Aladdin's Eatery Middleburg Heights

Update 06/23 - update to indicate the experience we had today was a night and day difference compared to the experience we had during our last visit. During our first visit, we were still just coming out of the major COVID lockdowns and things were still not quite "normal"

Today, our waiter was outstanding. Service was excellent, food was quick and tasty, complete 180 from our original experience. It had been such a bad original experience it took us awhile to try the location again but based on our experience and those that I was observing of other tables around us, the old experience is a thing of the past. Good on the staff and management for setting this bar high once again.

Old review below: Overall, was not the greatest experience I have had at an Aladdin's establishment. As is the case in most restaurants due recently, they were very clearly understaffed. Unfortunately it seems the staff was more concerned about making the to go orders then caring for the in restaurant patrons.

From the beginning, our server seemed to get continually side-tracked by answering the phone and handing to go orders. Between us and two other tables seated in the section, we barely ever saw them. I ran out of water within 15 minutes of being seated and did not see our server again for almost 25 mins when our food was brought out. We asked for drink refills and additional napkins but they never returned with either.

I observed them take a phone order, prep a to go order, grab the food for the table near us, disappear in the back and not return again until well past us finishing our meals (again we both were out of beverages) eventually they stopped by, we asked again for beverages, got them after several minutes, asked for a dessert, got that but had no silverware. Asked for a fork. They never returned. After waiting 10 minutes, got up and went to the front counter and had to ask for the fork again.

The cherry on top was, what appeared to be the manager on duty, made the rounds asking if everyone was doing okay but skipped just our table. We observed they rounded every other table occupied.

It took almost 15 more minutes for us to get our final bill before we used the phone payment option.

I completely understand they were short staffed and running as best as they could. I would absolutely visit this location again as I do believe this was most likely an anomaly but the fact remains it was a bad overall experience.