I drive by the restaurant plaza frequently, and decided one day, with my family in the car, to stop for a nice dinner. The ambiance is inviting, and everyone--from greeter to hostess, waitress to owner--were very friendly and accommodating. Service was also excellent. \r
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The food is another matter. We lived in Atlanta in the 90's and came to love the tasty and authentic mediterranean restaurants; smoky and creamy babaganoush, lemony hummus with olive oil and paprika, kefta with lamb and cilantro-cumin overtones, light falafel with nutty-lemon tahini sauce, simple salads that you order just to taste the vinegar/lemon/oregano dressing, and tangy tzatziki sauce that you end up dipping everything into.\r
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We ordered a good variety of nearly everything at Solomons, and every plate was bland, Americanized, and low quality. The kefta might as well be a bubba burger with spices. The fattoush salad mirrored a side-salad at Applebees. Where was the fresh mint, feta and whole olives? Hummus and babaganoush were room temp, bland, simply awful. Falafel lumps were quarter-size (3 for an appetizer), hard on the outside and dry inside. The lousy tahini was dumped on top. Worst of all were the stuffes grape leaves (dolmas?). Filled with heavy rice and tomoato(!), they were dead looking and tasted worse.\r
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I've had far better mediterranean staples at the deli in the building where I work---Truffles, owned by a Lebanese(?) family. They have homemade hummous, pita, and dolmas (grape leaves) that are stored in a cooler in big tupperware bins and served fast and cheap. So it shouldn't be too difficult for a large Mediterranean restaurant to match a small office deli on quality and taste. Solomon's disappointed this gringo.
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