Sultan Restaurant and Lounge — Restaurant in Charleston

Sept 19, 2023 12:30p Unfortunately, not the same under new management. Not sure where all these 4 &5 star reviews are from - maybe friends of the new management. This is fairly long review.

Service is really slow... Got here at 12:30p, placed my order at 12:45p. There were literally 3 people in the whole place.

The menu is different and I was told they were out of a lot of items on the menu.

I ordered the Large Greek Salad with gyro meat as an add-on. The menu stated the salad consists of romaine & iceberg lettuce, Greek peppers, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, feta cheese and kalamata olives.

I asked for no onion and dressing on the side - was told the house dressing was Greek. I asked if pita bread was included and was told yes. After a few minutes the server returned to say the bread was not included, ordered 1 pita for $0.99.

After an hour, the salad arrived - wrong, it arrived swimming in dressing with onion, green peppers not Greek peppers, and no feta, no olives and no romaine lettuce?

The server took it back even though I said that I would deal with it - it returned without dressing, meat was cold, and still no olives, feta cheese or romaine lettuce?

Music is absolutely awful 🙄 It's like a cross between country music, polka and Greek - super weird.

When the bill arrived, it was $18.76 for what amounted to a side salad with meat.

At check out, I was going to pay with cash, I thought I only had a large bill and asked if she could make change for the bill. She said they did not have ANY change and was indicating to use credit card?

I'm like oh heck no I'm not giving them my credit card with as messed up as everything else was..., server said she could get her purse and try to make change for me to pay my bill?

I was able to locate enough smaller bills to pay without needing to make change.

Definitely not returning, I'm so disappointed. Definitely will not recommend this...

Wanted to like this place but terrible experience and will not be back. Chicken was overcooked/rubbery. They brought us a full plate of 2 meals when we ordered a half plate and I believe 1 meal had seasoning/upcharge added that was not asked for. Had never been before so no way of knowing what a full versus half plate looks like. Wait staff called the owner when I saw how high the bill after our meal was and after that I was told they had to charge us full price since we ate it (we ate roughly half of 1 plate, a bit more than that for the other) and had we mentioned it when food was brought out they could have taken it back and taken care of it. How I was supposed to know their typical portions ahead of time is a mystery which I pointed out. Wouldn't you want repeat customers instead of being inflexible with your own 10-15 dollar mistake?

Eerily quiet (no music/no other customers) when we first got in. They later put on spotify or some music service that had ads loudly playing every couple minutes (if you are going to play music from a streaming service in a restaurant pay the 8 bucks a month for no ads, I beg you). Service was a mess and awkward. It was painful to get waters filled, asked for waters for everyone (2 adults and 2 kids) and initially ended up with 1, eventually ended up with 2) and just slow moving, ended up leaving while waiting for a to go box.

Pre-tip bill was 81 dollars and change for 2 plates (apparently whole plates) of dried chicken with rice and veggies, 1 single order of french fries, 1 lemonade, and 1 order of hummus (which was decent/good) with pita bread. I almost never post negatively about places (especially local spots) but overall worst restaurant experience in quite some time and a complete...

My wife and I enjoy trying the diverse culinary offerings of the Lowcountry and she came upon a review today for Sultan’s Restaurant and Lounge. I enjoy a good shawarma and it’s been awhile since I’ve had one. The person waiting on us, Moment, was friendly, informative and efficient.

Apparently the restaurant is currently going through a refresh of the interior, which gave it a warm and inviting atmosphere. This is the same owner of Olympik Cafe in the same spot.

Moment gave us terrific recommendations. We each ordered the beef and lamb Shawarma sandwich and added tabbouli to them. We also ordered the Baba ganoush with warm Pita bread. Everything came out quickly and tasted amazing.

The baba ganoush was slightly sweet and the warm, toasty pita complemented it perfectly. The shawarma was definitely one of the better ones I’ve had in awhile here in Charleston. It was moist and packed with flavor, especially with the tabbouli added to it.

There’s definitely a difference in quality in ingredients and preparation compared to other shawarmas here in Charleston. Moment also recommended their rice pudding dessert, but we were so full already and promised to try it next time. Instead he comped it for us to try. My wife, with a sweet tooth, couldn’t resist and we both enjoyed it tremendously.

Prices were reasonable and the place immaculately clean. I chatted with the owner briefly and he was very friendly and appreciative. I wish I had taken a few photos of the food, but devoured it too quick! Haha! We’re definitely putting this into our rotation of regular restaurants here in West Ashley. So glad...