Al Arez Express — Restaurant in London

Hi

Al Arez’s service is worst then its food and above all the attitude of the waiters is just next level. Each waiter thinks he is superior to every customer and has a fundamental right to show attitude, particularly to south east Asians whereas native speaking Arabs and white English people get special treatment.

The waiters are rude and sluggish and possess absolutely no customer service skills. I can’t even blame these waiters because it is quite apparent that they haven’t been trained professionally, so they don’t actually know how to conduct themselves in a restaurant.

People can cook food at home, but if someone still wants to go out to a restaurant, it’s for that special experience. You are not paying money for just food, it’s for presentation, customer service, and the overall treatment that leaves an impression on your mind when you leave.

For God sake if I owned a restaurant, I would not even treat like that the people who came to me for free food, leave aside who paid their hard earned money.

Although we are loyal to Maroush and Al Balad, but they did not have any outdoor seating free as it was a very busy day, so we were looking for other options and Al Arez could not be overlooked as it has two big restaurants on Edgware Road opposite each other.

I can never forget that two platters of chicken were served burnt, with an insipid and dry taste as if it was cooked hours ago. No sauce and couscous was served despite asking for it several times. I had to call the waiter 10 times to take the order and then 20 times to chase the order.

Two waiters were constantly preparing sheesha just next to us and blowing smoke on our faces. When I asked him to blow it in another direction and move a bit away, he got very angry and rude and spoke to his colleague in Arabic about us and then started laughing at us. Seriously, is that how you treat your customers. The Covid cases are rising again and these two guys were blowing exhaled smoke on our faces without any consideration!!!

When I told the waiter about the burnt chicken, he had no expression on his face :) and no response either. We had to eat the chicken dry as the sauce and couscous was never served.

A lot of Arab customers who came after us got served before us and the waiters were giving them VIP treatment as they spoke in the native Arabic language.

I would give this restaurant zero stars if I could as the service was mediocre and disgusting.

The outdoor space looked beckoning, but the waiting times, customer service and food were all utterly disappointing.

More than the food you really need to work on the mannerism and etiquettes of your waiters and how they treat customers regardless of ethnicity.

The price of all this was £52. People please DON'T waste your money yeah!

This happened at Al Arez Express, 132 Edgware Rd, London W2 2DZ on Sunday the 17th...

Nice food but extremely unprofessional and rude. Got food ate it was asked for payment then asked if we want to do half payment we said yes, swiped card, I asked do I not need to pay the other half to which the server said I THOUGHT U SAID FULL AND DIDN'T HEAR YOU, YOU CAN SORT OUT THE PAYMENT AMONGST EACH OTHER, and he laughed then asked if we want to take the food away to which we said yes, he didn't come for a good 5 mins and then another guy came and asked the same question if we want to take away rest as half of our food was still left. We said yes. He never came back. Good 5 mins we waited again and then wore out coats towards the door and I saw the guy who came second time to take the food and asked him if he had packed the food. He said no I threw it sorry, and laughed. I said What and was a bit shocked but coudnt say anything then saw the other guy who first took payment and was getting the boxes but never came back and asked him, how come u took the payment for us both in full when we asked him clearly to do half half and now the other server threw all our food. He said what do u want me to do, you're looking for trouble I can see. I said excuse me, how can you talk to me like that. He said I can give you a shawarma and give it to you. I said that will take some time and we already have been waiting for some time and it's quite late. He said I have attitude and what do u want me to do about it and said LEAVE. then another man came from the back who I thought was the manager, i asked him if he was the manager but he said no. Still don't know where and why the manager didn't come to resolve anything and everyone was just walking around doing nothing about the situation. These men are all grown up, and talking to a woman like that who has not even been rude or raised her voice or even sworn at anyone and the man who I then spoke to asked me, why are you not leaving if he said to you to leave. I said why would I leave if I get spoken to like that and not get an apology. He asked did he not resolve it for u. I said before suggesting to give me a shawarma in return of the food thrown away he already told me I have attitude and looking for trouble. He kept quite and didn't even reply. Then before I was leaving the restaurant the man who was rude shouted,u take the food, or I give u refund or u leave. I said ok give me refund then to which he didn't respond and said LEAVE NOWWWW. and shouted f off . This is disgusting behaviour. I didn't raise my voice didn't swear and this grown up man acting so childish who we paid neslry £40 and he is talking to us with so much disrespect and all the men working were just there looking and didn't resolve anything. I'm disgusted by this behaviour and didn't think I would have...

Do yourself a favour and do not drop by to this shop to eat. I came to Al-Arez last week after a long day out with my family, and I wish it had been a good experience since it was my first time going there, but I'm sorry to say it was a disappointment. Save some time by considering another place to eat out, just for 3 reasons: Overpriced food - we ordered a few platters, consisting of rice, chicken and grilled meat. I looked at the prices and was a bit ruffled, since they were expensive, but I shook off the feeling thinking the portion must be big. But what do you know! The food didn't look anywhere near the amount I would have expected for that high a price, so it really was not worth it and left me a bit irritated for paying so much for so little. Unpleasant food - I'm not going to lie, the food wasn't the worst at first. I quite liked the grilled meat and the rice wasn't too bad either. But I didn't know that when I would get home my stomach would be upset to an extent that I felt like throwing up. I then realised the food I had eaten at Al-Arez was not up to the mark and left me feeling sick, not to mention how bad the rest of my family were feeling as well. So it wasn't just me who felt bad after eating food from there, because the rest of my family also suffered, sorry to say. Poor customer service - I would think that if anyone was to go out on a long day and be fatigued afterwards, they would definitely end up in an unpleasant mood if the service in a restaurant they went to was substandard. My first resentment was how the staff looked almost annoyed to come over if we needed something, as if I was asking that they cook me every single dish on the menu in under 5 minutes. They also didn't see it reasonable to ask whether we needed water or not. I mean, give me a break, the water also needed to be paid for (not an entirely big issue) but I would have preferred if we had at least gotten asked if we even needed water or not. Me and my family sat there, waiting to order for water after not being asked about it, obviously feeling concerned at this poor customer service we were being offered. All in all, it was not a very enjoyable experience, would not...