Critic's Review
This location had a restaurant named Rolston previously; a place so obscure and uninteresting that I never even gave it a listing. It's been re-opened with a Lebanese concept with a fancy interior; I thought I'd give it a try.
It's a big restaurant; it's a risk to open a big, fancy restaurant behind Ruby Tuesdays in a Winn Dixie shopping center. The point of paying the CAM fees in a shopping center is that the other businesses generate foot traffic, but Winn Dixie and Rainbow aren't drawing in a high income crowd.
I walked in and had to wait a bit; there was no hostess on duty.
I peered inside and someone noticed me and showed me to a table. I'm straining my vocabulary to describe the place (thank goodness for photos); fancy, elegant, gaudy, ostentatious; the word will vary depending on your taste.
The good news with empty restaurants is that you get a booth. The booths here have pillows and no shortage of eye-catching decor.
My server definitely wasn't a family member; I ordered an iced tea with extra lemon. When she brought out the tea with 1 lemon wedge she made a face and asked "Is this enough lemon?", clearly understanding that it wasn't. "Well that's not really extra lemon", I wisecracked. "I'll cut one up for you". I guess they didn't expect any people at the bar if they don't have a lemon cut up at 2:30pm.
Another restaurant that doesn't know that raw sugar doesn't dissolve in cold beverages.
The lunch menu only offers sandwiches, soups and salads and 3 Kabobs that they call entrees. I asked about the 1 "special of the day", and the server girl said that they hadn't started that yet. Say What? Ok, when lamb and chicken is the same price I get the lamb, but that's just me.
no bread or hummus with your $14 "entree".
There was music playing, but also a loud screeching noise that filled the room. I asked the girl about it and she said something about a vent; imagine that someone is drilling into the wall of the building you're in.
The food came out in 3 minutes.
The "entree" comes with "chef's choice" of grilled vegetables and basmati rice. Spreading out the rice exposed the true ratio.
The meat was cooked properly, but it failed to say "Lebanese" to me. No particular spices or evidence of a skillful marinated. Just some grilled lamb.
I struggled with a salt shaker which was clogged; the server girl brought me another clogged one. The Tzatziki sauce was a welcome addition although it wasn't a very impressive version.
The vegetables were a total joke; dry grilled onions are not edible and they were all cold; like they grilled them during prep. The tomato was a raw wedge that somehow had grill marks on the skin. They didn't even bother to peel the outer skin from the onion. These vegetables were for show and not for eating.
The rice was properly seasoned (again, with no particularly middle eastern flavors), so I got enough calories. At 3pm I was the only sole in the place. I asked if they closed at 3pm as they seemed to be pushing me out (she asked "How was it" when it wasn't nearly done), but they're open straight through.
Conclusion
Beyond the decor, I always wonder why restaurants think that lunch is some sort of throw-away meal. Instead of showcasing their cuisine by offering smaller portions of their main menu, they offer salads and sandwiches at a price that no-one who shops in this center is going to be willing to pay.
What I got here I could have gotten at Ferdo's for $11 (which includes bread and hummus) or for half the price at the Gyro place on the other end of the center.
