Al Bustan

11-04-2008
inthenortheast

The food at Al-Bustan (now calling itself 'Simply Lebanese') is good, and the prices are within the norm for a restaurant of its type in South Kensington. The problem is the proprietor. I went in for an early (6:15) dinner, and the fact that the restaurant was not crowded meant that I spent the entire time listening to her loud and irritable mobile conversation. When she realized that I had been given a lunch menu by mistake, she swooped over and literally yanked it out of my hands, only afterwards snapping 'This is a lunch menu' by way of explanation.What really settled it for me, however, was the way she treated the server on duty. This was a polite young lady who endured the owner's harangues for using her (the proprietor's) pen and not her own to take my order - both pens in question were cheap 50p-for-10 ballpoints, as far as I could see. The owner also berated the waitress for not being quick enough to remove an empty plate from the table when I sat down - there was an extra place setting on my table for all of 15 seconds - with the result that the poor girl was pressured into clearing my dish before I was done eating. The proprietor did all this in my hearing, i.e., loudly and within fifteen feet of me. The server was not a native English speaker but greeted me, etc., in perfectly good English; by the end of the meal, she was so nervous that she stumbled over the word 'bread'.

26-07-2007
Anon

DO NOT GO HERE. I eat out 4/5 times per week and I think this was the worst experience in a restaurant I have ever had. The manager/owner is incredibly rude and patronising. We had been overcharged for three items on the bill. When I pointed this out I was told by the manager that she was already aware that there were mistakes on our bill. She then proceeded to tell me that I obviously knew nothing about running a business as this was how they made money. She then told me it was too much of an inconveniece to refund me what had been over-charged and that she did not know how to refund money to a credit card. She finally reluctantly (after 20 minutes) reimbursed the money. She ruined an evening out and the mediocre food was not worth the money. I cannot encourage you enough to go elsewhere.