Al Aseel Restaurant Bankstown — Restaurant in Sydney

I booked my 30th birthday at Al Aseel in Bankstown and found the experience disappointing - I would give it a 5/10.

The communication leading up to the event was actually good so I was looking forward to the event as I had eaten there previously and enjoyed it. The venue is also so beautifully decorated so I was excited for my backdrop setup and photos.

I have three main pieces of constructive criticism to provide to the venue.

Firstly, it’s really not acceptable to change the arrangement of the seating the day of an event. I received a call the day of my event to tell me that they were going to change the table arrangements that we had agreed on - this was after I had already been given a picture of the seating arrangement weeks ago and I had planned my seating and sent it to them via email. When I arrived… I saw the seating arrangement and was shocked. It was supposed to be a long table along the back of the venue. They had left a table on the far left for the public to be sitting in the same long row as us (this was not what we had agreed to previously). The table of 12 and 14 were also extremely squishy and they expected people to have to ask others to get out of the booth to be able to go in and out (with 6-8 people being squished along the booth). After a lot of complaining and going back and forth, the man that was in charge of my event agreed to rearrange the tables the way I was promised initially leading up to the event. It just did not make sense to squish us all together and make us uncomfortable just to have a table of 5 right next to us to provide to the public.

Secondly, they really need to improve their service. Some examples included not putting soft drink/sparkling on the table when we paid for a soft drink package for each person ($450). Not coming and telling me or my husband that it was final drinks and asking my guests if they wanted tea/coffee when the mains were still on the table and the cake had not even been cut yet or dessert served. When one of the guests tried ordering coffee when the cake was served - we were told that the coffee machine had been “cleaned” and we could not buy more drinks. Again, this was without warning for final drinks. Serving cake and fruit without plates or cutlery. A few of my guests asked for cutlery and were not given anything. Also, when a few of us ordered specific teas - they didn’t receive what they ordered and their teas were given to others instead. My husband didn’t even get tea at all - despite ordering it and paying for it.

Lastly, the food was not of the standard that Al Aseel usually serves. As mentioned, I’ve eaten at this particular venue a few times and have always found the food to be 10/10 for Lebanese cuisine. It was not very good. A specific example for improvement was the salads (tabouli and fattoush) which were soggy and tasteless. Not sure if the difference was that they were catering for a large event.

Whilst the man in charge and staff were friendly and tried to assist where they could, the above issues made the evening stressful for me and my family. For the amount that it costs per person, this really needs to...

Al Aseel is a hugely popular Middle Eastern (more specifically Lebanese) restaurant with 6 locations across Sydney. This year, they’ve opened a new location in Bankstown at the Sports club, one of the largest clubs in NSW. It has a family friendly atmosphere and is a huge space to bring communities together.

The dining space is voluminous with soaring glass panelled ceilings, and plenty of natural light which provides the setting for a lovely weekend lunch. Spacious and modern, a padded fabric wall extends the length of the restaurant on one side, facing a stuccoed wall on the other, with gigantic hanging wicker and turquoise fabric lamp shades, and potted greenery positioned on shelving providing colour, and contributing to the feeling of dining in a greenhouse. Rather than feeling impersonal, the large space is cleverly sectioned into different dining zones with a curtained off area providing a private group dining space.

For their food offerings, it’s an absolute feast and recommended sharing style with so many options available. Al Aseel offers Lebanese classics from hommos, kibbeh and sambousek, to tabouli, shawarma and mansaf, with everything exquisitely presented.

The dip platter features a quartet of dips, with each distinctively garnished - chickpeas on the hommus, eggplant on the baba ghanouj and beetroot on the beetroot dip - and presented on a wooden board, with olives, zaatar kaak, and bread.

For some of the warm entrees we really liked the Arnabeet (fried cauliflower, tahini, crushed walnuts) and Ladies Finger. They have varieties of the Ladies Finger cheese mix & parsley, or basturma & cheese or minced meat & cheese. Crispy outside and a delicious filling makes for a good starter.

From the mouth watering grill, there’s Chicken & Meat Shawarma, Shish Tawook, Lemon & Garlic Chicken and Kafta Mishwe skewers. The Lemon & Garlic Chicken was well portioned, flavoured with a generous amount of the sauce, perfect to have with rice or breads.

The show stopper is the slow cooked lamb shank with tomato mansaf rice. When prodded with a fork, the lamb falls off the bone onto a mound of fragrant rice, with toasted almonds, pistachios and cashews adding crunch and texture. It is at once a wholesome and decadent dish.

If you’re not sure what to order, their Banquet option might suit you. At $55 per person, the it includes hommos, baba ghanouj, tabouli, fattoush, falafel, kibbe meat, sambousek cheese, batata bi kizbara, skewers of laham mishwe, shish tawook and kafta mishwe and rice for a minimum 4 people. A good option for a group to save the stress of deciding what to order.

There is plenty for everyone at Al Aseel, and it’s popularity for family gatherings, special occasion dining and casual dining among couples and friends was evident the...

Called up and booked a table for 2 on a Sunday night, phone person offered 7.45pm, I asked if 7.30 available the person said ok 7.30 is fine.

Came down at 7.30 there was a short older man who seem grumpy and up himself, I told him the name for the booking he said no don’t have that name on the booking. I looked at the book and saw my number and I pointed at it saying that’s my booking, he said no that’s not confirmed. I asked him what does that mean, I booked but how is it not confirmed, he said “no it’s never confirm, its super busy” so we have to wait til 8pm and there MAY be a table, he said this while being super dismissive and disgusted that we were standing there questioning him about our booking.

He told us to wait by the chairs out front and he may or may not call us because the table may or may not be free at 8pm. There was a Lebanese group of 5 men that came after us, he said to them ok wait a minute I find you a table. Another family of 4 - Arabic also came after those men said something to the guy and he nodded to tjem to get a table. He didn’t even look at the book. We started to believe this was racially motivated and disgusted by his demeaning behaviour.

We decided to walk towards the carpark when we saw a few table empty so my friend decided to ask a different waiter if there’s table available, to which that waiter said YES AND TOOK US TO A TABLE. After the group of 5 of course because the grumpy man before already agree to get them a table. As I walked towards my designate table there was about 4 spare table of 2 and as we sat and ate more table cleared up and it was literally EMPTY. If this is how they run their business it is disgusting and I’ve never experienced This racist behaviour my entire life of living in Australia !

To the grumpy old man, I don’t know if you’re trying to make your business more “exclusive” but your actions just reflect badly upon a great business otherwise. Every other staff was lovely and helpful. 1 extra star for them, if it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t even give...