mezeh — Restaurant in Frederick

UPDATE (February 2022 - Downgraded from 3 stars to 1): Reread my previous review and am throwing my advice to "...not let the service get to you," right out of the window.... I'm past that. Today's experience solidified the fact that this place is not up to par. I left saying to myself, "I do not like this place, I do not like coming here, and I'm not coming back" My comments below are from my online order where I ordered a pizza and two bowls. Again, the ladies are really nice, pleasant, and not rude, or anything of the sort. They are sweet as pie. To me, this comes down to training, process/procedure, and/or management...not sure. Either way, I just want to my meal to be correct.

"I am learning my lesson with this place...if I give them a chance to mess up, they will. I didn't complete my review until after I picked up my food and am glad I waited. When I arrived, the order was not ready. My order was noted to be ready by 217 PM. I walked out of there at 235PM. [they were not busy]. On top of that, I get home and my dressings are incorrect. THANK GOODNESS this one time the salad dressing was on the side and not in/on the bowls because it was not anything we liked. Nevertheless, we didn't get what we ordered [dressings]. In short, it was late, not what we ordered, and ONCE AGAIN, not a good experience. In the past, I have come here for my wife. Today I told her, I'm not going anymore. I should be able to place my order without having to ask, "What's going to be wrong this time." I only ordered online because the pizza can only be ordered online.... that ship has now sailed too. It should be called Mess-ah, b/c every time I go to get food somehow someone makes a Mess-a my order! As a paying customer, this shouldn't be the case. What I will say, is that the staff is polite and courteous. Unfortunately, that doesn't help my food taste any better [when the order is wrong] or make up for lost time."

PREVIOUS REVIEW BELOW Good food, front end service on three occasions has been well below been sub-par. Today was the worst by far. The lady at the front didn't speak English and couldn't understand us. Everything we said she would speak to another lady in Spanish and the lady would respond to her, we would say loudly to the lady in the back what we wanted, she would instruct in Spanish, we'd get what we wanted, and we would move on. They didn't have the dressing we wanted, weren't provided silverware or napkins, and then we turned to find a place to eat... The tables were dirty, trash cans were full, and for the life of me I don't understand why the "cute", "modern", and "sleek" looking trashcans had holes that could fit the host restaurant bowls or lids without the consumer having to fold them to push them down INTO the trashcan to throw them away?!?!? Would I eat there again? If carry-out, then yes. Eating in, doubtful. Still, the food was tasty. A nice Mediterranean dish. Would I eat at this specific establishment? Definitely not my first choice. I have given them three shots and they have blown it every time. So why did I give them 3 stars...the food is tasty. My wife loves it because it's a healthy fast-food alternative. Would I recommend it, yes if you're looking for fast, healthy food and don't mind taking a gamble on getting good service. In short, if you are not familiar with Mediterranean food, the ingredients, or how you want to combine the options to make your own dish, it may take a few tries. All in all, the food is good. Don't let their service get to you and proceed to try something new if you haven't had it before or you can try something tasty and familiar if you have. Here's to...

Update 11/9/22: Oh come ON! Hadn't ordered in a while, and things are worse, not better. Drinks were missing, bowl was cold and pizza was laughably tiny. Never again.

Update 6/18/22: I used to be a loyal customer, but I don't think I will order from here again. Their quality and portion sizes have gone down the tubes. The pizza size has decreased but the boxes haven't. The bowl size has progressively become smaller (first narrower, then tonight also shallower). The amount of tomatoes and herbs on the pizza is less. The toppings for the bowls are sparse now instead of generous.

Tonight one of the toppings I ordered was Turkish olives. There was ONE (1) olive in the entire bowl. Sad. If you need to raise your prices, just bite the bullet and do so instead of decreasing the quality to the point where existing customers will no longer be interested. Update 4/21/22: Wow, so Jeez today's order was very disappointing. My bowl was missing 3 of the toppings I ordered. There were no olives, no couscous, and no sun-dried tomatoes. Also, the whole thing was ULTRA spicy. I hadn't even mixed any of the s'hug in yet. The flavor was different as well, it tasted strongly of coriander and black pepper. And the chicken was in huge chunks, not bite size pieces. If some other chef was working tonight, they need more training. :-(

I'm confused at some of the negative reviews on here. I've ordered from Mezeh twice and each time has been wonderful. Incredibly tasty food, the orders were correct, and arrived on time. Yes, it's a bit pricey, but worth it for a splurge.

I had never had a Mediterranean bowl before ordering from here, and I was a bit skeptical, to be honest, that a mishmash of all those different elements would work. But it totally did. Everything was delicious, and each element was in balance with the others.

I loved both of the custom bowls I had, especially the falafel, sumac cucumbers, pickled carrots and onions, turkish olives, sun-dried tomato salad, and tatziki sauce. The basmati rice was cooked perfectly. The only thing that was midly not to my liking was the baba ghanoush, because of the overwhelming smoky flavor. But that is just personal taste, nothing wrong with it.

I agree that the s'hug is very spicy, but what I do is remove the dollop from the bowl and then stir some of it back in and distribute it. It is too spicy if you just dip into it directly.

The margharita pizza is phenomenal! A meditteranean twist with lemon garlic drizzle. I wished the crust were crispier, but that may be due to packaging for delivery. If I get it again I will crisp it up in the oven.

Overall, this is a place I want to remain in business for many years to come. They serve fresh, delicious, healthy food and are a far cry better than most options I've tried...

I'm so happy to have a Mediterranean restaurant in this part of town. My first visit was for lunch. They were not too busy when we arrived so it was easy to social distance even seated in the dining room. There are options for 2 top tables and also for high-rise group seating. Place your order at the counter and then pick your seat. They also offer carry out and free delivery. There are so many choices on the menu I am glad that I read it at home first. I used the online ordering app, it was a bit confusing the first time but I'm glad that I placed my order online and picked it up on arrival rather than standing in line trying to read all of the choices and build my meal. The website offers a good description of the choices with pictures and a list of ingredients. They have many healthy choices including vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free. You can only discover these options by downloading the nutritional information pdf online. Sadly, the menu in the restaurant and the online ordering app do not include keys to dietary preference. I hope they will add those. I think I will return again and again to explore all of their different...