This was a disappointment and given the almost universally positive reviews, I'm not sure if my…read moreexperience was an anomaly or if Halwa is benefitting from a college town, grading on a curve situation. I came by last Wednesday morning for a bit of caffeine and a bite to eat before my top-tier chum who literally went to the school of hospitality (down the street at VA Tech) and I embarked on our road trip into Kentucky. I'm a hardcore morning person and it's often difficult to find coffee places that are open before 8am. The primary reason I came here was because they opened at 7am, well before most of the businesses in the area did. That's a point in their favor at least.
And it's cute in there. Per my accompanying picture, there's a lot to take in, with tons of items on the walls and on display, and I needed a solid minute or two just to look over the large menu, which featured a lot of different types of coffees/lattes, as well as a significant number of Middle Eastern influenced snacks and pastries. I literally got over there just as the doors opened (promptly right before 7), so I had the run of the place for my short time in there; I have no doubt this place is hopping when students are actually on campus and don't feel like frequenting the obligatory Starbucks for whatever reason.
Maybe it's just a personal palate issue but I didn't like anything I had. Since this was a very specific type of coffee establishment, I tried the Turkish Coffee. That one for sure just wasn't my speed - it's a super tiny portion, pretty much akin to a shot or two of espresso, and aside from the first two or three sips, was literally just grounds. My gut says that's just how Turkish Coffee is, and I won't be sampling that again anywhere. I did see some intriguing lattes including one of my all-time chums Rose, so that was probably the call in hindsight.
I also selected two food items, both of which were also unfortunately misses for me. One was the baklava, a pastry I'm very familiar with and tend to really like. This was, I'm sad to say, the worst I've had. The biggest issue is that you can barely taste the main ingredients, namely the pistachio and honey. You know what you can taste, see and feel on your tongue though? Sugar. Lots of sugar. For some bizarre reason, they make their baklava here with a layer of this crystallized sugar. I don't know why, but it honestly ruins the item and drowns out the actual flavors you should be tasting. Arguably an easy fix, but I only took a few bites of it.
I also got a Lebanese puff pastry, which looked intriguing but just didn't have much of a flavor. This was my first time trying it, so maybe it's supposed to be on the blander side for whatever reason, but it mostly just tasted like dough to me, especially the areas closer to the edge (not all that dissimilar in my experience from a croissant).
The service was fine; there was just the one young woman behind the counter opening up for the day, and everything I ordered was provided within a few minutes. I got two coffees (a "normal" one for my chum as well), and the two pastries, which came to close to $30. I think that's a little pricy, especially for a place right off of a college campus, but your mileage may vary.
Normally I'd recommend avoiding an establishment where I literally didn't like anything, but my gut says it's still worth stopping by. Just don't get what I got.
