Aladdin

After living in Egypt for a time and craving middle eastern cuisine, my husband and I finally got to Aladdin. We tried the Aladdin platter, a nice sampler of most of their food. I was very impressed, the hummus and pita were amazing, the rice, chicken shawarma, and kebabs were packed with flavor. I gave 4 stars because the atmosphere was not the nicest, but the food made up for it. We’ll be back!

Okay, let’s start of with the fact that I’ve never gone out for Lebanese food. I love trying new cuisines so I was pretty excited to explore. Our waitress, Brenda, was seriously the friendliest, bubbliest person and made sure to explain everything thoroughly to us. She even grabbed a spicy paste for us to accommodate my need for heat. We went with the aladdins platter, because why not get a variety to see what the cuisine is about! I loved just about all the meats, but some of the other appetizer like foods weren’t something I would order again. However, I don’t know what they’re actually supposed to taste like so I can’t deduct any stars for that. Overall, I was very satisfied, and although not my favorite cuisine I’m happy I was able to sample.
The service here really impressed me. I saw a manager talking with customers, asking how everything was, and even explaining some of the artwork around the restaurant. That sort of treatment goes a long way in my book :) I highly recommend this place if you’re looking to venture out!

Small quaint place with extraordinary Middle Eastern cuisine. We ordered various items to try. The lamb is excellent! Grilled with great flavor. Hummus is very good, and so is the chicken shawarma and rice pilaf. Basically everything tastes great and tahini sauce is spot on. Only thing I would pass on is the keffah I believe? I may have spelled that wrong but it’s the ground beef. I wasn’t too keen about it. And the stuffed grape leaves were ok. I prefer those Greek style where it’s just stuffed with rice instead of rice and meat. Also, falafel was tasty too. Will visit again. Staff was accommodating and service was friendly and pretty quick for the amount of food we ordered.

We did take out so I can’t comment on the service or atmosphere; however when my husband mentioned that he was grabbing take out for me and my son while we were in the hospital, the waiter grabbed 3 pieces of baklava as a treat.
Everything was delicious, The chicken (schwarma??) sandwich was outstanding! Lots of garlic :) My husband enjoyed the grape leaves, we had a kebab platter that was also excellent. the baklava was also good. We will definitely be back.

Very warm and inviting atmosphere. The fireplace was a nice touch. The food was authentic Lebanese, the belly dancer (Friday’s at 7 and 8) was a delightful surprise. With tip it was 60 for two, worth the price for a date night out and a need to escape the humdrum. Will DEFINITELY go again!

The food was great bad reviews are probably from people who aren’t used to middle eastern food.

Went here for lunch today with my class for a book discussion. It was the perfect place. Quiet, cozy, and the food was very good. The owners were super friendly and helped those of us who had never been there, choose what to order. Chicken shawarma wrap is very good! Prices are a little expensive for some stuff, but all together it was very good

Food is too salty
Will never visit this place
Ambience is fine
Belly dance is good
Staff is okay

You Unilocalers totally lied to me. My dinner was beyond disappointing. I got the falafel salad; the falafel itself was pretty tasty. All three pieces were cooked well and were flavorful. The «salad» was shredded iceberg lettuce … DISGUSTING. I literally had a few bites and couldn’t stomach it any more. Our waitress was nice & I loved the atmosphere. I doubt I’ll be back. Ughhh

Absolutely fantastic! Went for dinner, had the lamb and chicken kabobs… WOW! Great food, great service, and authentic! Highly recommend, and worth the price! Check it out!

Surprisingly good for Reading PA. Nice staff. Good food.
Had hummus, baba ghannoush, and chicken kebab, all very good

Awsome food and environment! I always make sure to stop by when im home from college.

Great meal again tonight. Had the tilapia with tahini, baba ganouj, tabbouleh and fattoush.

This place is awesome everytime. Being Middle Eastern I can say the food exceeded my expectations. I love trying different things and the frog legs are just amazing quality and taste. They aren’t the kind you find at a local buffet lol these are just pure amazingness. The olive salad is a must try. Obviously the kabob, chicken shwarma, lamb and falafal are excellent too. I would easily give this place 5 stars but every single time we dined her I wasn’t impressed with waitresses. I am not being rude but I think it takes a specific person to engage with the customers at a place like this and the waitresses are just very cold and fake to me if that makes sense lol. Owner is awesome though !! Xo

Awesome fresh, creative dishes! The owner is friendly and full of information about his culinary style. This is now one of my favorite places to eat. If you love bruschetta you have to try their take on it, it is wonderful and different. I could of ate the whole plate myself!

