Upgraded Review: Jan 2015

Recently I had quite a strange coincidence of eating twice in one weekend at Dimassi’s. Though I  have eaten here couple of  times over the years  since the first time I ate and  reviewed this restaurant  5 years ago, I  finally thought  this restaurant  deserved to be rated better after my recent experience.

Since the time I reviewed this place many years ago the food is definitely gotten so much better though I can’t say the same about the ambiance.  This weekend I had the pleasure of enjoying  delicious Gyro meat , fresh of the oven  Pita Naan( flat bread),  delicious Babaghanoush( smoky Eggplant dip), Hummus( chickpea and seseme dip),  Tabbouleh( parsley, mint and tomatoes salad), Falafels (deep fried chickpea fritters), Dolmas( meat and rice stuffed grape leaves) , Baklava (Sweet fillo and nuts pastry) and  Busbousa (semolina cake)

The Gyro  meat  commonly beef and lamb cooked on a vertical broiler was  juicy and delicious while the warm  Pita naan/ flat bread  was nice and  fresh. Each bite of Naan with the  combination of Gyro meat  and  Tabouleh and  dip of  either Hummus or Baba-ghanoush was scrumptious. The Dolmas were not as good, but the desserts were fine and better than before and tasted good with coffee also part of the buffet besides the soda.

The improved food quality, taste and presentation of the food in the buffet deserves an upgraded rating. Worth checking out if you enjoy Mediterranean cuisine or looking out for Halal restaurants.

Cuisine: Mediterranean
Price Range: moderate
Rating: ***
Website: http://dimassi.com/
Dimassi’s Mediterranean Buffet
12636 Research Blvd
Austin, Tx 78759

Older Review:

One evening when we were meeting our friends for dinner, we chose this place with two goals- good Mediterranean food and kid comfortable restaurant; only one goal was met!

We have eaten and enjoyed good Mediterranean food in the United States and across the globe, and this place is a sorry compromise for Mediterranean food!  From the kids comfort point of view, the place is large and open, big enough for Kids to run around. I even saw some were heeling around 😉   Yes a lot of space and lot of unoccupied tables.

The place lacks appeal when you walk in. The ambience is missing. The atmosphere is just plain and unadorned. Adding Mediterranean settings would have given it some personality and warmth, but here it’s absent. We just had to walk in, prepay for the buffet and sit on one of the many tables in this open space. Our excitement and spirits for a great evening already came down.

Next we walked over to the large selection of buffet. Yes, there is a large variety of dishes in good quantity. But the quality was the one which seemed lacking. The specialty of Mediterranean and Greek food are the fresh pitas. Here unfortunately the pita bread served was hard and stiff. The zatar seasoned pitas were not bad, but also not soft and fresh.   In the chicken category, the tandoori  chicken and chicken kabab were good.  The baked fish was not bad. But the Lamb shanks, typically one of the exquisite Mediterranean lamb entree was very greasy with distasteful here. The shanks were not trimmed of the excess fat hence the foul fatty flavor had got into the soup, and tainted its flavor. The rest of the fare was just average.

When I saw there were couple of options in the desserts, I raised my hopes which had fallen after the average food. One of my favorite desserts, the baklava   which I have eaten in umpteen number of places and personally make it myself   was also among the desserts.  But the baklava here was bland and the worst I have ever eaten.  Semolina cake is a crunchy delicious cake pastry made is the Middle East also called namoura or basbousa.  Last time I ate the basbousa was when a Lebanese acquaintance had made it and got over this sweet dessert and all of us had jotted down its recipe. But at Dimassi’s, it was not even sweet!  The jam cookies were not good either. The dessert selection was even more miserable.

What could have been a great evening with our good friends turned into a bad dining experience. I don’t particularly fancy buffet eating, but in some places it’s pretty decent.  But this one was the worst of the lot. When you can see a large variety of food, yet none appealing, it’s bad.

Cuisine: Mediterranean
Price Range: moderate
Rating: *
Website: http://www.dimassisaustin.com/
Dimassi’s Mediterranean Buffet
12636 Research Blvd
Austin, Tx 78759