Lebanese Taverna

I’ve given this place two chances and it just isn’t that great. The «bread» they give you with oil is dry and not that tasty, they use frozen french fries with their shwarma sandwiches, and the lamb I ordered didn’t leave a lasting impression. You’re better off going to Kebab Palace.

Delicious food, unique, clean, and cozy environment, fantastic service as well as outstanding customer service both during and after our visit to the Pentagon City location!
Our server Joshua was wonderful, extremely intelligent, and one of the nicest people I’ve met in the service industry in a very long time! Very accommodating to our odd food and drink requests!
I left a very expensive item there on accident during lunch and the staff was extremely responsive and helpful … I’m still shocked that I was able to get it back the next day … VERY good people and shows the overall character of the entire staff and management!!! Thanks to Pamela from HR and Hamdi the GM are both awesome!!!

This place has become my favorite kabob place in the area. The naan and hummus is amazing! And the staff is super sweet.

I’ve been here several times for lunch, and the lunch combos are always consistently good. The bread is warm and the salads are fresh. The hummus and babaganoush are also freshly made and delicious. An appetizer plate ($ 14) and two schwaramas ($ 12 ea) will give you a very filling lunch. A good spot if you’re up for greek!

I placed a large catering order to be delivered to my office at 11:00am for a monthly office meeting scheduled to start at 11:30am. The day before the meeting I called to make sure my order was still on for the next day and confirmed the delivery time was at 11:00am; I was assured that I will have my order at the requested time.
The next day 11:00am arrives but no food, I called to check on what was going on and I was told my order was on the on way. At 11:24am I received an e-​mail asking that I contact the restaurant which I did and I was told that the driver was running late and they should be at my office in 20 minutes. My meeting was scheduled to start in 6 minutes and I had no food. A little after 12:00pm was when the driver finally arrived. I was very disappointed and upset with about this.
The driver, who I guess was the owner offered to send me gifts cards to make up for the very late arrival; I never received one gift card or an e-​mail apology. This restaurant may be ok for sit-​in meals but not ok for catering orders.

i brought a friend here for dinner last week. honestly, by the time the bill came, i felt embarrassed for having suggested lebanese taverna as a «good option for mediterranean food».
i’m not sure when things took such a bad turn here. i frequently buy food from lebanese taverna market in north arlington, and everything tastes great. it’s a bit expensive, but guests always love the food from there when i bring it home for parties. there is a definite disconnect between the restaurant and the market.
the service was fine. our waiter was friendly and fairly attentive.
the food was the disappointing part. i ordered a falafel sandwich with fries, spicy hummus, and a pomegranate lemonade. the spicy hummus was the highlight of the meal for me. the falafel sandwich was mostly full of lettuce, and the falafels were soft and hard at the same time. its difficult to explain. if you’ve ever made the unfortunate decision to microwave a falafel, you know what i’m talking about. they weren’t freshly fried. the fries were soft and chalky, like they had been fried hours (or days) earlier and just reheated. it was such a disappointing meal, i didn’t finish any of it despite being very hungry. the pom lemonade was okay, but it tasted like minute maid lemonade with some nondescript syrup. no fresh taste and definitely not worth $ 4 with no refills. not sure exactly how my friend felt about his lamb shank, but judging by how much was left on the plate, i dont think he loved it.
i don’t know what’s up with this place. i’m so bummed. ten years ago it was a solid place for dinner. i wouldn’t set foot there again after this recent experience. i’ll stick to the market from now on.

I’m reviewing to let you know that the Happy Hour is wonderful! If you sit in the Bar & Lounge area M-​F between 4 and 7, you get to order off of the Happy Hour Menu. There are various drinks and foods available at different price points, all between $ 4 and $ 7 each. My friend and I were able to go, order 3 things to share for dinner, and pay only $ 15 total (not each). I can’t wait to do that again! Friendly service and nice atmosphere to boot.

The food was phenomenal. Had the Taverna platter, great way to try a variety. Our group had a good time and the service was great too

The food was really tasty. Very well presented. The only reason ir wasn’t 5 stars is the portion size/​value. Great waiter too. Thanks Sergio.

Not a great experience to say the least. The older gentleman who was the host was not polite or welcoming.
Ordered the grilled lamb and it was overlooked. It was very expensive and not worth the portion size I paid $ 30 for 4 tiny pieces of meat on bed of thinly sliced potatoes 2 pieces of cold grilled cucumbers. I which I took a picture of it. Order the white sangria and it tasted like it was made a week ago. My friend ordered the salmon salad and that came with no dressing. I will never go back, I expected a lot more but was disappointed. Poor execution at all turns, my whole party had a subpar experience

Decent place to have a a casual sit down lunch in Pentagon City. The location is convenient and the food is good.
I would recommend the appetizer platter $ 14, chicken & beef schwarama $ 12 sandwiches.
Service is friendly and they give you free bread when you sit down.

I am not crazy about Lebanese Taverna but this is probably one of the better ones that I have been to. We came in on a Saturday night and the restaurant was not even remotely busy. Made me a bit nervous but everything turned out just fine.
Our server was very nice, and overall service was excellent.
The food was consistent to other locations, but slightly better. Everything was fresh. The only thing I don’t is their Baklava — super dry and flavorless. Tasted quite stale actually. But the food is pretty good here — our favorites were the vegetarian Chef sampler (appetizers) and the jumbo shrimp with cous cous. The lamb kabobs are A-​Okay. Pretty dry and not too flavorful. And the lamb tartar was also a table favorite.
A great and beautiful atmosphere!

I enjoyed my lunch today very much, Isvan was my server and he was very accommodating to my picky dietary needs. Not that it was difficult but he helped me pick platter combo that worked with my restrictions.
The food was very good, portions were perfect for me, but would not have been
if my husband were here.
I hope to come back again soon.

