Wow, nothing about the service or anything but the food. There are several of these mostly take away middle eastern places around me, all are good to passable. Mostly family run by Syrians and have ME customers, not the case tonight but that is something I never found a correlation in the past. Often seems like they are skimping on the tahini in the hummus but eh.
Ordered falafel and hummus for me and my wife to go they came in the standard size containers, wow. My wife dug in before me, she asked me what the heck is that some kind of Indian food you got, she said no way is that hummus when I told her.
The hummus fills barely a fourth of the small container(all the other places its full) but maybe for the best as it is what we think it is mashed lentils? tasting strongly of curry powder.
The falafels are big soggy balls of fried dough(bread) again with a strong taste of curry, real falafel is is crunchy on the outside and not bread Falafel - Wikipedia
I’ve had a falafel variant that is crunchy on the outside and inside is course bulgher wheat with a hint of mint and spices, also good.
I’m gonna call tomorrow and ask just what the deal is, did you guys try to replicate ME by looking at a picture with out reading a recipe? Owner go on a gambling spree and you’re trying to stay afloat using random shit? Grandma from an obscure village where they do things differently?
Wanted to add two things, channa(chickpeas) and channa flour are the primary ingredients in really popular street foods locally. You can find them in any grocery, so that is not an issue.
And I really like Indian food, and am really adventurous for fusion shit and such, I even really like fried bread! Whether native american style or others, its good fresh out of the pot.
I went looking for the bag with the pita bread that came with the hummus, figuring I’d eat it with some dip I had. Inside is a single stale <tortilla!> Tastes like one of those crappy packaged shelf stable brands.
This is seeming like incompetence rather than cheapness, those shelf stable tortillas are expensive here compared to pita bread. There is a grocery store a few hundred feet from the restaurant that sells packs of fresh store made pita bread in the bakery for cheaper!
Weird! Properly done Indian food is the yums! My old job was nearby an all-you-can-eat Indian vegetarian buffet. I used to go in and eat enough to feed a small village. (I always felt so guilty, I tipped a few dollars extra; otherwise, they’d lose money every time I walked in!)
Here in San Diego, there used to be a place called “Good Pizza.” They lied. They also didn’t last long at all. Really ghastly pizza – and pizza is one of those things that’s hard to do wrong! Even "average"pizza is usually worth eating. Dominos or Pizza Hut, or even old Square Pan: nothin’ special, but somewhat yummy and filling. But “Good Pizza” was hideous. Cardboard crust, gluey cheese, oily toppings… Just a goddamn disaster.
Are you serious? Steak 'n Shake (the proper way to spell it) is probably my favorite fast food place, and Arby’s is in the top few and has a good selection of sandwiches. Taco Bell does what it does well.
There is one of each within a five minute drive of my house and I would say that all are clean, the staff is friendly and courteous, and the food is good for what you pay.
I may be jaded on Steak 'n Shake since the one near me is one of the first and I believe it is corporately owned, and they used to be headquartered here so it may be kept to higher standards than most. Run properly they are great.
Arby’s I don’t care for mainly because I don’t care for roast beef in general.
Steak & Shake doesn’t exist in my part of the country.
Taco Bell is what it is - it’s several iterations divorced from anything that Mexican families would have been cooking in their homes a century ago, but it’s tasty.
I once had a sandwich in a deli that had a “C” rated health department placard in the window.
I asked to use the bathroom.
The guy at the counter said no. “You don’t want to see our bathroom.”
There was also a huge open pit, with the floor stringers going across the excavation, in the back half of their dining room. The place really should have been closed for construction, but they were keeping right on selling deli!
Conveniently nearby… I’ll give 'em a try! (Doing the masochism tango…)
That’s surprising. Chinese is kinda hard to do really badly. It’s very easy to do “below average,” but it’s really hard to do “crappy.” What were the kinds of problems?
Rancid oil, gloppy sauces, food coming off a steam table somewhere. In order to be edible, most food needs to be prepared fresh when ordered. It seems like a lot of Chinese food has been sitting around waiting for a customer. They fry up a shitload of chicken pieces and then glop on whichever sauce you happen to have ordered (orange, etc.). It’s like the fast food of the Asian cuisine genre.
Pulled into a Carl’s jr. in Quartzsite, Az., hungry and looking to escape the heat. Had to try Carl’s since one had just opened back home.
Absolutely DISGUSTING food. Salad lettuce was brown and wilted, my burger wasn’t properly cooked, fries were cold. Guy behind the counter wasn’t very pleasant and could hardly speak English.
And then to rub a little salt into our wounds, a few days later we found ourselves in Williams, Az. Walked into this little restaurant and ordered soup. I think the cook put the entire bottle of vinegar in the pot. Went back to the motel to write a review on TA. Wow, we should have read it first. Nothing good from anyone.
My worst was at a national chain that’s always been very good everywhere else, yet the three meals I had at the local franchise were all disappointing. The sauces tasted like they were from a can (but priced like they were made on site) the service was patchy and - on one occasion - downright weird. I emailed a complaint to head office after I gave them a third chance. Head office replied and said they’d forwarded my feedback to the manager. Soon after, I received this:
*
hi:
This is Mick the boss, what is your table number did you told the manger when you pay? i wasnt there that day.
This is the first complain since 10 years ask the head office or any friend loacl here in (town), send any friends live here in (town) and order same if the dont like i will not charge them, no one complain from our custmors about warm chic or the napoli sacue or anything you said,
That’s the entire message. I followed up asking how he knew he wasn’t there when I hadn’t specified a date, but I never heard back, and I forwarded it to head office because that message is ridiculous. They never replied either. I considered Mick the boss’s offer and decided against rounding up friends to go to a restaurant I thought was lousy with the promise that if their meal sucked, they could have it free. I just never went back again. Six years later they’re still in business, so I guess Mick the boss was right - his other customers don’t mind.
Oh, come on. You simply can’t post that and then not tell us which still in business national chain you’re referring to, even if you don’t specify that particular location.
“worst falaffel, ever” wouldn’t be as exciting a title, but might be more appropriate.
For example, my father makes falaffel patties for camping. After frying them he bakes them to draw out the cooking oil. They’re pretty dry. One year rubber patch glue spilled in his back-pack. All of the falaffels smelled and tasted like glue. I didn’t eat any but he insisted that they were edible. Those were the worst falaffels, ever.
