La Shish Lebanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Sydney

We have always enjoyed going to Lashish and recommended it to friends and family multiple times. Dining in was always a pleasant experience, and we never encountered issues. However, our recent experience with takeaway has completely changed our view of this restaurant.

Yesterday, around 5 PM, we called La Shish to order takeaway for four people as we were visiting my aunt for dinner and wanted to bring food along. My husband made the call while I was on speaker, and from the beginning, the staff member who answered was incredibly dry, unhelpful, and dismissive.

My husband began asking about shared plates and rice, specifically trying to figure out how much would feed four people. The staff member simply listed items in a monotone voice without offering any guidance. When my husband asked how the meats from the grill were sold, she replied briefly with “grilled” and nothing more. He tried to clarify, asking for recommendations for four people, but she gave no advice, no portion guidance, no suggestion on adding sides, salads, or dips. We had to extract every piece of information ourselves.

When my husband asked if there was a menu we could see, she curtly said, “there’s no menu.” He said he would call back call back frustrated with no assistance, and she audibly sighed with irritation before hanging up the phone. It was astonishingly rude. We were trying to order dinner in a timely manner - it was not a casual or unnecessary call. Just because it was over the phone does not make us any less of a customer.

About ten minutes later, my husband called back to explain how unhelpful and disrespectful the previous interaction had been. Shortly after, the manager called us. Instead of apologising or attempting to resolve the situation, the manager immediately defended the staff member, saying she “did nothing wrong” and justifying the behaviour by claiming they were busy with four other customers.

My husband pointed out that if they truly believed the staff did nothing wrong, there was no need to call back to justify her actions — the problem was with the service we received. The manager offered no apology, no solution, and no acknowledgement of our frustration.

I have worked in customer service for 15 years and have never once spoken to a customer in such a dismissive or rude manner. Being busy is not an excuse for poor service. Customers deserve guidance, patience, and professionalism at all times. The same standards should apply whether a customer is physically in the restaurant or calling over the phone.

To illustrate, imagine sitting in a restaurant with no menu, asking the waiter for guidance, and instead of helping you, they give short, vague answers, sigh in frustration, and hang up the conversation. That is exactly how this felt. The lack of proactive service made what should have been a simple takeaway order unnecessarily stressful, frustrating, and disappointing.

We have always loved visiting La Shish in the past - the food is excellent, and service in the restaurant was always friendly. But this incident, combined with management’s decision to justify rude behaviour rather than acknowledge it, has completely changed our view. Hospitality is about more than just food; it’s about how customers are treated, whether they are in the restaurant or ordering remotely.

Sadly, we will not be returning. This experience has left us frustrated, disappointed, and no longer confident that La Shish values loyal customers or prioritises basic customer service. If staff cannot demonstrate simple hospitality, and management cannot recognise when customers are mistreated, it reflects very poorly on the entire restaurant.

To add perspective, we ended up calling an Afghan restaurant instead. As soon as we told them we needed food for four people, rice and BBQ meat, they immediately suggested packaged meals with perfect-size portions and explained what sides were included. That is true customer service. Take...

Went there for Christmas - I brought two visitors from Japan, I was expecting to show them how we Lebo's eat. However, we arrived at 11:45am The waiter was absolutely unfocused, we selected food from the menu only to be told that they only did breakfast before midday. Alright, understandable, however it was 15 minutes before Midday. So the waiter literally forced us to order breakfast. I ordered a couple things off the menu, only to be told that about half the meals I ordered weren't available. It wasnt anything difficult either, they didnt have any cold cuts, most basic of food essentials. Service was terribly slow, if this waiter denied us the lunch menu 15 minutes before midday, surely they would havd the breakfast menu in full force. They had absolutely nothing - they were also unwilling to even start preparing lunch, which prompted a chuckle from myself, as I was embarrassed to have taken foreign visitors to this place, it was so stupid - as they were serving us our breakfast (which will send you to the toilet on hours, by the way) they happened to be serving others lunch. The food was terrible. The service was terrible. The cuttlery is less than satisfactory - the waiters attitudes are also quiet a put off, you dont feel like youre at a restaurant, you feel like youre in a school cafeteria with less than standard food. Since the waiter refused to take a lunch order (getting closer to midday, mind you) I ordered various platters and foods to make up for the disappointing establishment I took them to.

The food was bad, people. Super-Bad. To put it bluntly, it was almost shoking in its terribleness.

I would advise all to stay away from this place.

Their menu is also poorly laid out, I can read Arabic - so do many other people, their "romanization" of Arabic is also misleading, it also doesnt mention on the menu that various meals arent available before 12 midday. Which just makes ordering a blunder, an embarrassment for both staff and customers.

I am an individual who enjoys their Shankleesh with a passion, however, the Shankleesh from here tastes like they grabbed a regular ball of Shankleesh, crushed it then drenched it in some caustic brine.

They have poor accuracy and foresight as to whats needed on the table.

I could go on and on, however, one star for trying.

Thanks for ruining Christmas, and I sincerely hope you get your act together.

Would like to visit again, but not interested in plate after plate of disappointment.

To all - there are many other places that you could go for a lovely lunch, without the bossy attitude that the waiters put on you, as well as the...

Rubbish place, our disaster started when the waitress with hijab came to take our order, first thing she said was "ready to order", no hi, hello, welcome. We ordered and the food came out cold, we let the waitress know who proceeded to argue with my father and tell him it can't be as its cooked fresh. My father not wanting to argue said ok no worries. The remaining food came out cold and we told the other waiter, a young boy who was abit feminine who proceeded to shout at us and insist the food wasn't called, he even walked away from us still shouting from across the restaurant. While in discussions with them at the table I recieved a dish and immediately asked them to put their finger on it as it was cold, they said ok took it away yet still no apology. The manager then came over and still insisted the food wasn't cold even though I had just proved to them it was. We cancelled the rest of our food still to come. Finally the chef came and apologised and was the only one to accept fault. We paid the bill(where they tried to charge us for food we didn't recieve)and left with empty stomachs and ate somewhere else. This place needs to get a makeover and tell their staff to pull their heads in, perhaps a reminder that customers pay your wages. Avoid this place...