Tarboush Tring — Restaurant in Dacorum

First visit to Tarboush. This is a lovely quaint restaurant that packs a punch with flavour. For starters we had Beiruti hummus and harrissa prawns, both of which were awesome. Portions are huge! For mains we had the mixed grill and spicy tawouk. Again, the flavours were just on point and the meat quality and cookery is excellent. Delicious breads, sauces and salad for accompaniments too.

Two things I think could be improved, though:

Desserts - the dessert menu didn’t feel as authentic/homemade/traditional as the starters and main menus. There are two pages of what feels like a random assortment of desserts - Portuguese tarts, orange chocolate cake, lemon cake, crème Catalana, Victoria sponge to name a few. It gave the impression of a well stocked fridge/freezer of pre-prepared desserts that have nothing to do with the restaurant. There is a special dessert of the day, but we were told there wasn’t one when we visited (a busy Saturday evening). We ended up ordering the baklava with ice cream, which was underwhelming, especially the ice cream, which was very icy.

Service - it started off really well with warm welcoming smiles and greetings. But as the night went on the service did get slower, and in the end we needed to grab someone’s attention to ask for our main dishes to be cleared off the table and for the desserts menu. We then had to go up to the bar and ask for the bill at the very end.

Despite all of this, the starters and mains are just too good and outweigh the negatives we experienced. So, we would definitely return but would just skip the desserts the next time we visit…

But if the Tarboush team can reinvent the desserts menu, they would be onto a winner! It would be amazing to showcase more Lebanese/Middle Eastern desserts...

The food was fantastic. Delicious, full of flavour and immaculately presented. The interior and decor was wonderful too. The down side......well there was only one and it ruined the experience and the ambience. The front of house manager Will. Not once did he introduce himself, he was abrupt and uninterested in the guests. If you asked him for anything, I felt like I was bothering him and he acted like it was a chore. He was rude when I ordered and tried to pronounce something, simply stating 'you mean no 12'. We asked for a jug of water for the table he just slammed it on the table along with 2 glasses and didn't even speak or offer to pour it for us. Same when my husband asked for another soft drink. He just rushed over and slammed the bottle on the table without a word and walked off. Never even asked if he would like a fresh glass with ice. So when he asked for more ice, he again didn't acknowledge anything verbally just walked off and got another waitress to serve the glass with ice. Unfortunately his presence there has put me off ever wanting to return. Maybe he needs to change vocation as well as his attitude....

Oh my gosh if I could give more than 5 stars I would! Family of 4 went for my partners mother's birthday, I asked for a glass of sparkly to toast and they honoured that with some beautiful prosecco. The food was out of this world beautiful. Cooked with love and passion. To end they put together a plate of baklava with some cream and a candle, lights turned down and an epic lebanese version of happy birthday over the speakers. Waiter with his tambourine was adorable playing away to the song and most definitely as a whole one of the most fantastic places I've ever eaten. Prices are very reasonable and I cannot fault anything here. The staff were all so wonderful and smiling! They loved my dog which for me personally added so many extra stars in my book! Please visit here, I can assure you, you won't be disappointed and they have real coca cola in the glass bottles so if nothing else, go for that! Thank you to you all, you will be seeing us again! With my family next time! Sorry for all the explanation marks, I'm just extremely thrilled with our experience, above and...