JS
Jeffrey Sugar
Aug 20, 2026
★★☆☆☆
First visit to Wael’s Mediterranean Cuisine, and unfortunately it was a frustrating experience from beginning to end.
We came specifically because Wael’s was participating in a school fundraiser. I liked the idea of supporting both our school and a local restaurant. Unfortunately, the experience did not live up to that goodwill.
My family of four sat with my child’s friend and her parent, making six people at the table. We specifically requested separate checks: one for four people and one for two.
What I was never told was that Wael’s automatically adds an 18% gratuity for tables of five or more, apparently regardless of separate checks.
When I paid, the server handed me the electronic payment device. It showed my total and then presented the familiar gratuity choices of 18%, 20%, etc. Nothing made it clear that an 18% gratuity had ALREADY been added, so I selected 18% and ultimately paid $105.94.
I was not offered a receipt.
The only reason I discovered what happened was because the other party at our table insisted on getting a paper receipt. The server made comments about having to go to the back to print one. When I returned from the restroom, the other patron showed me the receipt and pointed out that the 18% gratuity had already been included.
That is unacceptable.
If a mandatory gratuity has already been added, tell the customer. And if your payment terminal is then going to ask for another tip, it should be unmistakably clear that gratuity is already included. Customers should not have to insist on receiving a receipt just to understand how they were charged.
Unfortunately, the food and service did not improve the experience.
The restaurant had run out of pizza, which was my kids’ first choice. Their second choice was chicken tenders. My children are 12, 14, and 17, but only the 12-year-old was permitted to order from the kids menu.
There was NO age restriction stated on the menu.
Even more aggravating, our server commented that she might normally allow it, but “the owner is here today.” If there is no posted age limit and I am paying for the food, why exactly can my teenager not order chicken tenders?
The meals were also delivered several minutes apart. Three meals arrived first, while the remaining three were supposedly “right out.” They were not. It was easily another seven minutes before the rest arrived. Some of the kids were nearly finished eating before my son and I even started.
As for the food: my $17.50 gyro platter was fine but completely unremarkable. My 14-year-old’s $19.75 chicken penne had chicken she described as rubbery, although she otherwise ate it. My 17-year-old ate only about half of her $14.95 lasagna because the noodles were difficult to chew and seemed undercooked. My 12-year-old had the children’s chicken tenders.
Any one of these problems might have been easy to overlook. Taken together—running out of menu items, an unposted kids-menu restriction, the bizarre “owner is here today” explanation, meals arriving well apart, mediocre food, no receipt being offered, an undisclosed automatic 18% gratuity, and then being prompted to tip again—it made for a needlessly aggravating evening.
We went to Wael’s intending to support our school and support a local business.
Instead, we left feeling overcharged, underwhelmed, and unlikely to return.