Sami's Kabab House — Restaurant in New York

DISCLAIMER: This review is strictly about the family platter that is served by Sami's Kabab House. There are lots of complaints about this from other reviewers. Proceed with caution.

Background: I am a frequent visitor of Sami's and have been coming here since they've been a hole in the wall and have been here over 10+ times.

TLDR: Avoid the family platter at all costs - it is their biggest money maker at YOUR expense. If you're interested in learning why, which I hope you do, please see below. It will save you lots of money.

I came to the restaurant on 12/26 around 930p with 12 people. I've ordered the family platter a few times from Sami's and have noticed they always add stuff we don't want - such as salmon and lamb shanks - each being about $30-40 an order. I never really cared but then I started to realize it was funny business.

Sami's family platter doesn't explicitly say what it includes. I've noticed that many times they just add random stuff and say it's a platter. Stuff that doesn't' even make sense.

I told the waiter, "please do not give me any lamb shanks and salmon" - because I know they charge an insane amount of money for them and we don't even like it. We're here for the kababs. Lo and behold, he serves me 2 lamb shanks and says "sorry I forgot you didn't want it". So I replied by saying "I mentioned when ordering that I do no want them." He's like "ok but you have to pay for it still because I forgot." ???? What? That is not my problem. He eventually removed it but not without a small argument.

I took a look at the bill and honestly some of it doesn't make sense.

They serve Afghan naan in the beginning. No discretion about being a cost to the customer. Why do you serve it without asking the customer if they want, especially if it is NOT complimentary. I was charged for a mixed Afghan kabab platter. Why are you charging me extra for MIXED when the whole dish is a mix of kebabs? I ordered 2 family platters, but they charged me for 3 lamb chops - each at $28 an order. How does that make sense? I love the lamb chops, so I don't have an issue but it doesn't make sense to charge me for 3 when every other item is 1 or 2 of each. Side rice with Qabuli. Why are you charging me for a side of rice when all the dishes come with rice? I requested no salmon, yet was charged $52 for salmon. We ate it because we didn't want to fight anymore but I mean come on.

All in all, I see about $100 worth of markups for things I didn't ask for.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Sami's food. They have set the bar high in the Afghan cuisine. I just do not appreciate this sneakiness.

I hope they fix this...

I am leaving this review, hope the owner will read it and improve the foods and customer services and communication. I was living in Queens for a week, googled the restaurants around and felt happy to know that an Afghan restaurant is in a walking distance. Went there for dinner, talked with them in Afghan language, the guy said I will bring you something on his own choice, I said okay, he brought rice with some chicken and beaf tikka kebab (of course with some salad), well, first impression from the foods, they were not authentic Afghan foods, anyway I ate them, the server bring the bill and it was more than $100 but I asked them how? and they said ohh sorry this is someones else’s bill. And in the same week, I went there again, wanted to try something else, overall here’s my view and I hope they will improve: The foods are not authentic Afghan foods Kebabs/meat were kind of old and reheated With that price, the foods they serve are very less. They should learn how to talk to customers, shouldn’t try to convince people (not in a good way) what to try. There was no discipline and distribution of tasks, everyone was doing everything, I was witness of bad communication between the staff there.

Anyway,...

I wanted to like this place given the high ratings. The first most shocking thing was that they charge for water, there is no free tap water. Your only option is to buy water if you want it. I’ve never seen that in any restaurant in New York including holes in the wall and mom and pop shops. They seated us, a party of 3, at a table meant for 2. Forcing one of us to sit on the side and squeezing dishes on top of each other, when the entire restaurant was 85% empty. This was lunch time. We asked to sit at a bigger table and they said no. Toward the end of our meal a party of 4 got sat at a table for 8. Ridiculous. The lettuce given for free was clearly unwashed and old, pieces of wet wilted lettuce or spinach throughout. Service left much to be desired, very non responsive, forgot things, did not check in on us, couldn’t even find them when trying to pay. To our shock there was a 20% tip already added to the check. There was no sign at all in the restaurant or menu that a 20% tip was added to all checks. Had we bought the bottled Poland spring water we would’ve also had to pay 20% on that which is unheard of. The food was just fine, and not nearly good enough for me to want to give this place a second chance. So...