Eva M.
Yelp
At least 4 Mediterranean restaurants/eateries are within 8-minutes drive of each other within the Kirkland Totem Lake area. Jasmine Kitchen is the last that I am trying. Sadly, it was less than ideal.
Ding #1 - minus 0.5 stars
Because restaurants all tend to be busy at the common dinner hour, I have been calling ahead and placing an order for pickup at a much later time. Jasmine Kitchen is the first restaurant to have forgotten to make my order. I stood there while they made it. It was annoying, but at least it was not a long wait.
Ding #2 - minus 0.5 stars
The Lamb Shawarma Plate was $16.50 on the receipt instead of $14.50 on their website. Inaccurate online prices is a pet peeve of mine. Also, the receipt had a $0.65 charge for a "vinaigrette sauce" that I didn't order, and it didn't go with either of the food items. Argh. On the plus side, he (reluctantly) honored the Yelp check-in discount of $3 off $20+ purchase. I am quite certain it was only because they forgot my order. So this ended up being a near net zero.
The food:
Lamb Shawarma Plate - 2.5 stars
The contents of their lamb shawarma plate is fairly standard. See photo. The portion is not nearly as generous as Mediterranean Kitchen. Hubby said the lamb wasn't tender, and it was chewy. Disappointed. Especially since I watched them make it, I know it wasn't left on the grill, which means the lamb quality itself is meh.
Falafel Supreme Sandwich - 4 stars
The sandwich itself I thought was quite good. The falafels were tasty, though I still prefer to slather on the tahini sauce. A couple of strange things. 1) Their online menu said it contains feta cheese. When ordering I asked for no cheese and he said it doesn't come with cheese. Again, incorrect online info. 2) Their online menu said "keep it tame or let loose with our fiery red pepper 'shatta' sauce" with no added cost mentioned, and I requested it spicy. The sandwich did not have any hot sauce. Instead I got the aforementioned vinaigrette sauce (not spicy) that I was charged. Confounding as heck.
Like I said, I had called ahead to place my order. I have been doing this for every restaurant to save them fees from the app companies. Unfortunately, I honestly could not understand the person on the phone, and I repeated my order multiple times even though it was only two items. That was frustrating. This is the first time I am recommending the reader to just order online.
Pickup at the restaurant:
On the plus side, they were wearing masks and gloves. And he did take off and tossed his gloves before using the cash register. On the bad side, the signing keypad was filthy, feeling crusty while I signed. Gross. They had hand sanitizer so that helped.