Tabule Kitchen — Restaurant in Birmingham

Food - 8/10 pleasant to the eye, flavourful, good potion size, some stuff is priced well some abit much Atmosphere - chilled out, quiet (whenever i have visited), traditional lebanese styled decor, clean Service - hit and miss, previously has been great however on my most recent visit not so much, it seemed as though the gentleman didn't want to be there although he was polite and not rude. Will I eat there again - most definitely

Unless if you're going for dinner time if you are going in the early afternoon then i recommend getting there before 1pm as that is when they're brunch menu end's. The brunch menu has much better prices in comparison to the regular menu so you get more bang for buck.

On my most recent visit i got there shortly after 1pm as my friend cancelled on my but I went and ate anyway and in my mind i had the shawarma dish that I have had previously and was craving again. I knew it was after 1 and told the waiter that this is what I wanted to eat can you make it for me and I will pay the extra price that you would charge on the regular menu as I understand brunch is finished. The waiter straight away shook his head and kept telling me they cant do it because that stuff is finshed and closed and they can't take the stuff out to make it again. This is what I didn't understand. The dish i wanted consisted of flat bread on a plate with chicken ahawarma on top along with humous, pickles and salad....not complex. He refused a few times and instead showed me the chicken shawarma wrap instead which I ordered and it came with fries instead of humous and salad....who goes to a lebanese restaurant to eat fries 🙄 Anyway so I had a chicken shawarma wrap, the wrap being the flatbread they would've served in the brunch thing. The menu didn't state that it comes with anything but fries so I had to order a bowl of pickles seperate and a humous seperate in order to put my meal together. When everything came the shawarma dish had pickles along side the fries (I had told the waiter I wanted pickles and instead of telling me that the dush comes with them he let me order a seperate bowl of them). I sat there looking in front of me at the same chicken shawarma, flatbread, pickles, humous served to me that would've been the same items they would've given me from the brunch menu which according to the waiter wasn't possible because all of that stuff was either finished or put away. The difference now being that I had an immense amount of food that I wouldn't be able to finish although I don't mind taking it home for later and the bill which would've been £9 for the meal then additional for a virgin mojito was now £27 including a virgin mojito which i think was around £4-5 meaning i paid roughly £13-14 more for the same food which is ridiculous, i didn't mind paying a bit extra but I didn't expect it to be that much extra. So if you're able to go before 1pm you'll save a fair bit. I would also...

Find at the bottom of my comment my reply to the rubbish response they gave, as there is no other way to reply to their answer.

First comment : If I could give a minus score I would.

I am a regular customer with my family. We come few times every week.

Today because the weather was sunny, the place was busier than usual.

I usually always go and sit myself in a free table.

Today the supposed to be (wannabe) manager, came with a very disrespectful way and without saying hello, and asked me rudely :"where are you going??". And he could clearly see I was trying to sit myself as usual in the place I found empty.

Even a customer who he was speaking to before me found his way very rude.

Then I responded first naively saying I will go to sit there as it is the only free place I can see. Then he carried on being rude and saying you can sit there but you will not be served. And turned to his coworkers asking them to not serve me and my family.

This is very disrespectful and not acceptable and I don't even understand why he behaved like this for no reason. So I asked to speak to the manager and he said that it's him and ignored me since then.

I would like the owner of this place to respond to me as I find this situation very disrespectful and took videos and I am willing to take it further if I don't get an apology of this unprofessional repulsing behavior from this person.

I got customer's details who are willing to witness this situation if I take it further.

New comment :

The way you answered shows the really bad management and customer service of this rubbish place.

As I have mentioned previously I have contacts of customers that witnessed the situation which shows that I was right and that person supposed to be manager is wrong. This is shown also in other customers' comments that are starting to occur more frequently.

This business is going to close soon definitely.

It is obvious that the other staff members will take side of their manager which was already the case on the day. He was the one abusive and shouting, it is so pathetic to reverse the story this way. I was hoping the owner will be more reasonable and caring about his business but it looks like they are all the same!

This is low level and I will not waste any more time with this pathetic place.

I am done ! For any other customers please run away, damascena next door is much better. Much busier showing the quality and freshness of food unlike this place always empty and not capable of dealing with customers when it gets once in a year busy.

A note regarding this manager, even if he has been working long with you this is not a reason to disrespect customers. Maybe it's time to get a...

Usually I love coming here and get great service but tonight I had a different waiter and the service was quite poor. I usually get a lemon chicken tagine with couscous and swap the bread with couscous. The waiter told me I can't do that but I can get the other chicken tagine that comes with caramelized onions and raisins because it's the same but just served with couscous instead of bread. I told him it's usually no problem and the manager let's me do this. He said no again and I told him I don't mind paying extra for couscous because I usually get the lemon chicken tagine, however he said I'd just be spending more even though the tagines are the same. I pointed out that the ingredients are different and he said he would just ask them to add vegetables and remove the things I don't like. I didn't really want to argue any more so I just said okay. The food came and the tagine was completely different to what I usually get. I ate the chicken but left most of the vegetables and barely ate anything else served in the dish. I came back home and ate something else.

I would like to say though that I came to this restaurant a few times before during the day time and the staff were great. The main person who runs the restaurant is great too. But tonight I found the waiter really difficult and a bit argumentative and stubborn. Usually I get really good service but tonights waiter just made me uncomfortable and I felt he was a bit argumentative. I did not like that he told me what to order instead of listening to what I want.

Edit: I'm adding this response to reply to the original response to this comment: I did ask for a side of couscous however the waiter told me I'd be spending extra money as the tagines are exactly the same. Of course I pointed out the ingredients were different and he said after switching ingredients the tagines would be the same but when I tried the tagine I was told to order, it was different. I did say to the waiter what I wanted but several times he told me to just order something else, even when I said I'd pay more for a side...