- Added: 1st of September 2008
- Area: Mayfair
- Category: Restaurants
London W1J 7TX
020 7629 2211
tomc said
Terrible service and inedible food
I was extremely disappointed by this restaurant. I've never had worse service and one of the dishes they served was inedible.
Firstly the food: we ordered a lebanese mezze for starters which was actually very tasty however the main courses were much worse. My lamb tagine was ok, I can't really complain about it though it was nothing special but my girlfriend's beef tagine was horrible. It was sandy (sandy?! for a tagine?! I'm no expert but I don't think you should expect a dry gritty taste from a tagine) and had far too much cumin in (to the point where it was inedible) and normally I'm a big fan of cumin!
Then the shisha: after we'd eaten we asked if we could get a table outside to smoke some shisha and were told there was a small wait since the tables were full. This seemed fair since it did appear it was full. However, as the evening went on and as we waited longer it became apparent that they were seating people outside ahead of us (and this happened with several groups).
When we asked again to sit outside we were told we weren't allowed since you'd need to get two pipes to sit outside (this feels very ridiculous to write but frankly the whole thing was quite farcical - it was so obvious what was happening that the waitress was embarrassed to even speak to us). Meanwhile, they continued to seat outside anyone who didn't posses a white Caucasian complexion.
In short: Avoid it at all costs. If you're looking for a nice middle-eastern restaurant with shisha then try the Kaslik restaurant in Soho - I've been there several times - the food and service are a delight (and cheaper as well).