| rev:text
| - I'm not sure what's happened to this place, but I first started eating at North around ten years ago when it was REALLY good. A few years in, after a bit of a reno (if you can call it that), I noticed the quality had changed and since then, there's been a gradual decline over the years, mostly in the service. I heard there was a change in management and while certain things haven't changed, some things have and it makes eating here not so worthwhile, especially with all the other choices in the area for Persian food.
I went by for lunch last week for the first time in quite a while, hoping things might be what they were once upon a time, although not quite...I don't recall ever eating at North in the daytime with all the outside lights off, which made the place look really eerie with all the chaos adorning the windows outside.
It took a while to be seated when the place was practically empty (we were there for a late lunch). There were plenty of staff on hand but no one seemed to care that anyone had walked through the door. Once we were seated, it took a while for anyone to come and take our order.
The bread arrived with the usual butter, parsely, and onions. The bread was different from what I remember; it was much thinner than before so that once it cooled, it was more like a cracker which makes rolling up the onion and parsley in it kind of difficult. I also noticed the beets they used to give were no longer offered, but the parsley was half-wilted and the onion was all crusty at both ends so that required some cutting up. We were famished so having to cut the wrinkly parts became a real chore. Furthermore, my previously unmet request for cutlery meant having to wait to chop up the onion. We didn't actually get any cutlery until we asked again AFTER we received our apps/soup and our mains started to roll on in. Tsk, tsk...
We ordered the following:
- must khiar: the yogurt dip which was the same as I recall: fresh and light, perfect with our bread and meat
- Shirazi salad: big FAIL. This thing had no flavour and the olive oil and vinegar was so sparse that it just tasted like water since the diced vegs were mostly the kind that are flavourless to being with and also produce a lot of liquid (tomatoes, cucumber, onion), so one would depend on some flavour from another source. This salad isn't the kind of thing that is usually bursting with flavour but there was none whatsoever to be had.
- baghala ghatogh which was soup with beans and a boiled egg sitting in the middle of the bowl; also tasteless. It just sat like yellow mush in the bowl.
- North special kebab platter: a honkin' skewer each of beef and chicken along with grilled tomato halves and rice, which is the thing I love most about their meat platters (besides the meat, of course!). I see they no longer offer the rice/salad combination. Too bad because the tanginess of the salad (dressing) of yore would have given a much needed boost to the low level of flavour.
- Chicken breast kebab plate: same as above but without the beef skewer. I don't normally order the breast as it is often dry but theirs is always moist so it made sense to have that.
We didn't stick around for dessert or coffee as we were disappointed overall with the place and just wanted to get the hell out. It took us forever to leave because the bill didn't arrive for at least 15 minutes after we asked for it, but when did finally emerge, suddenly service was all perky. A little too late, people, although I still tipped above the 15%. Why, I don't know. Maybe I felt bad knowing I'd never be going back there.
The lack of beets and salad with our platters is not a huge deal although they really shouldn't be served that way, nevermind that they're free, but add to that the lousy service and it's enough for me not to go back.
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