Sesame Seed — Restaurant in Danbury

I was in search of an affordable, nutritious weeknight dinner while traveling. I was not disappointed. Sesame Seed is located in an out-of-the-way part of Danbury, with several of the nearby businesses displaying signs in Spanish.

The dining area was smallish, dark and eclectically decorated. Both a daily menu with just a few selections, and a longer list of specials, were presented. Wine, beer and interesting soft drinks such as unusual fruit juices and sodas were available, but I stuck with water.

I also stuck with the daily menu, from which I ordered shish kabob for $9.95. It consisted of about half a dozen chunks of lamb, plus peppers, onions and summer squash. The vegetables were grilled almost to the point of being charred, but were not burnt and had an excellent smoky flavor. I was offered a choice of salad or brown rice, and chose the rice, which was moist, flavorful and topped with parsley. The portion was moderate in size. Thanks to a bowl of complementary pita strips, I didn't leave hungry.

The restaurant was moderately crowded, especially considering it was a Tuesday night, and service was on the slow side. I noticed only one server. It was nearly an hour from the time I sat down until I finished this simple meal. Luckily I wasn't in a hurry.

Although Sesame Seed has rather informal décor and service, and although I didn't order any of the specials -- which didn't seem like a good value at $14 - $20, I was pleased and with the quality of the food. I would...

We've been here twice. First time, all went well. Decent Middle East inspired dishes, and decent selection of vegetarian fare. On our second trip, our two year old committed the apparently unforgivable offense of playing with the sugar packets...not opening them mind you...but taking them out and separating them by packet-color. Someone in command, I presume the owner, came over and in a "shaming" tone, you know the kind of tone that only the most "metro" of metro-hispter-pants-cuffers is capable of, declared "we really can't have her touching all the sugar packets". As he hurriedly gathered them, some Purell we were cleaning her hands with (sugar packets are like ketchup bottles, after all) dripped in one of the (empty) packet holders; you would think we sullied it with bodily fluids...again shaming tone. On that note, my wife made up her mind this would be our last visit.

As for the food this go around, it was fine, with the exception my wife was not fond of her grilled salmon. To some extent, this is her own fault for ordering salmon at Middle Eastern inspired restaurant.

So, all in all, if you don't have children, or if you do, but somehow you have the only toddlers not immediately drawn to sugar packets, this is a decent place.

Just don't...

Had such high hopes for this adorable place. But if I could give negative stars, I would. The waitress took a very long time to take our order. The watery but well flavored hummus came about 15 minutes later with limp thin pita. The entrees were ordered at the same time as the appetizer of hummus however the salad didn’t come for 30 more minutes.our food didn’t come for another 25 minutes- now we are over an hour there and JUST getting food. The food itself was not good, the falafel were hard as a gold ball, the same size, and cold. The veggies were the frozen steamed kind. The only good part was the rice. Portions were not impressive. My fork was flat and the tines were bent inward, it didn’t work so I asked for a new one. It never came. We waited another 10 minutes after finishing our disappointing meal to get our check after asking and waiting for 10 minutes. The waitress never asked how it was, Never checked on us or apologized for the outrageous wait, and did not even refill our waters. Do yourself a favor, look at its cuteness as you drive right by and go somewhere with edible food and waitstaff that actually cares. I have never left a google review but this experience was so terrible I took the time to...