mezeh — Restaurant in Mount Laurel Township

I have been to mezeh many times, and the service is atrocious. Not from the staff, but from the ownership and infrastructure is awful for customers. Examples of what I mean: When you order online, the "expected time your order will be ready" is always in 5 minutes. No matter what. Then you will get a email/text that your order is ready for pickup, and the order has not even been started being prepared by the workers (again not because they are lazy, but because the restaurant has other people they are serving, and the 5 minute estimate is only ever possible if nobody else is in the store). My order has NEVER been ready at the expected pick up time, I am always told that the order is ready, even when it is not because a 5 minute estimate is not accurate and a waste of the customer's time. This wouldn't be bad when it is a ~10 minute wait from the time of order, but I would say that the average time it takes for an order to be ready is 20 minutes, and I have had about 4-5 times where I have been in the restaurant waiting over a half an hour (after being sent a notification that my order is ready).

Ordering online does not let you know if any of the ingredients are not available. This is what prompted me to write this review today. I ordered a "classic shwarma" wrap. For context the following items are in a chicken shwarma wrap: Greens, chicken, turkish salad, pickled onions, some sauces/hummus, and naan. I arrive (10 minutes after the estimated pickup time because the website doesn't care about my time and after I have been notified that its ready for pickup already) at the restaurant and am told that the chicken is not ready, but will be ready in 5-10 minutes as its on the grill. I think "it is what it is, it is not the workers fault" so I say sure I'll wait. Chicken finishes cooking, and when my order is prepared I am told that there is no turkish salad or pickled onions available. So for context the ingredients that were even able to be served to me at the time I was notified that my order was ready are the following: naan, mixed greed, hummus/sauces. On the other hand the chicken, turkish salad and pickled onions were not available. The workers in the store were unable to cancel my order (which it is still very bad if I waste this much time sitting in the restaurant and have my order canceled), so I got a wrap that was terrible due to me trying to substitute other items to fill the same role in the wrap.

If anyone values their own time, I would not recommend going to mezeh. The food is good/ok but is not nearly worth the annoyance.

PS: I also went to give this feed back in a survey I got after the order, but it was just a...

First time at Mezeh was super excited to finally have a good halal option nearby but boy I was in for a disappointment.

Before going I read the reviews and should have probably taken a queue from all the negative reviews. They are all correct. But I read one review where the person pleaded that since there are few halal options around to keep an open mind and I decided to give it a fair shot and make my own opinion.

I went in this past Saturday evening around 6pm and there was not a single customer in with 5 -6 employees behind the counter. I stood by the counter and nobody acknowledged or paid attention. I asked 3 times where to order and finally got a response from one and started my order. I ordered chicken bob and lamb Mediterranean bowl. I was told cabbage is not available and that was ok told the person to add a replacement. See the photos of the quantity, half bowls are empty. $17 for the lamb and there was so little that I had to ask if that's all I get for $17. The person ignored my comment and I asked again what he said that it's actually $12. I asked him again if he's sure it's $12 to be didn't respond while it clearly stated on the menu it's $17.

So the service and experience was 0 stars for me but still I was hoping that the food will make up for everything. Well that wasn't the case unfortunately. Ingredients tasted stale, dry and lacking any Mediterranean flavors. The flavors were like a frozen meal. Certainly the worst Mediterranean I've had. But if I've to rank it compared to Chipotle even I would suggest sofritas from Chipotle so you can stay halal is 100000% better option than this. It's way cheaper more flavorful than what ever Mezeh is selling.

0 stars for the experience, 0 stars for service, 0 stars for the quality and flavor of the food, 0 stars for the value for the money and 0 stars as a halal option.

I will never be back and will never recommend this place even when I'm stuck with very few halal options in the area I...

Update 10/22/2024 Mezeh has been advertising their new seasonal Fall Chicken Bowl. So I stopped in to try it and was met with immediate disappointment. They had no black lentils, cherry tomatoes, and cilantro vinaigrette - three main components of this new bowl, so I had to find substitutions, which really changes the taste. There was also no baklava, a key desert of a Mediterranean restaurant, so I picked a chocolate chip cookie that was a little overdone and dry. The guy building my bowl meal also was not the most friendly person.

I hope that this doesn’t mean that the chain is in trouble, but most likely it is due to poor management. Like the last time I was here, the trash was piled up and starting to overflow. I would have thought since I was the only patron in this place, the staff could take care of the trash. I adjusted my ratings down. I’ll return next month to see if they improved. End Update

If you are a fan of Mediterranean food (rice, couscous, shawarma, etc.) then you will like Mezeh. Mezeh serves good food, fast. You are in charge of what goes into your bowl, salad, or wrap. Mezeh is similar to another Mediterranean quick serve restaurant chain, Cava. The food is fresh and very delicious. There’s various bases, toppings, and sauces to pick from if you want to build your own creation.

Today I selected the Mezeh Classic rice bowl. By default the sauce is a little spicy, but there are many other choices to pick from.

The portions are plentiful, and there are two deserts - large chocolate chip cookie or 2 pieces of baklava. Give Mezeh a try, you won’t be...