Date: 05 January 2008
“I recently went to this restaurant with a friend of mine who had been once before. I had never eaten Lebanese food, and didn’t know what to expect. First, I was struck by how attractive the ornate back dining area was. I couldn’t stop staring at the amazing walls and ceiling. My friend suggested getting a bunch of starters and one main to share instead of each getting a main and a starter. This way we could sample more dishes. I agreed, and we ended with an amazing variety of different flavours that impressed and surprised me. The prices were incredibly reasonable and the food was outstanding. The only dish I wasn’t wild about was the hummous, but that’s probably because i’m used to manufactured, supermarket brand hummous and this was obviously homemade. Maybe I should return and try to re-train my palate to the real thing. I highly recommend this restaurant for couples, families, groups, whatever. The service was excellent too. I’m glad I didn’t listen to the review below.”
Reviewed by: Anonymous
Date: 24 August 2006
‘ I had a party in Al Shami over the weekend and must say that the service was absolutely appalling. There were 10 of us in a group and the waiter actually asked us to write the order down on a piece of paper before walking off and disappearing for quite sometime. This begs the question, what is a 10% service charge all about. The menu was very confusing, without a clear distinction between starters and main courses. Most of us didn’t know how much to order and there was no help at hand. After writing the order down myself on a piece of paper and giving it to a waiter I found it shocking that they still got the order totally wrong. People were waiting for things to turn up for quite some time. I had to leave the table a few times to go and chase them up. The staff didn’t seem to pay any attention, and I found myself repeating things over and over again. We had a person allergic to garlic in our group and I specifically indicated on the list that no garlic should be in her dishes. I also double-checked later with a waiter whether it was all clear. The person allergic to garlic also checked. On the whole the staff were very flippant in their attitude, laughing and joking, a bit too casual and not really paying much attention to any of the requests we made. As a result the person with an allergy was violently sick after the meal and also the next day, which clearly indicated garlic poisoning. We are now looking to complain to the Food Standards Agency about the restaurant. I would strongly advise to anybody with any kind of allergy to avoid this restaurant as it is very likely that not only you will receive no reassurance or advice, you might just get food, which will make you very sick or worse. Simply unacceptable and shocking service! ‘
Reviewed by: Ulrika
Al-Shami
25 Walton Crescent, Jericho
01865 310066