★★★★★ Baladna is a huge, gorgeous, upscale middle eastern halal restaurant with a big menu to match. We came for a late lunch on a Monday and basically had the place to ourselves. This place is beautiful inside and features high ceilings and colorful Byzantine/Turkish chandeliers and red carpets. It can easily accommodate a larger group with no problem and has a private dining area for events. You feel like a sheikh eating in there and the servers are super nice. The Palestinian-style slant on the menu items (and the hummus presentation) is totally legit. Even the iced tea came in a tall glass with no ice in it -- just like the way Arabs like to drink it (ice in drinks is virtually unknown outside the US). First, they put down the plate of pickles. Although it is tempting to snack on them don't fill up on these, put them on your sandwich! It's got nice olives, baby Persian cucumbers, and radish pickle. This is exactly what they give you at cafes in the Arab quarter of Jerusalem. We got the appetizer platter which comes with hummus, babaghanoush, stuffed grape leaves, falafel, and tahini. The dips are great with a beautiful presentation, but the falafel is the real star here. So light, crispy, delicious spicing. A total must order. We also got the fried kibbe (meat and cracked bulghur wheat fritters) which are heavily spiced with pomegranate molasses and baharat which is an Arab seasoning blend that has cinnamon and other things in it. Really good. We shared a Shawarma sandwich which is a lamb and beef mix. Truly excellent, and was nice and juicy and not overly salty which you sometimes find in halal meat. Came with commercial crinkle cut French fries (ok maybe you might not see that in Beirut or Amman) which actually were very good because they were seasoned appropriately and fried crispy. On a recent visit we have had the family kebab platter. The small one of these along with two appetizer plates easily feeds 4 or 5 very hungry people as it comes with vegetables and spiced rice pilaf (excellent). It has lamb, kofte (mixed ground beef/lamb meat) and chicken kebabs on it, and the flavor is amazing and it is cooked perfectly. With six people we had at least another portion of food left over someone had to box and take home. If you order any of the cookies or pastries, be sure get the Arab coffee (Qahwah Arabiyya ) which is a heck of a jolt if you're needing extra energy on a late afternoon or you're gonna go dancing after a big meal. Super strong. Arab tea service is also excellent here. Be advised during the week they don't necessarily have everything on the menu available and their service can be slow because they aren't always fully staffed and management has to fill in. On the weekends they have a buffet similar to what they do during Iftar for Ramadan and it's a ton of food for $20 per person. My regular place for this kind of food is usually Al Natour or Al Salam in Sunrise/Plantation but I'm going to be visiting this place quite often. They've got real competition now. Posted on September 14, 2018