TEMPLE TERRACE — First of all, no, the name of the place is not Juice Time Papa Kanafa Farooj Abo Al Abed.
That may be what it looks like on the sign outside, but that’s just a case of squeezing a lot of names into a space.
There’s Juice Time — exotic drinks, smoothies, shakes and sugar-coma-inducing desserts to fill several menus.
And Papa Kanafa — freshly made versions of the popular Middle Eastern dessert, baked until crisp and finished with cheese, cream, pistachios and a seemingly endless assortment of toppings.
And there’s Farooj Abo Al Abed, which has pretty much perfected the art of delicious charcoal-grilled chicken.
Add it all up and you have a unique three-counter food hall, which opened earlier this year and has a little something for everyone.
The Concept
Manager Waseem Muzher says the concept traces its roots to Lebanon and Kuwait and has become popular elsewhere around the world. It started with Juice Time, which has multiple locations in the U.S. and plans for 30 more this year; this combination in Temple Terrace is the first of its kind in the U.S., Muzher said.
The idea is variety. Come with the family or a group of friends, order dinner, grab a dessert or a drink afterwards, and hang around a little. Muzher added there are even plans to add a kid’s play area.
The Vibe
Clean, bright, friendly and plenty of seating. But don’t mistake the food-court setup for fast food quality. “We make only fresh food, not fast food,” Muzher says. “It starts from scratch, from zero to the customer. All fresh.”
Order your food. Grab a seat. Relax.
The Food
Chicken is the star at Farooj Abo Alabed, fitting considering farooj is Arabic for chicken. The Lebanese grill builds most of its menu around boldly seasoned, flame-grilled chicken, from whole and half birds blistered and charred over the grill to tawouk, kababs and musahab, the restaurant’s signature boneless chicken.
“Our food is healthy,” he said. “Everything we cook on the charcoal. There is nothing oily, nothing. It starts from scratch, from zero to the customer.”
Muzher was so proud of his kitchen — and eager for us to check out the glowing white coals tossing flames around the chicken kababs cooking above — that he insisted we come back and take a look.
The chicken is served in multiple ways, including tucked into toasted flatbread wraps and served with seasoned fries, an assortment of creamy sauces and a host of Middle Eastern drinks to wash it down.
The half chicken we had was deeply seasoned with plenty of blackened char and juices to soak into the flatbread underneath. It was so good I barely considered the sauces, ranging from garlic to spicy, other than to do my duty as a journalist. They were good.
Now, back to that chicken….
Sweets & Drinks
Temple Terrace makes a strong case for having the best desserts in Tampa Bay, and Papa Kanafa and Juice Time just bolster that charge.
Kanafa is a Middle Eastern sweet, with crisp pastry, cheese or cream, sugar syrup and typically a dusting of pistachios. But you can get a wide variety of toppings.
Juice Time’s name undersells what it really is.
A juice bar? Not even close.
A sprawling amusement park of desserts? Yes. Yes!
There are fresh juices, sure, but there’s also fruit cocktails, milkshakes, soft serve, coffee, matcha, waffles, mini pancakes, brownies and Dubai chocolate — the wildly popular combination of chocolate, pistachio and crunchy kanafa.
There are plenty of sensible choices, too, from fresh fruit and vegetable juices to drinks you can order without the ice cream, milk or added sugar.
But what fun is that?
We didn’t look very hard at healthy and ordered the popular Heart Attack — vanilla ice cream, mango juice and fresh strawberries — and were darn pleased with our choice.
Pro Tip
It’s a welcoming place to hang out and have some coffee, or a delicious dinner. It’s an even greater place for a dessert date.
The Verdict
You gotta give it up to the Terrace Oaks Plaza on 56th Street just south of Fowler. If we were ranking strip plazas based on food choices, this one would be in the upper tier. And the combination of Juice Time, Papa Kanafa and Farooj Abo Al Abed — all at 11401 N. 56th St. — only make the case stronger.