Waited for 30 min for order to be taken (also drink orders were never taken so those who wanted cocktails had to go to the bar).... never happened so we went to Labrascas and got top notch service. read more

Great food. Great atmosphere and excellent food. The Damascus hummus plate is generous and the Al amir salad with mint is addictive. read more

Arabesque - Mediterranean Near Me - Columbia, South Carolina

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Heard about this place from Opinions on Pickens and decided to give them a try. When I went there I was very pleased, they have a lovely bar area and there was live music. there are not a lot of places in Columbia with Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food, and this is definitely the best I have been to so far. read more

For the quality of the food and service, Arabesque tends to be a little pricey. However, the lamb shank is delicious, and keeps me coming back. Arabesque can be a little slow, but our waiters/waitresses have been nothing but lovely! Their hummus is solid, and they will bring out vegetables instead of bread if asked! read more

Hands down the best Lebanese cusine in the country. You will forget west coast cuisines. 2 thumbs up!i! read more

Arabesque - Mediterranean Near Me - Columbia, South Carolina

Word is out and it is getting busy. We love Arabesque. Everything we have tried is great. I like the Lebanese beer Almaza. Their Damascus bread is the best! Atmosphere is good, not great. But the food and service make up for the boring decor. read more

This place has amazing Lebanese food. We have had their pizza, the mixed grill, feta salad, everything I have ever had here is high quality food. They do have great prices for happy hour on good wines too. If you don't care much about the service it's a chance of luck sometimes. I keep coming back I'm totally hooked on their food. read more

Great, freshly made food. Baba ganoush is smoky and falafel tastes homemade. Indoor and outdoor seating.

Had carry out for dinner.. grape leaves were good, spinach pie's were good, also had grilled vegetables. All was tasty and simple to pick up and safe read more

I love this restaurant. The food is amazing. My go to is always the chicken kabob with the fresh vegetables. The chicken is always blackened on the outside and moist on the inside. The fresh vegetables are to die for and there are a ton of them. There are a lot of vegetarian offerings. The service is always upbeat and you can tell the employees like working there which is the hallmark of a great restaurant. The only thing I'd change is I'd make the rice gluten-free. I'll be back!!! read more

Have eaten here off and on since it opened. Loved Al Amir when it was here. Love the Damascus bread, Baba Ghanouj and tabbouleh! Best anywhere and I eat at a lot of Med/Middle Eastern places. Everyone in the family loves it, but it can be an acquired taste for some. Love the lamb dishes and mixed hummus. read more

As some people have said, some menu items are on the pricier side. However, there are plenty of reasonably priced entrees and menu items available. I had the falafel plate and it was delicious! I will certainly be back. read more

Very nice place so awesome falafel so good eggplant very good beer for pairing strongly recommend at this place customer service awesome!! For any vegetarian option I will advise to have the falafel, hummus and eggplant very good choices I hope enjoy!!! read more

What a great spot! They have awesome happy hour deals for small plates and drinks. Fun lounge area for a drink. Food was sooo good but the service was disappointing. It took awhile for food to come out and our server was really inattentive which was annoying considering we were his only table. But the food outweighed the service so I would still go back! read more

Excellent! Very authentic. Columbia needed a place like this. Their damascus hummus is delicious and I also love the falafel plate. read more

This is one of the most solid Lebanese restaurants I have ever been to! Everything was seasoned well from the hummus to the grape leaves. we got the mixed grill platter for two which came with more than enough food. Leftovers were definitely taken home! Also and maybe the best part...they give you this awesome warm Damascus bread with your meal. So delicious! read more

I ate lunch at a place next store, watched all of these people flowing in and out of this restaurant. I was not even hungry but my family showed up and I took them to this one. 4 kids and 3 adults? The place is spacious and the service was fast. The bread was excellent. Lamb was cooked perfectly. Great place for families with young kids. read more

BEST MEDITERRANEAN FOOD EVER ! Nuff said! I had the shwarma with the rice. Love the rice !!

