Mary'z Mediterranean Cuisine — Restaurant in Houston

I am a very picky person and I know that so I try to keep that in mind when I go places and understand nothing will be perfect but this was just god awful. They didn't take the time to seat us, the waiter didn't introduce himself, the girl that brought us our water didn't even say a word to us. It took the guy about 15 minutes to even take our order so we probably should have left then but they had good reviews and vegetarian options so I wanted to give it a chance.

As a note: it was NOT BUSY when we went in. There were multiple servers and three tables getting food. The other tables were all people with hookah pipes and they were outside not needing continuous service.

I grew up with on Mediterranean food, and I have had it a lot of places now that I am away from home and I am not sure how to make a lot of it myself. Most places have stellar baba ghanoush as it is a really hard dish to screw up but its the worst that I've ever had. It had no flavor whatsoever and was very watered down so I am assuming it had more tahini than normal (it's cheaper and a good way to add volume to it). The Labneh was pretty good. The hummus was not good, and not bad, just didn't have any seasoning or flavor. I genuinely don't even think they put cumin in it which is the main flavor in hummus. The pita bread, also the worst I've ever had. It was fresh but tasted like nothing. It was the wonder bread of pita bread. Nasty. But free so I guess who cares? The Octopus came with three pieces for $15 which is absurd and making a swirl of olive oil on the plate doesn't compensate for the small portion and overcooking it like they did. It took my husband about 60 seconds to even be able to slice one of the tiny pieces in half.

Anyway, I barely touched the baba ghanoush and the waiter didn't ask once how the food was, in fact we barely saw him and I think he was probably the rudest waiter we have ever had. If you don't want to be there then you probably shouldn't have a job where you work with people...

I left hungry and did not take home leftovers (which I never do because I don't like to waste food). We also had to wait another 20 minutes for the check and a box for the side salad. Like I said, it was not busy. Just for the record - when I was serving, if food was barely touched I always asked if there was something wrong with it and made sure that it was taken off the bill if they didn't like it.

I just feel the need to add this because when I read reviews I always wonder if the person making the review is exaggerating. I eat less than 1,500 calories a day most days. I do not eat huge portion sizes. These were not "non-American" portion sizes, the sides were larger than the main courses. The guy was just a jerk, you don't have to be all sunshine and rainbows but at least do the bare minimum of your job i.e. check on your tables and don't take 20 minutes to bring the check when I can literally see that you are not doing anything else.

I'm more so upset because we went to the best restaurant and had the best meal of our lives last night but we chose not to go back because we are out of town and wanted to try something different while...

Please take a look at your bill for unexpected charges. We decided to dine at Mary'z for lunch today; I was excited to have a new mediterranean restaurant so close to were I live. Unfortunately, we left feeling disappointed.

We were seated quickly enough. A small plate was placed in front of me but it was dirty and had some hair on it. I shifted it to the side and looked over the menu. Soft drinks were listed at $2.50 and fresh juices, including lemonade, were priced at $4.50. I'm a sucker for fresh lemonade so that's what I ordered.

The waiter walked over to the fountain drink machine and poured the minute maid stuff into my cup. Oh well, I figured that's what he thought I wanted. The bill arrived however, and included the $4.50 lemonade. I asked the waiter why I was charged for the fresh lemonade since he served me the generic kind. He said that's the only type of lemonade they had and that was the price. I told him I thought that was unfair. He said he would ask the manager to remove the charge.

The waiter returned and said the manager would not be removing the price for the lemonade. I told him that was unfair but that I would pay for it. I gave him my credit card along the the itemized bill. The manger returned with the bill, and my credit card to explain the charge. He mentioned that the reason why the lemonade was priced higher was because the syrup is more expensive than the rest. It was such an awkward conversation and I just wanted it over. I explained that the lemonade was listed under "fresh juices" and that's what I thought I was ordering. I couldn't care less about the price of syrups. He said that was a mistake on the restaurant and that he would remove lemonade from the "fresh juices" category and would remove the charge from my bill. He never apologized, and instead, belittled me by accusing me of not understanding the beverage pricing.

We ordered our food to go, two beef kabob sandwiches rolled in pita bread. The sandwiches were meh, and the meat filling was cold. It is highly unlikely that we will return to this restaurant. If you're craving good mediterranean food with a good atmosphere and good service, you should skip this place and...

I went to Mary'z Mediterranean Grill on a Sunday night with my girlfriend and her Dad. We parked behind the building in their private parking lot and walked through their outdoor patio area to get inside. We were greeted warmly by their staff as they let us choose to sit wherever we pleased. The first thing I noticed was they had a stone oven to make fresh pita bread which made me instantly want to try their hummus.

I ordered the Chicken Shawarma Platter ($14.95), and it came with a side of hummus and tabouli salad (although there were many sides to choose from). I also got an order of falafel for my table to share. All of the sides came out first, including the falafel and the fresh pita bread. I really liked their hummus and tabouli salad, but the falafel was a huge letdown. I liked the crispy outside of the falafel, but the inside of it was just awful. I also hated the tahini sauce; it was completely lacking flavor.

My girlfriend ordered the fried cauliflower. The cauliflower tasted great and made up for the falafel, but we were getting pretty full by this point and didn't even touch our main course yet! By the time my chicken shawarma plate arrived, I only had room to squeeze in a few more bites. Unfortunately, the chicken was way too dry. I sampled a bit of beef from my girlfriend's shawarma plate, and it was also too dry. Did we come at a bad time, or is their meat always like this?

Even though we didn't love everything on the menu, the service was impeccable. Our waiter came by multiple times to check on how we were doing, and the busboy came to clean off used plates quite consistently. Overall, I think the shawarma plates come with a lot of food, and I would probably order just one to split with another person next time. The meat and the falafel sucked, but I liked the tabouli salad and the hummus. The service is what led me to give this place a 4-Star, and I will definitely be back to try more things on the menu. Hopefully the meat is better next time...

What to order: -Tabouli Salad -Hummus (with their pita bread) -Fried Cauliflower

Pros: -Incredible service -Outdoor patio to eat and smoke hookah

Cons: -Meat's too...