Sahara Restaurant & Banquet Center

I honestly regret spending money here this time. I’ve been here before and had decent food, which is why this experience was so shocking. I ordered the beef cream chop and it was one of the worst restaurant dishes I’ve had in years. It was extremely greasy and tasted like it was fried in old, reused oil. The meat didn’t taste fresh at all more like something that had been frozen, refried, or sitting for a long time. I tried a few bites from different pieces just to be fair, but every single one tasted bad. About 10 minutes later, my stomach started hurting, which made me seriously question the food quality and kitchen standards. What made this worse was the service. When I told the server, he basically said since the food was already served, there was nothing he could do. No effort to fix it, no replacement, no apology. I still ended up paying about $31 for food I couldn’t even eat, just because I didn’t want to argue. Places like this need to understand customers are not paying to gamble on whether the food is safe or fresh. Based on this experience, I honestly can’t recommend ordering anything outside of the few “safe” menu items, and even then I’d think twice. Very disappointing experience overall.

I eat here quite often. It's always good and fresh and the quality of the meat is very good. I have tried other restaurants and the saying is correct you get what you pay for. Not sure how people dont tast the difference at these cheap restaurants. So far so good!!!

The food was delicious and the platers are really generous. The service was over the top. Our servers was a Greek lady, I’m sorry for not remembering her name, however, she delivered a level of service to be expected in a fine dining experience. The cherry on top were the prices, super affordable

We love coming to Sahara Restaurant! Service is phenomenal! Jaklin is the best! She’s always on point and never misses a beat. Anthony is another great waiter. The staff makes us feel at home and is quick to take our order and bring out our food, which is always hot and fresh. My friends and I love the fresh baked bread and turshi. The food is consistently delicious. Some of our favorites include Chicken Tikka, Chicken Cream Chop and Beef Kafta Kabob and Beef Gus/Shawarma. The soups and salads are a must with every meal! Their signature Sahara Ranch dressing is really good. Love their Greek Salads or Fatoush Salad with Beef Shawarma. They stay open late which we really like and my friends and I honestly come here 1-3 times per week. Can’t say anything bad about this place, if you haven’t been there, we highly recommend trying them out.

Excellent place to get dinner. The best things here are the beef tikka (the filet), the bread they give you with the meal, and the beef shawrma. All their meat is very moist, tender and taste excellently! The lamb chops are okay so just stick with the meat.

Always my go to favorite. The place is always so clean. The service is always on point. The owner is the most generous, humble person in the world and deserves everything. Everybody is so friendly and so attentive the food is always delicious. There’s not a better Mediterranean restaurant in Michigan then the Sahara on 16 mile my favorite just celebrated My Daughter‘s birthday here everything was amazing. They went above and beyond to accommodate seating and everything I would give them 10 stars, but it only allows me to give them five

Sahara Restaurant is definitely worth a visit! The food was really good, though not quite mind-blowing. I tried the trio platter (chicken chop, steak chop, and potato chop), and while everything was tasty, the potato chop was the clear standout--soooo good. They also kick things off with a complimentary basket of bread and pickled veggies, which was a nice touch. The restaurant is gorgeous, there's a full bar, and they even have a banquet hall for when you need to throw a big party. But let's talk pricing because... yikes. A 5 oz pour of Apothic Red for $12? That's more than the cost of the whole bottle at the store. And the entrées? Expect to drop $28 for a dish of protein and rice. Delicious, yes. Wallet-friendly, not so much. Overall, Sahara delivers on taste and atmosphere, but the prices might have you side-eyeing your bill.

The food was average. The humus was really good. The food was Iraquie. Not Lebanese. Different food. There are not a lot of flavors to their food. Service was top notch, tho, and so was the atmosphere This desert was not good at all. They served it cold. Texture was like jello

Chicken cream chop all day and best Ranch to ever exist!! I've been going to Sahara's for decades now. On point for middle eastern cuisine.

This is one of my favorite middle eastern restaurant. They have the best chicken creamchop around. Make sure to ask for the homemade ranch to go along with it.

