The Middle East & Zuzu

**this review is for my food/​drinks experience**
I came here yesterday to grab a drink and a bite to eat. I ordered a Raspberry-​Lime Ricky and a grilled cheese sandwich with tomatoes. The dish came with a side of really delicious fries– they were the perfect combination of crispy and soft! The sandwich was quite underwhelming, however– and it wasn’t because of the simplicity of the meal itself– but the quality of it. The bread was dry and a bit burnt and the cheese wasn’t fully melted. It just seemed hastily made and I didn’t think it was worth the price ($ 6). My drink, however, was really tasty. I’m a huge fan of the drinks here at the Middle East– they’re so innovative! If I ever stopped by again, it’d be for a show (I really do love this place as a venue) or for a drink.
The ambience of the restaurant was very nice and the music they played overhead was so jammy, which made it really hard to sit still! I loved the décor– such as the upside down chairs adorning the walls across from where I was sitting and the plants by the window. I noticed that the place itself is a bit dirty (there were still some leftover food on the floor by the booth I was in). The waiter was super nice, friendly, and personable, which was a plus!

This place is a f***ing joke. Don’t waste your time buying tickets to any music concerts here. They will find the stupidest reasons to kick you out. I got kicked out 5 minutes into the show for holding a beer for my cousin… place sucks! They threw my best friend up against a wall for being passed a J by the rapper on the stage!!! Try hiring some bouncers with IQs above 10 and then this place might be worthy of some recognition.

A truly special place — family owned and operated, this place has great food and excellent service. Everyone who works here is so kind, and one of the owners gave us free dessert when we came in for Mother’s Day. The couscous is probably my favorite, but, in all honesty, I’ve really liked everything I’ve had here. We come for shows, too, and love both spaces. The 25% off your dinner with ticket stubs is an incredible deal. We have a 4 year old, and this is one of his favorite places to eat — they are totally cool with kids here. Get out and support these guys —- just a great place.

This is in regards to a Julianna Barwick show I saw, who is an ambient artist at the upstairs Middle East.
This is not a good venue for these kinds of performances. Here are some sounds I heard during the live performance: music from the restaurant that the venue is in the back of, the music from the restaurant next door, a live band from next door, Freddie Gibbs bass booms from downstairs, motherfuckers talking, creaky doors opening in every direction.
I’m sure rock music or anything louder would be fine, but it was disappointing to be taken out of the sound of Julianna Barwick’s beautiful voice by random noises. On the other hand, it was only $ 15 dollars, so i can’t expect too much.

Service was great. Ordered a burger medium and got it rare… which happens. The server was nice enough to ask to replace it, (but I had already eaten a quarter), so I declined. Upon paying the waiter had spoken to the manager and they gave me a 50% discount, (which is about what I ate) and a take home of baklava. I defiantly appreciated the waitstaff. Too bad I’m allergic to nuts… A for effort. ;)

Let me start off by saying that in the past I have always enjoyed this place. I’ve witnessed many stellar musical performances over the years. Unfortunately, what took place on the night of 4÷7÷16 during the Cormega show completely eradicated every morsel of extracted enjoyment and musical bliss I have once obtained from this establishment.
Let me break it down for you; we’re two songs into the Cormega set and all was sounding and feeling great. I tapped my friend Jimmy on the shoulder to not only nod in appreciation of what Cormega was doing up on the stage but also nod in appreciation of a gigantic plume of purple haze smoke someone exhaled in the first 2 – 3 rows. My friend non-​verbally agreed and passed me a vape pen — yes a vape pen which could of easily been mistaken for an eCig or an actual Uniball for that matter. I put the pen in my front left pocket. Immediately after, we were approached by a female bouncer who was not having a good night. She proceeded to violently scream at us and ultimately kick us out of the venue (all three of us — sorry Doe Doe I know you were just minding your own business :(
Let me cut to the chase; was it wrong to have telegraphed a vape pen into my jean pocket? Sure, amateur hour indeed but all I’m saying is that she could’ve handled the situation differently. A verbal command of, «if I see it again — you’re gone!» would’ve been understood and supported by all three of us! The lady wouldn’t even give us a second to explain ourselves or even evidence the fact that it was a vape (which it was… just saying).
It’s crazy to think that we were removed from the show when in fact we weren’t even smoking! However, dude in arms reach was burning it down with the best of them (remember Jimmy just passed it to me and I put it in my pocket). The whole ordeal was unjust — outrageously unjust! Now I’ll have to wait another 15 years (I’ll be 47) to hear Cormega’s Realness album live (BTW this was his 15^th anniversary of that record).
I was under the impression that Cambridge, MA was an area of extreme diversity, acceptance and liberalization but that notion was proven to be horribly inaccurate. They should rename this venue, «Far Right» as opposed to Middle East when you consider how this wicked employee handled this circumstance.
Jimmy also informed me that this savage bouncer grabbed him by the arm (I believe she broke skin… ouch…poor Jimmy!) Get this: Jimmy was also forced to forfeit his lighter before exiting the venue like it was some sort of weapon of mass destruction. Can you say… salt on the wound or better yet salt on poor Jimmy’s torn up arm skin?
It goes without saying that I shall never return to this place ever again. I will make it my God given duty to stop all my friends as well as friends of their friends from using their hard earned money to purchase a ticket.

