Damascus Genuine Syrian Flavours
Reviews · · · ·Rating: 3
We ate dinner here in August 2023.
Vegetarian sharing platter
What a catastrophic fall from grace. When we ate here just a week and a half earlier, this place blew our minds. You can imagine how excited we were to return for the famed platters night, we even invited Business Andy’s mum. She cancelled at the last minute and after eating that meal, we’re glad she missed it.
Every Tuesday Damascus does sharing platter night, $100 for a platter for two ($110 for a platter with meat). The place was packed, the complete opposite of Saturday lunchtime. And therein lies the problem. Every person in that joint is ordering these platters, which are massive and contain many of the same elements regardless of which of the 3 platters you buy. Inevitably, this results in the kitchen cooking in bulk. Where our dishes at Saturday lunch had been lovingly crafted and super fresh, a lot of the platter had more of a “scoop some up and put it on the board” vibe. The flatbread was tepid. The cauliflower, the same cauliflower we enjoyed so much last time we were here, was flaccid. Last time each dish felt intricate and thoughtful, this time they’d popped on some fried spuds. Don’t get us wrong, we love fried spuds and they were pretty good, but the comparison of the care and effort taken was night and day.
Any time you order a platter, you run the risk of getting some things you don’t like. For example, the Fee-Rex doesn’t really jive with lentils or beans. These both featured on the platter, but even Business Andy, a lentil and bean enjoyer, thought they were pretty average. In a truly great restaurant, you can order things you wouldn’t normally eat and you’ll still like them. This was not the case here. And adding insult to injury, some of the best sounding items in the platter’s description were MIA.
We were just so very disappointed, this was nothing like our last meal here. We can still recommend eating at Damascus, just not the platters, and if you do want to go on a Tuesday night, bookings are essential.