M Cafe & Grill — Restaurant in Lake Forest

IF YOU’RE THINKING ABOUT VISITING THIS RESTAURANT FOR A SPECIAL OCCASION, I STRONGLY RECOMMEND YOU RECONSIDER.

I made a reservation at this restaurant for Valentine’s Day dinner, hoping for a special evening—but it turned out to be a major disappointment. The service was extremely poor and unprofessional. We were a party of two. When we ordered our food, it took an unreasonably long time to arrive. I asked for water at the beginning, and the person I asked walked away and never came back. We waited over 30 minutes just to get water. The food was brought out one dish at a time, which made no sense since we were only two people. One of us had to wait while the other ate. On top of that, the food arrived cold. Whenever we requested something additional, like napkins, it took a long time for anyone to respond. Overall, the service was slow, inattentive, and very low quality—just like the food. To make matters worse, when they brought us the bill, they had already included the tip themselves—MEANING WE WEREN’T EVEN GIVEN A CHOICE TO TIP BASED ON THE ACTUAL SERVIC. Considering how bad the service was, that felt completely unfair. Another terrible part of the experience was the broken promise about the entertainment. IF YOU DON’T WANT OTHER PEOPLE TO RUIN YOUR MONEY, TIME, AND PLANS, NEVER EVER THINK ABOUT HAVING ANY OCCASION AT THIS RESTAURANT. I had specifically reserved this restaurant for a special night and asked in advance if there would be a DJ. They guaranteed that a DJ would be present, assuring me I had nothing to worry about. However, just one week before the set date, they called to tell me that there would no longer be a DJ and that everything was canceled. This was incredibly unprofessional and disappointing, especially for an event I had carefully planned and invited many people. The food is low quality, the service is extremely poor, and the people are unprofessional. For your own convenience, choose somewhere you can trust. This restaurant is...

They used to be one of the best persian restaurant in OC. Not anymore…. I guess somebody took over the place recently! Lack of management, they have manager but he doesn’t know anything about management… Customer service is very bad, I think they don’t even train their new people! They don’t even smile( including their boss, they are all very serious 🧐) they are not friendly ( maybe one of them is still good, because he/she has some experience…) If you go with your friend, they bring one food after another food and they don’t serve your table in same time(last time they brought my food maybe 15mins before my friend’s food). They come with appetizers and main dishes all together, if you need something nobody even look at you, don’t even ask for extra water….. basically they don’t know how to serve! Food is not good, kabob is dry and over cooked, they use some food color on food which I never seen in persian recipe, forget about zaffron, all you get is rice with yellowed rice with some type of food color on top of that. And if you don’t want to go there and having this beautiful customer service experiences,and you just want to order some food,they tell you be there in 20 mins to pick up your food, and you go there and still nothing is ready.(my experience was more than 40mins waiting after I ordered my food) I used to go there more often, but in last 6 months after that they remodeled the place, something changed big time…. I went there and had bad experience I went there again, nothing changed I ordered food to pick up, and yet food was just BAD! I just feel...

Disappointing Experience at M Cafe Grill

I used to frequent M Cafe Grill with friends, but after my recent experience, I won’t be coming back. I ordered a pizza and sandwich through Yelp, which said the food would be ready by 9:20 PM. I understand there was a private event going on, so I expected a slight delay, but what happened next was unacceptable.

We waited 45 minutes, only to discover no one was at the counter. When I called to follow up, Daniel, the staff member who answered, claimed there was no record of my order—even though we had already paid and received confirmation. To make matters worse, Daniel seemed intoxicated, slurring his words and making excuses for the issue.

After patiently waiting for an hour, Daniel attempted to charge us again for the food we had already paid for. On top of this, there was no effort to apologize or make amends for the delay. A complimentary drink or some gesture of goodwill could have turned the situation around, but instead, Daniel insisted on charging $7.50 for a soda bottle. That’s absurd.

This experience showed me how little M Cafe Grill values its customers. If you’re considering dining here, save yourself the trouble. Poor service, no accountability, and zero effort to resolve issues. Never again. They didn’t even give me my fries which I have...