Ferdos Grill — Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale

Food there was great, but the service was dreadful. We were in the mood for some Greek food and decided to try Ferdos Grill for the first time. When we got there, the service was pretty much spot on at the beginning. But it went down hill very quickly, here are some of things we experienced: 1: Servers tend to hide out in the kitchen WAY too much. Even with more than ample number of servers available to easily take care of the number of tables in this location, servers seem to be unavailable. 2: If there is a birthday, find out before you are seated. Because if you don`t, you will have a DJ speaker that will blast your eardrums out and make you choke on your food from how loud they play the Birthday song. 3: Servers seem to avoid refilling your drinks. In more than one time, we had a server come to our table with less than a quarter of drink in the pitchers, and all ice. One time this happen, the server filled my empty glass with ice, and little to no soda. It got so bad that almost our entire main course was without drinking. 4: Servers ignore you flat out. At one point, after 20 minutes of seeing NO servers on the floor. One server actually walked across the dining area with me waving my hands and raising my voice to get her attention, and she completely ignored us. It became so bad that I had to get out of my seat and find a server and ask what the hell was going on? This server was in the other area of the grill, and he was quite nice and apologized. He went to the kitchen to find out what the hell was going on. About ten minutes later, a server comes out, ignores all the tables, turns around, and walks back in to the kitchen. At this point we just want to get our check, and leave. 5: Food took quite sometime to come out. Servers never came to our table to let us know on the status of our order. Which I would think spending all the time in the kitchen they would know. All in all, the food at Ferdos Grill was great with great portions. It is quite unfortunate that the service was...

We arrived at 7 p.m. on a weeknight, and the restaurant was empty. It seemed clean although I didn't like air conditioning vents position above each table blowing on the food. They need better air diffusers. Something more upscale if it's going to be above the tables like that.

The young kid who seated us had to be a fill-in server. There are basic expectations for any individual, human, alien, etc., who goes to a restaurant. We want to be seated, we want a menu, and we want some water. We shouldn't have to ask for silverware after the food comes, or sugar for the tea.

We asked for cocktails because they were on the menu, and we were told they don't have any. We asked for Mediterranean chicken appetizer, and we were told they don't have any. We asked for ginger ale, and we were told they don't have any.

A couple of us thought to leave the restaurant but we stayed.

So yeah, 3 stars for that part.

I ordered the $28 kebob sampler with Chicken, steak, and the hamburger meat shaped like a jumbo hot dog. It came with rice and vegetables. The flavor was good to great, not salty. I don't think the food temperature was as hot as it should have been. (Skip the hamburger meat thing. Danger Will Robinson -- it's so pink on the inside and it was low temp.)

Towards the end of our meal, a properly dressed waiter started attending to our table and the service improved to great.

First impression aside, I would give the restaurant one more chance during prime time to see how it performed because I liked their menu selection.

The food needs to be hot, not warm like it sat in a window for 5 or 6 minutes...

I've been dining at Ferdo's at least once each time I make my annual pilgrimage to Fort Lauderdale since 2013. We used to make it our first meal and our last meal in FTL. Due to Covid, I haven't been in 3 years...until this past week. And I really REALLY wanted to enjoy it...but alas, it was quite disappointing.

The meal (Shish Tawook) was okay. There was nothing offensive about it, but neither did it burst with flavor. It was a little bland. That aside, the bigger issue I had was how we were served stale pita. You're a middle-eastern restaurant. Pita bread is a staple. If it's stale, bake it/fry it and use it in your Fattoush Salad...but don't serve it to your guests as bread with their meal or Hummus.

And the garlic sauce...way too runny and barely tasted of garlic.

The biggest offender though. and everyone beware of this, on a Saturday night, for a party of 2, they automatically added an 18% gratuity. If one did not examine the bill carefully, and just saw the standard blurb at the bottom of their bill saying "18% - $xx.xx, 20% $xx.xx, 22% $xx.xx with their suggested tip amounts, it's VERY possible that you might tip them twice. Once with the included amount, and then not realizing it's on there, an added amount to the grand total. I can understand doing this for large parties - but a party of 2? On a Saturday night? When you had a total of 5 tables with guests? SERIOUSLY? When we questioned our server, he said "this is what we do now on Saturday nights". I'm sorry, but that is simply unacceptable. Which is a shame, as I will no longer support this business.

Food:...