Maroush Express — Restaurant in London

------BE WARNED------ If you are looking for good food, great customer service and value for money..... GO SOMEWHERE ELSE !!!! :(

Looking for an unashamedly honest review? read on....

An absolute disappointment --- Having been seated we waited close to 20mins for our order to be taken, understandable if the place was busy; but with empty tables on a Saturday night.. we should have known better!

Upon arrival the food was cold, how hard is it to make a shawarma for heavens sake, what was worse was the fact that for £5.50 you get 2 spoons of meat half a tomato and some onion wrapped in a 5in flatbread. A £5.50 lamb meshwi or better known as a lamb tikka roll is no better it comes with 3 small cubes of lamb and the usual half a tomato, onions in a flatbread. Better off with a McDonalds happy meal to be honest at least you get a drink with it. Oh and if you prefer to have a plated shawarma, you can expect a plate of meat served with some chopped onion and a single golf ball sized potato :( Guessing the potato was their attempt at meeting the criteria for meat and two veg !!! A bog standard kebab locally comes with meat, flatbread, a fair bit of mixed salad and sauce/s of your choice and perhaps even a can drink and all for less than these rip-off merchants. If you want a flatbread, sauces or salad you have to pay extra for them. Reasonable you say? Well get this its £15 for a plated meat/shawarma by itself !! What a meal deal... drinks are a ridiculous £3.25 per glass of what can only be described as your basic £1 supermarket bought cartons … great going Maroush Profit, profit, profit !!!

We complained about the cold food and were told that we had already tasted it so in actual fact they saw no reason for complaint... how do you know food is cold without trying it? The supervisor and management were incredibly rude and unprofessional, the manager made no effort whatsoever to resolve the dispute and in-fact mid conversation walked off to take payment from another customer... despite there being a supervisor and other staff available to do so; it was ridiculous and embarrassing to say the least.

Quite obviously, Maroush has dropped its standards from providing good quality food and service to simply throwing out garbage on a conveyor belt, and cashing in on unsuspecting customers.

And to top it all off they employ a doorman and a hefty bouncer to intimidate folks into paying their bills, or if there is a discrepancy or dispute. Whilst talking with the manager the 6ft+ 300 pound bouncer parked himself up not 2ft away from me with a menacing look on his face, so be warned folks if you dispute their service you may have to face the beast !!

Totally bewildered and frustrated by the whole experience, a £100 out of pocket …and still hungry, we left :( NEVER to return again.

I apologise for the length of this review, but found it necessary to vent my thoughts and also wanted to ensure that people are not taken in by some of the disillusioned reviews posted here. This place is not worth the time or money, there are plenty other eateries on the Edgeware Road. ____________Give MAROUSH a MISS. p.s if it was possible to post without a star rating I would...

Racist (older) man running front of house. When we entered the place was very quiet, the place looked clean, no menu posted outside so walked in to see what they had on the menu. We were seated and given menus. We looked at the menu and then realised we were better off taking wraps to go. We stood up to order, the man immediately made us feel uncomfortable, asking why we were leaving. When he realised I could speak Arabic the tone changed. (not that he was very nice to begin with!) I ordered our two wraps (one soujouk, one maqaneq) and left to nip to the loo (it was filthy by the way!) When I returned I sat in waiting area with my husband. The chefs seem really nice, kitchen is open and looks clean. We stood up to grab our wraps when they were ready, the man insisted on wrapping them in a bag despite saying we would eat them straight away. He then took ages ringing out through the till, huffing and puffing. He said the amount due in Arabic, he seemed really impatient with us. He handed the money to some other chap, then stood far too close to us staring at us. It was so uncomfortable. He then asked where I was from, (well, he interrogated). not once did he say thanks, bye, hi, anything. It was like he couldn't stand the sight of us. At the end he just walked off. I couldn't wait to get out of there!!!

Unfortunately I've experienced this before. For reference I'm lebanese and my husband is English. This man was completely racist and trying to intimidate us.

Think twice before coming here. It left a completely sour taste in my mouth!!!

Picture for reference of my half eaten maqaneq wrap, for proof that I actually did come here.

Avoid this place. Disgusting!!

RESPONSE:

Hi there, thank you for responding. I don't make allegations myself lightly. my family used to work in the restaurant trade and I know first hand how tough it can be.

The guy definitely aimed it towards my husband who is white English. Not a single word spoken to him, despite my husband being the one who paid and was with me. I've gone round and round in circles and all I feel is that he was racist towards my husband.

I was so upset as we had cycled for over 20 minutes in the rain to visit here. I was hankering after real lebanese food and this was the experience we had. Even my family couldn't believe what we experienced!

As I say, the rest of the staff were cool. Our experience was with the older man at the...

Used to go Maroush in Edgeware road multiple times since 2008. The best one used to be in London is the one in Knightsbridge -Beauchamp branch. As Lebanese, the served food in this Branch is not Lebanese at all. Horrible in all the ways, and we mean it. Hope this review change the management direction and mentality. All the bad reviews on the Maroush chain are just right, correct and not an exaggeration. WE FELT OFFENDED TO HAVE SUCH FOODS, PERIOD Our comments:01- the Tabbouleh salad is not Tabbouleh at all, it's rather a soup of smashed fat parsley than the famous delicious Lebanese salad. [NOT FRESHLY MADE] Missing: the Cumin powder, mini cucumber, spring onion/onion, tomato, garlic, bulgur, the oil used is not olive oil. Copy from the Maroush menu on their website:A refreshing salad made with finely chopped fresh parsley, tomato, dried mint, onion, bulgur, fresh lemon and extra virgin olive oil dressing Allergens: Gluten (Wheat) 435 kcal. 02- The Garlic sauce has too much lemon juice, not firm, more liquid than solid and firm texture, mini pieces of minced garlic still visible in the sauce. Garlic sauce and Spicy sauce are served in the same bowl, shall never be done in that way. Always in separate bowl. Not a good saving idea. 03- The Lahem meshewi-Lamb cube skews are overcooked, dry, not taste at all as typical Lebanese marinated lamb. The size of the lamb skew is small. 04- Freshly mango juice is not fresh, it's rather from supermarket bottle or just not fresh as ordered. 05- Mandatory service charge of 12.5 % is not acceptable. The charge shall be written clearly on the menu, especially with such bad service and horrible food. Copy from Maroush website: Discretionary Service Charge of 12.5% will be added to your bill 06–We ordered lamb cube skews, mixed grilled meat, Tabbouleh and drinks. 07–We had stomach upset when back home, bad night! 08- The served food and service at this branch are not anywhere near the catering services provided by Maroush at the events in London. Hope the management read this review and change the course of such cataclysmic, unpleasant and surprise experience from a well known famous Lebanese...