It has recently been brought to my attention that I don't write any negative reviews. I guess when I started this blog, I wanted it to be a source of all that's good to eat in L.A. But like everything, with the good, comes the bad. So, thus begins an the ribbon-cutting for open-minded and often sour tasting reviews.
Let's begin with Shamshiri Grill. As it's still Passover, (one more day, one more day, don't go in the kitchen and tempt self with cupcakes...) I was looking for a place with lots of meat and salad options. I read about Shamshiri on Chowhound, and as it was very well reviewed, I thought I'd give it a shot. Plus, Shamshiri was open on Easter, and who doesn't love to chase Shwarma with a few peeps?
Let's start with the service. The restaurant was practically empty and yet my date and I were seated at a table directly behind the maitre d's stand (if I can even call it that). Basically, we were sat in the first possible seat in the restaurant. I don't know about you, but I like to have a little privacy with my meal. It was a little odd, but not a big deal in the small picture. So, let me widen the screen.
I had read about the so-called fabulous Shirazi Salad, a Persian staple of cucumbers, tomatoes, parsley and lemon juice - it sounded perfect (plus the benefit of no flour). I ended up ordering the Chicken Schwarma Plate (which was cheaper than ordering the Shirazi with chicken on top). The Plate came with rice, so I substituted that for extra vegetables or tomatoes (both which came with the plate) and chose shirazi salad as my add on (other choices were green salad or soup). So far, so good.
About fifteen minutes later, our waiter comes over to inform us that there's no salad. Here's the conversation (almost) verbatim:
WAITER: (matter-of-factly) There's no salad.
JAIMEY: (thinking he's kidding) No salad now, or no salad at all?
W: Maybe we'll have salad in 30 minutes.
J: (thinking he's referring to the shirazi salad) Can I get a green salad instead?
W: There is no salad.
Okay, let me get this straight? There's no lettuce, no tomatoes, no cucumber, nothing?! Keep in mind, this place is far from filled to capacity and there's a fricken Bristol Farms across the street!
Fine. We decided to substitute our missing salads for lentil soup, asking first what the ingredients were: lentils, broth... fine, we'll take it. Bring me my soup.
Enter lentil soup: with noodles - which we immediately said we couldn't have, and further confused our American born Korean waiter (I feel it's important to point out that this was by no means a "traditional" Persian restaurant as our waiter was far from Persian, and more bland than the hummus he brought to our table).
Enough about the salad debacle. Our Schwarma was okay. I guess they forgot to not include rice, because there were bits of rice mixed into my chicken, as if they plated up with rice and then had to scrape the rice off before bringing it out to us. I, however, was not fooled. The chicken was fine, but a little greasy. The waiter made sure to come by when we were almost done with our meal to let us know that they had salad. Fantastic! Alert the press! This guy was a genius.
We passed on dessert, of course, but my friend asked for a cup of coffee, to which Korean Ken Barbie replied:
"Our coffee machine is broken."
And to which I thought, "of course it is."
Shamshiri Grill
1712 Westwood Blvd.
Westwood, 90024
(310) 474-1470
$
3 comments:
That's hilarious. What an experience. I too have been to the Shamshiri Grill but my experience was much more enjoyable to say the least.
I went for dinner on a weekday. The restaurant was bustling; my dinner date and I waited about 10 mins for a seat. We were seated in the center of the restaurant, our waiter was actually Persian and he was great. I ordered the lamb kabobs. The seasoning was simple but tasty and the meat was tender. The kabobs were accompanied by a fantastic raisin, pine nut rice and the infamous salad (which was available that evening). The food was good and the portions were enormous... made for great leftovers.
My recommendation, don't ever go there on Easter. :)
I had a feeling Easter was working against me. Thanks for commenting! I might have to give this place another try.
It is usually a "no-no" to go to a restaurant when there is a very religious holiday going on. Nothing is fresh, kitchen help are usually pissed off that they need to work and so on. But your negative remarks were very funny, I was able to visualize the whole scene.
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