ATAJ Moroccan Restaurant — Restaurant in Kissimmee

1st Visit: We visited Orlando for a vacation last week and dined at this restaurant on 17th April at around 8.45pm. It was really crowded and there were only 2 servers to manage the patrons. We had to eat over there and also get food packed for a to-go order. The server was too busy to take the order and since he was overworked, he did not answer questions about the food. I have a non-celiac gluten intolerance and am a vegan (there was no information on the menu card about gluten free, vegan etc so I was dependent on the server to answer my questions) . But, he gave wrong information and honestly he was not even interested to hear me out. I requested him thrice to take the to-go order, but he ignored. The 4th time he arrogantly shouted at me that it does not work that way as their kitchen was really busy and it does not matter if I follow-up with him for taking the order( WHAT-THE HELL! Dude- you could have simply refused politely rather than shouting at me like that). I was a little shocked to hear the response in that tone ! We called another close-by Indian restaurant at about 9.30pm and for our to-go order and picked up the food from there. Also, the server did not bother to get the cheque on time. My husband kept waiting for 30 minutes as I wandered outside with my cranky toddler. 2nd To-Go order: We called them for a to-go order for dinner on 21st April around 7pmish. The food was ready on time but they missed the appetizer (we were not charged for it so was ok ), they also missed packing our mango lassi (we were charged for it ) . We had an early morning flight the next day so did not bother to contact them.

Food Rating : 4 out of 5 , we really liked the food Service : 0 out of 5 (based on the above experiences : specially the dine-in one - that was S.H.O.C.K.I.N.G- The server is aggressively R.U.D.E, needs to be taught how to communicate with a lady) Ambience : 5 out of 5 , this place is nicely done-up and quite cosy I rate it 2 overall only because to the server's...

Google reviews really failed us this time. We came here based on those reviews and left so disappointed.

The positives are that the restaurant is beautiful and clean.

Negatives:

There was only one server for the entire restaurant. He took over 20 mins to come to our table. As soon as I entered the restaurant I had asked for a high chair, he never showed up. 15 mins later my husband went looking for one and brought it.

When he finally arrived at our table, we didn't want to wait any further so we placed our food order along with our drinks. Since we have two small toddlers, I asked him for two kids cups of water.

It seems there was only one other staff besides the server who was bringing food to every table. He brought our tandoori chicken first in a sizzling platter. The handle of the platter did not have any protective covering and I ended up burning my wrist when I touched it by mistake trying to serve everybody.

The tandoori chicken had a bad smell to it and when you touched it you could tell that it was old chicken that they reheated and served to us.

We were a table to 5 but there was only 4 plates in our table. I had asked the gentleman for another plate when he delivered the food. He said he will bring it but he never showed. After waiting forever for the server to come I had to really call out to him from across the restaurant to ask for a plate. At this time when he brought my plate I asked him about my kids water which he finally went and got it for us.

The karhai chicken was just ok. The saving grace of our meal was mutton biryani which was good. We had ordered two tandoori roti and two naans. They only brought one naan. My husband asked him where was our other naan? Again this was another 15 min or so wait for him to finally bring our naan out.

Based on the excellent reviews we visited Ataj last night but left horribly...

Excellent food, but terrible service. Was really disappointed that the service wasn't better because I loved every dish.

My husband, daughter and I arrived at 1pm. My husband was finished with his entire meal by the time our water and naan bread were delivered to the table. We were never asked what we wanted to drink and what we received was two tepid, iceless waters. No drink was offered to my daughter or even any acknowledgment that she was there.

When I went to the buffet the chicken tikka was practically out of chicken and was mostly sauce. That was fine as it's probably the most popular dish. However, we waited at least 30 mins before additional tikka was brought to the buffet. By the time it came we were pretty much ready to leave. I did have a little and it was delicious. But it's a shame I had to wait so long for a popular dish during lunch. It wasn't that busy for the buffet to be lacking and the service to suffer.

When interacting with the servers they were pleasant and mostly friendly. But I never received refills on my water once requested and they were not apologetic or even concerned over the lack of buffet options.

Other customers were very disappointed with the service and lack of options at the buffet. The people next to us never received drinks either. They even openly complained to the server about their experience which again took away from the enjoyment of our meal.

Would be willing to try this place again in case the service was just a one day issue. But if its the same I would...