern eatery, but it was still good. I ordered the falafel, and I expected a pita sandwich, but I got a platter instead with hummus, tabouleh, falafel patties and some sort of chickpea salad. It was tasty, but I’d take a good 5 $ falafel sandwich from the Falafel shop on Park Street in Boston any day.

I visited BFS on July 25, 2009. I had been looking forward to eating here since I moved to the Albany area last March. I am sorry to say that I won’t be returning.
Now, I realize that I come from a place burgeoning with Middle Eastern restaurants (San Francisco Bay Area) and that I am also blessed to have a mother who is a remarkable chef of traditional Arab cuisine. So, I both know my Arabic food and I’m hella picky.
Saying that, I would love to try other foods at BFS, but not at those prices. I ordered a kibbe appetizer and the Fatoush salad for 2. The kibbe, which was baked, was good. It came with 2 pices of kibbe of a normal size, cut in half with yogurt on some greens and other garnishes. It was $ 9, which would be a good price if there were either another kibbe or if the kibbe were above average.
The salad was not a $ 14 salad. It had too much lemon, even for me, and the bread was hardly toasted and tasted stale. I just didn’t like it. It was a large salad, but for that much money, and such simple ingredients, it wasn’t worth it.
My husband had a pasta special. It was smoked salmon ravioli which consisted of 4 medium sized ravioli stuffed with ricotta (we think) and some smoked salmon, topped with deliciously grilled shrimp, a bit more smoked salmon, and a cream sauce. It was good. He ordered well, but it was $ 22; and the sauce was cold. My husband says it was more presentation than substance. He left unsatisfied.
We also both ordered Turkish coffee, which was very poorly prepared. It was very goopy at the bottom with coffee grounds. I have never been served Turkish coffee like that in a restaurant before. I felt like a kid again getting the last pour from the pot. The best pours are the first and very few. I think whoever made it had no clue what they were doing. They probably stirred it before they poured into the cups.
All in all, the food isn’t bad, just average. Some things were exceptionally good, but not enough to make up for the lack of substance and inconsistency. If everything was exceptionally well prepared, then BFS would be worth the expense. Unfortunately, it is not.

I’m going to come right out and say it.
Shameful.
Seriously. I know that this is not the best time to be in the restaurant business. And I know that the price of food is on the rise. But still… $ 18 for a plate of dolmas, greek salad, humus and pasta salad? Or the same price for grilled vegetables, chick pea salad, babaganooj, and pasta salad?
Now, I can imagine a restaurant where I would not balk at the price tag for such a dish. In fact, I have been to one quite recently in Boston:
But BFS is not such a place. If it were a less expensive restaurant, I would not have minded that the pita was stone cold. I would not have minded that the one roll in the bread basket wasn’t all that fresh. Or the rustic, chunky purée that was the humus. I would have also been less critical about the peel of the cucumbers in the salad. Not to mention the sourcing of the vegetables.
I liked the wine list, but was loathe to order any of the wine offered by the glass. Why? Every wine they served was available by the glass. In truth, that is too many open bottles for a restaurant to maintain well. Luckily after a long list of beers, the waitress finally mentioned Sierra Nevada, and that fit the bill nicely.
Was it tasty? Sure.
Would I go there again? A qualified maybe.
I am curious what they do with a falafel… but will save that for a lunch time excursion.
I have seen the lunch menu, and have high hopes about walking out of there after a noon time meal without feeling raped.

If I go to any more Greek/​Mediterranean restaurants, I might just be a masochist. Try as I may, and I have tried, I can’t seem to appreciate the cuisine. I know exactly what I like in a Mediterranean restaurant — Gyro, Shawarma, Tzatziki Sauce, Hummus and Baba Ganoush. And yet, every time I go to such a restaurant, I always try something different, hoping against hope that I’ll find something new that I like. Sadly, so far, everything else has left me underwhelmed. BFS was no different, but I don’t think it’s their fault.
The inside of the restaurant is divided into a deli, tiny seating area and a third section which we didn’t look at closely. They have a sizeable menu with Med, Italian and American choices. The prices were varied with the wraps and such priced at an affordable 8 – 10 bucks while the entrees were in the high 10’s. We had the spanikopita for appetizer. My girlfriend said it was good and I believe her. She ordered the Prosciutto Mozzarella Wrap and I had the Roasted Zaatar Chicken. My dish came with delicious, crispy, red potatoes roasted with rosemary and some excellent steamed vegetables which I enjoyed more than the chicken, but again, I am the wrong person to appreciate the cuisine. They forgot the fresh mozzarella on the wrap so it had to be sent back. It was served with some sort of a potato salad which was really good and the wrap itself was tasty. We had the carrot cake for dessert which turned out to be a triple decker cheese cake with carrot cake in the middle. We weren’t complaining as it was yummy! Overall, I think this place is a good bet if you like the cuisine. It came recommended by a friend who likes the food very much. Total came to around $ 40 + tip.
There was a guitarist strumming some classical music while we were there which was a nice touch.

we really love this restaurant. they have Incredibly delicious hummous (some of the best i have had anywhere) and their baked walnut brie is another of those ‘growl and fight em off with a fork and a glinty glare’ dishes — usually what happens however is my daughter looks up at me with her big brown glistening eyes and i sigh and let her have the last delicious juicy bite. what a loving mother i am.
anyway, the dishes are all delicious and filling, the service is always friendly and prompt and the atmosphere is cheerful and inviting. plus you can go up to the deli counter when you are done and take home much of what you just finished enjoying by the pound if you like. it is a hike from downtown (near crossgates) but it is very much worth it.
oh. and ask them what BFS stands for. i won’t say what i was told as i don’t want to be accused of being naughty.

The BFS restaurant is a a rare kind of place that tries to pass itself off simultaneously as a lunch take-​out place and a fine restaurant. It pulls it off. The tables are much too small (get ready for some knee-​knocking) and many are right up near deli counters and such, so the food seems out of place. My blackened tuna steak was delicious and perfectly cooked, although I wish it was served with a cold cucumber salad or something instead of hot vegetables because there was nowhere to hide from their cajun seasoning. And despite the lack of kalamata olives and skimping on the other extras, their Greek salad was very tasty.