Alia Restaurant — Restaurant in Amman

Just had dinner at Alia Restaurant in Abdoun with my family. The service and food quality are subpar. We paid 73 JOD total, which included a more than 5 JOD service fee. Yet, the service that we got was quite appalling, maybe intentionally because of our ethnicity. The waiters of the staff, who were all Arab, were not respectful to us.

My family and I are Filipino, and we received inferior treatment compared to the Arab customers of the restaurant. Instead of serving us fresh bread (khubz), the waiter grabbed the bowl of leftover bread from another table that was occupied by an Arab family. He literally served us these food scraps from the previous Arab customer, which offended us greatly. How would he feel, how would you feel, if we do the same thing to you? I would offer fresh bread to a white or Arab customer, but then if you are brown or black-skinned, I would give you their leftover bread. No one deserves such poor, double standard treatment. We had to confront the waiter and request to be served fresh and new bread.

In addition, after we finished our meal, the waiter haphazardly and carelessly grabbed our plates and poured all the food scraps into one plate in front of us. Some of the food scraps spilled over on our table while we have not even paid and left it. He could have just grabbed the plates separately without having to make a whole mess in front of us. Or he could have waited for us to leave then proceed to clean the table. But his manner was so moronic that it felt deliberate. The service was so unprofessional and unhygienic.

Along with being initially served leftover bread, the kebab that we ordered was not freshly cooked. We have been living here in Jordan for many years, and we know if dishes like kebab are freshly cooked or not. The kebab at Alia Restaurant was meat that was reheated. Mind you, it was barely lukewarm and not even hot as a freshly cooked kebab is supposed to be served. For the price that we paid (18 JOD per 1 kilogram), it was not worth it.

I have colleagues and friends all over the world in Asia, America, and Europe. When they visit me, I will not bring them to Alia Restaurant. I will not recommend this restaurant to them. To the people I know, I will tell them all about the abysmal service, inferior double standard treatment, and subpar food quality of Alia Restaurant. To anyone reading this, you are better off avoiding this restaurant and going somewhere that has good food and a decent service staff that will not be racist and...

I recently dined at Alia in Abdoun, and I must say, the food was absolutely delicious. Every dish we tried was flavorful, well-prepared, and left a lasting impression. If I were to judge the restaurant solely on the quality of the food, I would give it five stars without hesitation.

However, my experience was unfortunately overshadowed by an unpleasant situation related to tipping. After finishing our meal, I noticed that the waiter started behaving inappropriately when I didn't leave a tip immediately. He kept saying "Astaghfer Allah" behind my back and gave me looks that were far from welcoming. I understand that tips can be important to some employees, but this behavior was completely uncalled for and made me feel very uncomfortable.

It's a shame that such an incident tainted what could have been a wonderful dining experience. I would advise anyone planning to visit Alia to be prepared to tip, as it seems to be an expectation. Unfortunately, due to this negative experience, I will not be returning to...

Overall not bad, the only bad thing is that they charged me extra on something I did not order, and the manager confirmed that they will not include it in my bill, when the bill came, I found that they did charge me and even the manager was not able to remove the extra charge; I called the call centre and the call centre who talked to the manager and requested him to remove this extra charge; then I was shocked that the manager said to me if you will not pay it, he will pay it from his pocket, trying to embarrass me to pay it. This is so unprofessional and bad image to the restaurant. When I told them I am not gonna pay the entire bill if they didn’t fix it, he went and fixed the bill. They just wasted my time and ruin my lunch time. So...