Love Lebanese food and love this place! Always great service and always fresh.
Service is great and they make you feel like family.
We came in with a party of 10 and they treated us like royalty. The server was so great with my kids.
We will definitely come back!

I have had my eye on coming here for quite some time and happy hour On a Friday presented the perfect opportunity to finally make the long trek across the street (literally) from my home and sample some Middle Eastern cuisine. Just a note on happy hour first: it’s 4−7pm Monday through Friday. Select beers are $ 4 – 5 (the only $ 4 options are Miller Light and Heineken), select mixed drinks are $ 6, and select appetizers range from $ 4 to $ 7.
We sat outside since it was not blazing hot so I really can’t comment on the atmosphere inside, however, the outdoor seating is very nice. It has that traditional open air feel which I adore. Our server was very nice, a little slow but he was quite busy and we were in no rush so the leisurely pace was not an issue. We both ordered a Heineken to start and ended up having two more later. At the same time we ordered our drinks, we ordered the beef/​lamb shawarma sliders. Three come to an order and they were delicious! I think next time I’d try the chicken because the beef/​lamb was a little too tough for me. I loved the addition of pickled onions and red peppers to tuck into the sliders. The sauce was amazing too, kinda wish there had been a tad more.
Since it was the special pricing for HH, we decided to get a couple of other appetizers, the kibbeh and the kafta harra. The kibbeh (beef/​lamb and bugler fritters) come three to an order and the inside filling was pretty good, especially with the sauce, however they weren’t very crisp on the outside like I expected. Personally, I wouldn’t order these again. The kafta harra (lamb and beef sausages in tomato sauce with onions) was delicious! Very flavorful and it was great to have the complimentary pita to soak up extra sauce with. We had been planning to order entrees, however, we were pleasantly full after these three appetizers so decided not to push ourselves any further. Four beers and three apps came to $ 36– a pretty sweet HH deal in my opinion! Due to my inability to consume any further food during my visit, I’m guaranteed to return to give the entrees a whirl!

My girlfriend introduced this place to me after we had sort of figured out the root for our recent conflict.
We were welcomed and seated by the professional looking old gentelman at the patio. The restaurant was packed and we, well «I“was excited about the food since my dear girlfriend could not stop her praising about the food and so on. So we were served by the young server who was very sweet and patient. we placed the the order for taverna salad as an App and My entrée dish was chicken with humus and salad. The App came out and I tasted a bit Oh boy! It won My heart right away. I have never tasted such a fresh piece of tomatoes in my life. The tomatoes were so juicy and lucious that I could not stop myself and there goes all the salad in my stomache leaving my girlfriend go like grrr… Yeah right! Lol!
My entrée was good too. Chicken were tender and like I said they work on thier sauce in a such a way that it has right amount of flavor and texture.
Service was ok. May be our server had a lot of tables thats why she couldnt keep on eye on our empty water glass. For a monday evening it was a busy night. Yau! But who cares because food was awesome and worth the money we paid. We will definetly be back in near future.

So, so good. Take it from a Lebanese guy who grew up eating this kind of food. Everything is spot on.
Service was great and friendly, menu was creative with lots of options, and all the food was delicious. We routinely go more than once on our trips to DC.
They have lots of small plates so order a bunch and try it all!

Since my boyfriend is a quarter Lebanese, we always joke that he needs to learn food from the motherland. We finally had this opportunity to do so one afternoon during the week. They have a large outdoor seating area with a covered patio and cushioned seats which would be nice to do in warmer weather. We sat indoors at the bar area and it had a lot of natural light and a hip ambiance.
We started off with their stuffed grape leaves, which is a signature Lebanese appetizer, and it was full of lemon burst and flavor. I was being good so I just ordered the chicken shawrma salad but everything in it was fresh and delicious. My boyfriend ordered the chicken kabobs and inhaled them they were so good. We didn’t get the opportunity to drink but they have an interesting cocktail list and even better happy hour specials from 4 – 7 that consists of discounted food AND drink. Service was accomodating and the décor inside was modern and chic. I would definitely return for their happy hour specials.

Met up here with some friends and was pleasantly surprised! I had never had Lebanese food, but the food here was delicious! It’s very similar to Greek food. I recommend the Kibeh– they’re perfectly fried and really crispy on the outside. The meat filling is really tasty too! The hummus was good as well– I really liked the lamb and beef hummus with pita.
For dinner, we got lamb kabobs. The lamb was really flavorful and cooked perfectly (med-​rare). The portions are pretty big– the lamb kabob had 6 nicely sized pieces of lamb and the dish came with rice and zucchini. If you’re starving, have one to yourself, but with the Kibeh and the hummus, one dish was plenty to share.
Service was good and atmosphere was cool. Give this place a try next time you’re in the area!

My first review I gave this restaurant 5 stars and had an awesome experience. This time however, was antithetical to then. I ordered the same exact thing, specifically the chicken shawarma sandwich, and it was a huge disappointment. The fries were still great but The chicken itself lacked flavor and texture like it did before. The bread was bland and chewy. The sauce inside was unnoticeable and the sandwich itself was primarily composed of chicken, which normally wouldn’t be a problem having more meat but the imbalance was shocking.
The worst part of this experience was the garlic sauce. It still tasted amazing as I highlighted in my previous review; however, this time I guess I consumed too much of it because it was impossible, and I mean impossible, to rid myself of the odious garlic stench that ensued. I tried mints, brushed my teeth and used mouthwash multiple times, and even showered, but my efforts were futile. Eventually the smell dissipated… the morning after. What a terrible experience I hope to never replicate!