Zatar, Berkeley

Well, despite the mixed reviews, my wife and I decided to try this place out, and were both pleasantly surprised. It is small, and they have a very leisurely pace, but the bread and oils are so good, I didn't mind much. I had the lamb and the yogurt drink which which were both excellent. My wife had the vegetable tagine, which we both liked, and we thought the overall experience was romantic in a quaint sort of Berkeley-esque way.

Well let me start by saying I was so dissapointed. We went looking forward to a great meal, and Zatar was recommended by a friend. Maybe we were just really unlucky? It took about 45 minutes for the appetizer and a total of almost 2 hours for the main course. When we finally recieved our food we both took a bite of my husbands which was a delicious chicken kuzi, the waitress then came by and asked how are food was and we replied that it was wonderful due to the trial of the kuzi. Then we took a bite of mine:( It was at best luke warm. The waitress didn't bother to stop by again until after my husbands was finished. I had maybe taken two bites of my food and she didn't even inquire as to if there was any problem. 20 dollars for two bites of cold food. I did however mention to her at the end that to wait more than an hour was ok because I understood that my husbands food must have taken longer but mine should have been warm as well. Her remark at this point was that it was actually my food that had held things up. Isn't that amazing that the food that we were waiting for all that time was cold when it got to the table. Maybe the food would have been good, on another day with another waitress. All I have to say though is that any good restaurant, especially one as small as Zatar, should have no problem getting food out in a reasonable amount of time and at an acceptable temp. The waitresses remark to me made sure that we will never return and that we will also recommend against this restaurant.