Akdeniz Mediterranean Cuisine — Restaurant in New York

I want to write this review in the hope that it will encourage you to improve your service. While I appreciate your efforts, there are definitely areas that need work.

On Saturday, I called to reserve a table for 15 people for Sunday at 7 pm, as we were coming for iftar. Later, on Sunday around 3 pm, I called again to request adding 5 more people to the reservation. I noticed your response to my friends' reviews, where you complained about us exceeding 20 people and mentioned needing more time to prepare the table. Excuse me, but how much time does it really take to move and combine tables? For the record, we ended up being 21 people—just one person more than expected. As someone who has managed a Turkish restaurant before, I don’t understand why you’re complaining about having more customers. It’s not like they were dining for free. To be precise, we left a bill of around $800. Additionally, the restaurant wasn’t full—there were empty tables available.

I also saw that you mentioned us screaming, but I don’t recall anything like that happening. Everyone in our group was well-behaved and respectful.

Another issue I’d like to address is the payment process. You made it unnecessarily difficult for us, and we spent almost an hour dividing the bill. You refused to let everyone pay individually, claiming, "Everybody in Manhattan does it this way," which is simply not true. Most restaurants allow customers to pay in whatever way they prefer, especially when dealing with large groups. Instead of showing courtesy and flexibility, you were stubborn and unhelpful, which could easily lead to losing customers.

Lastly, as someone who managed a Turkish restaurant for almost a year and lived in Turkey for eight years, I have high standards for Turkish cuisine. Unfortunately, the food left me disappointed. This is my personal opinion, as I understand my expectations might be higher than others. I ordered chicken soup, which had huge pieces of onion that made it difficult to enjoy—I couldn’t finish it, and you probably remember clearing a half-full bowl. The stuffed grape leaves (dolma) were also not fresh, and I couldn’t finish those either. As for the kebabs my friends ordered, they were too dry. Again, this might be due to my high standards for Turkish food.

Here’s a tip for future reference: If you want to maintain and grow your business, focus on understanding and addressing your customers' concerns instead of making unfair judgments. Strive to improve your service and food quality to gain your customers' trust, rather than...

I just did a take-out order last week Saturday & it was beyond disappointing. I placed my order in person with the owner, Huseyin. I even repeated my order back to him. I told him I wanted one separate tray of lamb gyro, another separate tray of rice & a large shepherd's salad with feta cheese that would be sufficient for four people. I also ordered three orders of cigar rolls & four yogurt drinks. My total was $176.

When I got home with my order, I realized that my order was not only incorrect, but it was impartial. They never put the lamb gyro & rice in separate trays as I asked. Instead, they put the lamb gyro & rice together in small plastic containers filled with mostly salad & huge chunks of potato wedges that were burnt & dried. There were a few pieces of lamb gyro & a little bit of rice with more than half of the container consisting of salad that I did not ask for & huge pieces of burnt dried potato wedges that should have been out of there.

I told the owner to not include a salad with my lamb gyro & rice order because I already ordered a large shepherd's salad for four people. I also don't recall them adding potato wedges inside of the gyro & rice order in the past. They had the potato wedges hidden underneath the rice to make it seem like it was a full portion of food when it wasn't. The potato wedges looked like they were leftovers.

The yogurt drinks were not bottled. They put my yogurt drinks inside of paper cups with lids on them & it was 95% water. The cigar rolls tasted rubbery. The only thing that was ok was the shepherd salad but even that was the wrong size & they even overcharged me for the salad.

I paid all that money just for them to get it all wrong. I already had a bad experience the last time that I did a take-out order & wasn't expecting them to get it wrong again. This is beyond...

It is a bit ambiguous how you react to reviews that are less than 4 stars, and your passive aggression towards those who face unapologetic treatment and leave a 1-star review. We don’t question anyone’s positive experience at this restaurant; we are exercising our right to share our own experience and how we were treated, to prevent further customers from spending a beautiful day/iftar during Ramadan in an unwelcoming space. You have mentioned that you are very confused about the way we acted. Shouldn’t you be more confused that your internal communications are not well managed? We now have a situation where a representative from the restaurant is making false allegations about the reservation made for 15 people, when, in fact, it was clearly communicated as a reservation for 20 people. Additionally, you should not use the number of guests as a shield to claim they were 'screaming.' While a group of 20 might naturally be livelier, this does not justify using the size of the group to make impolite accusations. You need to be trained in how to constructively respond to reviews. Secondly, you should know how to approach customers with basic manners and avoid a rude attitude. As for the food, while it was not as tasty as it would be in Turkic countries, this is a subjective view, considering my background with the original cuisine. Sincerely hope that gaslighting your customers and respecting their right to review is...