Cedar Halal Food & Deli

Cedar Halal was pretty good. I ordered the lamb/​beef shawarma on fires (y’all know I’m the Fry Snob). The flavors were on point, but the beef was a little tough. The lamb was just right. The pita, hummus and cucumber sauce on the side were great additions. They have fresh made desserts, but I opted for a foreign hazelnut treat instead. I saw a number of other things I’d like to try, so I’m sure I’ll be back.

Shawarma is one of the foods I try to find the best of wherever I go. Situated perfectly next to a liquor store is Cedar Halal Food and Deli, where you can buy a whole pie of Knafeh if you desire. By the way, Knafeh is a delicious cheese pastry that is a must try.
Cedar Halal Food & Deli is half-​market, half-​restaurant and wholly delicious. My favorite thing about the market is that there’s frozen goat meat for sale, which I’ve been trying to find forever. There’s a small section of Middle Eastern grocery items such as rose water and pomegranate molasses in case you want to try your hand at some recipes at home.
Now onto the main attraction. The lamb/​beef shawarma is the best I’ve had in Orlando so far. I usually get absorbed in watching the roasting spit spin the giant chunks of beef and chicken until the cashier asks me what I want to order. Most of the time, it’s gonna be the lamb/​beef shawarma platter with their delicious rice. Oh man, the rice! Anyway, this tasty platter comes with creamy hummus, pickled beets, tzatziki sauce, and pita bread. The lamb/​beef slices are so tender and perfectly roasted. I don’t know why I don’t eat here at least once a day.
For a reasonable price, you can get a nice portion amount of mouthwatering Lebanese food. If you remember the end of Avengers, they were eating shawarma. Here’s your chance to try it!

Had the Lamb Shank with yellow basmati rice, it was great. The meat was cooked perfectly and rice was delicious.

Ordered the vegetarian plate for lunch, and ended up getting three meals out of it. Absolutely delightful with a very friendly staff!

Awesome food, great service, I eat there regularly.

I recently moved to this area and had family from out of town visiting. In the chaos of moving/​setting things up, we needed a place to get food from and this was the closest halal place. We decided to give it a try… let’s just say in the past week, we’ve gotten food here at least 3 times. Each time with 5+ entrees.
You may not initially think much of a small place that’s both a grocery store and restaurant, boy will you be wrong. This is truly a gem in Orlando as it serves a wide variety of amazingly cooked meat of American and Lebanese style.
The cooks prepare your meal right in plain sight, you can see great care they take in preparing the food. They are extremely nice and courteous and take great care of what you need.
Key points are the prices are very reasonable and they are pretty quick in preparing your food.
I’ve had lamb shank, chicken shwarmas, mixed grill kababs which is a mixed of lamb, beef, chicken. As well as their hamburgers. All of it was extremely juicy and tender. My favorite is likely the chicken shwarma. They definitely load your plate with rice at request as well as hummus and vegetables. Their hummus is spot on, and the rice is very filling. Mixing things around with garlic sauce makes everything even better.
If you have not tried this place yet, then you need to get up and go there. It’s a wonderful Lebanese treat at this part of Orlando.

A few times the food was not fresh and I was overcharged. I constantly have to watch when they ring me up and I don’t think that’s right. I stopped going all together. When it’s fresh and they are honest then it’s not a bad experience

There are some colloquialisms I avoid because of overuse, offensiveness (depending on the context), or immaturity. But at some point, a word is a word. Words are given life beyond their denotative meaning through connotative meanings, which add texture and character.
One such colloquialism is «dank.» It has far overstayed its welcome in usage. Applied seriously, the word approaches cringeworthy. But alas, sometimes a word is so perfectly suited to describe something that it is unavoidable. So let me say this without pretense: Cedar Halal’s food is dank. No other word in the contemporary English lexicon comes close.
My biggest compliments go to their shawarma platters. They’re warm, moist, potent, delectable meals. Hence the dankness. These platters are like the collective result of thousands of years of human food evolution. All of the ingredients have stood the test of time. Both the chicken and the lamb are perfectly seasoned meat deliciousness. The accompaniments of yellow basmati rice, hummus, tahini sauce, pita bread, and some kind of various pickled veggies all perfectly complement each other. Really, it doesn’t matter what you eat with what. It all tastes good together. I think you can sub out the rice for fries, which I’m sure are fine, but the rice is perfect for this cuisine so I really don’t know why you would do that.
Honestly, I haven’t had a chance to explore their menu much because the shawarma is so enticing. The gyro platter is good too, though. Cedar Halal has been a work takeout staple for a while now. We’ve also done catering from them, which turned out great. My only complaint about that is that the baklava was sub par (dry). I’m pretty sure it was some kind of prepackaged stuff. Other than that, everything was great.
So, yes. This place is fantastic. The platters are an amazing value for the amount of food that you get. Often they’ve resulted in 2 meals, and it keeps pretty well leftover. If you’ve been eyeing this place for a while now, stop dilly dallying and go check it out.

