Sawa Restaurant and Lounge

My husband and I were looking around for a good new place to dine on. We went to the Shops at Merrick Park and were attracted by the setting of the restaurant. We browsed at menu and had a lot of choices, we were seated right away and the food we ordered was delicious! The service was very good, the atmosphere was very romantic, they play nice lounge and instrumental music, definitely a place to come back and I place that I will recommend to friends and family.

Great food… Great atmosphere… Just stay away from the hookahs. For a Mediterranean place they really can’t set up a hookah :/

Came maybe an hour before closing and was met with a warm welcome. The atmosphere is brilliant (it’s in Merrick Park) and there’s a fair amount of seating options indoors and outdoors. A diverse menu will let you try all sorts of dishes. I had the Lebanese sampler and some wine and thought it was great. Didn’t get any main courses but I’m sure they’re well. For any hookah lovers, this place offers a wide variety!
Manny was our server and he was the absolute best!

This place is HORRIBLE! I’ve tried it twice and both times the food is disgusting and the service is beyond bad. I ordered sushi last time and the rice was not even cooked! How do you mess up cooking rice?! Do not go here

On a nice evening, sit outside! Great people watching in the plaza. Ambient music in the background adds to the atmosphere.
It was busy so service was a bit slow but good. There were 8 of us and all the food was good. We recommend the Lebanese Sampler. We also requested a champagne hookah which we all enjoyed.

I hate writing bad reviews. I have a Unilocal account because I love praising great restaurants for great service and great food.
Sadly, that’s not quite the case here.
Our party waited 45 minutes… for tapas.
A 45 minute wait is a reasonable wait time if you order entreés for an entire table, or if you are eating at a gourmet restaurant. Long wait times can even be attributed to extremely busy restaurants with good food. I have waited up to four hours for tables at some fantastic places, so I don’t mind waits at all.
Unfortunately, this place met none of the criteria to excuse the wait. It wasn’t busy at all – this happened at 4pm on a Tuesday, the place itself was not understaffed, and so on. The food also wasn’t incredible. The genre the kitchen went for was just a few degrees short of being considered «cuisine» despite what the pricing tries to fool you into thinking. It didn’t help that the food was also cold by the time it was served – probably forgotten in the kitchen, if I had to guess.
The dishes themselves were fine:
— a plate of truffle fries (recommended, but it is very hard to mess up truffle fries)
— some croquetas (the bechamel was a strange choice – completely uninspired)
— a chicken flatbread (sub-​standard, forgettable, low quality)
— dumplings (fine, whatever, something to fill the stomach at best)
— filet mignon skewers (rough, dry, cold – frankly, among the worse I’ve ever had)
Although some dishes were passable, the food tasted nowhere nearly good enough to compensate for the poor service.
Partially infuriating was how our waiter discouraged us from ordering sushi because it would take 30 – 45 minutes to order – despite sushi options being quite literally half of the menu – implying we could get our appetizers much sooner.
Perhaps even more infuriating, but more so disappointing, was that our waiter did not bother to check in with us in the 45 minute span of us not getting our food – we had to signal a different waitress to please look into why our food was taking so long. No one seemed to know what was going on, nor did anyone make an effort to find out.
Disqualified.
Despite this, it’s a great place for a first date – you and your date can get to know each other while you wait a long time for your food that may not be warm when it comes out and commiserate over that, and laugh about it for the rest of the night. Maybe that’s redeeming.
Eat anywhere else. If you’re reading this 3 months from now, it might be better. Hopefully it’ll get some new management, because these seem to be management issues.
Two stars because the outside seating is pretty.

It’s a wonderful place for outdoor hang outs. Hookah and food are exceptional. The best of it is Tatiana. She’s been our waitress twice now and is fantastic. She’s attentive and cheerful. Everything you want in a great waitress.

The atmosphere and food was incredible! The drink menu endless! Something for everyone :) and for your hookah lovers or not; this is where to go to enjoy the most refreshing flavors! Micheal was the best server ever, knowledgable and friendly! The whole staff was great! We ate outside and it was gorgeous and perfect but inside looks amazing too! Will come back

Second time here! Absolutely love it. The lamb is outstanding we also had the ahi tuna very fresh. Our waiter George was on point. The shrimp gyoza was also wonderful.

A very negative experience, poor service, long wait for food, some of the food was OK but two of the dishes were not. I would not give it even one star.

Poor food quality, everything was cold, came out very late, and with the wrong items, not a good taste. Not coming back.

