Diplomat Restaurant — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Picked up my mom from LAX and it was almost midnight or a little past on a Sunday night and nothing was open for the most part, except a few fast food spots. I'm half Palestinian, so I always try to find good middle eastern food when I'm in the LA area, so I looked up if any places were open to try out at that time of night. Diplomat Restaurant was, so we went there. The owner was so nice and friendly to us and even gave us a complimentary hummus plate that comes with a giant Zatar cracker, which was very tasty. The 3 ofnus shared it. It was my mom, my friend, and myself sharing the food. We decided to order the chicken kabob and the beef kabob plate. The owner let us have a half half option of rice and salad instead of having to choose only one or the other. I'm not much of a person that orders salads at restaurants, but the salad was delicious! The chicken and beef kabobs were soooo good! They were juicy, tender, and full of flavor! I'm a harsh critic, because being from that culture I have tried a lot of Kabaobs and many are lacking flavor, so I was genuinely impressed with this place. I had the watermelon mint lemonade and that was not too sweet and was a little tangy, very refreshing and fresh tasting. Not too overpowering in flavors. We then ordered an after meal Hookah with the White Gummi bear flavor. It was a pretty good flavor that I really liked. It tasted to me almost like fruity and mintish. The hookah attendant came around several times to ensure it stayed buring smoothly and rotated our coals for us. The atmosphere was pretty on their outdoor enclosed patio with plants, trees, ambience lighting, and a beautiful hanging unique chandelier. It was spacious and would be a great space for events and parties. There were space area heaters to keep us warm too. The owner even mentioned they have Belly Dancers that perform on I think Friday and Saturdays. Overall, it was a very nice experience and their food was amazing. I will be driving the hour and a half from where I live to go back to eat there again soon. Definitely recommend this place! Great food, great service, chill vibe, and convenient late...

When the server came to take our order, he was video chatting on his phone and continued his conversation while we were ordering. After we finished ordering, he even apologized to his friend on the phone, which was incredibly unprofessional.

Adding to the frustration, we were informed after ordering that we could only eat inside the store and have our drinks outside. This policy is quite unusual, and it was very inconvenient to be told this after we had already placed an order.

Since I cannot reply to the owner’s response I am adding this here so people save themselves from a visit in this restaurant.

While the owner was not present to witness the events I am describing, they chose to distort the reality of the situation. Firstly, we did not receive the two hookahs we ordered. We were subjected to the inconvenience of your employee's video chatting while we were placing our order. When we finally received the hookah, it was not made properly.

Immediately, we went inside to inform the staff that we were leaving, as we had not received what we ordered. How can you expect us to pay for something we did not receive? Do you believe that merely stepping onto your property obligates us to pay for your audacity?

Overall, this experience was incredibly disappointing, and I do not recommend this...

Worst Persian restaurant I've ever been to! The owner is extremely rude, and I’ve had multiple bad experiences at this hookah spot. They don’t care about the customer at all—just focused on getting their money. Plus, the prices are high compared to other similar places.

Don't ruin your night at this place!

Replying to what owner replied: This is completely unprofessional—making up lies to respond to a bad review! I don’t know how you claim to remember what happened the first time when you don’t even know me! We were just 6 people, looking to have food and tea, and you forced us to sit inside because we didn’t want to smoke hookah. Where did this story about 34 people even come from?! Your place doesn’t even have seating for 34 people! That was your first lie.

As for the second time, we were also just 6 people, not 9, looking to smoke 1 hookah and enjoy food and tea. That’s yet another lie! It’s clear that you prioritize money over respecting your customers—forcing us to order 2 hookahs instead of 1. You even made us sit outside on the sidewalk in that cold weather. I’ll make sure to let everyone I know avoid...