Hejaz vs. Manzil: Which Coffee Shop is Better?

Welcome!

Hello! My name is Khaula from @halaleatsbykhaula and welcome to my food journey! I am a film major with a passion for food! Throughout these blog posts, I will be discovering different Halal restaurants in the New Jersey/Tri State area and letting you know my thoughts on them. For my first post, I will be comparing two local coffee shops!

For this taste test, I went to Hejaz Tea & Coffee House and Manzil Cafe, which are both on route 27. For fair results, I purchased similar items at both coffee shops: a drink, a sandwich and a dessert.

Hejaz Tea & Coffee House:

To start off, I ordered a Iced Vanilla Bean Latte. As someone who prefers sweeter coffee, I really enjoyed this drink! The specks of real vanilla bean gave it an authentic, rich vanilla flavor.  Rating: 9/10

The next thing I ate was the Turkey Sandwich, which had a combination of turkey, cheese, pesto, spinach and olives, with some balsamic vinegrette on the side. All the different flavors mixed together very well to get a great savory taste! Rating: 9.5/10

The final item I tried was the White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake. Unfortunately, this was not the best end to a great meal. The white chocolate and raspberry flavors did not stand out and made the cheesecake rather bland. Rating: 5/10

Overall, this was a rather great experience and would give my total rating a 7.8/10.

Manzil Cafe

At Manzil Cafe, I had first ordered a Iced Vanilla Latte. To me, their coffee was very bitter and could've used more vanilla flavor. Rating: 7.8/10

The next item was a Hot Honey Pesto Chicken Sandwich that also had some greens, peppers and cheese on it. Because we went during a Ramadan special, the sandwich came with their Truffle fries. The sandwich was very flavorful on its own, but a bit heavy due to being slightly too oily. Rating: 9/10

The final item was the Black Cocoa Tiramisu. I had never had this dessert before and was excited to try it. However, like their coffee, this dessert was quite bitter and not sweet at all. Rating: 4/10

As a whole, I would say this was good experience and give it a total rating of 7/10.

Thank you so much for reading! Tune in next time and to not miss out on this journey, follow @halaleatsbykhaula on Instagram! 

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