Lebanese Palace — Restaurant in Ottawa

We had our wedding here. Initially the manager there seemed to want to work with us, cost wasn't bad. But as we got further into the process she started adding things on that she didn't tell us about closer to the date where it wasn't going to be possible to switch locations.

IMPORTANT what really got my wife and I, was we put money down to cover some drinks for our guests. To ensure it was trackable, we provided drink tickets to our guests.

First of all, it didn't matter what the drink was, cheap beer or mixed drinks, everything was $10-11 per drink, exorbitant amounts for a Budweiser beer. "Mixed drinks" were vodka orange juice, and pepsi and whiskey.

Then the night of the wedding she "didn't track" the number of drinks we covered so at 11:45pm as we were wrapping up, she approached me on my wedding night and said she gave out the wrong number and so we owed her $200.

As we started talking to guests, we found out she probably owed us money after. We were told soda drinks were free, but then would take drink tickets for pepsi or bottled water. We also started finding out from guests, sometimes she'd take 2 tickets for 1 drink, sometimes only 1 ticket. We then also found out, if people weren't sitting at their table, she'd go and take the tickets off the table, so she was taking away free drinks that we paid for. One table we put tickets at, didn't even have tickets on the table by the time the reception started.

The cherry on top of all of this, was she came to our table and told us for the "happy couple" she gave us two free drinks each on the house. We then found out she took the tickets from my wife's parents saying "it's their wedding how can you make them pay for drinks?" but then came to us and tried to make us feel like they were gifts.

The food itself was good, and the venue was nice, but overall, just a lot of dishonesty on behalf of the restaurant. We're not sure if the restaurant got the money we lost or she put it in her own pocket. But very disappointing. She's been calling my wife non-stop to get the money and calling from an unknown number to try and get us on the phone.

Lastly, when we told her how we wanted the tables, she argued with us saying "whatever you want but she knows better". Servers attitude wasn't good, and we were the last ones to get our food. They almost forgot to bring us our barbeque.

We'll never be going back, and won't be recommending this place to anyone.

Be very careful booking...

I went for my first time last night and left quite disappointed.

Sure, more than half of the restaurant is under construction, but I didn't let that influence my overall experience. I'm sharing that info just as an FYI. I'm letting the rest of my experience qualify the low rating.

There were two staff members working, one on the food prep and the other on cash. The staff member on the food prep was rude and impatient. After looking at the menu for about 3 seconds I was asked "what would you like?" When I said I'd like a few minutes they seemingly got annoyed and asked the same question about 30 seconds later. After placing my order and saying that I'd like my shawarma sandwich all dressed, they stood over the empty pita and said "what would you like?" It took me a second to realize that they were asking me what toppings I'd like on the shawarma, not asking what I'd like to order (for a third time). The shawarma beef was dry with an unexpected and unwelcome gritty texture. The meat tasted like a 50/50 blend of traditional Lebanese flavours and Indian curry flavours. It was really bizarre. On a positive note, the vegetables were fresh and flavourful both in my side salad and on the shawarma sandwich itself. I would have loved a fattoush salad, but when I asked for a side fattoush salad I was met with "a house salad?" At that point I just said "sure." I didn't see a fattoush salad on the menu, so it's quite possible that's not an option.

The second staff member working the cash was friendly and courteous and genuinely made us feel welcome there, but I can't say the same for the other.

There were some other disappointing observations as well, like the amount of unnecessary waste of putting everything in take-out containers, using plastic cutlery, and not having aluminum, glass, and plastic recycling collection bins.

I usually say I'll give any establishment a second chance, but I'm 99% certain Lebanese Palace won't get that...

I used to love the Lebanese Palace when it was on the market and a friend of mine told me where they have moved to. I went there on 10.08.2023 at 17:30. The place was quite empty and there was one man and a woman inside. I had never been there and decided to take the mixed platter (steak and chicken) and the woman asked loudly "what meats". I saw no other mixed platter so not having a menu, i pointed at the sign above. Again she bellowed louder now "WHAT MEATS"? i just answered beef and chicken. She let out an annoyed sigh. I told her no rice, no potatoes and no bread, just meats and veggies. She seemed puzzled and said "What vegetables?" I told her the garden salad. Without letting me finish, she throws salad and then meat on top. I asked her if i could please have tabouleh and hummus. She sighs again and asks "Why you don't tell me before?" I told her no one is here why the rush? She doesn't answer. She goes to close it again. I told her that would really like turnips, pickles and of course garlic sauce for my chicken (i assumed she would ask about salad dressing for the garden salad but never did). She turns at me and looks angry and asks "Why you didn't say this before?" I started getting annoyed and told her "Listen, this is my 1st time coming to this restaurant, you don't have a detailed menu so give me a break ok?, you could have asked me all of this" . She just sneers, smiles only when it is time to pay and once i have paid, takes out her phone and starts texting. No thank you, nothing... This woman should not be serving people, she is very bad at it and i will not be going back....