Babylon Cafe and Mediterranean Grill

Food used to be better, service used to be faster. I won’t be back here! Took them 45 minutes to tell me that they didn’t cook my food, and the waitress didn’t even apologize for it.

This place has steadily declined, understaffed and very poor service. Waited 45 minutes and one of the meals never even came, no explanation by the waitress just that it would be longer. They never made the meal is what actually happened.
We used to be regular customers, but unfortunately this happens often. We won’t be back.

Such a terrible experience. If you like drinking water with your meal, then don’t come here because THEY DONT SERVE WATER. So ridiculous. They also refused to serve sauce with the shawarma orders unless you pay extra. So terrible, never come here!

I just visited with my friends. The ambience was really good, Arabian style restro. Started off with Hooked App to get discounts: p
Ordered a cheese sandwich and Sahlab (amazing drink, a thick lassi which is hot)
Then ordered Hookah — kewi mint flavor. Split between 8 friends, it was amazing. Our server was good, she took care of us.
But since the restaurant was a bit open, it didn’t offered a feeling of closeness for our group.

The poor rating is not for the service, which is admittedly slow due the place being severely understaffed. It is because of the arrogance of the owner who thinks we will eat or drink any shit he puts up with a middle eastern name on it.
I ordered Iraqi tea with cardamom for my American friends who never tried it out. I poured the tea and couldn’t find any taste of cardamom. I opened it to find JUST BLACK TEA. I told the waitress and she went to the owner to tell him about it. He waved her off and she came back saying it has cardamom. I showed her the teapot. No cardamom in it. I have ordered it before and it always had the cardamom in it. She then told me they will make me a new one. The owner didn’t do shit. We waited half an hour before I ordered the cheque. I did not want to cause a commotion infront of my friends. I went to the reception and asked the waiter to talk to the owner/​manager. She said he just left. I knew it was not the waiter’s fault and I am not the sort of person who just lashes out to anyone I see. I wrote down my name and phone number and asked her to give it to the owner.
So the poor rating is because of how the owner treats the customers. If he thinks we are worth shit to him and humiliate us like that then I really hope I don’t see his face because next time its going to get really ugly.
Just go to Zands. Its only a minute away and they treat you with a lot more respect.

I really wanted to give this place 4 stars, but the service is SO INCREDIBLY PAINFULLY AWEFUL, that it really did ruin the whole experience. I should not have to hunt down the waitstaff for silverware, after they forgot to pick up the food from the kitchen!
This was my experience:
The food was amazing. The plate sizes were pretty big, and the prices were reasonable. However, the service was SO BAD that it completely destroyed our enjoyment of the place, hence the 2 star rating. They should keep the chef and fire EVERYONE ELSE, while they are at it, the owners should invest in a competent training manager.
First of all, there were maybe 5 parties at the place when we walked in. The largest party was already eating. There were 2 – 3 waitresses, several tables were smoking hukka while working on their personal computers (AKA not needing attention). This was not a busy night. The service was beyond slow. We sat down and ordered 2 appetizers and 2 main plates to be shared among 4 people. I’m pretty sure we didn’t start getting our appetizers until 30 minutes later, then we still had to wait for our meal. It took them about 20 minutes to come out with a small kettle of tea. They didn’t bring out the bubble teas until after the food arrived (40 minutes after being ordered). One of our plates (a gyro) hadn’t arrived 10 minutes after everything else. Maybe if the waitress hadn’t been to busy talking with the other wait staff she would have noticed that our food had been ready to pick up a WHILE ago (from where we were sitting it was easy to see the cooking area).
Customer attention is almost non-​existent. We were literally waving at our waitress every time she walked by and could not get her attention. We decided it was easier to walk up to the bar/​kitchen and ask for silverware than continue waving at her and being ignored.
We ordered a 2 hose hukka midway through our meal to ensure we could start smoking at a reasonable time. Again, another 30 minute wait. When they finally brought it out, they brought the wrong setup — only one hose instead of two. It wouldn’t have been a big deal if we didn’t just wait 30 minutes for them to bring it out. In the 3 hours we were there (most of that due to their slowness) the waitress came by ONCE to ask if we were OK and needed anything. ONCE. I’m pretty convinced it’s because she overheard us complaining about the service. Overall, the majority of our time there the wait staff was congregated at the cashier’s counter chit-​chatting, not even looking up to see it they are needed.
The place doesn’t serve tap water even when asked. Instead they are happy to charge $ 1 for a water bottle. The final straw was when we decided to leave and could not get the waitress to acknowledge our existence to bring the checks. We walked up to the counter and asked for our bills separated. Either there is an issue with their software or they require training on it, but our girl was unable to split one hukka 4 ways and add items of food on the same receipt, so we each had to sign 2 separate receipts. That in itself was odd, but not a big deal. After the 2^nd food receipt was printed (we hadn’t started splitting the hukka until the end) the cashier encountered an issue with one of the food items — apparently it was charging us a whole dollar less than it was suppose to, and she couldn’t figure out how to add an extra dollar to our bill. She called over the manager to help, and once the manager fixed the issue, she (same manager) took the opportunity to check out the person who was behind our party! Basically cut us all off and printed his receipt out. The guy had been taking with them at the counter since before we got there, but it was clear that they were friends and that he worked at the restaurant. That night was his night off. (We got to hear all about the conversation while we waited on our bills to be split). After paying his bill, he still stuck around for a few more minutes talking about weekend plans… Clearly, not in a big hurry to leave.
Overall, the wait staff is incompetent and unprofessional. Unfortunately, their food is pretty good. If I decide to have Mediterranean again I’ll attempt to order to-​go. Maybe they won’t screw that up.

