I -really- wanted to enjoy myself at Merkato Ethiopian Cafe. I've never had Ethipian food and my companion had only enjoyed once so we decided to go to the highest rated place in Vegas that was the cheapest - Merkato seemed to be a great choice. We have been doing 30 days of vegetarianism so we decided on the pastries with lentils as an appetizer and the vegetarian combo that most people on Yelp rave about. I found it a bit strange when the vegetarian combo came out without the pastries/lentils - but figured that they would bring it out later or forgot to get it. She spooned a red chili-consistency food onto the sponge-bread plate that was the vegetarian combo. At this point I had finished my water before beginning to eat. Everything tasted good; the Injera (spongey bread) went well with everything but I found that it might have tasted better if it was warm instead of cold (not a beef with the restaurant). My companion took a bite and pulled something out of her mouth. This is where things took a turn for the worse. She showed me a small black rock that was in the yellow food that looked like mashed corn. I thought it might be a seed, and she dropped it on her plate - making a loud chink sound. I felt it and we definitely agreed it was a rock. A rock in our food? Really? A waitress never adressed if we were doing okay; but to be fair they were busy chatting with each other ALONE at the bar instead of helping their customers. My water was empty the whole dinner and was never refilled. I had to walk to the waitresses and ask them for the check. This is when the second strike happened. The check read a vegetarian platter and then an $8 appetizer that we did not order. Instead of giving us the pastry, they had given us a more expensive appetizer that they had scooped on to the plate. However, there was no way we could have known this during dinner because 1.) nothing was ever explained to us what each thing was and 2.) they appetizer apparently came at the same time as the vegetarian platter (and the description of the vegetarian platter is vague on the menu). I asked if they could take some of the cost off of the appetizer - I acknowledged that maybe there could have been more communication, but it really was a mistake on the waitresses part for taking down our order wrong. She said "Oh no, because that's good stuff and you're taking it to-go." to which I responded "I don't want to waste your food, if you want to throw it away and take some of the charge off i'm okay with that;" She said she couldn't do anything and was completely unreceptive and unapologetic. Her view was that we should have told the waiter that we had received the wrong appetizer. My companion told her and showed the the black rock that was found in the food. No emotion. No apology. She just said "Oh..." Are you kidding me? We were astounded by how terrible the service was. Poor communication takes two parties, but they really dropped the ball on this one. Poor waiting service because I had to get up to ask for the check and no one came to check on us - they weren't busy with anything else but conversing with each other. Poor kitchen - there was a rock in the food. A rock. I'm very upset. I'm very sad that I'm writing a poor review; before this my companion always joked that I always have a great time and enjoy all dining experiences. That streak is over. Thanks a lot Merkato; avoid this place at all costs just in principle of the way they treat their customers. Restaurants that care more about money than sharing an experience with their customers don't deserve to be open - there are too many passionate and loving business owners/workers that are struggling to support an operation like Merkato.
Is this review positive or negative?
Possible answers: 1. negative 2. positive
Answer:
1.