Came here on a Saturday night. Crowded and small but the interaction between the band and the crowd was fun. Only two bartenders. No enough staff; and you could walk across two lounges through a narrow pathway at the back. Not returning

A few friends and I drove into Cambridge from New York to see Freezepop and Symbion Project perform here the other week. Downstairs is a medium-​sized space with plenty of dance floor and a small stage in the back, but unnecessary rails along the sides and steps that people in the crowd kept tripping over. Sound system wasn’t bad, either — the music actually carried pretty well all the way to the restrooms on the other side of the basement.
On the first floor, there was also a live funk/​jam/​brass group while a Grateful Dead cover band was playing upstairs. The young man letting people in was pretty rude to my friend, and said something along the lines of «Would you want me to come to YOUR job and tell you how to do it?!» when we didn’t know that we needed a different wristband to watch the other performers.
Side note, I never fail to be impressed by how cheap drinks are in the state of Massachusetts as a whole.

I didn’t have any food so I can only speak about my experience Downstairs featuring SafetySuit last night. The venue wasn’t good but SafetySuit was amazing.
I thought doors opened at 8 so we were standing in line inside at 7. I wanted to be there early so I could get a good spot. About 7:30 — 7:45, a guy barks at us to move the line outside so we do not disturb the patrons eating. Why not have signs and communicate that we have to be outside?
I guess there was a last minute meet and greet tweeted by SafetySuit. Those people were pulled from the line and let inside. Then people still outside who had paper tickets were given wristbands and were moved to the opposite side of the door. Once they got through paper tickets, they came back for people who were will call. Starting letting everyone in at 8:45. It got very cold and my feet were throbbing after standing for nearly 2 hours.
I was very disappointed with the venue itself. Based on reviews and photos, I had a general sense of what it would be like but man, I wasn’t expecting that. Was no effort put in, at all? Small, dark, very minimal seating and flat soda.

Simple place, they give pita bread and dip for starters but it’s cold. And not so so great.
The food is good 3.5÷5 but I don’t think I’ll be back because nothing sparked out in particular.

Illegally collecting cover charges for select members of the group without posting outside of venue. Not worth the money and terrible vibe. Pretentious… David is the worst.

I’ve never actually dined here so I can’t speak to the quality of the food but I have performed here a few times so my review will be about that. There are two stages, one upstairs and one downstairs and we’ve played both. The one downstairs is a big space. Actually, its one of the larger spaces you’ll find in the city. I believe it holds about 600 people when it’s filled to capacity. The one upstairs is much smaller, holding around 150 people or so.
I actually prefer the upstairs stage for a few reasons. First, for whatever reason, the upstairs staff is much more organized and secondly the room is much brighter and warm upstairs. When we played downstairs we were waiting around in the green room for almost 2 hours after the time we were supposed to go on and the downstairs space is very dark, as if you’re playing in a basement somewhere. Ultimately, the more fans you can get to the show the better and therefore the downstairs space is ideal. Just be prepared for the headaches that come with it.
As far as the sound quality goes, it wasn’t so great to be completely honest. I feel for such as well-​known venue in the city, they should be employing much better sound engineers.

Upstairs staff is pretty good, downstairs staff is super rude and the sound system is pretty bad. I came for new years and couldn’t even leave my jacket.

I love the middle east! Sometimes it’s a bit crowded and i’m happiest there when the band is one that doesn’t attract college kids. Once I forgot to get my card at the bar before leaving (doy!). When I went back the next morning to collect it, they sat me down with a complimentary fresh cup of coffee as they tracked down my card. It was a small gesture of kindness but it made my day.

