Wild Thyme — Restaurant in Moody Park

Do note:- I have an Indian palette and need intense spice in food to taste any flavor. And, this was my first time eating Lebanese.

First impression, great ambience. After getting seated, found the table a little too small. (Because food portions are big) (-1 star) I would say it took a tad bit longer than what you'd expect for a staff member to approach and take our order. This memeber is the one who interacted the most with everything except bring our food to our table was done by this guy. Guessing he is the owner or manager. He was jolly good and carried a sense of humour. (+0.5 stars) I ordered a 3 course meal (lamb shank) while the lady along with me ordered a cauliflower wrap. First came the pita with dips along with salad. The salad and pita were great but from the dips the garlic dip was mind blowing. Not so fond of other 3 dips. We shared this part and our opinions were similar. Next came the lamb shank, I would like to say that this dish did not live up to its expectations. Shortly after, came the wrap. Which seemed quite repulsive to my company. She found the main ingredient cauliflower, very poor in terms of texture and taste. After finishing my big boy lamb shank in my big boy pants. My lady friend told me to try the cauliflower. I thought why not, it couldn't be that miserable, but it was squishy(expected a little crunch or crisp, don't know why) and bland. So, we ordered ourselves a side of garlic dip and tried eating as much pita with everything except for cauliflower as we can. Unfortunately, I couldn't eat that. Throughout this entire time, we weren't checked on about our food, until we stopped someone to order the garlic dip to eat along with the wrap's bread. (-2 star) I did expect there to be dessert. But maybe the 3 course just includes the starter (pita, salad, dips) and main (lamb shank). I could be wrong about the whole course thing here. But then the menu should include more details, otherwise its misleading. After waiting a few minutes to get someones attention to settle the bill. I asked the staff member if I could pay up. The pos machine was bought and we were asked how we would like our bill. Even though I said split into two. The payment was separate. (Rather than splitting evenly among the said number, 2 in this case, the separate amounts of who ordered what was paid). (-0.5 stars) And we were only asked if we wanted our payment receipt, never given or asked for our foods bill. (-1 stars)

Feedback: As I have worked in this industry I can excuse the delays and the taste of food. Because no one has control over who is going to like what. I have only deducted stars for the following parts.

1.) But the service should be improved, that should be checking up on guests to start with about quality of their food, asking questions while running food (if anything is required). 2.) The 3 course part should be clarified in menu. 3.) Please pay attention to what a guest asks for (referring to the payment part). You can always ask again if you get confused but please do not make silly mistakes. 4.) It is a guest's right to get a written or printed copy of the bill (bill of sales) on their table even if they end up leaving it there. Might make you question the legitimacy of the restaurant.

It was my first time visit so I might give them another chance but I for sure won't bring any company along for disappointment. But they would really have to improve on the points mentioned for me to come back.

YOU BETTER GET THE PITA WITH THE...

I’ve never been in a position to read the negative reviews of a place while I’m sitting at the table waiting to be served. I want to give them grace because it was busy, but honestly the service was not great even considering.

We called to reserve a table (as outlined on website) they said we don’t need to because there will be room. We ended up waiting 10 minutes at the door for a table. After being sat down, they never came back to take our order. We tried to get someone’s attention to order drinks 10 minutes in, but they only took the order for half of the drinks before dashing off. 10 minutes later we tried to get someone’s attention again to place our food order. They said they’ll be right back. We had to ask again 5 minutes later, at which point our server showed up. Only one of the 2 hot drinks ordered came out. When the second one did arrive (after asking for it again) it came out cold. Nearly an hour later, bread came out with some of the sides of the meal. It took an hour and a half for us to receive our actual meal in full from placing the order. Staff seemed constantly in a rush.

The food was delicious. Our server was very friendly. It was clear they were busy, but it also seemed like something went wrong at some point of the day. We had to repeatedly request servers attention rather than them coming to us and asking for our drink order, food order and never really checked in about how it was. We also noticed people who sat after us received their order far earlier than us.

We’ve worked in the service industry before so we know how it can be. Some pointers I would offer is to check in with your customers, apologize and acknowledge when you’ve dropped the ball and be proactive in letting them know their food is on the way.

We were really looking forward to trying this spot out for our first time. The great reviews were really enticing, it’s just very unfortunate that this was our experience. I would steer away from this spot if you don’t have great company to keep you busy while you’re waiting for your meal. Hopefully this was just a one-off for this spot, but I dont know that I’m in a rush to come back anytime soon...

Wanted to love this place, but sadly didn't. The staff are really nice and took the time to explain the dishes. I was frankly kind of confused by all the rave reviews because the food wasn't that great imo.

What we liked: pita and dip (the eggplant and garlic dips were our favorite) fatoush salad, pomegranate molasses was delicious -the rice that comes with the mains was wonderfully seasoned and spiced

What was okay: the cauliflower dish. Flavour was good, but was a little imbalanced. The Tahini sauce could have used a little bit of citrus to make the flavors of the dish pop. I enjoyed the cauliflower at Jamjar and Nuba more. Manoushe Flatbread- there were rave reviews about the Flatbread, and we were perhaps set up for disappointment by the high praise. We had half spicy tomato and half Sujuk, and found it to be similar to the flavour of ultra thin crust pizza. Moreover, the Flatbread itself was $24 plus tax, making it an ultra expensive pizza.

What we didn't like -We had the 1/4 chicken, 1/4 beef with rice. Everyone eating found both the beef and the chicken to be dry. One or my friends described the beef to be as good as you can expect ground beef to be, noting that he did not find it to be special. To the manager's credit, he offered us a complimentary rice and beef dish when we explained our concerns with the mains. The second round of beef and rice was definitely better. You could actually see there was moisture in the beef patties.

The service Overall the service was good. There was a slight miscommunication as i had asked for the individual portion of cauliflower, but they gave me the 1/2 portion. The restaurant was really loud and because I didn't want to go through the hassle of explaining the miscommunication, I didn't say anything. However, we genuinely appreciated the managers effort to make our experience a positive one.

The price The total bill came to $115 before tax, for three people. It was on the pricey end and unfortunately in this case, we did not feel the main dishes were enjoyable enough to justify the cost. However, we will happily come back for the pita bread,...