Best around, the kibbie is one of my favorites and the Sahara fries with beef is absolutely delicious

The food and service can be a hit or miss here, but when it's good, it's GOOD. I will say they usually do a great job with large parties. Last night we had a late night meal there and it was fantastic. The hot bread and turshee (pickled veggies) are always a delight and we also ordered Laban (garlicky yogurt dip) and adis (lentil soup) which were great with the hot bread. We shared the lemon chicken cream chop which was a very generous portion and it was fresh and fantastic

Food and service is always amazing, the new hosts are really nice and get the job done even on the weekend when they're extremely busy during parties! Thanks!!!

I really enjoyed everything about this place. I was greeted when I came in by a friendly staff. I ordered Grilled chicken and rice. Hummus with pita and small side of garlic and then had salad and soup as well. It only took about 10 minutes to get everything and when I brought it home, my wife and I talked about how good everything was for hours. The true test was later in the evening when we fed some left overs to our toddler. He is a very picky eater and was feeding the chicken to himself. The place was also really nicely designed and would be a great spot to go for a date night.

I've never seen potato chop vegetarian so I was very pleased by that. All the food was very good and fresh. Big portion sizes and lots of different things to snack on like rice, stews, bread and pickled cabbage.

My father Tony has been a loyal friend and customer to this specific restaurant. Us Stokes will forever love it here. Just came to pick up a dinner for 4 and some and EVERYTHING WAS PHENOMENAL. AS ALWAYS. We have moved slightly closer to this location but even when we were living an hour+ away we still made it here and dined in as a big family. All of the flavors will stand out and everything tastes so good together. There is no other Sahara like this one. All organic ingredients, talented cooks and loving people. Inside of the restaurant is so beautiful. Even the bathrooms are beautiful. Looks like hand carved walls with gold lining. WILL ALWAYS RECOMMEND THIS RESTAURANT TO ANYONE AND EVERYONE AND THOES WHO HAVE NEVER TRIED IT ARE MISSING OUT.

Well the food is good but the waiter was rushing me on the phone, calling me bro and stuff. Asking me after every meal is that it? Is that it? Is that it bro? Wtf? Then I was running late so they decided to eat the food instead of calling me and asking where I was. I ended up waiting for 20 minutes when I got there. I was working and couldn't leave. The price is way, way too high. I willnt be going back. Next time just tell me what you want to eat and I'll order it then won't show up "bro!"

I'm surprised I haven't reviewed this spot before. We have been here a few times for lunch. Today we met for a last minute lunch to spend a bit of time together and kill some downtime. The atmosphere is warm and inviting. It was really slow for lunch time which surprised me. Our waitress was fabulous. She was quick to assist us and didn't rush us out. We split a fatoosh salad which was plenty for two people. The beat dressing was amazing and there was plenty of topping. I love Mediterranean food so my mouth was happy. The waitress let us sit and chat without rushing us out which was a definite plus. We will be back for sure!

It's so cold inside here. I am so glad I wore a trench coat. My fingers have turned purple under my nails after being here for 20 minutes. It would probably feel good if it was 90 or 100 outside. It's 73 outside. It's taking a while to order my food. My waitress was busy with a large table. She gave me the index finger to let me know she would be with me. Another waiter waited on me instead. I ordered a chicken kafta dinner, stir fried chicken (gallaba), medium hummus. $3 additional charge to substitute a Greek salad or any another salad instead of the house salad with the chicken kafta dinner, really? That's crazy. I got an upgrade of a medium house salad for $3 instead. I ordered a chicken gallaba to go as well. The waiter noticed I was looking up at the vents and asked if I wanted to move one booth over. I did and it's about 20 degrees warmer one both over. The pita pockets are small, but the outside has a nice crunchy crust. The inside is soft and billowy and has a nice air pocket to it too. The pita itself doesn't have a ton of flavor. The hummus is delicately smooth, creamy. The house salad is iceberg lettuce, not my favorite. It comes with a creamy dressing. I asked for it with the Fattoush dressing instead. My pet peeve is finding a salad butt in my salad bowl. The Fattoush dressing is good. The chicken kafta is out, but no garlic sauce as promised, yet. I had to ask the bus boy, he would tell my waiter. The chicken kafta meat is good, not too dry and has decent flavor too. Their garlic sauce isn't super smooth, still tastes good anyways. The veggies aren't grilled, as I was expecting, they are steamed and water logged. I should have asked what the veggies are, as I am not fond of steamed water logged cauliflower much or broccoli either. The complimentary cabbage and pickles are decent. The chicken gallaba is definitely more like a stir fry and less tomato saucy gallaba like. It's okay. The waiter is nice and attentive.

