Desert Rose — Restaurant in Media

I used to LOVE Desert Rose. Five years ago, it was my favorite restaurant in Media. But over the past few years, there has been a lot of turnover in the employees and service has declined accordingly. I don't know if the restaurant was sold or is under new management but the familiar faces I used to see every time I was there are gone and in there place is a revolving door of new people who always seem overwhelmed and unsure of what they're supposed to be doing.

I ate at the restaurant a couple months ago and it took fifteen minutes for the server to clear the vacant table we were waiting on and then another ten minutes after that for him to seat us there. Last week I ordered takeout and showed up 45 minutes later as I was told. I then had to wait twenty minutes for the people behind the counter to get the order together and they twice had to disassemble the bag because they'd made a mistake assembling the order. Once I got home, I realized they'd accidentally given us someone else's order in addition to ours. Ugggh.

The good news is that the food is still very good and once I was seated, the service was perfectly acceptable as well. If you want to give this place a try, I'd suggest going on a weekday when it's not as busy because they seem unable to get things together when it...

Vegetarian review.

I ordered the red pepper hummus (served on a bed of cucumber) and a red falafel sandwich with spicy carrot salad.

I would the pita bread served here is fresh and very tasty and soft. It of the more 'bready' variety than 'roti' feel.

The red pepper hummus is tasty though a bit on the sweeter side. For the price, there should have been a larger quantity while the bed of cucumbers didn't do much for me and instead detracted from the flavor of the hummus.

The spicy carrot salad is ok and definitely not spicy. I was expecting more kick but whatever. It tasted like just any other marinated slices of carrots.

My red falafel sandwich was HUGE. It definitely filled me up and I had to leave 25% of it. The red falafels definitely had a distinct flavor to themselves and I would recommend them over their regular bland versions. The sandwich however failed to hit the spot as it was very light on flavor. I wish their sauces and the tomato-cucumber salad in it were more flavorful.

Would I go back here again? Probably not. At least not until they offer a proper harissa sauce that is spicy and cover up for some of the...

So bummed! Pre-Covid, this place used to be THE place we would head to Media for. Not anymore. We recently ordered the ground lamb, beef brisket, and warm mushroom hummus entrees for take-out. The brisket was okay, but overall we couldn’t believe how flavorless everything was! Even the cucumber/tomato side salad was a complete bust. Zero zing. Bland as hell. And for the high prices of these entrees, you get very little. They used to serve plenty of mouth-watering sides and salads along with the main dishes, and now the entrees feel like little starters. (The only thing worth it was the pita. They are still doing that right.) Equally underwhelming is that they seem to be running a cheesesteak side hustle, evidence of a sad departure from yesteryears. Unfortunately, it was an overall unremarkable and disappointing experience from a place that used to serve up the most scrumptious of Mediterranean cuisine. And we love to support Israeli-inspired businesses. We will eventually check in again, and hope they get...