Afandina — Restaurant in Tours

Saddening, disheartening, expensive experience

For food, between two adults and an eight and a six year old, we ordered (on advice from the waiter):

1 x mezze 2 x mezze plus grill

Over the course of two and half excruciating hours we were brought:

A plate of hummus A plate of baba ganoush A plate with some olives and beetroot A plate with some lentils and cheese A bit of bread

Then:

A plate with three bits of falafel and three bits each of two other pastries, plus one small bowl of a tomato and saucisson stew and one small bowl of a beef and olive stew (this was actually quite nice)

Then:

A plate with two beef kebabs and two chicken kebabs and some potatoes and some pickles

When this final plate was brought over the lady said “sorry you’ve had to wait for so long”. She asked if we would like some bread with the kebabs and we said “yes please” and then of course, hilariously, the bread never came

Oddly, tables around us seemed to be heaving with food that was arriving very quickly and everyone seemed happy

During the course of our meal we went for two walks (wife and son, then me and daughter) and played about nine games of Uno

Food was okay but really salty, not especially fresh, hardly any salad, and extremely small portions

For all the above food plus three glasses of wine and two glasses of syrup l’eau we paid 118 Euros

All four of us walked back to our hotel feeling hungry, and like we’d been taken for fools

To make it worse we walked past dozens of restaurants full of punters that looked happy and well fed

Service was so bad it was a struggle to even get water or straws

There are many good restaurants in Tours, this is not...

First and foremost the food is amazing, very authentic and feels just like home. The cold mezzes taste fresh and the kebbe is great and made with actual beef (not like other places that make kebbe only with burghul). The grilled food is great and very well balanced, also the plates are big and more than enough for a person. The owner is very nice and responsive. The ambiance is great, feels like current day Beirut, unlike those Lebanese restaurants that try to make a "traditional" Lebanese vibe (which is not even found in Lebanon now). I highly recommend it and will definitely be coming back despite it being more than 100km...

Not sure why this restaurant has gotten such high ratings. The food was OK, small portions, and overpriced in our opinion. We paid 22 euros for one grilled lamb dish that came with cold stale syrian bread. The tables inside are crammed together which further detracts from the experience. You can do a lot better in other...