Chicken shawarma I couldn't even eat it it's like they swept it off off the floor and put it in my box to eat by far the worst Sahara food that I was ever served my wife threw up and I feel like I'm going to throw up a fourth of an order trushi no onion no tomato no bread I will never go back. Day 2 my wife is sick and I spent the last 8 hours going back and forth to the rest room literally 15 times.

I did two orders of lemon chicken cream chop and when it was delivered i got lemon chicken rice soup instead.

Great place! great service! great food! Me and my wife went here and had the best time. I love places like this the food was good Bread was fresh and at the end of our dinner they gave us free tea to try and it tasted amazing. Great place for elegance or casual !

A1 people A1 service great authentic Chaldean food and the place is aesthetically pleasing service is always on point

Excellent food friendly service great host must see how they decorated and the outside view is amazing. I love it here great dessert, so beautiful place that a great atmosphere.

Three words: AH-MAY-ZING!! The service here so is sooooo much better than the hall road. So is the food!!! The menu is much more extensive than the hall road location and the food is much more fresh. Shawarma fries, chicken cream chop, turshee... it's all delicious! The server, Christian, was helpful and very attentive. The bus boy, Lucas, was extremely kind and on top of everything! He continuously helped clear off the table, pour drinks, etc. He was amazing and he deserves a raise! I'm already thinking about the next time I'll be here!

We did a large group order via Doordash. Overall, the food was fine. However, we had guests that did not get their order so we were not sure if it was an error on Doordash or the restaurant. So we called the Sahara restaurant and told them the situation. They were willing to correct the order we just had to pick it up. The staff seemed understanding and did correct the mistake without hesitation. Overall, decent place if you want to try some mediterranean food.

Food was great, but they add about a 20% gratuity to the bill and don't inform you about it until you get the bill, then they still expect another tip. I don't appreciate restaurants that force you to give a tip and don't get me wrong I do tip 20% by myself but I don't need someone enforcing it on me.

Sahara 16& dequindre continues to provide astonishing food and great prices. Their staff are extremely helpful and friendly and are just undervalued especially when they're overwhelmed with the amount of work and tables they tend to. Went in for Easter Sunday lunch with a party of 7. Despite being so overwhelmed by the number of people inside as well as the banquet hall being tended to, the food was amazing and perfectly cooked. Everything was fresh and cooked to order.

Excellent food and great service. Sharma dinner with curry soup or stir fry. Price is right!!!!

Did not expect to spend almost $45 on soup and a order of chicken tikia with no oven bread nor peta bread I'm disappointed I wish everyone can understand oven bread gets served like it's nothing well dining but when it comes to carry out you have to order the peta or oven really? Carry out they don't take good care of it's not about the bread but really disappointing to see this place fall! Lmao I called to let them know that they forgot any kind of bread there respawns was "oh next time we will give you bread and extra too" I'm good there won't be a next time never again!!!

Place is great. No clue why they have a lower score on here. I actually drive pretty far to get to this place and it's always been what I expected. I have to think that it's maybe some of their competitors throwing the negativd ratings on here.

I took my daughter here over Christmas break & the food, service & atmosphere were wonderful!! For being so busy during the holiday season , they were incredibly on top of the service aspect. Bravo Sahara staff !!

This place is massive. Tons of various types of seating. The food is also quite food. Authentic and tasty. If you want some good middle eastern food in the area, I would definitely recommend stopping in here. Good customer service as well.

I ordered $60 worth of food and realized there was 3 missing items when I got home. When I called to see what happened the person on the phone claimed I never ordered the missing items. He started yelling and swearing at me through the phone. One of the missing items was rice and I remember the person that took my order asked me what size rice I wanted. I have never been treated more poorly by someone over a simple complaint. Ridiculous. The food wasn't very good either. Will never go there again.