I only came here for hookah so this is the review for shisha experience only.
This restaurant is clean and have lots of space inside, you can sit wherever you want. We choose to sit outside to get better air, they only had two tables setting in front of the restaurant but we were lucky to get one.
Our waitress was very friendly and informational. We ordered the California Dream. The flavor was very subtle and smoky. After a few puffs, it still gives throat burning feeling and didn’t become smoother. A waiter attempted to add coal for us after a few minutes we got our hookah, he left when he learned the hookah was still new. Then he never come back to our table anymore.
I ordered their raspberry tea and it was sweet and tasty. My friend ordered their pistachio hot-​dessert, which was a bomb!
My overall experience was good, I may come back and try their different shisha flavors.

This is an exceptional little middle eastern place for B/​CS. It’s open late, it has a great menu, the food is good (not outstanding like the places I’ve had in Houston), and the overall atmosphere is nice.
However, it depends on which server you get. We’ve had excellent and terrible service on different nights.
Another down fall of this place is the pita bread/​naan wrap… They’re store bought and dry. If these were made fresh here they’d be selling out.
Also, 2 of 3 times here they have screwed up our sandwich orders because the servers don’t write it down…
Great hookah choices. Decent prices to smoke.
I also like they give you a bottle of water rather than a glass of poorly filtered city water on non-​filtered ice. Kudos to Babylon Café on the bottled water!

I’ve come here a few times late at night with friends for hookah and tea. They have a large selection and everyone who works there is very nice. A huge negative point though is that they don’t serve tap water, they only have bottled water. Why???
Recently I came here for dinner and got the gyro sandwich and it was so-​so. The meat was good but the veggies were not super fresh and I wished there was more tzatziki sauce. They also used the thin pita you use in shwarmas instead of the more doughy pita normally used in gyros. I also ordered a diet coke since I hate paying for water (seriously, water should be free!), and was expecting a fountain drink and was disappointed to get a can.
I don’t think this will be my go to place for Mediterranean food, but I will probably be back for late night chillage.

I thought the selection of drinks, food, and shisha was very impressive. The waitress was extremely helpful! And the food tasted good. I also thought this would be a great place to hang with friends at night!

Service is so, so awful. Management is routinely rude and they have a revolving door of waitstaff, probably because it’s a shitty job. Also, even if your group spends over $ 100, they won’t give you free water, which is just irritating.

The WORST service I have EVER received in College Station. They only had one waitress who even spoke to us (after letting us sit for 20 minutes). Our hookah was all wrong when we got it (we asked for ice tips and ice in the base as well has two hoses, the one we received had one hose and no ice at all). Our food took forever to come out, as did our drinks. And to top it off, the manager completely brushed all of my group off when we tried to complain. He spent the entire night serving his personal friends who kept coming in and monopolizing his time.
To top it off, the owner claimed he would cover our hookah and meal when we called his phone and told him about our experience and then BACKED OUT ON COVERING OUR CHECK when we tried to actually do it.
The service here is complete trash and the management is worse. It’s a huge disappointment considering they have decent food and hookah but nothing is worth that deplorable customer service and horrid attitude.

I should have done the hookah first. Worst meal and service I’ve had in a long time.
At the suggestion of a friend with a now questionable palate, 5 of us went to this place. The waitress seemed was inexperienced and had no personality. You have to pay for bottled water as the do not serve «tap» water. My friend had fried potatoes that were doused so heavily with lemon and garlic that they were inedible. The onion rings had no onions in them. I still doesn’t know how they did that! My other friend had a lamb gyro that was tough and dry no sauce. Rice, hummus, and falafel were a textural trio of tastelessness. The guava juice is actually guava nectar, (a textural thing) but it tasted nice. Bread was tough. Overall so disappointed because I love Mediterranean cuisine. Upon asking «Hanna» for the manager and our checks, she disappeared, 20 minutes later a different waiter appeared with our tabs and still no manager. At check out we again said we’d like to talk to the manager… no response, no one cared. To add insult to injury we had to pay gratuity on a table of 5 for a poor dining experience. I won’t be back.

