Desert Moon Mediterranean Grill — Restaurant in Anaheim

The food is delicious but the service is awful. We arrived and were seated right away. We were given menus and the server walked away. 30 minutes pass and no one had come to take our order nor had offered us water. The table across arrived after and were already being served their food. I went inside to the register and asked if we could order as we’ve already been waiting so long. A young man came out and took our order and then water was brought out to our table of 5 (2 adults 3 children). We ordered the Dessert Moon appetizer sampler platter, Desert Moon mixed grill, Tahini salad, kids chicken tender meal, 3 kids lemonades and 1 pot of mint tea. The sampler arrived and we still didn’t have silverware or plates. We waited a few minutes then had to request some. 20 minutes later our food comes out and we noticed the kids lemonades were not coming. We left it at that since they were already drinking water. The server brought us 2 pitas and said he’s bring us more once they were done baking, that never came. We decided to request that pot of tea before it didn’t come out at all. A server then comes to our table with plates and silverware. We were almost done with our food and I suggested maybe it was for the table to our far right, as they too had to get up and get their own utensils and plates. After about 10-15 minutes our tea pot came out. We were ready for the check. We were tired of being overlooked. By this time we were the only table outside so no one was coming out. I once again had to go inside to get our own To Go box. It was almost a 2 hour dinner and we didn’t even have desert; which we were looking forward to ordering, especially my husband’s coffee, but decided to get elsewhere. Again, I had to get up and go to the register to ask for our check. On it were the 3 kids drinks we never received and 2 tea pots instead of the 1 we did get. They fixed it with no problem. Gratuity was already on the check. No wonder they didn’t feel the need to earn their tip. The food was delicious but the lack of attention from the staff will not bring us back to...

I have been a regular customer of Desert Moon Mediterranean Grill for the past six years simply because they were one of my favourite restaurants to bring friends, family and out-of-town guests. Not only was the food consistently excellent, the service and ambience was great where all the wait staff would wear traditional Jordanian outfits. Also, Desert Moon was one of those unique restaurants that made fresh pita to compliment your meal.

A few years ago, the owner was eventually unable to manage both restaurants in Anaheim and Chicago simultaneously and decided to sell Desert Moon to Lebanese ownership. Under the new ownership, the food quality and flavour have declined based on multiple times I’ve ordered prior to the pandemic, during the pandemic, and currently. The Toshka with Chicken has become extremely dry both the chicken and pita with no cheese. The Sayadyeh Fish Filet was burnt, fishy and the tomato sauce was lacklustre in flavour – reduced to the point of a burnt taste.

During the Ramadan Buffet service, I was squeezed into an extremely small booth table even though I requested a larger booth. However, out of greed, Desert Moon tries to squeeze as many people into and outside of the restaurant possible. Food was served PRIOR to sundown which usually is not suppose to be the case considering the staff asked me to arrive by 7:30 p.m. – there was already lengthy lines for the buffet! Food runs out within 15 minutes of being in line and the line moves extremely slow because many people cut in line and the staff would cut in line to retrieve food for their favourite patrons – how is this fair to those of us waiting 30 minutes in line? Nevertheless, many of the customers had no face masks when they returned to the buffet. With this type of corruption, chaos and lacking service, why should I subject myself to...

Nephew introduced us to this place. He said the food would be great and it was. My nephew originally booked a reservation online for 11 people at prime dinner time 730pm. Once we arrived and spoke to one of the servers, he said, " I don't a have a reservation for party of 11". We explained we booked on-line and then he states, "oh our owner doesn't usually check that. It's better to call in." Well, why in the heck is there an option on the website if the owner or anyone else doesn't check??? Luckily a big party was leaving and they accommodated us before everyone arrived. We squeezed in, ordered food and everything went smoothly.

When the food came, the portions were huge! We ended up getting 2 platters of the Large mixed meat which supposedly for 5 people, but more for like 7-8 people (IMO). Shish kabob, shish tawook, chicken tawook, lamb chops, baba ghanouj, hummus, salad and a couple other items I can't even remember because there was so much. All over a bed of light and fluffy amazing mediterranean rice all for $99 each platter. All the flavors were excellent with plenty of leftovers to go. Service was so so, as they were dealing with the dinner rush. All in all not bad.

Although they can handle a big party, I would recommend smaller ones. And you must be able to handle toddlers, kids, and crying kids. There seemed to be plenty that day for...