Sahel Market & Restaurant — Restaurant in Vancouver

Fabulous from start to finish! I can't say enough good things about my spectacular birthday dinner last night at Sahel. I'm still shaking my head in wonderment about the beauty of it all.

Seriously, from the moment I walked in to find gorgeous red roses on the table in my honour (placed there by a server) to the moment we left with two lovely servers smiling, blowing kisses and saying "Happy birthday, Mommy!" with such warmth and sincerity, the whole experience was gorgeous.

I was there with my daughter and granddaughter and it was the first time dining in at Sahel, although I've ordered delivery several times. Sahel was my choice for my birthday dinner because of favourable prior experience with the food. Also, I knew they offered options for our varied dietary preferences.

When my granddaughter and I arrived my daughter was already seated and had ordered a side of roasted potatoes ($4.99) and sides of Greek salad, yogurt dip (basically tzatziki) and pita. We all agreed that the roasted potatoes were the best we'd ever had. So much so that we promptly ordered another plate. I imagined their long slow roasting, bathed in exquisite lemony garlic sauce, served hot and golden with a garlic dip.

The mains we ordered were: chicken kebab with basmati rice and roasted tomato; chicken donair plate with basmatic rice, Shirazi salad, hummus and pita; and the falafel plate with 8 falafel balls, basmatic rice, hummus, Shirazi salad and pita. All were around $18. The portions are enormous! We knew we'd never eat it all and all three of us took home a good-sized take-out container packed full.

The chicken kebab was huge! Large pieces of marinated boneless chicken breast, grilled over hot coals, declared out-of-this-world yummy. Swoons all around, in fact, as every item was absolutely delicious. I ordered the chicken donair plate because I wanted to try something I hadn't had. Previously I've ordered kebabs and they've all been great, and was a bit hesitant to order the donair as I'd never tried it and I knew the chicken kebab was divine. Well, the donair was also divine and, despite how I kept eating it because it was so tasty, I took home about half of it. The rice is perfect: light, fluffy, with a hint of saffron, and sumac on the table for sprinkling.

Hummus, although very cold just out of the fridge, was creamy and flavourful. The Shirazi salad was a bright surprise, same veg mix (I think) as the Greek salad, but with mint and a crisp grape juice dressing (according to the menu). I suddenly recalled that in my long-ago days of backpacking around the world I visited Shiraz, but that's another story...

The service was perfect, as there were two friendly, smiling ladies who made sure we had what we needed, inquired as to our satisfaction with the food, and generally took care of clearing plates and keeping everything in order without even appearing to be there. I really appreciated their welcoming me, wishing me happy birthday, and generally being superb at their jobs.

Even though the place was full, food came quickly, each order perfect, and none of us had anything to complain about. It was, seriously, our best dinner out in a very long time. We walked home, talking about how much fun it was, how spectacular the food, the service and the whole experience.

I did not see the bill, but I think the whole thing, food, drinks (no alcohol for us), tip (and enough food going home for another couple of meals) was about $100.

I just read an article about the dire situation in which many restaurants find themselves these days, with so many closing due to skyrocketing costs of ingredients, rents, wages, etc. Places like Sahel, which offer a warm, family atmosphere and spectacular food, deserve to stay in business. I highly recommend you treat yourself, family, loved ones to a fabulous...

