Qanoon — Restaurant in New York

Good to have Palestinian resturant in USA but good to have a true Palestinian food as well. Accountant in New York not different from Mechanic in Chicago as both want to do resturant business with zero knowledge or experience; and always hate to see their people as customers . They want American only so they review the food with five stars and a wow. I am writing this review so you improve your food and your customer service skills so when your sever told you I am not happy ;you should addressed the situation not run out to the street. I ordered on Saturday 4/2/2022 Musakhan and I received a dish that has nothing to do with Musakhan . Uncooked onion ! Slowly cooked onion is what makes good Musakhan from the bad . Plus bread and chicken and both didn’t meet the minimum expectation. This is not Palestinian food ; this is insult to every Palestinian. Worse I started with Lintel soup to receive a paste. Yes lintel paste with olive oil . So no liquid . If it is a mistake then the oil on the paste can’t be a mistake. Soup is universal not something we can argue about and the mechanic/accountant responsible not the Latino cook. So you know nothing. I asked to remove Musakhan and give me Kofta; which was really good and a surprisingly very delicious ( I thought over three days not to review this place in case I fall weak and want this Kofta again) , but the rice presented in Chinese style in a small bowl. This is really creative but not Palestinian nor Mediterranean. In a very rude way they insisted that I have to pay for Musakhan since I touched it . Hold on , how to know or even imagine that you made it without cooking the onion ? I had to try it and you can’t say that ate it. I insisted to be heard by the server again so I don’t raise my voice and affect the reputation of my “people” and I didn’t pay for it( the sever through the check in a rude way though ). Anyway the owner failed as a manager , a cook, tasteless , bad manner , slim character so this is the least to expect.

Usually we as Palestinians upon all what we got we have Euphoria that lasts for 10-15 years and spins over every Palestinian community. Started with the Palestinians in Jordan ( Good passport good reputation with much entitlement till early 1970s) then Lebanon ( Refugees but in unique country and even during the war they saw themselves warier and better-off any Palestinian) , then West Bank and Gaza who thought they are the true and only Palestinians. Now Palestinians in Israel in a close proximity to the strong and chosen people and their friends in USA and around the globe - this is the ugliest and worst version since it has no any respect to anyone or anything. All wanted to run from their “Palestinian” identity by denying their brothers in other communities where the “ Upper Master” culture , accent and model requires that. Levant haunting in every minute and those among Israelis haunted with (*). Sadistic vs Masochistic should be one way bro! Each one ended up with a humiliating disaster. Let us see . Pathetic and disgusting. Losing the character and ethics is the least to expect after all what happened to us. Speaking of that , sponsors of Palestinians mechanics and accountants should take care of them by encouraging them to love themselves more. My advice to all the Palestinian restaurants in USA is to stop doing Musakhan for God sake and all people of USA will say wow...

We were so excited to try Qanoon after reading lots about it, but were deeply disappointed. We expected an elevated twist on Palestinian food, but most of the dishes we got were either not flavorful or dry. I understood the intention behind the dishes, but they weren’t well executed. If you’re serving small plates where everything is made to look precious, then the complexity and flavor needs to be there. Perhaps we just ordered the wrong things? Lastly, we expected our server (who was very sweet) to be more knowledgeable about the food and the place it came from. Qanoon missed the mark.

The only dish that was unique and shined was the Mujaddara Croquettes. The disappointing part of the dish though was that there were supposed to be 3 croquettes, but only 2 arrived. Otherwise, the chicken was dry and could have used more sumac, the hummus lacked flavor and was dry, the Labneh balls were tiny and uninteresting — I could have bought this in a jar. Also 3 tiny balls for $10?? You could have at least added a garnish, maybe some pomegranate seeds and fresh mint to jazz it up. We also ordered the baked encrusted sesame seed feta with figs and were disappointed to find that there were just some sesame seeds sprinkled on it and it was mainly just tasted salty. Again, I could have just bought some feta and put in in the oven and served some figs on top. The pita served was a bit stale/dry after being over heated in the oven. If you’re going to offer pita, it should probably remain whole so it stays fresh instead of cutting it into small wedges and then putting them in the oven for too long. We also ordered the battered cauliflower which also lacked flavor. There are so many delicious ways to cook cauliflower so this was surprising. We wanted to order the knafe for dessert, but we were concerned we’d be disappointed so we skipped it.

We left the restaurant feeling full, but...

Avoid this place if you expect good service. This restaurant has the worst service I have experienced in a long time. I never write reviews, but this one merits a review. The prices are high end and over-priced for the food, but the service is low-end and very unfriendly. Waiter tells me i can't have a taste of a wine before ordering it, because there is a description on the wine list. When I asked if it the white was very chilled, he said he would bring me ice. Obviously has no idea about wine thinking that people put ice in their white wine. We ordered the prix fixe restaurant week menu for $60, which is already overpriced, and barely a savings compared to a la carte. I had asked about possibly ordering an extra appetizer, and asked to see the a la carte menu. We ended up ordering only items from the prix fixe menu. When the bill came, they had charged us the a la carte prices, saying that we had told them we wanted these dishes a la carte. Completely wrong.

We asked to speak to the manager, who again, was ungracious and told us that the prix fixe portions of these same dishes were smaller, so they would have to charge us more. If you're going to serve smaller portions on a prix fixe, then make sure the customer knows that.

They nickel and dime the customer, and argue with us when we complained. A good restaurant would have graciously apologized for the misunderstanding and...