Comptoir Libanais — Restaurant in Utrecht

A Disappointing Experience

We visited the restaurant around 3 PM, and although it was almost empty, we were seated at a table right in the middle of the walkway where servers constantly passed by. We ordered a mezze plate for two, which cost approximately €25. What we received was a single plate with little portions of mezze piled together, presented in a very careless manner. The accompanying pita bread was another disappointment: cold, stale, tasteless, and small. For two people, they served just two small pieces of pita. Initially, I thought it wouldn’t be enough, but the bread was so unappetizing that neither of us could finish it.

None of the candles on the tables were lit, which caught my attention. We wanted to light the candle on our table, but only after asking a second waiter did our request get fulfilled.

After the mezze was served, no cutlery or napkins were brought to the table. We had to take these from a neighboring table ourselves. The waitstaff were completely inattentive, avoiding eye contact as if trying to avoid providing any service.

The cleanliness of the restaurant was another major issue. The floors were dirty, littered with bits of food, bread crumbs, and tissue paper. The staircase leading to the restroom was especially filthy, covered with food debris. When I went to the restroom, I found two toilets, one of which had a broken seat. I had to switch to the other one. Although the walls and decor were well-maintained, the general lack of cleanliness and care made the restaurant feel neglected.

The staff, from the waiters to the kitchen team, seemed inexperienced and unprofessional, mostly composed of young, student-like individuals. In such a central and important location, one would expect a well-run kitchen, but the meals were clearly pre-prepared without much effort.

Paying over €33 for such an experience, including drinks, was truly disappointing. Unfortunately, this is not a place we would consider...

Super disappointing lebanese experience and cuisine. To give actionable feedback:

1. quality of food: the batata harra are heated and taste like they are microwaved which completely defeats the point of having fried potato. the fattouch has more onions (uncut) than any other vegetables, the fatte tastes nothing like fatte more like a stew with tomato sauce and while it says aubergine fatte, there are perhaps 2X 1cm pieces of fatte. Finally, the shish taouk plate with rice, we got it but we had a piece dipped in kousskouss. which makes you wonder where that came from and how much shish taouk lebanese that is truly. 2) the service and experience: super nice ladies and gents servicing but how come the salad and hummus take 43 minutes to serve? If it is a lebanese experience, you give people nibbles to wait for food, you bring cold mezze first, followed by warm and then gradually. complete disapointment. All food arriving together after 43 minutes of starvation and tastes rather less than mediocre.

presentation of food: the hummus, batata harra and fattouch coming in bowls stuffed on top of each other, no comment.

finally, if you are to use the term lebanese in your « name » do justice to the experience, the slight abundance (not excess) of food, the good taste, the freshness, the representation and the concept of mezze and food enjoyment. super was...

Mediocre fast food. Friendly buy slow service, generally clean but overpriced and not worth a second visit.

Tried it for lunch because we've had a few good experiences with this chain in London, I'm not sure why this disappointing Utrecht branch gets a 3.8 rating, or how it fits in the Comptoir brand. The staff are friendly but couldn't handle the Friday work load. We ended up waiting 10-15 mins just for the first drinks to arrive. There does not appear to be a real chef, just temps throwing mediocre food together. Athough they had both wraps and falafel, the combination of the two (falafel wraps) was 'sold out'. We ended up with a collection of mezze, a falafel salad and chicken wrap - all the bits you'd normally put in a falafel wrap. The rice was alright but the falafel, chicken and lamb tasted dry and had a strong "fried from pre-fab frozen" quality. The salads were so heavily drenched in vinegar and salt they actually hurt. Like biting into a raw lemon marinated in the Dead Sea. Not the worst meal ever, but it all feels like we paid Michelin prices at the McDonald's of...