Albadia Mediterranean Cuisine — Restaurant in Cottleville

I have been here twice and both times they messed up my order and were super slow. The second time was beyond terrible and the waiter was really rude. When I arrived, I parked right in front of the restaurant and I could see them inside through the window. I saw the waiter watching me park and walk towards the business.... So I figured service would be great..... But nope. As soon as I entered, the staff went into the back. I waited 5-8 minutes for someone to even come out and tell me where I should sit, give me a menu and take my drink order. I was the only customer in the building and they saw me walking to the door. I do not understand what took so long. The cook came out from the back first... The waiter was still nowhere to be seen. The cook gave me a menu and took my order. He also gave me a cup to get my own drink. Another 5 minutes later, my waiter came out and asked to take my order like it hadn't already been 10-15 minutes that I had been in the restaurant. I told him I had already ordered and I already had my drink. The waiter then sat down in an empty booth and proceeded to play on his phone, not noticing that my food was ready until the cook called for him to give me my food. My drink was also gone which he didn't notice. He only grabbed my cup when I very purposely put it at the end of the table to make it more obvious. As I had already said before, my food was wrong again. I ordered a sandwich and asked for them to ADD cheese to it. Instead, they gave me a sandwich with meat and then a second sandwich with no meat and only cheese. Why in the world would anybody want two sandwiches for lunch? Especially one with only cheese and one with only meat? I am not sure if it's stupidity or language barrier.... I always try to give the benefit of the doubt but this is the second time I have come to this restaurant and they screwed my food up. And I ordered the same sandwich both times. How hard is it to understand "add cheese" to the sandwich? I told my waiter I did not want two sandwiches, but wanted 1 sandwich with cheese added to it. He didn't care at all and just said "that's how we do it". Really? You just ignore customer requests and charge them for a second sandwich instead of simply adding cheese to the first sandwich? But I just chalked it up to language barrier. The cook did the best he could when the waiter wasn't present. When it was time to pay... I asked the waiter if he got the tip all to himself or if he split it with the cook. I also made it clear that I was going to give him a tip no matter what, but I also wanted to give the cook a tip since he did the first half of my service. The waiter told me it was "none of my business". I asked just trying to be nice. I honestly don't feel they should have gotten any tip at all but I always try to support local businesses. I was completely taken back by this rude comment. I know Normally waiters get all the tips, but sometimes in small local businesses, especially new ones, the waiters and cooks will alternate on the positions and so they will both make same wage and split tips. But not always... So that's why I asked. I tried asking again and explaining I just wanted both of them to get a tip... He again was super rude and told me "tip if I want, don't tip if I don't want". And then walked away. I will never go back to this restaurant again. Service was terrrible and food was bad even if they had managed to get my order correct. I live locally and would rather drive to STL then...

Its not so much that I disliked the food. I disliked the online ordering platform.

I made an online order for kids and I was very specific stating I only wanted meat, lettuce, and onion. The first thing the owner tells me is "I got the order it says no lettuce or onion. But I will fix for you" and even though my order also said "if there are any pickles, olives or tomatoes please keep them off the food as this is an order for children and they will not eat if the food is touching" I still managed to get a chicken shawarma with chicken and onion, it didn't have the lettuce and they left on the tomato. Ok... I let this one slide... Someone was just in too big a hurry to fully read my description.

But the 2nd time I ordered, I ordered the same Shawarma (i just described less items) "Chicken, Lettuce, Onion ONLY" and 3 orders of cjicken tenders. But when I look at my order when I get home, there is only 1 order of chicken tenders. The owner tells me its not his fault, the order placed was for $15.99 and only had 1 shawarma and 1 tenders listed.

I was told to contact the online ordering company (sure, make me pay extra for using a failed service then instead of resolving my issue, brush me off on someone else)

I explained to the owner, had he told me the first day to place my order on the phone instead of using the online service, I would have done so. He told me the online service costs more because an outside company takes a fee for themselves...but then they are not held accountable if they make a mistake.

This poor service does not exclude the owner from resolving my issues.

The food was fine, but I will have to say I felt as if my complaint was not dealt with and for that alone I have to give this negative rating.

As a business owner, you want to satisfy your customers, not a company that charges your customers more to use...

We have gotten takeouts from this place in the past, as well as dine ins. Had a big party last night here, about 22 people. There were couple of young waiters who were absolutely horrendous. This young male waiter was taking our drink orders, never writing them down and of course forgetting them! Then comes this young lady, filled with bitter attitude,.basically yelling at us to get the wrong drink out of her hands!! When we explained to her the correct drinks we ordered, she sounded very angry and frustrated on us saying, she wasn't told about the drinks correctly!! Then comes the rest of the food. Half of our party had arrived first and ordered and got their food, the other half came in later. The food was really mediocre, kababs were burnt out, chicken kabab was too hard to bite on. It was a birthday celebration so there was a cake and not all of us were going to eat it then, so some of us took some pieces in paper plates to take home. It was close to 9pm, the closing time, those young waiters were rushing to clear out our tables even though people were still eating. And the cherry on top, they threw out any plate or glass full of food or drink that they could find on the table without even asking if we are done or taking them home!! When we inquired where our paper plates with food are(that were clearly packed for to go), the young women again with an attitude let us know she threw it out!! Not even a single sorry!! A beautiful celebration ruined by unnecessary rude behaviors!! The restaurant could have let our host know prior that they don't have the capacity to hold this large gathering and the service staff could be a little bit...