We have never dined inside Sahara but have ordered carry-out at least 5 times. We always order the family tray for 3. The price might be high but the amount of food will provide at least 2/3 meals for the both of us. The cream chop chicken is absolutely one of the best I've tried. Sahara also makes delicious breads that are fresh and hot, ready to serve. The dips are delicious and they provide a salad for a balanced dining experience.

the restaurant has the most disrespected workers in Sterling Heights, specially the ones with blonde hair, my mother was the first time visitor there and she was disrespected from the workers from the staff. I'm so disappointed in the restaurant because they always disrespectful to the Chaldeans customers.

Great food and great atmosphere. Very nice decor and a patio area. They also have a beautiful banquet hall for parties. If you come here make sure you try their Sahara fries and their sautéed chicken wings. Their lemon garlic chicken cream chop is great too. This place is also famous for their Sahara ranch. They sell them by the bottle and will be your new favorite dressing if it isn't already.

Great food, great service. Good quality. Specially, a great service from waitress Jackie and Anthony and the server and everyone here

I really used to like Sahara. I wanted to give it 5 stars but I have to be truthful. My family and I, along with friends from out of state , came there Saturday evening. We were sat out in the greenhouse section or whatever you want to call it. No problem. It looked nice and roomy, no issues. UNTIL, the vent above us was blowing out hot air. We asked numerous times for it to be turned off or lowered bc it was like a sauna in there. They turned it off and kept the cold air blowing. Which that part was okay! Not complaining about the temperature. But when it was both hot and cold air blowing out, and we're eating our salad or garlic with bread until our food comes out, lint was blowing out of the vents and landing in our drinks and food. How disgusting was it to pick out lint from ur salad! We told the waiter, he said he'd let the manager know, but that they were busy. I don't care how busy a restaurant is. For you to allow your vents to be so dirty that lint is falling into customers food, is totally uncalled for! I looked behind me to maybe move to a diff table but saw the same thing happening. It was a very bad experience. Food was forgotten for my daughter, she never got her stew with her entree. Our guest food was prepared wrong TWICE. That's just not acceptable. You're busy for a reason, people like the food. Don't get too relaxed and lazy about giving too service and forget food. We spent over $360 dollar there that I truly regret. I wish u would've spent that money elsewhere. If I plan on going to Sahara again, it definitely won't be this location.

Nice restaurant with good food, BUT, today is the last day I will go to Sahara. Service is not good, sad, I really feel bad for the owner. Usually, the owner checks on the restaurant and customers. Today I did not see the owner to tell him things were not good. Please owner, if you see this comment try to spend more time at your business, you are a nice man, I met you a few times. Please be strict with all your employees from the kitchen to servers, it easy for employees to ruin the business. God bless you and I hope the best for your nice restaurant.

Came here twice recently both for events with one inside the banquet and the other in the restaurant. First time around their food was not good at all. Many people stated the same thing. The second time around the food was definitely better but still whatever. I think this place is overrated definitely wouldn't recommend if you're looking for decent/good food. The service also sucked. We were told they were busy which I understand that everywhere is short staffed but they also booked way more than they could handle and we were left without any drinks other than water until everyone was done eating. The ambiance is decent but wouldn't ever consider eating her unless someone decides to have another event here. I know family don't plan on returning here or having another event here after the experience. Considering the location of this area, there is so much competition around and so much better options.

The hookah is okey. Not wow! I did not try the food, so I have no idea how is the restaurant.

Love coming here. I think on my trip I ate here 10 times already. By far super fresh food and amazing service. My favorite Middle Eastern restaurant.

Most pathetic restaurnt in the neighbourhood. Ordered Whole deboned chicken and all I could find is half tray of chicken fat that is grilled. I could not go back as it was closing time and thr doors were shut. Complained the next day all they could say was I did not pick your order. People never go or order from this restaurant, please do go to other Mediterranean joints but never this one.

