Kafe Neo Edmonds — Restaurant in Edmonds

I get it, it's a holiday, you're probably busy, but when you put someone on hold for over 5 minutes, and then respond with "well we're busy" with no apology when asked why the hold was taking so long, that in itself is unprofessional. Also, be honest with your times. If you really are that busy don't tell someone that their to go order will only take 15 minutes just to have them wait there for an additional 20. I do have other plans with my night and having to make me wait for an additional 20 minutes unexpectedly kind of makes the rest of the night a hassle. And if someone has a special order, say something like no tomatoes or onions in the dish, and you repeat it back on the phone to clarify, and when the bill is being paid to clarify again, and when you hand over the food, I expect that I shouldn't find those in the food when I've already gotten home! To be honest I was not overly thrilled with this experience, it also didn't help listening to the wait staff and, it might have been a manager, complain and make comments about other customers who were waiting on their food at tables. I kinda expected more from you guys. The Kafe Neo in mill creek has never let me down and I thought that maybe you guys would be on the same page. Maybe it was just becuase it was a busy holiday, but you should be better prepared for that. Maybe we'll try again on a day that's not a holiday, but for now we will probably head to the mill...

Stunningly bad food, great service.

The young woman taking my order was super helpful and cheery. I asked for ordering advice, and she said "this and that are very popular!" Well, so is McDonald's, right?

I asked instead for her recommendations regarding which dishes had the most FLAVOR. She insisted I try the POPULAR dishes, but I just had to be me, so I went for the most expensive dish, the "roasted lamb". I was offered soup or salad and told that the soup was the most POPULAR, so I went for it, as well.

I couldn't eat either. I don't believe the "lamb" was roasted. It had the taste, texture, and appearance of stew meat. Soppy, lean, and stringy---nothing lamb or roasted about it; more like it was a tired old ram worked hard as a team animal. I'm tempted to hire a lawyer to investigate whether or not is really is roasted, and really is lamb.

In the end, I couldn't eat anything but the pita bread. I asked if I could swap my fancy lamb dish for the $5 less-expensive "most popular" dish, the Gyro plate. The lovely young lady apologized and promised me that I would love the "most POPULAR" dish. It was far worse than the "lamb." Dry, salty, probably delivered from Tyson Foods or the like. Just terrible. Two bites and I was done.

I walked out hungry, broke, and insulted that they are getting away with this. Every gyro I've had from a 1990s mall food court was better, and I don't even remember...

We haven't been to Kafe Neo for a very long time due to a few less than stellar dining experiences in the past. When it was still good--prior to 2019 and they had live Greek music on Sundays--we ate there often.

So we tried it again and were pleasantly surprised. It appears to have new ownership, as the founder's portrait is on the wall instead of the beautiful murals of the Greek Islands that were on the walls before.

There was no live music, but the food has improved substantially: The meat was tender, the seafood was Seattle-out-to-dinner quality (not fresh with a snap, but of acceptable probably previously frozen quality), the spicing and textures were good.

Also, the desserts were of a normal size, rather than the demitasse cup tablespoon sampler pretending to be a dessert that was served here in 2019.

Overall a good dining experience.

I do wonder about the tip though, as my receipt reads, "20% of your tip goes to our support staff." I hope that 100% of any tip that I leave in a restaurant goes to the staff, starting with the wait-person and from there, if the wait-person wishes to share, to the cooks, bus-persons, dishwashers, etc. The way it reads it sounds like ownership keeps 80% and gives the staff only 20% of the...