Balkan Cafe

This place is as good as it is hard to find. The entrance is through an office parking lot in the back of the building. It’s entirely invisible from the street. It was our first time there and the owner made some very helpful suggestions. Even the coffee is good here! If you’re in the area, and you can find your way there, I highly recommend Balkan Café.

Here’s the basics.
1. Take the road right after the building on south temple to the parking lot in the rear.
2. If you don’t want the special of the day, then no matter what your brain tells you, IT IS NOT your first time there. (THE SPECIALS ARE WORTH IT.)
Now the full review…
Where to start? This place is hard to find. You’ll pull up the address and see nothing but a big medical plaza business building. I guess it’s nicknamed the «secret place» for a reason. So let me start by telling you the easiest way to get there. You NEED to pull into the REAR PARKING by entering from south temple. The entrance is the road/​alleyway just east of the building. Blink and you’ll miss it. Ok hard part taken care of, it is now staring you straight in the face.
So you didn’t listen to me and parked on either south temple or 500 East. Well, now you need to make your way through the maze that is the south temple medical plaza building. The key here is that it is suite #120, so you know it’s on the first floor (not ground) and near the back of the building.
So now you’ve found it! Congratulations! This place is great. I can’t even begin to describe the enjoyment my mouth felt during my visit to this little gem. You’ll look at the menu and see nothing but simple items. They do no justice to what you will actually receive. The kabobs and schnitzels are great but I had the pleasure of the special this week, the pork chop (medium spicy) it was served with a mixture of vegetables and rice. I’m not a fan of rice in general but I couldn’t get enough of it here. The pork chop was so moist it was falling off the bone. Seriously guys, this food is awesome.
SIDE NOTE: If there is something in particular that you want and it’s your first time there. Say that it is not. Trust me. Otherwise you will get swayed into getting the special. The special is always great and you will not be disappointed in it. I love the specials. I say it’s my first time, every time.
Now there’s Ahmet. I love the guy. Cook/​owner/​waiter/​busboy/​all-​around nice guy. He will talk your ear off. He goes into great detail about the food, where he gets it, how it’s prepared, why it’s different than other places… That is, if you let him. You can tell that he’s really proud of what he does. I like it, I let him go forward with full force. I don’t always understand what he says. But what I do understand is great food, and I’m satisfied.
**nods head smiling while shoveling food into my mouth**

Great food. Wonderful service. Tucked away because only the best of people deserve this treasure! Know the owner personally and he’s the sweetest man you’ll ever meet. Definitely give it a shot, it’s an experience all in it’s own. Try the rice!

This place is hidden… I would have never come across it except a friend recommended it to me. The food was soo good. I had chicken with roasted veggies and rice. The owner is the nicest guy. Highly recommended!

Found this little gem through Unilocal.The restaurant is hard to find and there’s no sign in the front.
The kabobs were awesome. It was served with a large portion of vegetables, potatoes and a side of fruit. Prices are great too. The food takes a while but it is made fresh and is totally worth the wait.
I’ll definitely be back as it may be one of my favorite lunch places.

One of the best lunches I’ve ever had. The beef kabob is incredible. The owner is pretty hard to understand but his food is amazing and made with care. Just make sure you have time to spare… It takes a long time to make. Worth every minute. The food is not as expensive as it should be for how great it tastes.

So good. The owner is really nice and does an awesome job. He runs this place solo and really takes care of his customers.

If you hate making up your mind and like good food this is a great option. I’m a huge fan of going somewhere and just asking for whatever is the best and that is definitely a good choice here. He asked me what I liked then went to work. For $ 8 I got a huge meal that was absolutely amazing. As everyone is pointing out it is a bit hard to find, but it is a very different experience from what you’ll get pretty much anywhere else. I definitely recommend it.

This place is a little hard to find and there is no way you will know about it just driving by looking for a place to eat.
The food is all fresh and takes a while to cook since it is normally just the owner there regardless of how many people are there. The burgers are great, the pork is great, the stuffed peppers are great! He even has a large platter so you can bring it home for dinner (and is very generous on the portions of said platters).
One reviewer got it right… the owner is super nice, but the guy is also super crazy and you cant understand him. I am pretty sure he doesnt understand you either… so maybe it’s okay.
In the end however, his food is one of a kind that I have not been able to find anywhere else.