Dirty.. Waitstaff can seem rude sometimes.. flys flying around 100% of the time.. Been here about 4 or 5 times. Often not many customers. Food inconsistent - Hall road location a little bit better

This place is not what it used to be like back in Oak Park, and recently I placed a order for DoorDash and it took almost an hour and I live 2 miles away. The driver told me how they take forever just to get one sandwich and a soup ready.

I this place! It's so delicious and the servers are really nice. The chicken cream chop is crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. The rice is cooked to perfection - white and fluffy and the white bean stew is to die for! I've been going to this restaurant and the original in Oak Park, Michigan since I was a little girl. The ranch dressing has a flavor that's not typical and I love that too! The chicken lemon rice isn't the original - it has a twist and it doesn't have a very thick consistency. I don't like thick soups so this one hits the spot. I'd say if there were a down to them it would be minimal like wait time, but it's not bad at all. Thank you Sahara Restaurant yum yum yummm Oh yeah I put the ranch all over my food because I'm in love

I found hair in my food a week ago I called Sahara and they said we can't do nothing about it, called the manager and he's always busy and unavailable. Never ordering food from there. Bad service Bad restaurant Nasty food Nasty people

Clean restaurant. Very impressed with the Aesthetics of this establishment. The food was great. I ordered the chicken cream chop have order it and it came with chicken lemon rice soup. The chicken lemon race was not as lemony as it should have been but it was still good. The chicken cream job was delicious. It was breaded to Perfection and definitely very juicy to bite into. We ordered the house salad to share among our table and it was as a house salad should be. I do have to note that Sahara Ranch is the best. The best part of this entire visit was the hot fresh bread that came complimentary on the table. It is warm, delicious, and So Soft that it's almost hard to resist eating the entire Bowl. They were busy and I understand that when you have a lot of patrons it is difficult to offer the greatest service. It took a little longer to get our water filled and to get little things that we needed but overall it was a great experience. Anytime we are in Michigan it is always important for us to stop here and grab lunch at least once or twice.

Great Gus Another words known as Shawarma they have not lost their touch still taste as great as I did 20 years ago the kabob was excellent too

Great food! Went here while visiting Detroit. We had the stuffed grape leaves the shawarma and the kafta kabobs all were great!!! Their fresh pita breads are delicious too start to the meal as well. They were so good we asked for seconds. The service was also attentive!!!

Pretty good food, hookah and atmosphere. The patio is definitely the spot to be at, if you can find a spot. Great spot in Troy Michigan!

First of all I order carry out same dish every time I go there. Half order of LEMON chicken cream chop. I get there and gentleman said I said full order I say I could've sworn I said half order. He doesn't say let me change it to half or whatever. Cool I pay for full order. I drive all the way home 20 min away and my order isn't even correct. So I call and complain about two things now it's not lemon chicken cream chop and I know I said half order over the phone. Gentleman only offers I drive back to pick up lemon sauce so I call back and complain. And drive all the way there to bring. Back wrong order and get my correct dish but does not even offer anything for the inconvenience of their mistake. What I get is *next time learn how to order*

Every time I order carry out from here I wait an extra half an hour longer then they tell me until my food is ready. This time the guy told me 20 minutes for 3 sandwiches, so I showed up 40 minutes later just to be safe. Sure enough my food wasn't ready. I waited another 30 minutes in the restaurant after I had already paid for my food, until I finally gave up. I told them they could keep my money because that is the last of it they will ever get. They respect nobody's time, this place is the worst. Do yourself a favor and take your business elsewhere.

Attended a wedding banquet here and the food was good, but the service and the logistics of the seating arrangements could have been better. Servers at the bar seemed surprised that you wanted a drink and acted confused when you wanted something specific. After everyone was seated for dinner we had to get up and change tables.

This is a nice place to eat and smoke hookah. The chow down Detroit dude always hypes up the fries, so I tried em our and loved it. The hookah is also pretty solid.

I ordered carry out for my lunch during work, and the food was honestly awful. The rice and chicken was EXTREMELY bland. It seemed like there was no seasoning or anything on the chicken. Same with the rice. Even the pita bread was dry and seemed old. I don't know if maybe the food was just sitting around and warmed up for me... seemed like it. I don't recommend!!!