Sahara Restaurant — Restaurant in New Brunswick

It's unfortunate that I can't write a better review because the food really was very good. The service is what ultimately took away from the overall experience.

I had a reservation for 13 people at 6:00 pm on a Saturday. This reservation was booked a week in advance. When we arrived, they had trouble finding the reservation, and we figured out after ten minutes that it was actually entered by the restaurant under the wrong name. We only were able to notice this because they just kept telling us they couldn't find our reservation, despite there only being one reservation for this many people at this specific time. And we decided to look at the screen ourselves and saw that the phone number used to make the reservation was on file, but the name was incorrect. No help was offered prior to us checking for ourselves. As far as they were concerned our reservation simply didn't exist.

We then were told we didn't have a table. The restaurant was packed and we had to wait for enough people to leave to finally put enough tables together to fit 13 people. This took over 30 minutes. By the time we were seated it was nearly 6:40. They informed us we would all have to do the prix fixe menu because of the size of our party, which was fine, but we weren't informed of this at the time of booking. The waiter simply told us we couldn't order individually because the restaurant is very busy and we're a large party. We weren't all expecting to spend $55 per person, but most of us had planned on getting the prix fixe menu anyway so we let it go.

The food started coming out immediately and was delicious. The issue is, the pacing and order of the food was very poorly done. We had pita for multiple minutes with nothing to eat it with, so it sat there going cold. The first course (falafel with cheese rolls, plus shrimp and fried calamari) came out and was wonderful. Then the second course came out (seafood entrees) and was overall pretty good. It was an absolutely massive amount of food that we did not come close to finishing, so we asked for it to be wrapped up in addition to the remaining appetizers. We then didn't see it for a while.

The third course arrived (various different meat dishes) and was fantastic, just like the rest of the food. The portions were again massive and we ate maybe a third of it. This time, boxes were brought to us for us to pack it up ourselves. We filled eight containers to the brim. Two other people in our party ordered an individual dish and had asked for it to be wrapped up as they hadn't finished it. They were told it would be wrapped up, the food was brought to the back, and we never saw it again. Some rice also came out for some reason after we finished our entrees. This was very confusing.

We ate our dessert, got our tea and coffee, and paid. At that point we realized we never received our seafood and other dishes to go. As it turned out, we were given three half-filled boxes of seafood and the rest was just thrown out. Keep in mind, the meat dishes filled eight containers when we packed it up ourselves. We had the same amount of seafood left over when they took it away, but got back a small amount. In addition, the other dishes we asked to be wrapped up were in fact thrown away.

The check was close to $900 including tax and tip. However, over a third of our dinner was thrown away despite us asking for it to go. Once we had paid, we noticed it was pouring outside so we sat drinking our coffee and tea for around twenty minutes, waiting for the rain to calm down so we could walk to our cars. At this point we had been in the restaurant for around two hours (it was approximately 8:45 pm). The waiter then said "I'm sorry, but we're very busy and have a lot of people waiting" and gestured to the door. So we got up and left.

We were overall very displeased with the experience. Again, I cannot express enough how good the food was. Everything was very fresh and absolutely delicious from beginning to end. But everything else completely ruined it for us. This is not an experience worth...

OMGGGGG IS ALL I CAN SAY!!! We called last minute because we didn’t realize every place would be booked for Easter since we always host it but this year we decided to be stress free. A gentleman over the phone said they could sit us right away which was perfect timing since it starts getting busy later in the night for iftar. We got there and were able to accommodate our big party of 6 adults and 3 kids upstairs (perfect for us, since we have toddlers and as you know, they are unpredictable, loud, messy hehe) . Our waiter came to offer and explain “family buffet menu” which is what we went with ultimately. They brought out AMAZING APPS, a bunch of dips, spicy delicious shrimp, 2 types of salads, pita bread, juice, olives, etc…from just that we were so satisfied and could not imagine the entrée. Later on they brought a variety of seafood and meat, A LOT OF IT, to the point all 3 families walked out with leftovers packed. We asked for the bill and our awesome waiter, said not, yet…we are bringing out dessert and coffee!, we said, that’s included? OF COURSE! Baklava and a white looking flan. My mother who is very particular about customer service and food was AMAZEDDDDDDD and said she will definitely be back again with her friends. Not just the food but customer service was amazing. A Young lady, who I am assuming is a waitress there, heard one of our toddlers cry and she came upstairs and very friendly interacted with him giving him high fives, and talking which she calmed him down and made him smile, a big win for us! LOL… Besides this amazing experience, we ended up paying $130 (tip included) per couple, which is UNHEARD of nowadays for GREAT FOOD, great service, and we took food home. DEFINITLY WILL BE BACK AND RECOMMEND THIS PLACE! Great job Sahara Team, you...

The worst kitchen service i have had to deal with as a mom to an allergy kid. The food tasted good but the service from the kitchen left such a sour taste i lost my appetite. We ordered the couscous salad with shrimp and salmon entree. We are a dairy free family cause our toddler has a life threatening dairy allergy. The waitress was kind enough to double check with the kitchen that both these can be made dairy free with the mash potato in the salmon being replaced to pilaf. As soon as the salmon arrive i served some up to our toddler in small plate and i dug in. As soon i tasted the vegetable i could taste the butter and stopped my toddler from having any. I called the waitress and explained to her that i could taste butter. She said these were made dairy free as per request but she will confirm with the kitchen. She came back saying a mistake was made. I gave back both the plates and told her i would like the order recooked. She came back with a fresh plate but with the same fish and pilaf. I told her sorry it has to be made fresh cause of possible cross contamination. She was confused cause it was on a new plate but she took it back. She came again with a fresh plate but the same fish and fresh veggies. We asked for the manager at this point. She asked if we would like to just cancel the order as the kitchen was not ready to remake it. We explained how it was their mistake and we shouldn’t have to go hungry cause of it and insisted on speaking the manager. No one from the kitchen nor the manager came. She came and said they will make a fresh plate. By now i lost my trust and my appetite. Finally when the fish arrived it was salty and there was no pilaf. When we asked she said the kitchen told the...