Paramount Fine Foods — Restaurant in The Palisades

Food

Fattoush Salad (8/10): The salad is fresh, tasty, and has a twist with the Zaatar seasoning on top. It's a very good starter, although the authentic Fattoush salad comes with zaatar leaves; still it's a very good choice.

Tabbouleh Salad (6/10): It does not taste like an original tabbouleh salad. Some spices were added, which we couldn't exactly know what, that made the salad taste differently. Not a highly recommended option for a starter.

Saj Tablieh Chicken (7/10): There was a lot of bread in the sandwich, we couldn't really enjoy it because they took a lot of time to get it and we were already full. It's still a good choice to go with.

Saj Tablieh Beef (7.5/10): The sandwich was tasty, the only problem is that it was soggy a bit. We couldn't eat it properly and it left a mess behind. A suggestion would be to grill the sandwich a bit before serving it.

Eggplant Kabab (0/10): We ordered the plate, and we couldn't even try it. The eggplant was so raw and we were hoping for the restaurant to replace the plate, but they cooked another eggplant and got it to us, which came 20-25 mins later. By then, the meat was so cold and nobody could taste the plate.

Batata Harra (8/10): A creamy and delicious dish. A very good choice; just a heads up, it's a bit spicy. But it was one of my favorites among the plates we ordered.

Lentil Soup (8/10): The soup was so good, we asked for extra fried bread and they got us lots of it. It comes hot and fresh, a good choice.

Service

The service made our experience at the place very disappointing. The waiters there are nice, it's just the service was very disappointing. Here is what happened:

1- We ordered the Eggplant Kabab plate without onions. It came with extra onions and the eggplant was uncooked. They came back with a cooked eggplant after 20-25 minutes, instead of replacing the plate or even offering for anything else.

2- We reached 5:40pm; although the place was not busy, we left 7:50pm. The food took forever to be served, and they served 3 plates of fresh bread which made us full. Even the bill, it took a good 10-15 mins.

3- Not sure if they were understaffed, but there was no manager, no one in charge to kind of look after the place. Even though we expressed our concerns with what was served, no one showed up to address our concerns. The staff is friendly, they are not rude, it's just they did not deal with the issue itself.

It was a disappointing experience, with all what we've heard about this place. Not sure if it was a bad day to visit, but this is what happened with us. We went to another place for deserts, because we did not expect a fast service and we'd already spent 2 hours there.

Atmosphere

Very chill place. Calm, good music, and a good place for a...

Wow. Just wow.

Paramount has quite a beautiful building and decor inside that instantly impress. Upon walking into the restaurant on Sunday evening we were promptly greeted and asked if it was our first time eating there (it was). The server directed us to our table and mentioned we could order by browsing the menu and going up to the counter to order food. He also mentioned they would be taking orders at the restaurant tables starting in February.

My husband and I ordered the Paramount special (a deliciously sweet drink laden with slices of strawberry, canned pineapple, cream, mango), one cheese manakeesh, one beef and chicken shawarma platter with fries, one beef shawarma platter with rice, two falafel and two slices of kinafe. As it was our first time eating at Paramount, the server let us know the dessert was on them - so sweet!

The first to arrive, the manakeesh, was light and thin with a nice balance between cheese and dough. The falafel had a delicious crunch and was mesmerizing. Yes, it is possible for falafel—good falafel—to mesmerize. The platters were delicious; meat was really well seasoned, rice was well-cooked, my husband said the fries were good (not the best he's had) but delicious nevertheless. Pita arrived at the table warm and beautifully inflated like a spaceship. Throughout the entire evening staff asked us frequently if we needed anything, if we were enjoying the meal. They were so attentive and wanted to ensure we had a good time. I can't recall restaurant staff being that attentive and caring at other restaurants I've frequented. Other restaurants usually do the bare minimum, Paramount really went above and beyond.

After we finished with our main meal, our server brought each of us a kinafe to finish the meal. My husband and I both opted for the orange tinted one as opposed to the brown. Our server mentioned the orange kinafe had a thicker bottom layer whereas the brown kinafe was thinner and went on to explain their recipes originate from different nationalities. The orange kinafe was so delicious: sweet, soft, with complementing textures for the phyllo dough and cheese layer.

If you've lasted this long, you'll know I really enjoyed my meal and time there. I highly recommend visiting Paramount for delicious food...

We love to venture out to all the halal places in town so we were excited to try this new place. But disappointed doesn't even begin to explain how we felt. I don't understand how this place has 4.5 stars on here.

When you first walk in, there was a greeter who was more than happy to welcome us and we had a good first impression. The place was beautiful to look at and the greeter told us how everything worked there. But, none of the previously used tables were cleaned up. The table we sat next to had leftovers and was dirty - it wasn't cleaned even after we left. We understood that maybe there's a staffing issue, but it's kind of disheartening to sit next to a dirty table.

The glasses were all stained to a point where we asked the server to take it away because we didn't feel comfortable drinking out of them. We ordered food from a lady who clearly hated her job. She was young, didn't smile, didn't care enough to ask how we were - took the order and moved on. The food came in a weird order, some were served real fast while I was sitting there waiting for awhile before it came.

The food was AWFUL. Apart from the bread, everything was bad. The Hummus was too sour. The Shawarma chicken had absolutely no flavour, I barely took a bite and couldn't eat - sadly, we were still charged for it. The presentation of the food sucked, the salad was old and limp, the pickles were dry, and the lettuce was dirty. The Shish tawook was mildly okay, it was a little burnt so all you tasted was smoke - but it was moist and nice. Apart from that, the Arayees was okay - the meat tasted okay but it was fried in SO much oil and it was dripping everywhere.

We had real high hopes for this joint but if you're into real Lebanese/Arab food - this place isn't for you. You're better off going to Al-Salam Pita, Persia Palace, Sahara or Kebab Express. Basically, most Arab restaurants are unreal - this one was just a fail.

Giving this a 1 star because you can't...