Food and service were amazing! Frank was spectacular and went above and beyond anything we could have imagined, to make sure not only were we satisfied but accommodated our special requests as well. Will definitely be back and will ask for Frank every time! read more

Very tasty! Food was fresh, flavorful, and colorful. Our server Omar was great! And atmosphere is very inviviting. We'll be going back without thinking twice read more

If you want to change it up for lunch or dinner this is the spot for it. Extremely friendly staff on all levels, food is great and very reasonably priced, and a very neat atmosphere. I had the shawarma wrap for lunch and it was delicious! Can't wait to have dinner there soon! read more

Shitty food and shitty service during Passover on Friday. I tried to stay kosher and rejected the rice and paid 17 dollars for my lunch not including drink or tip. I was supposed to have gotten the meT with seasoned potatoes (real) and got French fries because they were out after having to wait 45 minutes (mind you there was not a wait or more than a few tables occupied). I did not want French fries and I ordered and had to pay 17 dollars for a shawarma plate. Bad service overall and the food is horrendous. Do not ever substitute French fries again for a 17 dollar lunch where I am supposed to get Homemade potatoes. I got a glass of pop - coke - and it was so watered down I couldn't drink. My waitress was not being attentive and it took me 25 minutes for her to come back to get a new drink and by that time I was already wanting to walk out the door. You wasted my time and people who eat there generally work because it costs money. Nobody has time to wait on shitty service and food. read more

Our party of 4 sat there for 45 minutes without any service other than the hostess. Never even had a server come to our table. Servers came to both of the tables beside us but never once came to check in on us. No organization. Saw servers on their phones at the front. One of the worst experiences I've ever had in a restaurant and absolutely inexcusable behavior. Will not return. read more

Glad to return here again. The food is fresh with a lot of variety. And they have personal sized pizza as well!

Wow !!!. Awesome food. We went on sat afternoon at 5 pm. The place has a reputation of being crowded with little parking, so be prepared. We had no problems at this time. We had great service and great tasting food. The atmosphere was good too with the music and ambient decor. It was worth the 30 minute drive. Can't wait to come back. Trent was our waiter and was excellent helping us. Thanks trent. read more

This place is so wonderful. The flavors are transcendent....really!! They will take you where you probably have never been, unless you have been to Lebanon or here before. Coming from San Antonio, TX we were feeling spoiled over there by Jerusalem Grill (try it too if you get over there) but now I see that I can be even more spoiled over here because this was other worldly for sure!!! Thanks Arabesque, you've made my life wonderful again!!! read more

Excellent food coupled with fantastic service. I've been to Arabesque dozens of times and have never been disappointed.

As an original Mediterranean girl, I didn't like anything they serviced, the chicken, the beef, the kufta. I haven't eaten any other meat as tasteless as these ones. Relative to the taste and service, I find the prices very high! read more

Had a craving for some middle eastern food after reminiscing with a few coworkers about past travels. I was VERY pleasantly surprised with the food at Arabesque. My wife's first time with lebanese/middle eastern food and she was also very impressed. The service was great, friendly, and fast. The food was fresh and tasted amazing. There was maybe a little less zing or spice than I am used to overseas but I'm sure that is to appease the majority of the populace over here. I would recommend the damascus bread, grape leaves, lamb shawarma and pasha chicken. Definitely adding to our normal "rotation" of eateries in Cola. read more

Came in on a whim with a friend from out of town. My wife ordered the kafta kabobs, I got the arabesque hummus with lamb which is a combo of vegetables and the lamb over a hummus spread that you eat with the Damascus bread and then our friend got the arabesque hummus with kafta beef. We all left full and happy and all of our food was exceptional! We also got the baba ganoush as an appetizer. Will definitely return and would certainly suggest this place to any of my friends read more

Nice ambience. They serve Turkish coffee but on the menu they have listed it as Arabic coffee. The falafel wrap was pretty good. Baklava was ok. Lunch wraps were priced at $8 and come with a choice of salad, soup or fries. I chose fries but was later told that they were finished with fries ( at 11:30 am ) Overall good food. read more

Came in 10 minutes ago. We were a party of 5 and completely ignored for 15 minutes. We finally told the lady we'd like a table and she told us there would be a 20 minute wait. Which is weird.. because there were so many tables empty. I asked her to if she could take any 2 of the 10 tables empty and put them together. She said sure but we will not be getting any service including water for an additional 20 minutes. Really terrible service. We waited another 5 minutes and she still hadn't put our tables again. We decided to go elsewhere. Terrible terrible service. I do not recommend. read more