The space is small! I have only been on the first floor and I’m not sure if there is a downstairs or upstairs.
This is a music lover’s spot, so go for the free performance nights, the ticketed shows and the other live music events. I am not much of a concert person so I haven’t had many reasons to come here. They do have a brunch menu and they serve food, but again, it strikes me foremost as a performance venue and that’s what I would go for, more so than any dining option, as there are many others in central square.

Cool venue (downstairs) for a night club. I mean, not much to say other than I could be happy if my «Heroes» lived here forever.

The customer service in the box office is the absolute worst. The woman on the phone had a horrible a attitude and hung up on me several times when I was trying to find alternative solution to finding tickets to a concert in the down stairs part. She was extremely arrogant.

I went here for a concert two days in a row, I unfortunately never got a chance to try the food, but I can tell you about how clean this place is. Let’s start off with the one bathroom on the first floor, it is a shared unisex bathroom. It is dirty, the door is hard to lock, and the mirror has marks that it was not cleaned well.
The downstairs was poorly lit, which I think they do for ambiance, but even the guy performing complained it was too dark. The bathrooms were gross, the floor was covered in water, no paper towels, and there was glass on the ground, but hey! At least there were two bathrooms!

3.5 stars. grape leaf apps was good, fresh and healthy. very appetizing. the shrimp kebob was so so, meats were much better (lamb and chicken). cous cous was prob the worst item, not fresh tasting… should’ve gotten rice pilaf… the veggies on the plate was good. the spicy red sauce was v good.
loved the outdoor seatings. despite the dirty roads of central sq, it was nice to sit out with the summer breeze blowing. very low key but nice once in a while.
Our waiter Rob was great, very friendly and sweet! not the pretend sweet bc he has to be, but genuinely nice. Will be back!

I think tonight I have had my worst experience ever in a restaurant. Our waiter was Jonathan R.
I was here with three friends. Our plan was to order our food the same time as our drinks. I ordered felafel and two of my friends wanted to order a pizza to split, to which he responded «oh, that takes a long time.» He said it would be about thirty minutes and my felafel would come out way before. I asked him if he could just put the order in for the pizza and then put in the order for the felafel I little later so they would come out at the same time, to which he replied «oh no, I have no control over what the kitchen does.» My two friends hesitated for a few seconds and then he said «well I don’t know what’s going on,» and walked away from us mid order.
We were obviously put off by that and when he came back to the table to see if we had made a decision we told him we were just going to skip the food. To that responded by telling us he would put the order for the felafel in and walked away.
He came back with the felafel very quickly. Obviously I told him I was confused because we had told him we were going to skip the food. He got very upset, took the food away and came back with the check which he slammed on the table and then replied very loudly «I don’t expect a tip, you guys are a bunch of brats»

This review is for the dessert I had.
They had very good baklava!
Very interest crowd on the weekends. They have a lot of live bands.

I love the Middle East. It’s such a great place to relax and enjoy great music.
There are a lot of phenomenal artists that perform here monthly which is awesome. The most I’ve ever paid for a show was about $ 25-​$ 30, which is cheaper and much more enjoyable than some whack a$$ nightclub, although Naga is next door and pretty cool.
Another great thing about Mid. East is that the drinks are strong and cheap. 3 honey jack and cokes & 3 shots of henny costs about $ 49. That’s what I’m talking about! There’s nothing better than feeling good and being in the zone.
There’s also no pressure or enforced dress code, which allows you to be laid back and comfy wearing whatever you choose and plus the lighting is dim so no one will even really see your outfit. I just wouldn’t suggest wearing anything too fancy though. Overall it’s just a cool place to chill, without pretentious people or lames.
Other notes:
Security is cool as h-​e double hockey sticks.
If you’re a single woman looking for companionship there are plenty of dudes here.
Ladies bathroom has a nice mirror.
Staff is cool AF.
Right in the heart of Central Sq.
Street metered parking or plenty of metered parking lots nearby.
Close to the Central Sq. MBTA stop.

This review is about Middle East management.
Everything started with a Jarabe de Palo concert on March 12. For reasons beyond the control of Middle East, the concert was delay for several hours, after which I was not interested any more. A friend of mine talked to Lionel, the manager, and told us to email him the next day to talk about our refund, since the event for which we bought our tickets was not even close to what was being offered.
After some emails back and forth, Lionel came back to me and offer us a full refund, an explanation of what happen and on top he offer to put us on the list the next time Jarabe de Palo is on Middle East. That is a GREAT customer service.
For sure, I will now take my time to check the place, since the food and ambiance seems as cool as their management team. Congratulations!!!

