BANDAR RESTAURANT — Restaurant in San Diego

Bandar came recommended to us, so we decided to give it a try for an early dinner this past Sunday. We were actually the first customers that evening. I was on a protein-heavy diet and, after consulting with the server, ordered their most expensive dish: Soltani—a combination of ground beef Koobideh and a skewer of filet mignon (Barg Kabob), priced at $55.

First Impressions: The restaurant was a bit dark and had a very unpleasant odor, as if they had a dirty, damp, moldy, and old carpet laying around somewhere.

I ordered a cup of Persian tea (priced at $6). They brought an underwhelming, barely warm cup of tea. Most likely an old & warmed up cup from the previous night.

Now the food. It was horrible at first sight. The Koobideh had an awful smell and was a bit chewy. And the Barg skewer was very strange. I could not tell how it was cooked—whether it was steamed, boiled in hot water, or charbroiled over a grill. There were absolutely no char marks on the meat.

It literally looked like old and discarded dead flesh that was warmed up and plated.

This was undeniably the worst Persian food I have seen or tasted, ever.

After paying the bill, I actually had a conversation with the server/owner, which didn't go anywhere. She didn’t want to hear any feedback, nor was she apologetic for having served that shameful creation.

I actually broke it down for her, letting her know the issues—from the meat possibly being so old and sitting in the fridge for days (hence the smell and lack of flavor) to the cooking technique used to prepare it.

While she accepted that the meat was old and was prepared possibly days ago, she considered that a right of passage for having a lot of customers at Gaslamp district. Which it just blew my mind!

The bottom line was that she was not interested or willing to hear straightforward feedback from an experienced customer/chef. The issue could be that they are either burned out, have a big ego, or are in the process of selling the restaurant. Either way there is no excuse for what they were putting out of the kitchen.

This food—or the restaurant—doesn’t deserve a single star. I am simply giving them one star for all the silver and gold award plates framed and hung on the walls, representing the past time when they valued Persian cuisine and Persian hospitality.

In all honesty, if a restaurant serves a plate like that, the owner needs to do get rid of—either the chef/cook for not belonging in the kitchen, the manager for lack of quality control, or just dump the restaurant at once.

The sad reality is that even if they were a Michelin Star restaurant at one point (which they are not), they need to realize if they feed people awful food, that place will become a ghost town before they get an opportunity to ask themselves, "What went wrong?"

My Hope by writing this review is that the owner May read it, take it seriously and make some...

Hello everyone… I really wish there was the zero stars option…..please check the menu card for the fine print as you might be in for surprises. Me and my wife went out for dinner and ordered the chef special LUbia polo and chicken soltani. The restaurant wasn’t crowded but the time taken for when the food arrived was too long.The portions were of good size however lacked any spices or salt. We also ordered a pina colada which was loaded with crushed ice. We also ordered a baklava and faloodeh and should warn anyone that please don’t take the desserts from this place. Being a huge fan of Baklava they offered a weird looking sweet that didn’t have the traditional thin pastry and also hardly had any nuts. The faloodeh in my opinion looked like someone shoveled some ice from the ice age and threw it in a glass with a sprinkle of some vermicelli that looked like worms. I have had faloodeh before but this was nothing close to what they offered. So a big no no to the desserts. Oh yes they also offered some bread with some frozen butter really frozen butter.I have a strong feeling the food like meat and other ingredients have been frozen beyond their recommended time as they really tasted bland. I really wish they get a visit from the food safety and inspection service. Here comes the most important part!!!! They charged us an unexpected service charge of 20% that was automatically added to our bill. I did question the person incharge and she mentioned that it is a Californian thing and it is quite normal. Never heard of such a thing in the other restaurants we have eaten in San Diego and other parts of California. So please look out for the extra charges that come along. There is a surcharcharge, a 20%Service charge and to top it off a sales tax which was the only thing I have seen in many restaurants. I really cant believe the high ratings for this restaurant and the way they justified their atrocious charges. Please read the fine print on the Menu Card so you don’t end up paying surprising cost such as the service charge of the entire order!!! It was funny for me that they were expecting tips as well at the end of the payment. I wish they were more transparent and felt that they collected that 20% as personal growth funds. This would be last time we would visit this place and would encourage people who plan on visiting this place to think twice before you...

This applies to private reservations for large groups only. I had signed a contract months in advance for a private room. I was hosting a large group of physicians in town for a conference. I called both day before and day of to confirm the reservation. I arrived last after herding everyone to the restaurant to find the owners upset and anxious and demanding to have everyone sit down and order food (it was just before 5pm at this point). To my surprise we did not receive the private room I had booked and I found my party had been shown to the bar and they were all appropriately ordering drinks and talking to each other around the bar. The owner's were relentless and by 6pm I had to move the group to another restaurant after the owner interrupted everyone's conversations by banging a knife to a glass and demanding everyone be seated and order. Mind you - at the time we left, not a single customer was in the entire rest of the restaurant. Nevermind, they had placed them in a bar themselves with very little seating so naturally people decided to stand and talk and order drinks (only drinks and appetizers were stated in the contract since this was an early event). The owners really embarassed me in front of a number of colleagues and were incredibly unprofessional. The male owner launched into tirades about having to spend $5,000 minimum (nowhere in any writing or verbal communication prior) and that his wait staff needed to feed their kids, etc. It was incredibly bizarre and they kept saying that normally Iranians spent a lot of money and they were upset that in the first 15 minutes of arriving at 4:30pm, they were upset my group wasn't ordering lots of items. The owners are unintentionally racist with their disregard for decorum and assumptions about Iranians making statements like "I thought I could trust you because you are Iranian" and their behavior is unacceptable in this environment. This is perhaps the most offended and mortified I have been in a dining experience - and to think I made my own assumptions that I would be treated kindly by fellow Iranians.

I would urge you to go elsewhere with any...