I ordered the gyro platter. I was very satisfied. They give you a LOT of food and it was very good. I don’t understand why people would waste their money on fast food junk when you can have a delicious meal like this for around the same price.

Great Lil deli. Luv the pies n pastries. The kabobs were excellent n the staff are nice n friendly..

I always get the lamb gyro… simply the best! I’ve also had a few other dishes & they’re just as good. Really nice staff too :)

The food here is fantastic, and the service is quick and friendly. I love gyros, so I went with the $ 10 gyro platter. The platter has a giant mound of the tasty ingredients laid out on a plate, and the pita bread is separate. It was a bit tricky to make my own sandwich, so I ended up just using a fork to scarf everything down. Next time, I think I’ll just try the regular gyro, and add on chips and a drink. Everything comes out to under $ 10 anyway. I will definitely return!

The Gyro platter was great. I will go back again. I am the type of person that likes the amount of food to be of a good value, and for under $ 10, I did not walk away hungry.

This is a deli style store. Small grocery store with a restaurant. They have a great menu with everything from Shwarma to shish kabobs made of lamb, beef and chicken. It is a small dining area for about 15 – 20 people. The food is always hot and fresh. We ate inside so they gave us hot tea when we were finished. The service is fantastic. Unilocal says they are closed on Sunday’s but we have only eaten there on Sunday.

Amazing! Really good stuffed chicken! Also the gyro and falafel. I will drive 30 mins out of my way to return it’s that good.

Great food, great service. The portions are quite large, so you can probably share if that’s your thing. The Mr. got the gyro platter, which was huge! I opted for a regular gyro, which was probably the best I’ve ever had. The meat is tender, the veggies are crisp, and the creamy tzatsiki sauce they slather on it is a perfect flavor compliment! Their food is so fresh, and they prepare it quickly. We only waited about 5 – 10 minutes. We also got the tabouleh salad, which was packed with super fresh herbs and garlic. So good.
Whether you’ve had Mediterranean food before or not, this place is a definite must try.

I love this place! If you enjoy Mediterranean/​Lebanese cuisine you must check this place out! The gyros are so good and they have lots of other super delicious items. I highly recommend it!

I’m bringing them down a star because the last couple of times I’ve been here the rice was super greasy, and their baked items are old and just bad tasting to where you have to end up throwing it out. It’s really a shame because the number of Lebanese dining options are practically non-​existent. I hope Cedar’s steps up their game in the future.

Want something new? This is it!
After having been in the middle east several times, I can say this is as close as it gets. the food is excellent! the people are nice and the attached grocery allows you to browse the ethnic foods while you wait for your food to be prepared. I recommend rice (not fries) with whatever you order. this is a nice hidden gem with out of the ordinary food. Kafta, Tikka, Gyro, Lamb, Chicekn… it is all good. If you want to try something different, this is the place.

Talk about a hidden gem!
I «accidentally» came here for lunch a few weeks ago. We first tried going to the Polish deli next store, but were not greeted, and felt like it was just a store vs a restaurant, so we tried Cedar Halal.
I’m glad we did. I have been back twice since! The owner is extremely friendly and welcoming as you come into the restaurant/​store, and was very helpful on helping out with the food choices.
I have to say for 12.99, you can’t go wrong with the combination platter. The platter came with chicken kabobs, kefta and a chicken kefta like patty, rice and hummus.
Lets just say it was all excellent. My favorite would have to be the Kefta though. Definitely worth a try.