Shawarma Palace — Restaurant in Richmond

2/2:

After arriving, I waited patiently until the manager came to talk to me. I explained my side of the story, to which I was met with a level of animosity which I was not expecting. She was immediately combative but in a passive-aggressive, fake polite type of way. She explained to me that I would have to go through SkipTheDishes, which she insisted that we do instead. I explained to her that that was good knowledge for the future, but we had still been promised replacement meals. She began trying to tell me that I was only promised 1 platter, to which I responded that I had confirmed, at the end of the call on the previous night, that it would be 2 platters, to which she refused. This was followed by her saying that we could call the gentleman to confirm with him. On the first call, it ended with her saying it would only be 1 platter, she was then called back immediately by the employee. On the second call, however, it ended with him talking about 2 platters, not completely sure of the full context, as the manager then switched the topic immediately after that call. She then started demanding that I provide proof that the order was indeed mine, and kept insisting that we continue this debacle through SkipTheDishes. I told her that I understood where she was coming from, but still tried to explain that we were promised something over the phone the previous night and that it is not good business practice to go back on the word of her employee. This is when the conversation turned slightly accusatory. After the order had been confirmed previously, she started demanding that I show her proof of the order, it had not been on my phone, so I told her I would try my best to get the information. She started talking about how now that I told her that I was not one to specifically make the order, she could not confirm it, nor could she give me even the 1 platter which she had promised. She explained to me how sometimes, people will come in claiming an order and try to get stuff in return when it is not actually theirs. In the politest way possible, she called me a liar. Through all this, I had become very tired and frustrated with the conversation, just wanting it to end. It had been upwards of 10-15 minutes of arguing, with no direction when I decided to just accept her offer of 1 platter from earlier, as I was fed up. I was not expecting her to then start denying me even that and try to compromise even harder, but most of all, I did not expect her to use my willingness to compromise against me. She said that she was a little suspicious of me now as I had come in demanding 2 platters, but now I was okay with 1? I told her that I was done with the situation and just wanted to get whatever so that I could just get on with my day. Another 5-10 minutes of arguing later, and after having to jump through several hoops to prove that the order was indeed mine, she let me get 1 kebob platter, which wasn’t even complete. She gave me the option of salad or potatoes and not just the full platter, something quite petty but whatever. The chicken kebob was actually quite good and enjoyable, the chicken was fresh, moist, and very flavourful, and a stark contrast to what we had eaten before. All in all, I am just disappointed in the whole experience. I would’ve understood completely if we had just been told that there was nothing the restaurant could do about it on the first call, but when something is promised and then no longer backed up by an establishment, it tends to make one lose respect for them. I also did not appreciate being treated as a liar or a scammer, as even though it was never stated, it was heavily implied.The moral of the story is when one of your employees makes a promise to a paying customer, you don’t hang them out to dry and villanize the customer. I really did enjoy the chicken kebob “platter” that we were given in the end, but it was most definitely not worth the headache and the treatment which I had also received for...

TL;DR: Issue with SkipTheDishes order, employee promised replacement food over the phone, manager then antagonized me when I came to get the promised food and did not hold up her end of the bargain. Terrible experience. The long review is to explain everything in detail and to help myself out with the anxiety and stress that this situation has caused me. I have attached images below of: The receipt, the original platter (the larger, worse tasting one), and the replacement "platter.

1/2:

I am writing this to voice my utter disappointment with the service I have received. My family and I ordered food from Shawarma Palace thru SkipTheDishes. Our order consisted of 2 Beef Kafta Platters (both with extra meat, $6.25 extra for each platter) and 2 Large Chicken Shawarmas; the total for our order came out to almost ~$90. When our order arrived, I opened it to find that we had not gotten what we ordered. We had received 2 CHICKEN Kafta Platters and for the $12.50 of extra meat which we also ordered, we were given a small box of some of the driest shredded chicken I have ever had. We were also greeted by a hastily written note on the backside of the receipt which read “Sorry, we have no more Beef Kafta that’s why we give Chicken Kafta. Thanks”. Not wanting to ruin our night and trying to keep things from escalating, we thought we might as well try it. The food was HORRID. The chicken kafta was bland and had a mushy and unsettling texture, the shredded chicken was, as previously mentioned, extremely dry and tasteless, and the chicken shawarmas were subpar to average at best. To put it lightly, my family and I were upset, disappointed, dissatisfied, and quite frankly sad at the quality of the delivered food which was now in our stomachs. None of us could bare to finish either of the platters, barely getting through half of it as we held out hope on the slim chance that it was not as bad as we thought. It was as bad as we thought. Our first instinct was to call the restaurant to voice our concerns about our experience. If only it were that simple, however. I called a total of five times, all met with the sound of an unreachable number. I waited roughly an hour before trying to call back, not expecting much, but was greeted by a very respectful and understanding gentleman. I explained our situation to him, and after some talking he agreed to note down my name and number and told me that I would be able to come in sometime in the following days to pick up 2 replacement Beef Kafta Platters. All right, I think to myself, as I’m satisfied with how that went and with the solution. I thought nothing much of it that night anymore. The next day rolls around, and I’m out running errands when I thought about calling the restaurant to see if they had the beef kafta today. This is where the problem really began. The person who I was talking to on the phone told me that they didn’t have beef yet, no problem, I can wait, but they then transferred me to the manager. She starts by explaining that, once again, there’s no beef yet, but then starts to talk about how we would only be getting 1 platter instead of the 2 promised the night before, and that we could replace it with a chicken shawarma instead if we wanted to come today, a dish which was significantly cheaper and one that we did not enjoy that heavily. I started telling her that I could wait until they had beef and that I would like to receive the 2 platters that we were previously promised when she started saying that we would only be receiving 1. I told her that I no longer wanted to wait and that I would like to replace the beef kafta with kebob if they had it, to which she responded that I could get 1 kebob platter. I told her that we were promised 2, to which she responded by telling me that we could talk about the options when I came to the store, after which I drove 20 minutes out of my way to get...

Dear, It is such a shame that instead of addressing any of the issues I raised in my original message, you talk about me being aggressive. You conveniently ignored the basis of my review and everything I said. It speaks volumes of the kind of management you’re running up there.

If you think that complaining about the quality of food or asking to talk to a manager is being aggressive, then you really need to learn a thing or two about customer service.

And by the way, I was not offered the replacement platter until after ten minutes later when I said it wasn’t acceptable and that I wanted to speak to the manager. Until that point, it was my taste that was the problem according to all three of your staff working that shift.

And lastly, no video was made.

Cheers,

———— Original Message ———— One of the worst experiences with the staff at this location. First off, the staff doesn’t know how to talk to the customer. They make faces and show big sighs when asked anything. We were served rock-hard falafels which were completely raw on the inside. Upon going back to them with the raw falafel cut in half, their response was that this is how it is made, maybe you are eating falafel for the first time. One of them touches it and says falafels are always this hard and raw on the inside. They had last scoop of potatoes left in the tray on which we asked the server to give us the potatoes from the hot batch. Their response was that we don’t know what is the problem with your taste but this is hot. They let me taste one which wasn’t hot at all. But they were adamant that these are hot and that they were are not making anymore right now. She put the same leftover potatoes in my platter and while putting other stuff, the new batch of potatoes came in from the back. When I confronted, the response was that we don’t like to waste our food because of the customer. They will not give out the name of the manager or their contact information. And the three of them kept blubbering (idk what!) in [apparently] their native language from behind.

P.S. Chicken shawarma sandwich was decent...