Mandaloun (Fulham)

I was trying to waste time before meeting a friend and as I enjoy shwarma decided to enter Mandaloun on my way past the restaurant. I ordered a shwarma wrap and chips and the waiter said something along the lines of “we only do that take out its a deal” Then he said “we don’t do it in here but ok I will make an exception” making it clear it was not okay. I felt embarrassed and uncomfortable. I said I didn’t know about any offer I just wanted what I had ordered. I was the only diner in the restaurant and although there looked to be take away being ordered, the main problem seemed to be that I was stopping the waiter from sitting in the sun.

I then waited 25 minutes to be served and was handed a wrap in a take away packet and I could see some chips in a take away container were sent back to the kitchen to be put in a bowl. I then ate my wrap (totally cold) and started eating my chips. I then asked for the bill. I was brought a bill of about nine pounds which seemed quite expensive but I was willing to pay it if that was the price. I was however not willing to pay for a service charge and asked the waiter to remove it from my bill, explaining as he was so rude he would not be getting a tip. He huffed puffed and screamed to his friends who were sitting outside in Arabic then said he couldn’t remove the service charge but would take my drink – diet coke – off the bill. He then came back to my table threw my change on the table and despite the fact I still had ½ a bowl of chips left told me I had to leave as he wanted to do the tables for the evening.

I then left the restaurant where I saw a notice saying sharwa wrap and chips was under £5 EAT IN OR TAKEAWAY something I asked his friend, who may have been another waiter who was sitting out at the time, to verify. I pointed this out to the original waiter who again got aggressive so I left.

I have emailed the restuarant but reading the other reviews here dont expect to hear.
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CA
1 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Saturday, May 07, 2011

We went to this restaurant last night, 10/11/10 and the service was unsatisfactory.

We arrived at 6.30pm and got shown to our seats straightaway, but that was where the service ended. The waiter came and took our orders, we ordered the calamari for starters which took half an hour to arrive and when we got it, it was not that nice, the coating was dry and the dip that was supposed to come with it, never arrived. My main course arrived another 20mins after the starter and i wasn't impressed with that either, there was only four pieces of meat in it and the waiter had already left it on the side for about 3mins after he brought it down because he couldn't work out which table had ordered it, so it wasn't that hot and my partner had to wait another ten minutes for his because they had given his to someone else. We ordered fries which we never got and when we came to pay the bill, they were on there and we told the waiter and he wasn't bothered, all he said was yes he'd take them off, no apology at all. The resaurant was full at the time, proberly about 30 people max and they couldn't seem to cope. I wouldn't recommed this restaurant to anyone.
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1 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Thursday, November 11, 2010

We expected a good meal with avarage service but was totally disappointed by this place. The service was not nice, a bit slow and did not understand what we said. The bottled water was at room temperature, the courses didn't come when we had said we wanted them to and the main courses took really long even though the restaurant was less thatn half full. The atmosphere was not nice either since they played techno music which didn't appeal to us when having dinner....

The worst thing was that when about to pay, they tried to do an ugly trick. They "forgot" the discount that they were advertising. They also added 12.5% service on the check, something we couldn't pay since there wasn't really any service at this place... I do not recommend this place at all even if some of the food was ok (good falafel), some food was bad and not close to the money paid for it.
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2 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 2
Monday, February 22, 2010

As you enter, the small seating area and bar are all quite pleasant. Then you are being seated and the guy behind the bar completely interrupts and you're left standing there for longer than necessary. It starts going down hill from there.

Myself and my girlfriend order apple juice and a glass or rose respectively. They bought a glass or red and clearly had not been listening very carefully. We skipped starters and weight straight for mains. I ordered the Chicken Shawarma and my girlfriend ordered the Lamb Shawarma.

Our mains arrived. My chicken Shawarma was over cooked, tasteless and DRY. I thought I'd try and hide it with the salad but this was sour and soggy. My girlfriends food was a similar story, tasteless and very dry. The food was hardly touched. The waiter came and I told him to take it away. He offered to make another one for us to take away, I politely refused as I wanted to leave at this point.

What was disturbing was, the staff acted like this was a normal occurance and what was worse is we were charged in full. The only redeeming feature, the drinks were nice. My fresh apple juice was good and the rose was also pretty nice.

I can say with all honesty, the WORST Restaurant experience I've ever had and unless you want to just order a drink and leave before any food comes!! I'd definately avoid this place.
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Glen
1 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Tuesday, January 12, 2010