Went for early dinner. Comfortable seats, laid back atmosphere. Ordered the sampler appetizer and lamb shanks. They were out of lamb shanks (at a Lebanese restaurant?). We got the mixed grill instead which was nice. The pita side was very dry and basically fell into bits which was a disappointment. I'd try it again. read more

We had a great experience here last night. Our waitress was sweet and attentive. Happy hour is a great deal. My dad and I ate so much food and our bill was only $20! Delicious and authentic! read more

**note: This business has changed ownership/management several times over the years. Check dates of reviews which don't reflect current operations, though the menu is the same. Al Amir, the name of the original restaurant, was phenomenal. Just over $100 for 3 people: appetizer, 3 mains, 4 glasses of (terrible) white wine. The same food could have been served to me on styrofoam plates in a hole in the wall for easily 1/2 the price and I would have thought: "meh...not terrible"- that scenario would be IF the service had been decent, the dinner didn't take well over an hour to arrive, and I didn't feel thoroughly fleeced. Nearly every bite of my rice had hard chewy pieces as if the service pan had been scraped of old and reheated rice which was also oily, flavorless, cheap, parboiled cafeteria style rice. The pickled cabbage seemed to be "flash" pickled and was very thickly cut. On the menu, it's advertised as part of the dish, though on the plate it was used sparingly- a couple chunky strands. It tasted vaguely of vinegar. The shrimp kabob plate was the better of the 3. The falafel plate was disappointing: no bread or rice. The hummus was actually decent. The falafel was greasy and bland. The plate had a few chunky strands of "pickled" cabbage and lettuce and nothing else: no bread or even rice - really much more an appetizer than an entree. The lamb shawarma was disappointing: bland, covered in tahini dressing and on a bed of chewy, oily rice. The Damascus bread was the only really enjoyable part of the meal, but our second order was unlike the first: hard, uneven - overdone. Our waiter was awkward and inexperienced - never mentioning that the food was terribly late until we actually asked about it. We were half way through out appetizer before we were able to wave him down for silverware and napkins. I could go on and on but those are the highlights (events out of order I know ... But you get the point). We would have complained but taking family out and didn't want to overshadow the experience. Good company makes every thing better . I don't remember the last time I actually complained at a restaurant. I used to work in the restaurant industry (cooking and waiting on tables) and I was shocked we weren't comped anything on our bill. Oh well....learned our lesson! read more

Friendly ambiance and newly renovated bar area! The tabouli is exactly the way my mom made it and I ordered the Turkish pizza with mint and feta and spinach- it was delicious! The waitress informed me that the baklava is made in house as well and it tasted that way too- crispy and sweet! I will be back for sure to try the lamb gyro at lunch! read more

Great Lebanese food!! Our server was very polite and patient with us!! We ordered the chicken kabob and the quail entree. Chicken was good and the Quail dish was fantastic!! I have never tasted quail better cooked ever. Cheers to the chef!! read more

Not even close. We had chicken shawarmas with barely any fries and the mixed grill for takeout. Wasted money. Absolutely zero flavor. I've had better food in a DFAC. My family is still hungry after $120 tab. I'll have to use the meat from the mixed grill and make my own dishes with seasoning. read more

Finally I stopped by Arabesque to give it a try. Wow! I was pleasantly surprised. I had lamb kabobs and the mussels. The food arrived promptly. The portions were great. I highly recommend this place to everyone in Columbia. What really sets this place apart are the owners. They made my dining experience even better by their attention to the customers. Other restaurants in Columbia should learn from Arabesque, what true customer service is about! read more

Extremely delicious Mid-Eastern food! I really enjoyed the Babaganoush dip, it was tasty with a nice hint of smoke -not too much & just the way I like it. I also enjoyed a crunchy Arabesque salad that was extremely fresh and tasty. The bread that was served with my meal was incredible!!!! I felt like I was back in the Mid-East eating in a tiny restaurant that served the most delicious food! The flavors were scrumptious and SO alive!!!! read more