Dahlak — Restaurant in Philadelphia

To clarify; on Sunday, February 17th, around 11 pm; my girlfriend wanted to reconnect, we decided on Dahlaks. When we entered, we noticed a Bartender; talking to some ladies at the front bar. (in a white t-shirt with the sleeves cut off and straight dark hair ).

We politely walked up, and asked if we could order. She stated she wasn't, "making drinks on this side", which was confusing because there were drinks on the counter; it looked like they were drinking.

Anyways, we responded; okay cool; and walked around (to the jukebox side) which was packed. We waited our turn at the high top tables (roughly 20 mins to have a seat at the bar); then waited an additional 20 mins or so; while the same bartender in the white- t; deliberately ignored us. It was blatantly obvious we were getting the silent treatment; she avoided all eye contact and kept skipping over us. We attempted to grab her attention by trying to politely engage her and yet; she kept looking over our heads to the people; mostly males ( behind us ). We felt like she was purposely, avoiding contact with us. For what reason; we do not know?

It was another 20 minutes; before the other bartender ( with short natural dyed hair) finally, asked for our order. My girlfriend replied respectfully, 2 long islands and 1 hookah. We waited again for roughly 20 minutes; still no drink, no hookah, not even a " hey, sorry we're super busy right now; thanks for your patience" spiel.

It made us feel unwanted and frankly; we do not know why. We weren't attitudinal; we weren't demanding; we are not trouble starters; we tip handsomely. We smell good lol I mean damn...

• I will say this; from my own personal experience; there's only one; female bartender that really provides service to me and SHE knows who she is; ( long blondish hair; sweet persona) and for that reason- I keep coming back. But, i haven't seen her in forever and don't know what her schedule is like etc.*

Nevertheless; one great bartender- cannot carry the whole bar; that's not fair to her. Also, I feel like this could've have been avoided if the bartenders were trained properly on how to be personable & kind; not stuck up and rude.

This is a customer service based industry. No one is saying take disrespect; but also bartenders, servers, bar backs etc should not be stand off-ish, acting as if it's a hassle to ask them to do their job. Some are just plain ol' mean- you can see if from the scowls on their faces. I cannot stand for that.

In closing; I feel that there's a pattern of this; there's very little room for safe spaces for women (especially women of color) to be served with respect, dignity and couth. It's taking a lot of courage for me to say this, but after several experiences at Dahlaks and other places alike, i am over being treated like a second class citizen in a neighborhood/city i've been in for over a decade. I've volunteered, worked, protested, stepped up in many ways to support the community; especially black owned businesses. I respect and honor the fact that your mother has one of the few African owned business left on Baltimore ave. However, I cannot turn a blind eye to disrespect from her employees. To what end? I feel I have to literally; game plan & strategize as if I am in a survivor challenge lol on how to receive stellar service- just to have a decent night out. That spoils the fun.

Prior to the gentrification, these establishments were supported by black women and men, and other hard-working and intelligent people- from all backgrounds. I know, because I have asked numerous " old heads". And they all say the same thing...We all know what West Philly looked like prior to the aggressive gentrification currently taking place in the Baltimore ave. corridor...I think in the past 3-4 years or so; there's been a huge uptick of snobbery and i'm tired of it.To clarify; this is not a race thing, it's a matter of respect for people and respect for someone's coin... Stop ignoring us at the table, when we helped build the table...I'm going to leave it at...

Ethiopian food is one of my favorite types of cuisine in the world. I make it a point to find authentic Ethiopian fare whenever I visit a city.

The experience I had at Dahlak in February of this year has guaranteed that I will never return.

My dinner date and I arrived on a busy Saturday evening. The food took a little longer to arrive than what seemed like an appropriate wait time. We were one of 4 occupied tables in the main dining area.