Okay… So I liked the food. It was great, and tasty, and looked good. But it was a bit on the oily/​grease side… not too bad to feel my arteries clogged, but greasy enough to feel like I had just put some lip gloss without really put some on.
In all honesty, for the food I would give it a 4. But the reason why I”m giving the place 3, its because the owner, although really nice and funny… HES CRAZY!
He will decide for you what you want. That’s basically it. I went there wanting to get a sandwich, which I heard was delish, BUT once I got there, he tried to get me to buy the special for good 30 awkward seconds of me saying no. Then he said… you’d like the kebabs! pork kebabs!
and I was like… oh. oh o-​o-​okayyy… and BAM. 10 bucks instead of 7!: ‘(
The kebabs were delish really, but regardless of the flavor ecstasy I felt, I still deep inside knew I had been manipulated into getting that.
I’ll probably be back for the sole purpose of getting what I want and not let the old Balkan man win the war.

I would have rated this place higher but the waiter had difficulty explaining the daily special. Need ordered the daily special was a thick baked pork chop
with roaste dhop kidney bean. Greek style potato and rice. It was good
(a bit overcooked) $ 7.95 for a home cooked meal. A nice change, from fast food.
The owner mentioned that he was moving to Las Vegas as soon as he sells the Café to care for his ailing wife. The café is located inside medical offices next to Pharmacy!
open for breakfast and lunch

This is an absolutely superb little restaurant that no one will even stumble across unless they read a review. If you enter the office building from the front door you will encounter advertising posters which provide no assistance in finding it. It is located by the back door near the parking area, which we didn’t realize we could use. The menu is very limited but I have a feeling all of it is very good. We had Schnitzel and a Balkan salad both of which were excellent and both portions were enormous. I guess it was Alan’s dad who prepared the food and everything was made from scratch. That’s the only drawback; if you are on a tight schedule this place may not be for you. Otherwise, if you want great food at low prices this is the place.

The crepes I ate here were the most skillfully prepared, delicious crepes I’ve ever had in the United States. Rather than being the bland, flat faux-​pancakes you usually get at American restaurants, these were perfectly spongy and light, with a little sourness to the dough that paired perfectly with the sweet strawberry jam inside. Fresh sliced kiwi on the side tasted heavenly with the crepes. And though the crepes taste wonderfully delicate and light, they are big enough that I left feeling full.
The service, as others have mentioned, needs practice, but those crepes are so amazing that I will go back to eat them no matter what.
Also, you could tell that the owner is just a wonderful, nice person. He has that kind of smile: genuine, not trying to impress you, just nice.

I agree with the first poster’s comments. This lunch spot has a nice feel to it. The kebobs were outstanding and a great value for lunch. The owner explained that everything is fresh and it certainly tasted that way. It is a lot of food, too, including rice, potatoes, carrots, broccoli and other veggies on the side.
I’m going to have to try breakfast here, too, as the crepes with ice cream and fruit sound really good. All in all, this is a good lunch spot even if the location isn’t the best.

This little place opened up sometime this summer, and it being right in my neighborhood I’m ashamed to say I didn’t get around to going there until last weekend.
That said, there are legitimate reasons I hadn’t gone; one being that their hours are terrible. 7 AM-​4 PM, Monday through Friday. The second being that they are located inside of an office building, a fair predictor of terrible food.
However, the kebabs are the best that my husband and I had ever had. They put bits of bacon in between the kebab pieces for one, and they are seasoned and cooked very skillfully. The cold salad it came with was also very good, and very different. Peppery and wholesome feeling. The vegetables were no good, but I didn’t care after eating the kebab. The meal tasted like excellent home cooking, not too much oil, not too fussy with the spices, but very fervent. The price also rivals homecooking, with both of us getting entrees, tea and lattes for under $ 20 after tip.
Which brings me to the service. It’s awkward. They are obviously new to the restaurant business and haven’t got it all figured out. I found it charming in this case, as I found the owner and his son to be genuinely nice people, but I am hoping they get a little better with practice.
Getting TO the restaurant is also awkward, as it is inside the office building on South Temple and 5^th East. However, just enter in through the North doors (on South Temple) and follow the hallway.
I really hope they do well, as the chef/​owner/​father is obviously talented, but there are some kinks to work out.