Haifa Cafe

This place was a let down. I love middle eastern food and given all the places nearby, this looked half way authentic from the chain restaurants. I got a Greek salad. It has exactly two slices of thin tomatoes and three cucumber slices. A thimble full of feta and some canned black olives. It was what you’d get on an airplane. They didn’t bother shaking the dressing so I got a lot of oil with no herbs. No pita or bread for $ 7.50. Seems like a waste of money. The place next door was booming. I don’t think people come here much. There was no line at 12:00.

Came here to try something a bit different and left disappointed.
Tried the lunch special, which is a sampling of various choices on he menu. The salad offered limp iceberg lettuce and flavorless tomatoes. The humus was ok, bit lacked any zip. The felafel and shwarma were both overcooked. The highlight of the meal was the «spicy» rice, which really wasn’t spicy.
You can do better.

Got the falafel sandwich, very plain and not much flavor. would recommend asking for a spicy sauce.

Place is money. Killer gyros and shawarma sandwiches at a premium price. This place is from a simpler time; a time when a man could get an exquisite gyro combo from a less trafficked, hole-​in-​the-​wall (yet impeccably clean) spot and then space out for 15 minutes, pondering his purpose in this world. Where have those days gone? Haifa will take you there.

Disclaimer: You’re innocent until proven guilty!
If you like middle eastern food this isn’t a bad place to try out. I had the Chicken shawarma, beef shawarma, and the falafel. The falafel used to be better, a bit spicy and crispy but recently something in the recipe changed, so now they are bland, chunky, and wet and for some reason hulk green on the inside (it’s a new shade of green) with an overwhelming taste of coriander.
But if you read any of my reviews you’ll notice that there’s usually a reason stronger than the food review to highlight and in this case the reason is the strong lady behind the counter.
For someone who opens up shop at 10am and closes up by 3:30pm with loads of excess food to waste this lady shouldn’t be able to afford the dry face she puts on display when dealing with customers! Even when you’re a regular customer who visits 3 times a week you cannot escape the deafening burden of guilt that she transmits when taking your order. When the neighboring competing restaurants immerse you in the privilege of serving your dish this person makes you cringe and wrinkle on the inside in anticipation of the next question from Judge Judy: «Is that all ?». If she adds bread to your order — even if you’re not going to eat it — just take it and feed it to the pidgins outside, that’s still more merciful than having to suffer her frown as she takes it out of the bag.
Last year things used to be better because she had a nice man in a clean apron serving beside her — and boy oh boy — with a smile on his face, so only 50% of the transaction was carried out by her. Since then she has replaced him with a someone from the kitchen (I hope) in a baseball cap and dirty sweater who rather looks like an assistant technician in training at a Rodriguez Tire Shop.
So here’s my advice to Miss Haifa; If you want your business to stay in business consider the following steps in order of importance:
1– Disappear from the counter.
2– Hire and train a couple of people who can start early and close late. There’s a lot of business to be had between 3:30 and 6:00pm. If someone comes by at 3:30 and finds your door shut odds are very low they will try you again.
3– Please relocate the chest freezer that greets the customers as they come through the door.
4– Look at your neighbors, on a dark day in Chicago (189 days/​year on average) you can read a book to the light from Tokyo Lunch boxes or Cafecito. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to invest in some low energy efficient lighting.
5– Add lighting to your food display cabinet. In the current lighting conditions everything looks gray and pale with no contrasts.
Finally, why do I bother? Because your food is good (relatively, the best in this zip code, better the NafNaf, Roti and Mezza grill) and that’s why you’re still in business, so imagine the potential you have if you adopt any of these improvements. Don’t take this personally, but I’d start with #1.
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P.S: the pictures on Unilocal ARE NOT of the Haifa café on 19 N. Wells street, at least not in its current condition.

