The Phoenician Restaurant — Restaurant in Haverhill

Took my mom here for a special b-day dinner. BAD idea. we were only a party of 6. Let me start, we ordered several app's. stuffed clams, stuffed mushrooms, raw kibbe. Before they came out, waitress brought out salads. dressings were family style in small gravy servers, watress brought out 2 wrong dressing and one missing dressing. She went back to kitchen and came back 2 right ones, but not the missing one. Dropped them at table and before anyone could tell she was still missing one, she left. never got the missing dressing and had to use what she brought. About 5 minutes after this, she brings out the app's. The raw kibbe was fine, the stuffed mushrooms & clams were luke warm, all of which got colder while everyone ate their salads. The stuffings were terrible. Like eating peanut butter. Definately, needed something to wash it down. After another 15 minutes, dinners were brought out. again main dishes were all luke warm at best. Veggies sides were cold. Baked potatoes couldn't melt butter. Sides were missing, more wait time, dinners were half eaten before they arrived. One dinner was seafood casserole. Menu stated haddock, shrimp, scallops. Guess started eating, shrimp were hard as rocks-overcooked and there were no scallops to be found. addressed with waitress and she went to get manager. 5 minutes later, she returns and says they have never sold scallops in their casserole. told her it was in the menu. Off she went again to manager, came back with menu and agreed it said scallops and that the manager was on her way. Manager never showed up until the issue was again raised to the waitress. Again she was off and returned this time with the manager. Another issue, asked for sour cream for potato, it came but had someone's crumpled up receipt sitting in it. Showed waitress and she was off to get another. Never brought it. When she came back to the table, asked her about it and she said they ran out of sour cream. How convenient. Ordered another round of drinks. sodas came out quickly, but bar drinks came out after everyone was done eating. The manager's attitude and demeanor was cold and non-concerned. needed a shovel for the BS. She did say she was sorry We had issues. Tis kind of service & food prep is really unacceptable when you're pay $30+ a meal & $10 a drink. we were comp'd from the seafood casserole, but overall it was a very disappointing experience. Their web site touts, Reader Choice Awards from 2012 & 2013. I guess...

The restaurant looked professional online and the inside did have nice decor, but that is sadly where the positives ended. The quality of our meal was very poor. We were served frozen mixed vegetables, the lamb and steak appeared to have not been seasoned at all and tasted very bland, the haddock was over salted in parts to the level that it wasn’t edible. My son ordered clam chowder and it appeared to me that it had been microwaved because there was a circle of soup raised above the soup line all the way around the bowl from what I believe was the soup bubbling up in the microwave. Perhaps the chef was out sick the day we were there because the quality of the cooking was not restaurant level. The service was also a disappointment. Although there was only one other party and two servers present, we waited a very long time to be able to order. The waitress was friendly but appeared to be unaware of time. After taking our drink order she left for about 30 minutes before bringing our drinks. She and the other server were preoccupied with the other party who seemed to want to pay on multiple checks. It took a very long time for them to complete this task together, and I began wondering if she had forgotten that she had never taken our order. I tried to catch her eye serval times but she didn’t seem aware of us. When she finally took our order, she didn’t apologize for the long wait or give any reason. She appeared blissfully unaware of how much time we had been waiting for our drinks or that we might want to complete our dinner at a decent hour. We had to request water refills. In the end our dinner from arrival to finish took 2 hours, which wasn’t what we wanted or expected and we paid $20-$30 per person for meals that were unreasonably low quality for a restaurant. We won’t...

Reviews and menu looked good. Actually experience was a dud. Started off with a waiter who proved to be totally incompetent: no memory, wrote down the wrong orders, brought the wrong orders, etc. Menu proved confusing---'mid-East Specialties' looked like appetizers---then came as a meal for 2 or 3. And not that good (lots of Lima beans). Out of the clams. I tried the mushrooms stuffed with their 'famous walnut stuffing'. Stuffing not so good or famous. Guess it's an acquired taste. Stopped after eating 2 of the 8. My son tried the raw Kibbee--he's an ultimate carnivore so likes raw meat. Said it was good but there was way too much (and he had the 'small' plate). My wife had ordered the Phoenician Shrimp as an appetizer---instead was served the main dish Baked Stuffed Shrimp with the Walnut Stuffing again. My son played it safe after he was told there was no Salmon Princess available and opted for three lamb chops. Hard to ruin. I ordered the Surf & Turf Shrimp (yeah, with that Walnut Stuffing again) and prime rib. Waiter screwed up again and just brought the Prime Rib (not sure he ever read the menu). Way too much food for each course---with matching prices. Not worth a $200 bill (without wine). Fair wine list. Good beer selection, bottles only, no draft. Had to beg waiter for water. High noise level, not a place for a quiet dinner. This place is off our list. There are many better...