This place is pretty cool to go to for dinner. They have a dancer going around at night time. Good was pretty good. A little over priced for what it is. Namely because of the area. Food was slow to come out. Service was ok. Would go back though. Possibly to try the outside seating.

I will start by saying the food was good and for that reason I have given it 3 stars.
BUT, appetizers should not take 30 – 45 minutes to come out nor should you get 3 oysters when the menú says ½ dozen. If you don’t say anything, they don’t offer. If you mention it, then the waitress goes back and tells the kitchen that there was a complaint and then comes out with 3 more. We waited another 30 minutes between lunch and desert and all we got was a lame excuse of kitchen trouble from the Manager.
Definitely will not go back!

The food was alright we had the Miami Spice my fiancé had the crab cakes as starter and loved it so did the sushi role. I had the chicken Alfred it was alright I had the filet mignon as starter which was great. For dessert we had bread pudding with some cream that was nasty and tasted like sour cream nasty. According to the chef that is what it’s suppose to taste like… I think not. Then the food took a while it was super hot they only have 2 fans outside. In the middle of out eating we kept hearing «I’m sorry» to the other guest eating because their orders were messed up. I have very mix feelings with this one.

I tried the Miami spice menu. They have a lot of variety to choose from so, that’s a plus. I had:
Octopus ceviche: very good
Atlantic roll: not impressive. (I would recommend to sticking to the Mediterranean part of the menu)
Bread pudding: SO delicious.
I don’t give it 5 starts because I didn’t LOVE it, but was satisfied.

First time and first customers of the day. Sawa delivered a yummy lunch, service that was a little slow, but good.
I had the Lebanese sampler, which was rather small but very delicious. I also had the Balinese roll, and the calamari appetizer. Everything was cooked to perfection. We sat indoors because it was a little too warm on a Saturday afternoon, but I would love to sit outdoors in the evening. The place is very nice and clean. I def recommend and can’t wait to return.

I have been here last time and had a really good experience. A male waiter was very attentive and great! However, this time, the ladies are not that good :/​.we have been waiting our food for a long long time. We ordered a lot food but the service is not impressive at all.
The food here is good, especially the drink.

My husband picked me up at work for a quick lunch on a Friday afternoon. We decided on SAWA, which learned clearly is not the place for a quick (or tasty) lunch.
We were immediately seated so things were looking promising. After we ordered we waited — at least 30 to 45 minutes — for some very basic menu items. The tabouli salad was absolutely terrible — it was dry and didn’t have any flavor. The shrimp shumai consisted of mushy dumplings. My husband’s fish sandwich was better, and I would definitely have it if for some reason I was forced to go back. I’ve been to all of the other restaurants at Merrick Park, though, and this definitely is the worst so there really isn’t any reason to return. I overheard the people at the table next to us saying that they never would go back either.
In sum, skip SAWA and choose a different Merrick Park restaurant.

Treated my staff here for a Christmas lunch. First time here and little bit confused with the overall theme of the restaurant. It is listed as Mediterranean on Unilocal but they also serve sushi? So that’s exactly what we decided to order.
We got Volcano Roll, Crazy Mexican, Indonesian and Rock Mountain roll. They were just ok… typical fashion rolls, some crunchy and some had been topped off with some seafood /​spicy mayo concoction. Presentation was just all over the place. Definitely nothing to jump about. They served all the rolls in one plate to make dish look full but the portion size was actually smaller compared to Sushi Saki or others. Pricey too. Lunch for 2 cost me about 80 bucks plus tip and each only had one soda drink. Service was friendly and also had nice outdoor seating.
I think this place has an identity crisis and food quality is questionable. There are plenty of other joints that serve fashion sushi far better than this place.

I must say I was not only surprised but also very impressed with SAWA’s menu selection, service and overall experience.
We recently headed over to catch the belly dance show since my cousin happens to be one of the dancers. Once we arrived, we noticed the weather was not looking too favorable and opted to sit inside as opposed to the more alluring patio. The restaurant inside is not as attractive. Décor seemed kind of simple and unassuming. I ordered a drink and my world turned!!! Hands down the best martini ever! Some may be turned off by the combination of sweet but I was soooo ready for a second and then a third no matter what it entailed!
Food was also a winner. We ordered multiple items to try and they were tons of vegan/​vegetarian options for some that preferred it!
The show of course was amazzzzing! And that has nothing to do with my family ties to the dancer!
Overall a great experience with good food, entertainment, service and maaaaaaartini! Did I mention it had nutella???