Zeytin Turkish Restaurant — Restaurant in Ada Township

I was going to wait for this review until I spoke to someone from zeytin. It's been a week and I have no reply so here goes the review.

When we walked in on Saturday at about 8: 30 at night we were greeted with the hostess who took us to a booth put the menus down on e corner and walked away and didn't say a word. She didn't even wait until we were seated.

The next person comes and give us the pita bread and the things that go with it. My date said thank you and he replied with a yeah.

The food was excellent everything tastes the way that it should flavorful very tender.

The server came back at the end took my plate and my date had a couple bites left. The server proceeded to go to the bar sat down and started eating and drinking Coke. She knew that we were done and my date only had a couple bites left. We waited 10 minutes for her to come back to the table she gave us the check I gave her the money waiting for her to return. I asked to see the manager and she looked like she didn't understand what I was saying and then finally said we have an owner. I said okay I would like to see the owner. He came back and said the owner was talking to the staff. She never returned and the owner never returned, we waited 15 more minutes. I sent email to the restaurant asking to talk about my experience they never sent an email back. I felt the staff was very rude and didn't really care anything about the customers, even the busboys laughed out loud creating a disturbance on the table across from us. Why did it take two Busboys to clean the table. There was another server cleaning it up anyway so I guess there were three of them at that table. The next day we went to Twisted Rooster. There's absolutely no comparison in the service between the two. At Twisted Rooster the staff is very knowledgeable and polite. The manager walked the floor and came to talk to us to make sure that we were pleased with the service and the food. Zeytin should take a look at the way Twisted Rooster operates their restaurant as Twisted Rooster is exemplary example of what it...

In my opinion, the full dining experience is equal parts food quality and customer service. If an establishment is lacking in either, it detracts from its strengths.

In no recent dining experience was this more evident that my most recent visit to Zeytin's. To their credit, the quality of food (I ordered the chicken kabobs) was above-average - the chicken tasted fresh and flavorful while the hummus and pita bread was also tasty.

However, this was without a doubt one of the worst dining experiences I've ever encountered. To begin, the wait staff was unfriendly with absolutely no sense of urgency or respect for our time. We waited almost TWO HOURS for our food to arrive with absolutely no explanation or remorse from anyone associated with the restaurant. Literally, we were about to cut our losses, pay for our appetizers/drinks and walk out once the food finally did arrive. Again, no apology from anyone, just a lazy excuse that they were understaffed.

As we paid our bill, the owner (or manager, I suspect) came over to the table to speak to our party. Normally, I would expect them to be apologetic or at least sympathetic to our sub-par dining experience, but given the way we were treated up to that point I should have known better. He was absolutely combative and refused to take responsibility for the complete lack of customer service that occurred that evening. It was clear to me that while he may have some culinary expertise, he lacked any basic knowledge of how to run a business.

In short, this experience tainted what was otherwise a wonderful visit to Grand Rapids. I would highly recommend against dining here, unless you plan on ordering take-out. That way, you can minimize your interactions with the waitstaff and management as much...

The atmosphere is kinda of a plain space that with a lot of liitle touches was turned into a welcoming space with a Turkish twist. It is very well done space.

I ordered the Signaki and then the Beef Shish Kabobs. The  Signaki is an imported Kaseri Cheese (from Sheep Milk) and in the American style is set aflame with Brandy! It was a 1st for me and it was fantastic. A show and a tasty cheese. The Beef Shish Kabobs were excellent. The beef was perfectly cooked with subtle spices. It came with Turkish Coleslaw which had Unique spices I couldn't place that had the tiniest dash of heat. It also came with rice which was pretty bland, but well cooked. The dish also came with a white sauce that I have no clue what it was, but it was truly delicious! It enhanced the beef to the nth degree! The person I was with got the Lamb Shish Kabobs and stated they were excellent and also loved the White sauce. The White sauce is either Shawarma or Halal. For Free they brought the table some Pita bread with sometype of oil that was very ehhhh.

The Service was excellent with both the server and Chef stopping by to make sure everything was good!

Overall this was an easy 5 stars. Would I...