Damascena Coffee House Harborne — Restaurant in Birmingham

While the cuisine at Damascena on Harborne High Street has consistently been enjoyable, the overall dining experience has unfortunately been overshadowed by the consistent poor customer service.

My visits have repeatedly been met with slow service and a lack of basic courtesy and etiquette that one expects. I realise this is not a michelin star restaurant. In my latest visit, the service issues were more pronounced.

Despite arriving at the café, I was promptly informed of the lack of available tables with no alternative options offered, such as waiting for a table or being notified when one becomes available. Quite an abrupt 'bye'. This dismissive approach, coupled with a brief and indifferent 'bye', significantly detracted from the overall experience.

The quality of your food is commendable, and it is clear that a lot of care goes into your culinary offerings. However, the customer service aspect needs considerable improvement. Enhancing the service to match the quality of your food would create a more welcoming and enjoyable atmosphere for your customers.

A focus on polite, efficient service and better communication during busy times would greatly elevate the overall dining experience at your establishment. A friendly smile goes a long way. I hope this feedback is taken constructively, as the intent is to provide insights into areas that could greatly enhance the dining experience...

I kept hearing about this place everywhere, so we decided to try their breakfast mezze. At first, we were mistakenly served the mixed starters, but the staff quickly corrected it. The breakfast mezze turned out to be almost the same, just with an extra chakchouka or jazmuz added. Unfortunately, the jazmuz was very watery and tasteless the foul was a bit hard, and the crispy bread was not good at all. The only dishes I actually enjoyed were the aubergine and the falafel, which I have to give credit for. We also had fatayer the cheese one was good, but the other flavour was really disappointing. Overall, it wasn’t a good breakfast experience.

The coffee was nice we had a Spanish latte but we didn’t feel encouraged to order anything else since we already didn’t like what we had. The bill came around to £40, and to my surprise, they added a 10% service charge without mentioning it beforehand.

On the positive side, the service was friendly and professional. Yes, they made a mistake at the beginning, but they fixed it quickly and didn’t charge us extra for the crispy bread that came by mistake. Still, overall, I wouldn’t eat here again.

One more thing the chairs are very small, and the tables are crammed too close together, which is especially uncomfortable when you...

It’s unusual for me to leave a 5-star review, but I honestly can’t find anything to fault here. I visited the place on a Sunday afternoon and didn’t have to wait long for a table for four. We started with some drinks before moving on to food.

What stood out to me was how delicious the food was. It didn’t look as pretty as I had hoped (though, to be fair, I may have really high expectations, so most people would probably rate the presentation 5 stars). But the taste was great, the portions were perfect, and the final bill was pleasantly lower than I expected—a definite plus.

I also appreciated the service style. This isn’t one of those restaurants where the staff is constantly hovering over you. If you need something, you can easily find someone, which I much prefer to being “nagged” every few minutes about whether everything is okay.

The place was warm and clean, and the music wasn’t too loud. However, next time, I might choose a table further from the coffee machine since the milk steamer/frother was a little noisy. :D

There’s no parking directly in front of the restaurant, but that wasn’t an issue for me as I used a paid car park a short distance away.

Based on this visit, I wouldn’t hesitate to come back in the...