Sayat Nova

My Armenian cousins were visiting and were interested in trying Sayat Nova as they heard it was the only Armenian restaurant in Chicago. While the red lentil soup was OK, the rest of the meal went downhill fast for me. My cousins ordered the Armenian Combo and the Kufta Dinner and my sister and I ordered the Vegetable Cous Cous. Please note that on the menu, the cous cous was to come in a light tomato broth with mixed grilled vegetables. When the plates were served, I could not believe that in front of me was a plate of carrots and turnips over dry cous cous. Of course, the waiter was nowhere to be found after setting down the plates so I ate my carrots in silence as I did not want to upset my cousins who seemed to be enjoying their meal (except for the undercooked rice pilaf). When the waiter, Andrew, finally came back after the meal was finished, he asked how everything was. I told him that for $15.95 for the Vegetable Cous Cous I would expect more than carrots and turnips. He asked if I wanted more vegetables and I said no as everyone had already finished eating. He then winked at me and said Sorry you were disappointed and walked away. I was floored! As we were leaving, I looked for the owner to discuss my dinner, but he was on the phone so we left. The next morning, I called the restaurant and spoke to the owner, Roupen Demirdjian, explaining the situation with the Vegetable Cous Cous and he said that he had the same thing to eat that night and that his dish contained carrots, turnips, green squash, yellow squash, eggplant, and tomatoes. When I told him that my dish only contained carrots and turnips, he basically called me a liar. I then asked, since I was very disappointed with what I had, if he would consider a gift card or voucher for my $15.95 carrots and turnips so that I could come in and try the complete dish again, he told me that he did not need a problem customer like me. Nice. I will never go back to Sayat Nova and would urge anyone I know to not go there as the customer service was horrendous. And to all visitors to this great city, take a $5.00 cab to Greek Town for a wonderful experience and don’t bother with this CRAP that is Sayat Nova.