Homer — Restaurant in Seattle

I was so excited to try this place but left feeling disappointed :( My partner put our name down while I parked because I know this place usually has a long wait, but he was able to be sat immediately. They had him wait inside for me and I was under the impression he was sitting already. When I got inside I was looking around for him and within 1 second, before I could even properly look around, a waiter approached me and told me I needed to wait outside. I said my partner was already sitting and he very curtly said that they do not seat incomplete parties (basically saying I was wrong?) and made me go outside. It was a pretty rude interaction and he didn’t even give me half a second to explain myself. I felt like I needed to go outside immediately or it was going to turn into a full on verbal altercation which I obviously didn’t want. The second I went outside my partner came to the door with a drink in his hand and I went and sat with him at the bar seating. This all happened within literally like 5 seconds. It was such an off-putting interaction. The weirdest part was the waiter who was rude to me served my partner the drink! So he KNEW he was waiting for someone. That waiter ended up being our waiter and he awkwardly apologized to me as we sat down and the rest of the meal felt awkward to me, I could tell he felt awkward too. He was kind for the remainder of our meal, so I tried to make the best of the situation and let the interaction roll off my back even though I did feel pretty upset and thought about walking out.

The food was good for sure but nothing really to write home about in my opinion. The pita bread is very fresh and warm! The lamb entree was also pretty good. My favorite dish was probably the anchovy toast, that was great. The dips were all pretty good but honestly I’ve had better hummus elsewhere. We also got a salad that was ok flavor-wise but the lettuce pieces were huge, it was kind of hard to eat. I wanted to like the soft serve but the flavor was something citrus and it was INCREDIBLY tart. I did not really care for it. My partner also got a free glass of something at dessert because he had to wait a bit long for one of his drinks I guess? But we both felt like honestly I deserved the freebie because of what I went through at the beginning.

The restaurant itself is very cramped and it’s frustrating that they don’t take reservations, I really feel like that contributed to the wait staff feeling stressed and possibly caused my rude interaction. Overall I enjoyed the meal but the whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth and gave me kind of elitist and unfriendly vibes so I will probably...

The server here recommended that we get a pita bread option and a few small plates. I just got one of each For the pita bread, I picked the Lamb Ragu on Tahini. This came with a couple plain pita breads along with a bowl of the lamb ragu & tahini. The pita bread was pretty good. I wouldn't say it was incredible, like other people in the reviews seem to think, but it was generally decent. It does taste fresh, but I don't think I can taste much of a difference between this and pita bread that you can buy from the store. It also doesn't help that this isn't really cooked with any oil or anything - it's just really plain. The lamb ragu was quite good as a dip, however. The lamb was well cooked & plentiful, and the mix of the meaty and tomato-like ragu with the nutty & lemon-like tahini was very interesting as a flavor combination. The portion size on the bowl was impressive - it was so much I couldn't finish it with the pita breads I was given and had to eat it plain

The second thing I got was the anchovies with harissa butter & grilled sourdough. I didn't like the sourdough that much, as I thought it was a bit too grilled. This made it very chewy and difficult to eat. The anchovies in the sauce were great, though, as the buttery-ness of the sauce perfectly balanced out the fish taste of the anchovies. If the bread had been a bit softer, this would've been incredible, rather than a bit of a struggle to eat

Note: I had a bit of the roasted chicken, and I didn't like it. It was really dry.

The last thing we got was the maple tahini soft serve ice cream. It tasted mostly nutty, with a little syrup thrown it. It would've been nice if they'd put in some crumbles or sprinkles to give it more of an interesting texture

For the price, this place is pretty expensive, although the amount of food you get in the small plates is actually a lot more than I was expecting. Most of the Mediterranean food I've had has been focused on common-denominator comfort food, so I like the fact that this place is trying to incorporate some high quality medium concept food in that space.

Overall, I thought the dishes were pretty decent, but with a couple...

BEST. FRESH. PITA. BREAD. LET'S GOOO!

I first came here on a Monday night a while ago, only to discover that they don't open on Mondays and Tuesdays (FYI!!!) But at last, I found a free Friday night to try this place out

Since they don't do reservations, I arrived Friday around 4:55pm (5 mins before opening) because I didn't want to get caught in the wait list. There was already a mini crowd outside!!! :O

I was SO HAPPY that my boyfriend and I got seated at the counter because you get to watch them prep and cook the food! Our waiter was super helpful and gave us his favorites and suggestions for a party of 2. We took all his suggestions and got the following and were sufficiently full:

-FRESH PITA with the LAMB RAGU on TAHINI: pita bread was a 11/10. I loved how fluffy and soft they were. You get 2 pitas with this. They are warm, fresh out of their oven. The lamb ragu was delicious and very flavorful and the tahini makes it rich and creamy -LAMB RIBS - wowowow this was done SO WELL. Perfect flavor and so tender, the bones came out effortlessly and paired with the pear slices was delectable. -MARINATED MUSHROOMS - best mushroom dish i've ever had. It comes with w/ leeks & a walnut-bread sauce...portion was good but I honestly they gave us more because we were in love with how perfectly cooked the mushrooms were so that they had a great consistency. The flavor was amazing and that bread sauce was also so delicious I wish I had more pita bread to eat with it! -BURNT CABBAGE - this was unique and also full of good flavor. Not my favorite and didn't really stand out compared to the other dishes we got. I liked the nuts in it.

Although the cabbage dish was average, the fact that everything else was so good and that was probably the best pita, lamb, and mushrooms I've ever had, along with wonderful service, makes this place a 5/5.

Next time, I would get 1 order of pita, 1 large plate, and 1 small plate (instead of 2) so I can try...