Been back here multiple times now and however I will start with the food is 5 star. The chef knows what he is doing and the food is great.
The downside, the food however sometimes is inconsistent, I’ve ordered the same plate the past 4 times and every single time it has come out different, with different rice or pickles or no pickles etc. Small things matter to me. There is always 2 or 3 older guys standing around «glaring» at tables. Even when our water is unfilled or drinks are empty the gentlemen do not come out ask if we need refills or anything.
The service the other night was the final straw for us to hold out on going for awhile with our waiter sitting us down and saying can I take your order and half way through saying my order he abruptly yells at another waiter and says «THATS MY TABLE!» yea yea… and then does it a second time we try to order. We almost walked out.
Then when our food came out he forgot a plate, forgot our appetizer and forgot our friends plate entirely half way through the meal he’s like everything okay and we are like no you forgot half the order… not one «I’m sorry» or anything just «OK OK OK».
Also we ordered a hookah at the beginning and told us it would take 10 minutes… 30 minutes in to waiting we had no hookah and empty drinks. We also had a lady come up and ask how we were doing and then goes never mind wrong table and walks off.
BOTTOMLINE: Food here is AMAZING, however the management and service are lacking entirely with almost 0 to no training in the modern service industry.

I just got here from Austin, I like Mediterranean food, so I went and tried this new place and well, it wasn’t what I expected, I asked for a chicken shawarma plate and what I got was a overpriced Taco Bell chicken quesadilla which by the way wasn’t even made with white meat as well as a tasteless rice and
a more than simple iced tea.
In other words a waste of my money and my time.
If you go for the smoking then that’s the place to go.

Came here not knowing what to expect… But I have to say I wasn’t expecting to give it 4 stars. The food was great! Had the Chicken Shish Tawook & the boyfriend had a Gyro! Yum! Lots of hookah flavors to choose from. Nothing like this in BCS.
Negatives… Service needs work. Waitress need better training.
If you’re thinking of trying something new, I would highly recommend it!

Very cute space, exciting menu, nice patio.
Unfortunately, execution is less than stellar.
First, the good: my gyro sandwich was excellent, and at $ 5.99 very reasonably priced.
Not so good:
Greek salad came with dried-​out, papery lettuce.
Rice — we tried both biryani and white — was luke-​warm, dry, and lacking any flavor.
The drink advertised as bubble tea turned out to be an overly sweet milkshake with very sweet round balls.
Cappuccino came flat and ridiculously sweet, no foam and barely any coffee flavor at all.
They don’t have filtered tap water, bottled water only.
Somebody mentioned that their regular server was out that night, so perhaps that explains why the service was painfully slow.

This place has the worst service that I have seen in a while. It took me and my friends an hour and half to get our food and hookah. The waitress did not once come and tell us what the deal with the food was. In fact, she practically gave up at the end and just threw our cards and receipts back on our table. The waitress didn’t even leave a pen for tips at the end, as if she wasn’t expecting one.
The food was subpar. I ordered the mixed plate which came with chicken tikka and beef kabob. It was not hot when it came out and the chicken tikka tasted like rubber. The only positive thing about the food was the decent Iraqi style kabob.
The hookah was bad as well, I believe this is because we ordered the two hoses. So do not do that.
Overall, don’t come here to eat. If you like medetrainian/​Arab/​Persian food go to Shiraz in college station.

Amazing food n great hookah.
Big shisha selection. You can always mix anything. Personally i smoked the grape mint n it was best hookah.

Wow this is cool! Friend told me this just opened and we stopped by as they were putting up the now open sign. (See photos). We were able to enter before the manager was able to even get down off the ladder putting up the open sign.
My wife and I were the very first customers today. (We do that a lot, often by accident combined with spatial awareness and a love of anything new)
Enjoyed Turkish coffee with goat cheese jabon and a beef & tomato version as well. Best way I can describe them are as Middle Eastern pizzas. Home made bread /​crust which they confirmed that they bake here rocks! The coffee is one of the finest I have ever tasted in Bryan /​College Station. Apparently I’ve never tried Turkish coffee and my wife claims she hasn’t had it in 7 years as there’s no where else to get it. I can still smell and taste it and want to go back for more. It was spiced with cardamom and something else, small cups yet with condensed flavors and obviously caffeine. I am one of the rare people in the world to be blessed to be semi-​allergic to caffeine so when I choose to indulge in it, I get wired on like what I imagine crack to be like.
Enjoy our photos of what we ate & drank.
Huge place with hookah, awesome music and a huge unique menu. There is nothing else like this in Aggieland, nor am I aware of anything like it ever in this area. And OMG the awesome smell in here.
Since they just opened when we walked in, I know the menu is limited. We were the first to ever see the menus as they had to get them out of the back as they were not placed out yet.
If it seems amazing that a new place has opened with such a comprehensive menu with everything from Turkey to Iraq and Iran, Afghanistan, etc.; They are not new to the game of running restaurants. The manager told me that they have been running Shisha Café in San Antonio for many years. I think he said 8 or 12, don’t recall. So this isn’t their first rodeo;
I am not aware of any restaurant remotely close to this concept in Aggieland, nor any that ever has been. It has the best music, I mean just wonderful music (I am a local DJ so pick up on that), a very unique coffee (would call it best of it’s type but there are no other examples of it’s type to compare to) and an exciting menu.
(Yelp has terrible photo resolution so if someone wants me to upload close ups of the menu, lemme know ~ Their website doesn’t appear to up up yet)
Most certainly one of the hottest and most exciting new places to open in Aggieland.