Next door, Cafecito’s line is out the door by 11 AM… and inside Haifa, there are crickets. With so many middle eastern places in the Loop and Chicago in general, Haifa is just sub-​par. The beef was dry, and their chicken shawarma isn’t really chicken shawarma; it’s simply baked chicken that’s chopped up, and right before serving it, they put on a «shawarma» sauce. It’s not roasted in.
To complement such average fare, Haifa has a surly server who seems to detest anyone who comes in — so they don’t.

I stopped by with two coworkers for lunch and if the poor ventilation and lack of cool air wasn’t already a red flag to go elsewhere; then the utter disorganization that ensues upon placing an order will solidify this decision. My 2 coworkers ordered the chicken kebab pita and I ordered the chicken shawarma pita. We’re watching the guy prepare the pitas unsure which sandwich he was preparing because he never opened his mouth. So I’m waiting in line the cashier tells me «we’re just waiting for your fries» and I told her «no, I’m also waiting on a chicken shawarma, you never asked me what I wanted on it». What happened was the guy preparing the pita assumed I wanted the «standard» fill (lettuce, onion, etc.) and no additional condiments. He was clearly annoyed that he had to remake the pita. I grabbed the food and left.
The pita was weak and thin and basically fell apart when I bit into it. It was clearly lacking hummus even though I asked for it. Moreover, my friends pita had onions in it even though he specifically asked for none. The chicken was actually pretty good, seasoned well and moist. Overall, there are too many lunch options in the Loop for poor customer service and mediocre food.

I walked in excited to find a place for chicken shawarma. It looked and smelled great. Taste was another thing. There was no garlic sauce and everything was bland. I’m glad I tried it so at least I got it out of the way, but I’m not going back. Best shawarma is in Detroit, definitely not Chicago

I’ve worked a block down for over a year, finally walked in an was pleasantly surprised. I order a gyro combo with fries and a pop. Gyro was good, had good flavor. Combo was less than $ 9. Not bad for the loop

Keep walking.
I have walked by this place hundreds of times, often marveling about how small the line is, even at 12 noon on a Friday.
So today, after seeing long lines at neighboring establishments, I broke down and came through the door.
I had the Gyro sandwich. I was excited seeing the meat on the spit as I walked in. Well they don’t cut the meat fresh of the spot or grill the it to crisp it up. It is steamed to death so it is grey and spongy in the pita.
If you want a short wait in line, come here. Otherwise keep walking for your Mediterranean food fix.
An hour later and I’m fighting sleep and filled with regret.

The best way I can describe Haifa is with a story.
Where I used to work down in Florida, there was a place called Brown Bag Deli. It was easily the closest place to the office. You’d get BBD a fair amount, and you could always expect a decent sandwich for a decent price. You never said «Wow, gotta go back to BBD for that [ … ]!»
Haifa is basically the same way for me. A chicken shawarma sandwich, chips and a pop for $ 7.71 is a great deal, but in no way was I blown away by the taste. It was a decent sandwich and a good amount of food for lunch.

Work down the block and stumbled upon Haifa because the line at the sandwich shop next door was too long. The falafel sandwich with tahini/​salad filling is delicious. They also have one of the best lentil soups in the city (warning, it’s salty). I hope foot traffic picks up because they’re not busy enough.

Talk about bang for your buck?!! The portions are huge and the lunch options are all less than $ 10.
A friend and I decided to check this place out. Despite sharing a front door with LA Tan and Dunkin Donuts, it is conveniently located. If you are looking for frills, this is not your place. Just the basics.
I enjoyed my gyro and falafel. Heavy (large portion) as can be, but a real treat. No surprise that I could never pick up the pita. Ended up eating with a knife and fork. It was entirely too much food for me. Especially when the plan of going back and actually do some work.
At $ 6.99 for a meal and a drink, you would be well served to dine here. Just do your best to exercise self control.

The price is right on point for what you get. Food is good.

