Mezzet Restaurant — Restaurant in Elmbridge

Mezzet Dar is a charming restaurant close to Hampton Court Palace combining Spanish tapas with Lebanese food. The challenge with Mezzet Dar is that it is more show than substance.

The interior is inviting and beautifully presented with a small table outside and nine small table in the front of the restaurant. While the food is imaginatively described and presented, it lacks quality and the distinctive Spanish full flavoured dishes. The Iberian Pork Secret was overly fatty and overcooked, accompanied with an undistinctive sauce. The arroz caldoso was drowned in oil and while the portion was generous the baby squid was chewy. Los Pollos Amigos - chicken breast with machengo cheese, spinach and mushroom was bland. The chorizo croquettes were dry and lacked any seasoning. The only dish I would order again would the lamb chops which were well cooked and complemented with red pimentos. The average cost per dish ranges between £7.50 and £10.50.

While the food at Mezzet Dar did not make an impression, the service was impeccable and friendly. The moto of Mezzet Dar is "We Believe in Friendship and Tasty Food". Without a doubt it delivers on friendship. Unfortunately, while imaginative, the tasty food was...

Ok, so I returned to a place I went 7 years ago and sorry to see the results.

Overall 2 people + 2 years old. Spend : 99.95 Value for money: 1/5 Drinks : 4/5 Overall Food Taste: 1.2/5 Service : 4/5

Lets start with the drinks, Cocktail Drinks: 7.3/10. Espresso Martini 7.5/10, Margarita 7, Dark and Stormy 7.9 Moughrabieh: Rubbery chicken, ate a few spoons, tasted like lamb fat (contained lamb cutlets), the ski. 1/10, left 80%. Mixed Grill : 1/10, very dry left 80% Hummus: Not Beirut style, just a normal hummus, not much tahini. 4/10 Tabouleh: 7/10. Sausage: Decent flavour, not crispy, nor finished properly with pomegrate , just a very runny sauce, with no viscosity 3/10 Batata Hara: 6/10, impossible to mess up, but missing lemon.

Drinks Menu; Says freshly squeezed Valencia oranges , the waiters were confused and 2 of the seniors confirmed its from concentrate.

Waiter, Bar Service : Excellent, if only the kitchen reflected the eti

Cooking: mediocre.

We left without taking the food home, it wasn't worth taking home. We had to eat again, so we went to the Hampton Court Palace...

Our experience last night at Mezzet was a real disappointment. As ever the atmosphere and staff were pleasant enough but the food fell well short of what it should be. Our starters were chicken liver, which was tasty but overcooked, the calamari was very, very average and again overcooked. For our third starter we received the wrong dish, in any event the minced lamb pastries were too dry. Our main course consisted of grilled lamb chops, chefs special sea bass and a side salad. The side salad was the star of the show - fresh, tasty with a balanced dressing. The lamb chops that my girlfriend had were acceptable but certainly nothing special. With my sea bass I was promised roasted vegetables, what I got was grey, slushy, tasteless matter. The fish was prepared and cooked in such a way that the meat was very difficult to separate from the bone, all in all this effort in no way matched up to our previous experiences here. Although I am proud of Hampton Court I'm also aware that a lot of the dining is fairly average and I would hate Mezzet to fall into...