Really rude service by the young Persian fellow - host/ server several months ago now!!! Mostly he was not understanding nor customer service oriented. Food is usually good and the lady owner is nice the last number of times we dined or picked up food. So today I asked about a salad she had shorted us with a previous take out lamb platter; upon calling in, the lady owner said to ask for when we come by again. This guy was a 'no' to almost all questions, not understanding the situation & finally, he said I should have let them know right away which we did but it has been months since I came by. That was fine and not his deal so I did not pursue further. Then to ordering lunch: I tried to order Sabsi with crispy rice & he said 'no' which is okay, & then I said how about with regular rice & then he said 'no'. I then turn to a page on the menu to show him & he said 'no', it doesn't come with rice but he was thinking appetizer himself & then he turned to the page of exactly what I was trying to order and he muttered 'it was so difficult'. I was like wow - this is customer service!?! And then I wanted to confirm that this is the Sabsi which has some beef to which he said 'no', which I was thinking perhaps they changed their way of cooking but I ordered this dish anyways. Then when the dish came, it was the same as before, minus salads (nowadays-seems like that was their way of saving). So when he was close by, I thought I should show him there is indeed beef cubes in this dish, & then he said 'it always does come with beef!' I was now completely confused and scratching my head as to why he was not understanding anything (I think his mind is elsewhere, selective or no hearing), but I just smiled (after realizing I was speaking to a wall) & said 'all good'. At the end, he was on cell phone when we tried to get his attention to get the bill. This particular day, I was with two other friends and we have all come here multiple times with friends or family in the past & typically have enjoyed the lamb platter, eggplant dish, and Sabsi. (The lady owner might remember two Asian ladies on the second time I dined at this restaurant, my cousin had to spend her travel insurance monies - spent about $250 with just two of us dining plus buying take out lamb platters & their back area groceries). As I am so disappointed with this fellow's negative customer service, I will check out other Persian restaurant. Very sad that we had been looking forward my friends and I to go together to this restaurant for a few months and met with this lousy front employee/ server to completely ruin our experience. Even my two friends also remarked of his unreasonable behaviour! I am in HR and I understand he just may not be familiar with how to deal with people of different cultures or people in general! I really hope they change this person out or it will be a no go to this restaurant for me, my friends and all our families for a long time! So sad that a little guy can ruin...

There is a lot to say about Sahel. The food is outstanding; 5 stars on that front with no complaints. Kebab skewers are incredible, grilled skewer platters are out of this world. Even the take out shawarma wraps are truly awesome. Presentation is gorgeous. Persian stews, rice and deserts are fantastic. This is one of my fav restaurants in Vancouver since 2019, and I do highly recommend Sahel as worth the trip for the incredible food. Often we get take out, which is always delicious and prepared promptly when we order ahead and pick up. However, unfortunately, this review focuses on the one very glaring issue that urgently needs to be fixed at Sahel— being the counter and dine-in service from staff. While Sahel has an outstanding product (their food), the service is truly, exceptionally, spectacularly poor. It pains me to say this here, and I write this review as a push to Sahel management to fix this chronic service issue because the food is so excellent, but the service requires very significant improvement. We have dined-in at least several times over 2019 to 2022. Each time the dine-in seated service is non-existent. We are left waiting, seated at our table for exceptionally long periods and are directly ignored by the servers, who repeatedly forget drinks, mains, deserts. We are always left waiting for much more than reasonable times, and each time we visit must remind the servers for our drinks and food (30-45 min delay without our first drink order upon first seating on minimum three separate visits). The attitude of staff varies from apologies to glaring disinterest. On one occasion the server actually disappeared and we did not see them for the remainder of the evening (on that visit we had to complain to the kitchen staff about not receiving our first drinks or appetizers after 40 minutes). On four different visits we were close to leaving because of how long service took, but gave the benefit of the doubt and stuck it out, because we really do love the food, and thought the problem might be due to intermittent staff issues, but this issue is more serious. I could write more comments about the excessively poor service, but I hope management will listen to this and fix this fixable issue, please, because the food is fantastic, and I do highly recommend this restaurant for the delicious food. However, I would not recommend bringing visitors to Vancouver for dinner here, because service is so poor. Sahel has an excellent product but the level of service and temperament of the serving staff are damaging the loyal customer base and thus the business. I wish to improve this review and give 4-5 stars as soon as possible and, although my comments here may be harsh, we will return at some point because of the fantastic food while preying for an improvement in the staff. However, I cannot give a better review at this time until the staffing-service issues...