Shalizaar — Restaurant in Belmont

I love Middle Eastern food. DishDash in Sunnyvale is one of my all-time favs. So when I heard about Shalizaar, I had to try it.

The food here is amazing. The koobidehs are so simple, yet so delectable. My mouth waters just thinking about them.

However, it's amazing how much poor service can change a person's impression of a place.

I've been here three times. The first time, they forgot my wife's salad. We were having an early dinner and we were one of three parties in the restaurant, so I can't say being busy is an excuse. But we forgave them for that.

The next time, they got our order wrong. Gave us someone else's dishes. When we told them that, they went back to the kitchen and the wait felt like they had forgotten our order and had to place it again. The restaurant wasn't that crowded, so I still can't say being busy is an excuse here either. But we forgave them for that.

The third time, we arrived during a very busy dinner. We had reservations, but still had to wait 20 minutes. Fine. I've worked in a restaurant, I know how it is. Some people eat slow and things go wrong. When we finally got our seats, they apologized and told us someone else has a reservation in an hour, and can we hurry up and complete our meal by then? Rude, but we said fine, we'll rush. We finished in half an hour.

Then what happened? We waited 20 minutes for the check. Then another 20 minutes for them to pick up the credit card. Yes, 40 minutes, plus the 30 minutes it took us to order and eat, meant we were already past their time limit for us. So why weren't they picking up our check to get us out the door? I had to walk up to the host to get him to take my payment. Even then, it took him another 10 minutes to run my credit card and hand me my receipt. I remember because I took note that 80 minutes had elapsed since we first arrived.

Like I said, I've worked in restaurants and can understand how things get in a restaurant. At the same time, I know how you should treat a customer if you want repeat business. This is not how you do that.

I'll give them 2 stars because of the food. But with three strikes against their poor service, I won't be coming back here again, and will be telling all of my friends to avoid...

Shalizaar is one of the best Persian dining destinations in the Peninsula. The koobideh is so juicy and flavorful, rice is bountiful - really huge portions, unmatched by any location I've been to. The ambiance also feels very high end, with white linen type table cloths and waiter(ess) dress code. However when busy, front of house seems to forget basic hospitality. Upon arrival, we weren't greeted, so we asked if our order was ready for pickup. The host at the front of house seemed very disgruntled by our request, and just asked for payment. When we asked for an estimate as to how long we'd be waiting for our takeout order, they simply replied "well, 15 more minutes. We already told her 30-45 minutes, and it hasn't even been 30." About 45 seconds later, she came back out saying our order was ready, following a man to our car - felt like she was micromanaging him, telling him "ok, go follow them now."

The parking situation at Shalizaar is also slightly impacted by COVID, as they opened up a patio dining area (that's very infrequently used), taking up a handful of parking spots. We noticed other patrons were displeased by us parking in the takeout only parking spots - frustrations due to having a lack of parking, having to inform them that we were just waiting for our order, as it wasn't ready yet.

I've had really great experiences before at Shalizaar, where waiters were able to accommodate for dietary restrictions like keto, as well as provide a very kind manner of hospitality. This however has only been the case on the off hours of the day, right before or after lunch/dinner rush.

I really wanted to give Shalizaar 5 stars, as I've been coming here for over a decade without issue, however the latest experience I've had made me realize that they're not equipped for busy service. The food is really great, I've got no complaints there, and otherwise I would've given...

This restaurant serves good quality and tasty food. However, there are some problems that avoid me to choose it for next time. The dimmed light hides many stains on the walls and dirty spots. You can find a huge dirty fingerprint on the wall next to the kitchen. The only clean area is the restroom. Moreover, the behavior of waitress and services are extremely terrible. We booked a table and due to traffic we arrived 10 minutes late; there were five available tables, but the receptionist was very rude and made fun of us. When he asked his manager, he approached us and gave us a table. Receiving orders was extremely unusual ended with another rudely behavior. The same person, who was at the reception, asked "what do you eat as entree (without any greeting). Without asking for drinks or appetizers, I was the fourth person put my order and asked for appetizer, then he talked to all people at the table and asked "hey everyone, what do you want for appetizer?" that was really rude! The worst part was at the time of checking out when we asked the bill being separated! He told us with a gesture as if we are stupid and this is our first time we eat outside, "You had to inform me when you arrived." Then he kneed next to one of us and aggressively mentioned he cannot do that! Finally, he offered you out three credit card and I will RANDOMLY (!!!!!!) charge them. WHAT?!!!! I have not heard something like that before!!!! The fun we had was ruined. This is not a place I will go...