Cafe Munir — Restaurant in Seattle

Yesterday, my wife and I, along with our two young children, decided to give Cafe Munir a try, having heard positive reviews about it. Our experience, however, fell significantly short of our expectations, particularly with regards to service and meal presentation.

We arrived right at the opening time of 5pm, finding the restaurant nearly empty. Surprisingly, the hostess exhibited noticeable hesitation in seating us, eventually placing us in a secluded back corner after a noticeable wait. Fine, no big deal. Although the restaurant was initially empty, it took quite some time before we were acknowledged by our server. A small gesture of providing crayons for the kids by the hostess was appreciated, but it hardly made up for what followed.

After placing our order, which included hummus, beet salad, lamb, steak, and a couple of glasses of wine, the starters arrived in a reasonable amount of time, but our main courses took considerably longer, especially considering the simplicity of the dishes. The presentation of the $25 mains was underwhelming, consisting merely of two skewers of meat for each dish served on a single plate with a single pita, devoid of any sides. This was particularly disappointing as the absence of sides was not communicated to us, leading to a last-minute order of rice and lentils, which arrived frustratingly late into our meal.

The service throughout our visit could only be described as inattentive and somewhat inept, especially once we had placed our order for additional sides. Efforts to catch the attention of the waitstaff proved futile, and the lack of communication regarding the sides and the timing of our meal significantly detracted from our dining experience. This was compounded by a sense of unpreparedness for families with children, which struck us as odd given the restaurant's location in a residential neighborhood.

Our dinner, totaling $139 not including tip, did not offer the value or the dining experience we had anticipated. Despite my usual practice of tipping 20%, the overall disappointment led me to adjust the gratuity to 15%. It is disheartening to write such a review, especially considering the positive praise that I had heard. Cafe Munir certainly missed the mark on service and value, making it unlikely for us to return or recommend...

As a restaurant that centers around Lebanese and Arabic foods, most of the menu is designed to be eaten with pita. Literally every one of the mezzas and the majority of the grilled entres all are served with pita. It's the vessel that every item of your menu is served upon. It's the cornerstone of the entire concept.

If this is a center piece to every meal on your menu, and you claim to be authentic Lebanese/Arabic food, why on earth would you serve storebought pita from a plastic bag?

For real, big ziplock bags clearly visible from the front of the house, containing grocery-store quality pita, which was served pretty much cold. You had one job! Make your own pita -- it's served with every single dish? There are like 4 cheap ingredients here. Come on! Would you go to a brick-oven pizza place that serves toppings dished out on top of a frozen DiGiorna pizza crust? Would you be happy with cold, store-bought garlic naan from an authentic indian restuarant? No.

The lamb hummus was probably the best thing we had that night, and it was good. The other mezzas were good as well, but something about the cold, store-bought pita made me regret the ~$150 price tag of the meal (3 mezzas, two entrees, one glass of wine each, tip). My entree was the grilled chicken, which was dry and not very flavorful. Perhaps that one's on me, expecting something more from a nugget of grilled chicken breast, lemon and a touch of oil, but if it's truly just a simple recipe like that, do you need to charge as much for it and can you do your best to make sure it retains some moisture when you cook it? I think just a little attention to detail would go a long way. The place has so much potential and the dishes are classics.

Service was good, but the place was crazy busy and I felt like they were a little understaffed.

Also... Make....

I went here on a Sunday with my girlfriend and her Lebanese family who were visiting from out of state. They cook that food often, so I always defer to their opinion when checking out Lebanese restaurants. They heard great things about this place, so we were excited to try it.

We had the Chef’s Choice dinner, and the mezze was wonderful. We loved the wide selection and variety of flavors. I would have recommended this place based on the mezze alone.

But when it came to the entree, we felt like we had a different experience than the other guests. We were served kefta that was very dry and chicken kabobs that were rubbery, like it had been sitting in lemon juice too long. All of the other guests were served a different entree, which appeared to be Palestinian chicken with a yogurt sauce based on what we overheard the server say to the other tables. We were disappointed that we didn’t get to experience what everyone else had.

When we asked the server about it she said each guest receives a different entree. We would understand if we saw another table receive the same kebab entree, but when we saw that everyone else had the same entree except us we felt singled out for a worse experience. It’s not fair that they charge the same $50 price per person but some people might receive a...