Excellent MIddle Eastern Experience
The food was perfect, the staff was great, the belly dancing was mesmerizing and the atmosphere made us feel like we were really in the Middle East. The menu is very reasonably priced. The vegetarians and the meat-eaters were completely taken care of. They take reservations of all sizes, any night of the week... in fact they recommended that we make them because the dining room is so small. And best of all, they are a B.Y.O.B. establishment. This is my new favorite place to eat!    [06 Jul 2004 14:25:05]

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Recommended Dishes: Sizzling Lamb - entree, Patlican - appetizer, Choklava - dessert

     ­GG   

Animosity and Avarice Served Nice and Hot
Took a client from New Orleans here to show him what Austin was about after one of my friend's (whose opinions I respect) said it was solid.

Here's the quick play by play:

It was their third day doing lunch. Went in and was greeted with a genuine smile from our waitress. Place is very cozy. Picked a table inside. Went to the men's room and saw the charming outside area. It was an incredible day, so I went back in and suggested that we move outside. Asked our waitress, who now looked like she had just suffered a strong electrical shock. She didn't reply but led us out.

She then said, 'I'm the only one here'. We both then said we weren't in ANY kind of a hurry. Told her to take her time, plus, there wasn't anybody else there! We were the only ones.

From then on everything went down hill. The Trail of Tears from inside to outside was about thirty feet; a real stretch for a trained waitress with tennis shoes on a sixty degree day.

Now with the genuine scowl of a late twenties over-educated sulker she reluctantly answered our questions with as few words as possible, making us feel stupid, which was lovely on such a fine day.

The tension oozed over us every time she came by. We're still the only diners at the place. She was adept at leaving our questions and remarks with no answer or speech whatsoever. She may have recently had some mouth or dental surgery.

She comes out with the food, which was great, and asks, 'Would you like me to take your gum?' to which I replied 'yes', since she hadn't given us any napkins; I didn't want to throw it on the ground! After this she disappeared. We didn't want for anything, but had to go to the front to get the check, which is where the best part of the story was found.

Another waitress asked how the food was. We told her it was great. I told her we must have angered our waitress somewhow to which she replied, 'Oh, that's the owner. She's just stressed out.'

We couldn't beleive it! She should fire herself. How embarassing for her.

She streamed by a moment later and somebody made comment to us how the cuisine being good was important. I then I said, "So is service." Our lovely heroine heard this and left for more 'owner' duties as she thought about how I was going to stiff her. I left her $4 on $20 and got the hell out of there, apologizing to my friend and explaing that this wasn't really Austin.

The Point:

Dont' go to Ararat if the owner's having a bad day. You may want to get her personal number and call before just dropping by whenever you feel like it.

Great food. Thanks for the memories.    [16 Nov 2005 17:11:10]

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     ­jh