Omar's Mediterranean and Italian Review

Omar's is a small restaurant located in St. Ann, MI am O just outside of St. Louis.  I am mixed about my experience at Omar's.  The dinner started off strong in terms of the food but quickly unraveled.  The problems are clear.  One of the major issues the restaurant suffers from is a lack of a good POS system and the staff clearly isn't trained very well.  Our server although nice issued a lot of "I don't know's".

So let's start off with the positives.  The waitress was really nice.  The appetizers were great.  I got kibbeh and chicken wings.  The kibbeh was a first for me.  Tasting it on its own it's got a strange spice profile although it is not spicy.  It comes with a sauce similar to tazekeh sauce which creates a perfect harmony with the spice profile of the kibbeh.  I don't know why but I was craving chicken wings.  I didn't expect much from a Mediterranean joint but they were really meaty and are comparable to really good bar wings.

We hit a hiccup when it came to the appetizers.  My wife order the clam fettuccine with clams.   Well the communication from the from to the back got messed up and the cook prepared the normal fettuccine.  That put a delay on my dish the mixed grill which ended up coming out overcooked and cold.  If they hadn't had the issue with having to recook my wife's dish I think everything would have been better.  The other issue is she asked for red sauce and they brought a cream sauce claiming it was a red sauce.  They stirred in some tomato sauce making it pinkish.  Not the most appetizing color.  All that being said the pizzas looked very interesting so I am definitely giving this place another shot.

The other big issue is the atmosphere.  This is a very tiny and very cluttered restaurant.  They have an all you can eat bar.  Some out of place bar stools next to a booth chair and table.  Then the accessories are just all over the place.  They also have those plastic grape things hanging from the lots, which are obviously dusty.  The color profile of most everything in the place is brown and beige.  They could do a lot by just reducing the amount of shit in the place.  Then they could brighten up some of the brown paneling with a little color.  They could do wanders with a little elbow grease and a couple buckets of paint.  They could also update the furniture but I can understand that they are probably struggling.

Well I think with a little community support this place could become a gem.  I overheard a carry out customers stated he had been in three times that week so they have to be do something right.  I can also say that a lot of what I had seemed to be homemade.  I'd recommend checking this place out.

Oh one more thing.  Owner's listen up.  It is cool that you don't sell pork, I get it, but get the turkey bacon out of the restaurant.   I didn't have anything with turkey bacon but if you had bacon before you'd be insulted.  Replace the bacon with something completely unrelated like summer sausage, get creative.