This is not what made this experience awful, however. Once we received our food and began to eat the restaurant started to pick up and another couple was seated next to us. The couple was a Black Man and Woman. And myself and my dinner date are as well. The waitress, who was white, came over to both of our table midway through our meals and asked both tables to pay for our meals in advance because another table had ran out on their check.

When I asked the waitress what that had to do with either of us, she stammered and couldn't come up with an answer besides "just in case". I then asked her to explain what just in case meant and she still couldn't answer, at which point discernment kicked in and I asked, point-blank, if the other diners who walked their check were Black and if she was making that association because we were also.

She seemed out of words and I immediately told her that she was inappropriate and that NO, I would most decidedly NOT be paying my bill in advance. I further informed her that I would not allow her to rush us and that we would take our time and pay at the end of the meal just like any other patrons. The table next to us was very upset as well. I asked to speak to a member of management but no one ever came to our table.

The waitress did come back and apologize later, and offered a disc on the meal, but this should have never transpired in the first place. If you do not have the cultural competency to work in a restaurant that serves AFRICAN food in an area where your guests are majority, then you have NO business whatsoever in that position and. eed to find employment elsewhere.

I called the next day to make a complaint and described the waitress/bartender (we did not drink at all... only ordered food) but the woman who answered the phone pretended she didn't know who the woman in question was.

I will never return to this restaurant. The food was mediocre. The service was horrible. And I was both disgusted and extremely underwhelmed by the whole experience.

Never again.

EDIT 11/4/2019 ● Original review was left in July/2019 ● Because I don't know how to reply to an establishments reply, I am amending my review to include the statement below**

All of the explaining in the restaurant's reply further drives home the point to me that customer service is not paramount at this establishment. Everything they took care to enumerate may be rational to them, but it doesn not excuse the experience my dinner mate and I had. If "all" patrons were required to pay beforehand, we should have been notified of this AS or BEFORE we placed our order... not half an hour after we ordered and were thoroughly into into our meal. To further drive the point home, the waitress NEVER once mentioned a policy of any sort and plainly stated that she was asking us to pay in advance "just in case" because some other guests had "just walked out on their check". And when I called out this unacceptable behavior, the waitress instantly began to profusely apologize. If this was a case of "policy" nothing would have occurred as it did. To be quite frank, I don't remember what time it was and it is inconsequential. The situation was offensive and handled...

Heartbroken that my favorite restaurant for the past 20 years has taken such a bad turn. We had several VERY bad takeout experiences during COVID but chalked it up to the changes caused by the pandemic. We recently went there to dine in - thrilled to be back at our beloved spot. We waited an hour and a half for our food without anyone getting us drinks or checking on us (it was not crowded). When the food finally came, we were totally shocked. We received one small dish (not the typical, large communal dish - more like an individually sized plate, with VERY, VERY, VERY tiny servings of each of our orders and no sides (the typical Dahlak meal came with one side and some salad). SEE THE PICTURE - That was supposed to be FOUR complete entrees, costing nearly $60 (!!!). Again, we've eaten at Dahlak for decades and I've eaten Ethiopian food all over the country and the world - this serving size was far, far, far from what is normal or acceptable. In the past, it was typical for Dahlak to serve a single meal on one piece of injera - the main course, the side, and the salad - all very hearty portions. Now, they are serving four entrees on one piece of injera with no sides and no salad. We were speechless. We literally each ate our complete “meal” in three bites. We tried to ask the staff what was going on but we did not see anyone aside from when we were first seated. When I finally tracked someone down they were very dismissive and rude (not the usual Eritrean staff that had been there for decades). It seems that they’ve shifted from being a restaurant to being much more of a bar and hooka spot. Over the years I brought almost every friend and family member to this restaurant and hosted several very large work dinners here - I can't imagine doing any of that ever again. The hipsters drinking and smoking outside seemed quite content, but I’m so sad that the place that was such a special part of our lives is gone. After the terrible takeout experiences and this most recent visit we did try to speak with management but it went...