I’ll preface this post with the fact that I’m a bit spoiled living in the DC metro area where virtually any type of cuisine is within an arm’s reach away and that I also had the pleasure of visiting Nicholas’s in Portland which sets some ridiculously high standards for mediterranean food.
The menu looks pretty average but the first thing that caught my eye were the prices– we’re in a little rust belt town in PA (a detour from visiting Lancaster for some Amish action) and these prices are easily twice that of the DMV, where are we, Manhattan on steroids? I refuse to pay ~$ 20 for a standard order of kebobs (not to mention I eat too many kebobs at home) so I just gave in and shared the aladdin veggie platter for two because it sounds decent enough. The head server was training a newbie, and they seem pleasant enough and attentive– I love a good server, bring it on.
Good: great presentation, and quick service.
???: «cheese wraps» were spring roll wrappers around mozzarella, I kid you not. I ate them because my SO is a vegan, not to mention they kind of made me nostalgic for the «pizza rolls» I pigged out on when I worked for my dad’s dirty Chinese carryout in Philly. Deep-​fried cheese anything is a guilty pleasure of mine (you know you’ve got a problem when dripping grease doesn’t phase you). If you like mozzarella sticks you’ll like these, but as far as impressing and staying true to Lebanese cuisine… I’m not even really sure if they’re «authentic», but they were tasty at least? Mmmm cheeseeee…
Negatives: pre-​packaged, store bought pita in plastic bags. Once again, being in the DMV area you have a «kebob» place around the corner everywhere you go and plenty of them go out of their way to make fresh, warm pita/​flatbread on the spot. When you’re ordering a platter that is essentially all spreads /​dips, your bread makes a real difference. When you have the resources, fresh bread over store bought any day. I ended up bypassing the pita to just fork dip into my mouth.
The rest of the spread was decent but relatively mediocre. I felt that the fattoush (cucumber tomato salad) was marinated too long because it didn’t have that characteristic fresh crispness freshly prepared fattoush has. You can tell this was prepared within the last few days, but obviously not today. The babaganoush, tabbouleh, and hummus were decent but nothing to rave about. Anyways, I definitely did not think it was worth 33 dollars (you can go to Whole Foods and buy these individually for less and I do think Whole Foods serves some killer pre-​packaged mediterranean dips.)
To sum it up: good in the «small town» kind of way, not the best you’ll ever have though. Completely overpriced. Generally better than a chain sit down restaurant.

Good eats! The hummus with shawerma is my favorite. My wife and I dine here every other month or so and we have never been disappointed. The food is always served hot and it’s always delicious. I’m not a vegetarian but I gotta say the vegetarian options are quite awesome (just throw in a lamb skewer for you fellow meatatarians).
It’s also a BYOB which equals BONUS! The service can be slow and I’m not fond of the Koufta (some kind of ground beef, looks like a turd if you ask me) so I gave it 4 stars. Highly recommended, just avoid the turds ;)

Visited on Columbus Day, 2013 with my kids and my parents. It turns out the owner of the restaurant knows the from which my family originates extremely well. Amazing small world! Needless to say, our family knows what excellent Lebanese food is, growing up cooking it and sharing it with our friends. We had a big table with lots of room for the many plates we tasted and shared. We enjoyed every bite and were excited to have some leftovers for the lunch the next day! My kids enjoyed the chicken shish kabobs, hummus and bread. My parents enjoyed their meat platters and I couldn’t get enough of the tabouleh salad. Yum, Yum, Yum!
We are already looking for a reason to make the hour drive to go back again!

Serving primarily Lebanese-​style food, Aladdin is my workplace’s go-​to lunch spot where we take everyone from omnivore to vegan, even hot shots from out of town. No one has been disappointed, and everyone asks to come back.
There is a great selection of vegan entrees and appetizers, which any restaurant should have whatever the cuisine, but such places are few in this area despite its proximity to Philly. So Aladdin is an oasis in West Reading (along with Good Eatz).
I am hung up on the arnibit salad (fried cauliflower with a tahini lemon sauce over romaine), but the falafel salad is a platter with 5 different things plus bread, so it is often my choice too (ask for babaganoush instead of the hummus for a nice change). The hot combo meals are great too, where you can pick either two or three items. The green bean and lentil choices are particularly good.
I recently found out that they sell their superior superthin pita bread for $ 2.25 a bag and ran over immediately for a few. The pitas are huge when you see them uncut.
A few years ago, they added a patio outside with a muraled wall and umbrellas, so you can sit outside and soak in the West Reading scene — well, it’s as close to a scene as we have. :-) Other renovations have spiffed up the place, and we love to sit near the fireplace in the winter, nestled into the pillows in the intimate lower area.
Of course it is BYOB. Bracing, minerally white wines in particular go well with this food.
Thank you, Alex, for such a good veg section! I always know I can get a wonderful flavorful meal here and actually crave your food. Your servers, busy as they are, are always sweet and remember us, which is appreciated as well.

I’ve been all over the world and across the United States. I have a wide variety of ‘favorites’ and consider Thai, Vietnamese, Middle Eastern and Ecuadorian/​Peruvian food to be my favorites. When it comes to good food, it is ALL about the ingredients with freshness as the most important in my opinion. Aladin is quite simply the finest ‘Middle Eastern’ food I’ve ever tasted. Its hard to qualify ‘Middle Eastern’ honestly, because there are many countries in this region. So to be specific, this is both the finest, freshest Lebanese or Middle Eastern food I’ve ever had. I travel to eat at this restaurant.
Everything is exquisitely freshly made. They make hummus and Tabouleh several times throughout the day. The ingredients are absolutely authentic as well as fresh. The owner and chef, Alex is Lebanese and learned his culinary traditions from his family.
Do not believe the negative reviews of this restaurant. The staff may have been busy, hollering orders to each other, or you may not know what Lebanese food is supposed to taste like… Sadly those have translated into inferior reviews in a couple cases.
This is the best Middle Eastern food I’ve ever had.