Dunya Kabob — Restaurant in Virginia

Customer beware!! If you are planning to order large amount of food like for a party to-go they will cheat you every corner they get unless you demand the entirety of your order be presented in front of you before you make a payment. They have the shallowest of trays and their portions are minuscule. Absolutely no courtesy or sense of service at this place. They would be late on your order and short on your order and they would not even apologize to you or compensate you and they would still try to cheat you.

So here is what happened, I called Dunya 5 days prior to my event day to place a to-go order for 30 people. I spoke with the Catering Manager. He sounded reasonable when he was first taking the order and promised that the food would be ready at 1:30 pm on the Saturday of my event for pick up. Besides to the rice, two kinds of meat dish, and two sides that I would pay for, he said bread and salad would come free with the food.

On the day of my event I arrived at Dunya at 1:30 pm to pick up my order. I went in and asked the receptionist about my order. The receptionist blanked out and asked "what order?". I was shocked. He asked when I called to order so I told him the date and time of my call. He went to the kitchen and asked around and came back a bit later with hand written order receipt. I thanked God he found that and was a bit relieved. But the receptionist insisted that there was no order ready to pick up at that moment and called the Catering Manager. The Catering Manager came and said it would take them some time to prepare the food so I told him that I would be back an hour later and left. That was a mistake, I later regretted.

After the hour and some minutes I called Dunya to check if my order was ready and to give them a heads up that I was on my way. The first person I spoke with was still confused and told me there was no order. Later, they connected me to the Catering Manager and he said that my order was ready. I arrived 10 minutes later and there was no order ready for me to go out with. The Catering Manager, an arrogant man, was called again and he went into the back and brought a couple of small trays. I was trying so hard to hold it together and be patient at this point. He then came back out again and said those were the wrong order and went back inside. He came out through another door with a trolley with several trays on it. I start asking and looking what each tray was and it turns out the order was short 1 whole side which I agreed to pay $40 for and the salad he promised was free. And the lamb was not what I ordered on the phone with him. It was as if he just put together whatever he could find in the back and didn't worry about following my order. When I asked about the salad he said there was no salad today. I said to him that if he does not provide the salad that he had to give a discount on the rice. They charged me $40 for a shallow full tray of white plain rice! Ridiculous! He brought a small tray of salad, the smallest he could find, and added it to the order. I was really tired and fed up at this point and it was also getting late for my party so I just paid what he said I...

I strongly advise no one chooses this restaurant for any catering needs, especially for important events like weddings, as their service will ruin your event. My experience was extremely disappointing and frustrating.

They have deceptive pricing practices and unprofessional service. For starters, the total cost was misleading. Their initial quote appeared reasonable, and they took an initial deposit of $1000 to lock in the price 4 months in advance of the wedding date, however they did not honor the contract and demanded we pay and extra $3,000 when they dropped off the food at the wedding venue. We tried several times before the wedding date to contact them to review everything, however the owner kept giving excuse why he can’t talk now and kept on delaying the conversation until 2 days prior to the wedding because he knew that if he waits last minute we would have no choice but to pay whatever he demands as we can’t find anyone else to cater so close to the date. They actually refused to unload the food at the venue and they wanted cash, and did not accept a credit card or a check. How they justified doing this was by not writing a detailed contract where they left certain areas blank, like how much they are charging per person, they wrote the total price but then played around with it later. At the time of the signing of the contract, they quoted us $32 per person, but later they said no it is $42 per person. Also, some items clearly written in the contact as part of the menu, they later said they are charging $650 extra for! What is the point of writing it in the contract if you are adding it separate later on?

In addition, we ordered fruit with the initial signing, however 2 days prior to the event when we were confirming everything they said they won’t bring the fruit, rather we should bring it then they will wash and sort it. After some back and forth they agreed to bring it as originally promised but they made no effort to present it in a manner suitable for a wedding. Their baklava and fernee was also subpar, not tasty at all nor was it presented in a good way.

We also payed for three servers for five hours, however they left after 3 hours and did not serve properly or do much work at all. They didn’t even distribute the wedding cake or serve tea. Part of the contract was for them to bring several big thermos for making tea, however they only brought one electric kettle which wasn’t enough to adequately make tea for the guests.

Their lack of transparency and questionable business practices made the entire experience stressful and unsatisfactory. I deeply regret choosing this restaurant for such an important milestone, and I caution others to be extremely careful when considering their services. They are dishonest and sly. If you are wiling to take the risk with them, make sure to double check the contract and write out EVERYTHING you agreed on, especially how much they are...

This place is unworthy of this one star I am obligated to use to leave this review.

I visited this banquet in hopes to book for my wedding. My father, mother and I had already spoken with the owner (Hashim) about the date and it was supposedly being held for me.

I flew from Atlanta Georgia.. so that I could sign the contract and leave a deposit to secure my reservation.. but to my surprise I was dealing with unprofessional and outright disrespectful people.

When I arrived- the owner was no where to be found.. I was obligated to deal with the “event planner” Dena who had no clue what she was doing... very displeased with the lack of customer service I received.

The managers had no idea what I was even talking about when I came in- and stated they had 4 different people making reservations and none of the 4 communicate with each other about bookings.

As you can imagine, I was LIVID! I had not only flown up to Virginia for what I thought would be a professional meeting.. I had already ordered my wedding invitations to be sent to my guests because I was promised that my reservation was secured- by the owner. (Hashim) as he had a very close “friendship” with my father.

Long story short- my date was given away to another party due to lack of communication.

Me being the flexible person that I am.. We agreed to move the date a week before..I had come back the next day- only to find out, that date was ALSO given away.

I was in disbelief that this happened not once.. but TWICE! They offered to give my dates back if I paid more money. How unprofessional is that?

I was left to scramble and try to find another venue, because they supposedly didn’t have any other available dates in the month I wanted to have my wedding.

If I were you- and I was looking to deal with professionalism.. I would steer clear of this place. Save yourself the headache and trouble.. because you WILL be disappointed with the outcome.

Rest assure that this place has lost my respect and business. Very sad- because I thought that this place was an honest establishment.

I wish I would’ve listen to all the people that told me to stay away from this place!! They were all right about the owner being a liar and money hungry! Has no sympathy for you or the event you wish to host! You will be promised a lot- but left with...