mezeh — Restaurant in Virginia

I’m giving 1 star based off customer services!! However, the food was delicious! I live over an hour away in a very small town and come to the Glen Allen area once a month to do shopping. Because of our small town, we only have basic fast food places to eat, so this is a treat for us. Typically, my children and I always eat at the same place when we come to this area. However, I convinced my 4yr old daughter to try something new for once. So, we decided to eat here. Now, I also have a 18month old. At first everything went fine until we sat down to eat our food. That’s when my 18month old decided that he wanted to start being loud (which is to be expected of a child that young) at that point the customer service towards us went down hill even though I was trying to get my child to stop being so loud. One particular lady working there seem very annoyed with us! After we were done eating and left to do our shopping for a few hours we came back to get takeout to bring some home with us. At that point upon entrance, I could tell that the one particular lady was very annoyed to see us again. She told another lady that she would take care of our service. When I was trying to place my order she wants to be really rude about asking me what I would like on my bowls and even kinda argued with me that my “4yrs old food bowl” only could have one more topping even though I mentioned I would pay the difference. She was careless when making our bowls and putting the Tahini sauce into the togo containers - spilling it all over the side, not bothering wiping it off and not making sure that the lids on the food bowl was properly secured. When putting the food bowls into the car and moving them into my Insulated cooler (because I have an hour and a half drive home so I didn’t want the food to go bad) one of the food bowls lid was not put on properly and the food spilled all over my car. I then went back in (with the spill food that I gathered off my floor) to mention that the food had spilled all over my car because the lid wasn’t properly secured on to bowl and I would like a replacement. They offered to saran wrap the lid onto the bowl with the food that I had just gathered off the car floor. I had to mention again, that I would like to replacement because I had just picked up the food from the floor mats of my car. Instead of replacing the food right away for me - I had to wait several minutes for them to replace my food while my children were crying because they wanted to leave. Again the same particular lady who seemed very annoyed with us from the beginning, instead of apologizing about the lid not being properly secured on the bowl - she wants to put blame on to me and says “you need to be more careful when you pull the bowl out of the bag”. Never once apologizing! Instead, she insinuates that it was my fault! I’ve never felt so embarrassed. I absolutely love Mediterranean food and never get to eat it anymore because of the small town that I have moved to. I came to this restaurant based off of the great reviews and I am so embarrassed that this is how my first time experience was in this restaurant. Especially after spending $50 and tipping too. It makes me feel that my business here and my hard earned money spent here is not welcome! It makes me not want to come back...

Beware if you have dietary restrictions and you can't order your food in 2 minutes. These people have no patience even if there is no line. Food is good I've been here before. This review is for extremely poor service. I got there with my daughter and there was no line. My toddler was fussy which made it it harder to order. In addition I have allergies and am a strict vegetarian and have not had meat since I was 5. My daughter kept switching her mind about what she wanted. As I held her at the same time I was holding the allergy card. The lady was not patient at all rudely just interrupting me trying to calm my daughter to ask me what I wanted. When I told her it was hard to look at the card at the same time she seemed annoyed. At this point there were 2 ppl behind us. She made really absolutely no effort to help and neither did anyone else. My bowl was made I asked them to hold it for me so that I could finish my daughters bowl which they had left at the beginning they didn't bring it with mine. We made her bowl and I got back to the front to get my food. Mine had the wrong sauce and he offered to remake it- seeing that they were going to dump the food and waste I said it's ok I can take my sauce on the side. In fact the lady who made mine came rudely saying she put the right sauce only to realize she was wrong but didn't apologize. I sat down after 10 minutes I realized this was not my food it had chicken. I got up to tell the guy he offered to make it again - he said they must have given my food to someone else. I told him it was unacceptable- the other workers asked what happened including the lady who made my food. Then they put together the connection of the wrong sauce. They all started laughing as if this was a joke. Clearly they don't take people's dietary restrictions seriously. I told him it was religious and I hadn't had meat since I was 5 and it wasn't funny. I was so upset I told him to forget it and sat down to feed my daughter. He said the manager is there I told him I wanted to talk to her. No one made an effort to come and make it right. Time went by I flagged the guy down and said I want to speak to the manager again. He indicated she was busy but would give me a refund. Now the place was actually busy. Maybe 20-30 minutes later the manager came. She essentially told me it was my fault. She said I took too long to order and that's why they gave my food to someone else. The fact is it took longer to make my bowl but hardly took less than a couple minutes to make my daughters. And what did she consider too long- she said it took us ten minutes. I'm confused as to why that was an issue. There was no line, my daughter was crying and I had to look at the allergy card. In fact she even said my parents took long and they had come later- again no line and they have dietary restrictions. They are more understanding at chipotle. It's sad because I like their food but think the people who work there don't understand customer service or dietary allergies. The manager gave me money back which I didn't even ask for but did not apologize other than to say we took too long and she could remake it. I'm not sure I will come back unless they retrain their staff or hire people who are...

The offerings at Mezeh are sort of like a Mediterranean Chipotle. You order a pita pocket or a bowl, the bowls starting with your choice of greens (kale, arugula mix, or spring mix) or your choice of grains (Jasmine rice, brown rice, or cous cous). You then add the protein of your choice (beef or lamb meatballs, steak or chicken shwarma, falafel, etc) and move on down the bar. They have Turkish salad, cacik, three types of hummus, pickled onions, roasted corn, seared vegetables, diced cucumber, beets, sunflower seeds, sliced tomatoes, chickpea salad, and a plethora of other options to add on top of your bowl or into your pita. They also have several types of sauce to dress your meal with, my favorites being the tzaziki mixed half and half with the s'hug (very, very spicy sesame sauce).

They also have pistachio baklava and the ever popular chocolate chip cookie for dessert.

They have very high quality fountain drinks including a selection of Boylan's cane sugar sodas (lemon lime, cola, black cherry, diet cola, etc) and homemade juice beverages including blends of kale beet apple, cucumber and mint, strawberry blueberry dill and turmeric, and a lemon lime mint. They are all delicious and refreshing but the Boylan's cane cola and the house strawberry blueberry dill and turmeric are my favorites.

Prices are in the $8 range and that includes your protein choice, though the steak shwarma is a $2 upcharge which, if you taste the steak (very flavorful, tender, and lean), is perfectly fair and worthwhile.

The restaurant is near the Starbucks right outside Short Pump Mall, has decent parking (especially considering the area), and great seating options. Very family friendly or great for a low-key date night if you want something Chipotlesque but with a more exotic twist that your date will like and that won't break the bank. The music is even a nice blend of instrumental tunes with Moroccan and Mediterranean influences.

Overall, this place offers a great experience.

My family (wife, daughter, and myself) are able to eat here getting a grain bowl, a greens bowl, and a kid's pita plus a drink...