Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe - McCalla — Restaurant in Bessemer

Dear Taziki's Team, I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to express my disappointment with my recent dining experience at your establishment, specifically at the Mccalla branch. As a loyal customer who has been frequenting Taziki's since my college days in Montgomery, AL, I have always enjoyed the consistent quality and taste of your food. Unfortunately, my most recent visit was far from satisfactory. On October 3, I placed my usual order - a Salmon Feast with roasted potatoes and a Caesar salad (extra seasoning), accompanied by a side order of shrimp (well done, extra seasoning). To my surprise, I received a plate containing salmon with a Greek salad, Caesar dressing, and roasted potatoes. Recognizing the mistake, I politely asked one of your employees to bring me a salad instead of sending the entire plate back, so my food wouldn't get cold. The Caesar salad was promptly brought out. My disappointment deepened when I bit into two shrimp and realized they were not prepared as I had specified. At this point, I simply requested that my order be remade to meet my initial request. However, the manager, Joe Moore, came over and offered me only three shrimp to be remade or a refund. Given the situation, I opted for the refund, as I no longer felt comfortable with any alterations to my food. What distressed me even further was that upon receiving my refund receipt, I noticed it contained a statement implying that I "constantly complain about my order when she comes." I would like to clarify that this statement is far from accurate. While I do have occasional instances where I request my order to be remade for accuracy, I have never asked for a refund until this visit. I want to emphasize that I genuinely enjoy your food and visit your establishment regularly. My consistent order should not be a cause for concern, given the number of times I have frequented your restaurant. I believe that your new location has the potential to uphold the same high standards of quality and service that I experienced in Montgomery, AL. However, my recent experience has left me disheartened. I am hopeful that this incident can be addressed promptly, and steps can be taken to ensure such situations do not occur in the future. Joe Moore's management skills are questionable, especially considering the inaccurate statement on my refund receipt. I would appreciate it if you could investigate this matter further and take appropriate action to ensure that other customers do not encounter similar issues. As a devoted patron, I look forward to seeing improvements and continuing to enjoy the excellent dining experience I have come to expect from Taziki's. Thank you for your attention to this matter, and I hope for a...

We were so excited when Taziki’s opened up in McCalla because we’ve enjoyed eating at other locations due to the quality of food. It was pretty good when the McCalla location first opened but the last several times have not been good. When we got there today the parking lot was empty and we thought they might be closed. They were open, just not a lot of people (and this was a little after lunch, so it should have been more crowded than it was). We went in anyways and that was a mistake. My boys split the child’s feast and there was hardly any chicken on it. Previously it’s been a lot of chicken and today there were probably 10 VERY small pieces. We had to send the fruit back because you could see through it. The woman who worked there said it looked freezer burnt and said the freezers were off temp. Ummm, okay? Should have been a red flag right then and there. The second small bowl of fruit didn’t look much better but wasn’t see through and was at least edible. I got the salmon feast with pasta salad and Greek salad. The salmon and the pasta salad was fine but the salad was beyond gross. The lettuce was nasty and I picked most of it out because of how it looked. The tomato tasted strange, the cucumber was soft, the red onion was soggy and the olives were sour. My mom had a salad as well and again, the lettuce was just bad. Usually we don’t complain but for $40+, this was ridiculous. The man who came over was rude and said the lettuce was chopped fresh everyday. Not sure whose doing the preparing but you can clearly see the quality was off. He said he would take away our plates and refund an entree. Didn’t ask for that, just wanted to show how the lettuce looked. Should have taken pictures but didn’t think about it. The previous time there was long black hair at the bottom of my child’s fruit bowl. The time before that there was part of a ziplock bag’s plastic slider in the fruit. When I told someone about that the girl just laughed and said sorry! And that was it. So I say all that to say, I understand things happen and there are off days, but today was absolutely our last visit to this location. We’ve spent lots of money here and the last 3 visits (all in a row) have been less than ideal. It’s just different for some reason and the quality of food and amount of food has changed. Someone might want to look into why that is. The parking lot being empty today should alert someone. Definitely don’t recommend...

WOW what a disaster of an opening!

1 employee taking orders, 12 people in the kitchen area, 2 people handing out orders and not a single one seems to know what they're doing. Absolutely no leadership is present to keep things organized.

I waited 15 minutes for my single gyro carry out order before asking the pickup staff the status of my order. To which the two employees looked at my receipt and said nothing. Literally didn't say a single word in response. In that 15 minutes two families of 4 that ordered after me had their meals and we're dinning in.

A couple more minutes go by and now 12 people are now waiting for their carry out orders. I notice an older man with a TAZ hat coming out of the back area and flag him down to ask about my order. He finds my ticket and asks the cooks to start my order. It's been 20 minutes at this point and they had not even started my order....

25 minutes later I finally have my order in hand and am leaving. There are now still a dozen people waiting for their orders and the line to place an order is clearing out with people frustrated and leaving entirely.

After all this I get to the hotel and couldn't be more disappointed. This is THE saddest excuse for a gyro I've ever seen. Anyone that's had a REAL gyro carved from the skewer please don't even waste your time here. It's no different than the make at home junk you can buy in the grocery store.

If you are so compelled to try this place and intend on ordering carry out. PLEASE order it online or over the phone. I have witnessed first hand these orders for some asinine reason get precedence over orders placed inside. Even if dine in order tickets were moved back in the line behind online or...