Cedar’s Cafe
I have had a hard time finding Mediterranean restaurants in Florida, so I was very excited when I discovered Cedar’s Cafe. This unassuming restaurant in a shopping plaza serves up authentic Greek and Lebanese cuisine with their own twist. There are only about 10 tables, so it is ideal to make a reservation if you are going for dinner. It is worth the planning though in order to enjoy such a great restaurant.
Everything is made in house and you really can’t find better hummus. It’s definitely more flavorful than anything in store and they keep the pita squares coming so that you can have as much as you like. I usually get a Greek Salad with chicken which comes with lots of zesty veggies and sprinkled with feta cheese. It also is served with garlic sauce which is also great for dipping pita bread in.
The skewers are another great option and you can get them in top of veggies or rice. The chicken has a perfect mix of spices with some garlic sauce to keep it from being too spicy. The pine nuts top of this meal to add some crunch.
I often can’t decide between all the different sides so they have a pick three option, where you can pick anything from falafel to grape leaves to a deconstructed gyro. I love their tabouli so I got that, a Greek salad and some fava beans in rice. The beans in rice are the one side I’m not crazy about. The sauce was warm and the rice was cold and the beans were a bit bland. It might have been a fluke, but I found the mixture not going well together. Other than that though my experiences here have been flawless.
The coolest thing about this place is they host special themed weeks like Sandwich Week and Burger week. I have yet to make it to burger week, but every year they have a huge list full of all sorts of different meat, cheeses, toppings and buns to create your own perfect combination. They also serve their award winning blended burger, which has been one of the top five restaurants in the national James Beard Blended Burger competition two years in a row. This year, their winning creation was the Monterrey Mushroom and Lamb burger with sour cherry mustard, brie, basil, and an herb lemon caper walnut relish. It was nationally voted for second place in 2017 against hundreds of other restaurants across the country. Not too shabby for a restaurant from our little space coast town!
We did make it to Sandwich Week this year and we were extremely impressed. They had a variety of different sandwich options to choose and all of them sounded amazing. We ended up getting the Brie BLT and the Lamb Cuban. These were really some of the best sandwiches I have ever had. The Brie LT with bacon melted in my mouth and it was on a delicious pretzel bun. 
The Lamb Cuban was somehow even better and unlike anything I have tasted. It had lamb strips and Lamb prosciutto topped with Swiss cheese, and pickled mustard seeds and cucumber. I have not even liked lamb much in the past, but I couldn’t get enough of this sandwich, especially the crispy prosciutto. I never would have expected getting something so unique as this sandwich at a small Greek restaurant, but now I know not to be surprised by the culinary creations Cedar’s Cafe produces. This past year sandwich week was in April and we will not miss it this year! In the mean time we will be back for all our favorite Mediterranean food.