I’ve been attending shows forever at this venue. Some highlights, seeing a no name band called The Killers open for Stellastarr* who doesn’t exist anymore. I also saw the lead singer of the Vines fight his guitarist and smash him in the head with a guitar and ultimately land on me… Other than that what can I say, awesome bartenders, a pitched floor maybe just due to father time, big enough stage and even an elevated area for your short people… The whole block is great and when you’re tired of paying house of blues prices this is a great alternative to support local smaller acts and even some of those has been ones too… Plenty of good eats in the area as well, I mean a ton… Central square is all that’s left of old cambridge, *sheds a tear* die yuppies and MIT /​Harvard fuckers !!!

I haven’t been to the Middle East (downstairs, not the restaurant) in many years… and now I remember why.
It was bad years ago when I saw Dan Deacon, and when the venue was changed from TT and the Bears to the Middle East for the Will Butler show, I shuddered, but sucked it up.
I wish I sold my tickets off instead.
The Middle East has turned into a place where everyone in the area goes to be cool and hip, and not enjoy the music. When I saw Dan Deacon, the event was fun and energetic because Dan is very interactive with his crowd. Will Butler (yes, the Grammy award winner from Arcade Fire) of course is a singer songwriter, so everything was a little different.
It doesn’t matter if you’re will call or have a ticket in your hand (remember, will call is cheaper than having a ticket mailed to you) at the Middle East downstairs, because the line to get in is the same no matter what. Doors were at 9, and we got in line at 9:15 to get in. They could only let 10 people in at a time because the will call line and the ID checking line were the same. What the heck?
Many of you are probably familiar with the Middle East downstairs, and how it’s basically a basement. Yes, a basement, complete with the overhead pipe feel. There is no tilt to the floor or to the stage, so if you’re short and in the back, you’re absolutely screwed. I couldn’t see Will at all (look at my picture) and the crowd was packed in so much that it was basically a fire hazard waiting to happen.
The security is outsoured to another company, and the sound guy was on his phone more than once. It’s quite apparent that they are more interested in the «Nightclub» aspect than the «music» aspect. Everyone was talking through Will’s set, to the point of where I couldn’t hear him over it. Now, of course, I understand the venue can’t really prevent that, but you can create an atmosphere that is less about the snacks and the drinks and more about the music.
I will be avoiding this venue at all costs in the future. Shameful for the Boston music scene.

There isn’t a nicer, more welcoming family in town. You can always come in and find wonderful food, friendly people, and fun music. It’s a treasure of Cambridge and has hosted many legendary performers and nights.
Food wise the whipped garlic is peerless. It will ward off all nasty viruses and colds. The stuffed grape leaves are the delicious Lebanese style, the falafel sandwiches are a guilty pleasure and the kibby can’t be beat.
Don’t forget to say hi to Josef and Nabil and thank them. Tell them I say hi and you will become part of the family too.

Been here twice for club nights. The first time was a random Friday night and we ducked into the door to the right where the room was basically empty-​ish and the $ 5 entrance just not worth it. Had fun dancing, though, since I was with a group of friends. Bartenders were nice enough, music was fun. Overall, we didn’t stay too long and I knew to come back for a more special event.
The second time I came was during soul night through the door to the left and back to the big room. $ 8 cover was worth it but a $ 3 coat check you’ve got to be KIDDING ME. Rip off. I tossed my coat on a chair and hung close. The music was a total throw back and SO much fun. Everyone dance, many people on the stage. Cheap 16oz cans of beer (PBR, Narragansett, Coors… for $ 4). Friendly bartenders and a good time. Cute Cambridge crowd, too. ;)

Nightclub Review only.
This place is getting 2 stars because the bartenders were good and so was the music.
We paid to see a concert, yet we still had to wait in line for about 30 minutes. I don’t understand waiting in line when you already have tickets. Not «will call» tickets, tickets in my hand. During the show, which was a mellow, aucoustic show, a fight broke out behind me. Seriously?!
Then I had to go the the ladies room, 2 of the 3 stalls were clogged and gross, and so was one of the sinks. When the staff was alerted, they handed me a roll of paper towels to dry my hands. Seems like this plumbing issue is probably a normal occurrence if this was the staff’s reaction. If you are paying for a ticket to see a show, the least you could ask for is plumbing that works. Gross.

J’y ai mangé sur la terrasse et je né sais pas de quoi a l’air le club à l’intérieur. Mais la nourriture et le service étaient excellents, la bière à un prix très abordable et c’est agréable de passer une partie de la soirée à discuter de tout et de rien sur une des rares terrasses de Boston. Moi qui aime bien la bouffe méditerranéenne et moyen-​orientale, j’ai apprécié !