Chez Rita — Restaurant in Strasbourg

6 simple reasons why not to go

Sadly one of my worst dining experiences ever - and that on my birthday :/ never coming back, here’s why not to go:

We had reserved, but the restaurant was empty on a summer Sunday night (Monday was a bank holiday) at 7.30pm; the street was otherwise bustling - this was “fishy” and should have been our first warning

Right on the topic of fish: I saw that some google reviews had beautiful photos of a whole cooked fish! I had decided that was what I would go for. “Sorry we’re out of stock” …we were literally the first people in the restaurant that evening, this was the second warning sign

We decided we’d stay and go for the mezze (2x veggie, 1x normal, 1x extra). The male server was very friendly, the dishes arrived quite quickly. Now this is where we were shocked. I had read some other reviews on here beforehand saying the portions were on the small side, but decided to reserve this place for my birthday meal anyways because the star-rating was still very high. If you pay 22€ for a Mezze plate, you expect the portions and quality to be excellent! (Especially given that many other restaurants in Strasbourg serve Mezze plates for around 12-16€) What we got were the tiniest portions ever. One tiny falafel in the centre of the plate (tasty, but tiny!!) and then hummus, tzatziki, aubergine dip, bulgur, tabouleh, mini (!!) pastries. Nothing was out of the ordinary - the tabouleh had a bit of cinnamon in it which was nice, but otherwise everything was very standard and the easiest of easiest mass-produced dishes. 22€!!! Honestly, what a f*ing joke. My mum chose the extra Mezza because she wanted some additional meat on the side - 7€ on top for two tiny skewers no bigger than fish fingers is just plain rude! Terrible, terrible disappointment. When my dad first saw the plate he thought it was the starter for a Mezze-experience. That is how bad and pitiful the plate looked.

That is not all; bread was served to us in a bread basket. One tiny basket with a quarter of the whole bread per person. How stingy can a restaurant be!? We did ask for more though, which the server kindly brought.

Realising that this is not a proper meal, we asked (who I believe to be) Rita the owner of the restaurant who was also serving tables if we could please have a portion of chips to go with the “meal”. She did not even bother to answer our question properly, instead yelling “we only have patatas bravas” before running to pick up the phone that had just rung. I understand that this place can get busy, but not showing at least basic respect to your sitting and paying customers is abhorrent! We thus sat and waited, not knowing if her “we only have patatas bravas” was supposed to mean she’d bring us those, but she had never even waited for my response. Just over 10 minutes later she came to our table with the menu pointing at “patatas bravas” and saying we could order that and apologising for running to the phone mid-sentence. By that time the experience in the restaurant had been ruined and we did not wish to order more. This just goes to show how she realised she had treated us badly - this was a terrible experience.

Others had realised we were not enjoying our meal (or maybe they were shocked by prices, not being served, etc.) a German couple sitting next to us got up and left before ordering anything, as did a group of Chinese tourists that had come in.

To sum up, this is a terrible place: the interior decor is lovely, it’s location is ideal, so it could have so much potential; but currently this is an absolute disaster! I hope you don’t make the same mistake of coming here! I will instead keep frequenting other Lebanese establishments in Strasbourg (while their interior may not be as nice, places like Falafilo or my favourite le Tarbouche or even Au Cédar have so much better food to offer to fairer prices and treat you like valued customers!) If this review helped you make up your mind or confirmed your experience here, please consider giving it a like to make others aware...

The food was delicious but the price and service were disappointing. We wanted to order a few single mezze but were immediately cut off rather rudely. We could only order the mixed plates and were not allowed to choose individual dishes. At that point it would have been better to just stand up and go. But we ordered the vegetarian mixed plate and were extremely disappointed by the amount of food we received. We only got the smallest amounts: one falafel, one spoon of hummus, one scoop of rice and so on). We were still hungry afterwards, even though we spent 20€ per plate (the ones with meat...

This restaurant is worth 5 stars in Strasbourg. We have been there already twice. Starting with the food, all was absolutely delicious. I ordered the famous Chez Rita plate and the portion was sufficient and the flavor was extremely tasty. As a second point, the service was incredibly outstanding. The staff is so friendly and make you feel very welcomed. The location of the restaurant is very strategic and accessible and the look and feel and ambience inside is very cozy and nice.

Overall an amazing experience visiting this restaurant for lunch and...