Wanted to try this place for a long time but when they opened a «I Dream of Falafel» across the street I put this place on the back burner… and there it should have remained! i didn’t expect this place to look like your run-​of-​the-​mill gyro joint on the inside but it did: cramped, a bit on the dirty side and smelled like burnt grease. Not what I was expecting for it’s location downtown, but the people inside were nice so I went forward with my order. I got the chicken shwarma pita and fries. The chicken was GROSS. It was soaked in juice but still had that dry/​overcooked consistency in my mouth. The chicken had been soaking so much it had turned into mush. The flavor of the chicken was also pretty nasty. I shant be going back.

That was a disappointment. I came in hungry and with a falafel craving. I ordered the vegetarian plate and could only finish the falafel. Here’s the run down:
Baba ghanouj: somehow sweet, bitter, burnt, and bland at the same time.
Stuffed grape leaves: I couldn’t even finish one bite. Oily, sour, and slightly rotten tasting. Never again.
Hummus: fine. Tasty relative to rest of the components, which isn’t high praise.
Tabbouleh: meh. To be fair, not my favorite in the first place.
Falafel: pretty good, actually, and how this was saved from a 1-​star experience.
Bottom line: there are a number of high quality, delicious Middle Eastern restaurants on the loop. This is not one of them.

I am an Israeli/​Middle Eastern/​Lebanese food fan and I LOVED my lunch today from Haifa Café.
I had a simple Chicken Shawarma plate, with one falafel, a heaping pile of rice, and large spoonful of creamy hummus and a little sad pile of lettuce with cucumber and tomato.
The chicken was super tasty, moist and went so well with the hummus and rice all in one bite — it has to be delivered to your mouth this way. You get a half a pita (not homemade), but you really don’t need it.
Really great, filling and all under 7 bucks! YES!

This place was definitely fast in service, but the food did not really sit well with my stomach.
I ordered the falafel entrée which came with a pita pocket (on the side), six falafels, rice, salad, and hummus. Most of the food had really good flavor. I liked the rice and the hummus. Those were the highlight of my meal.
However, the falafels were SUPER dry and hard. I had to slather each of them into the hummus to get some moisture into them. For the portions, I didn’t feel it was worth almost $ 8.
The lady working the cash register also did not ask me if I wanted a receipt when I could see that the receipts were all being printed. She was pushing to get me out of the line that I felt I would be rude if I stopped her by asking for my receipt. Thankfully they did not overcharge me.
Not sure if I’ll be coming back to this one, especially since my stomach was not doing well after eating here.

Eh. $ 5 groupon… cheap convenience gets me all the time. For $ 5 it wasn’t bad… but it wasn’t good.
Kind of sad I wasted the calories… and my hunger pains.
I will say falafel is tasty… better than Roti’s.

One star because it’s the minimum.
One star because it’s close to convenient spots and inexpensive.
One star because my best friend eats there habitually.
I wanted to go for lunch since he has great taste (I did mention he’s my friend). I’ve been previously and was not impressed. I thought I didn’t order the right things.
I’ve ordered in the past:
Hummus with pita (5x)
Baba Ganoush (2x)
Tabouli (2x)
The Hummus is blandcity. The Baba Ganoush is not that egg planty or fresh. And frankly both taste mealy. The Tabouli is inconsistent and weird.
So back to present. We ordered:
Chicken Schwarma on French roll
Fresh roast chicken. We got hummus, onion, tomato, cucumber slices on it. The chicken was fine. The hummus was way too light. The roll was not in house made and dreck.
Tabouli
Totally sour and it was apparent from the color and taste that they marry the fresh parsley with dried. It was like eating a seasoning packet mixed with lemon.
I’ve had their pita MANY times and it’s is sooo hard! They don’t toast it (which is a flaw) but even so… It felt like a death frisbee Odd Job would toss at Bond.
Speaking of odd. The staff there was constantly in giggle fits and nudging each other looking at the patrons. It’s always crowded with white color guys so if that’s appealing for you go. Anyways, I was dining across a daper working stiff dude and he didn’t give me an ab workout. Maybe if they let me in on what was funny I’d bump this up to five stars.
That being said I’ll go again for the reasons listed under my three star explanation.