Fattoush Restaurant — Restaurant in Pantego

I would not write a negative review unless I am pushed to the limit. It used to be a good place where I used to go regularly, even taking groups with me. Sadly, as is often the case with privately owned restaurants, the quality and even more importantly the good attitude is hard to maintain. The quality used to be good even though the service was never great. But over the past year, I noticed serious quality degradation and worse yet, arrogance and rudeness going out of the roof. I have NEVER experienced such a rude attitude at a US restaurant, especially when coming from the owner/manager, "Nida" who in fact recognizes me as regular customer.

I ordered lambs chops and tea, along with hot sauce. The food came after 45 minutes, all cold and get this: the lamb chops had no seasoning. I waved my hand to the waiters several times. They would see it but ignore it. This is all forgiving, as one can unfortunately have a bad and unlucky day. But wait, my tea never came. I did not complain, treating it as just an unlucky incident. No, it wasn't. It was rudeness and arrogance at its peak.

When I was ready to pay the bill, they brought the tea! Nida brought the check and I told her what happened. She did not say anything except to place the check in front of me. I said, "The tea came when I was ready to go, even though I asked for it before the food"

"We are busy, we are busy," she said. So I said, "the food came after 45 minutes, cold, chewy, and without any seasoning and you still want to charge me for the tea?" She replied rudely, "It is not free, you know.", I said calmly, "If it came when I am ready to leave and did not even have the time to drink something that I asked for before the food, you still want me to pay for it." All of this conversation was with a very polite tone by my side, until Nida spoke again very arrogantly, "Our tea maker is not an octopus with 8 hands." I replied, "So, how do you ensure customers are served properly? I did not receive proper service." She said, "O my God, you are rude. "

I am clueless as to how it is me who was being rude, and not the restaurant, who did even a single word of remorse or excuse.

I paid the whole bill without any word, but with that level of arrogance and rudeness by Nida (not to mention the inconsistently pathetic service and now poor food quality) , it is unlikely that I or my colleagues or people I used to take with me would enter this place again. There is a great place named Usta Kababgy nearby, with food 10 times more delicious and service ok, but not rude. It should give a good run for money to Fatoosh, who should stop searching for an 8-handed octopus and correct their attitude before going out of business. Poor food and poor service + rudeness = sooner or later go out...

So I wanted to get ahead of something here, but let me start by saying my family and I are long term regulars of Fattoush. I love middle eastern food, always have, but Fattoush has elevated my adoration for the cuisine because they are hands down one of the most delicious restaurants I have been to of any kind.

Fattoush offers two soups and they are both wonderful; chicken lemon is a staple for us but I’m partial to the lentil (bright green but try it and thank me later, it SMACKS). My wife orders the fattoush salad EVERY. SINGLE. TIME because it is crisp and light and fresh and flavorful and the “best salad [she] has ever had as a side dish and it deserves to be an entree”. The chicken shish tawook is a favorite and perfect for even the pickiest of eaters(in my case it feeds my wife and kids while I explore the Fertile Crescent à la carte), comes with charred veg(the jalapeños are spicy beware) and the most perfectly seasoned grilled cubes of chicken breast that are deliciously juicy and fall-apart-in-your-mouth tender. Oh, I forgot to mention that it comes with a side of fresh garlic sauce, opaque and pearly white, OUTRAGEOUSLY pungent, and hands down the best condiment I’ve ever had the pleasure of putting into my face. I could write epic poems about this food, it really is that good.

Tonight they made a mistake. Their servers/staff, who are delightful and sweet people every time I go there, were obviously slammed and accidentally gave me someone else’s order. Luckily, whomever ordered what I retrieved had wonderful taste as their order included our desired entrees, but also came with 4 ADDITIONAL entrees. Obviously this mistake wasn’t expected by them or me, so I called right away and caught their busy tone. Bummer. Though, only a few moments later they returned my call and had realized their mistake as the victim of this situation was there to pick up his or her order. It was a minor slip up that likely caused that gentleman or lady some grief, and I am sincerely hopeful they showed this wonderful family owned restaurant some grace as I’m sure they made the injured party whole as quickly as they could.

All this to say, if you see a review soon that mentions the aforementioned fiasco, please keep in mind this establishment is operated by some of the most lovely humans that you will meet and one minor error does not take away from how amazing this place is, from the food to the atmosphere to the service. If you have doubts, get rid of them and get an order of potato kebba because it will...

My partner said this is the best meal he has had recently and I share the same sentiment! Everything is super well seasoned and has great charcoal grill smell & sear! We got the Arayes and the Fattoush mix, and both were fantastic. The lamb tekka was cooked to perfect medium and was incredibly tender, chicken was well seasoned and moist, and the grounded lamb has a crisp to it! The Arayes were super great, not burn, crispy & went great with their sauces & the rice is amazing! It was super fragrant and so, so well seasoned. They are extremely well-priced also, we barely finished half of the food as 2 people, and we finished all the baba ganoush, hummus & pita bread BEFORE the other stuff even arrived! That baba ganoush & hummus were so, so so good I will definitely buy a tray for movie night, and i have never seen pita bread that thin and they are great complimentary bread for their dips! They also give like a bunch of the bread, their portion is truly gigantic so beware! We also got the chai karak, Turkish coffee, kunafa & baklava at the coffee shop! Nicest lady at the front and EVERYTHING tastes great! The kunafa was so, so so so good my god that thing was fragrant, I wonder what flower they infused their syrup with, it smells like roses! The baklava stayed crispy and buttery in the fridge after 3 days, I didn't even need to heat it up and it's still just as flaky! Everything is also very well priced! Overall, this is now our go-to whenever we want Middle Eastern/Iraqi food from now on, and we are very confident in recommending it to everyone we know! Ps: Also whoever said their salad is bad is wrong. Their salads are some of the freshest we have had and flavor is great. Love the Arabic salad. Update: Got their falafel and Greek salad after. Best falafel I have ever had and by a large margin. The salad is...