We went to Shiraz with a Groupon. Â It was an interesting place. Â It is in a cute setting, which is a converted condo in Carmel. Â I had read the reviews online and was prepared for some of the things that we experienced. Â There were friends of the owner in and they were trying to play up the positives of the business. Â I imagine it was the owner who was working that night.
As other reviews had said, the wine was pretty good. Â It is nice to be able to try different varietals. Â The wine was expensive. Â One of the machines was not working properly. Â
The food was another story. Â We we given a menu, but then it was taken away immediately. Â The owner read the menu to us and let us know what was available that evening. Â There were no sandwiches, and I had read almost unanimous dislike of the flat breads. Â We were told that all the food was home made. Â We doubted that was case from the chips that obviously came from a bag, and the crab dip seemed like something that you could buy at a warehouse club. Â Our suspicion was strengthened when we went upstairs and heard other "home made" appetizers being microwaved in the kitchen.
All in all, Shiraz is an interesting concept. Â As a wine tasting bar, it was a cute, homey setting. Â There are better, more conventional places to get a bottle of wine. Â As a restaurant, don't bother.
My hubby and I made reservations weeks in advance but arrived to find no table available for us. Â Sleek decor, intimate tables, but the only seats available were at the bar. Â We weren't offered a table on the second floor - didn't know they had one.
Professional server explained how the wine card worked promptly. Â I was glad - I wanted a nice glass of Moscato to settle into witty convo with the hubs.
If you aren't new to wines or seeking to expand your grape palate, just order straight from the drink menu. Â A taste (note: classy sip) at the wine dispenser will cost a few dollars. Â This is a great idea for those who haven't tried a range of wines. Â If you, however, own a stocked wine 'fridge or more than one stocked wine rack, and especially if you have your own wine cellar, this concept may not be for you. Â Order from the nice selections on the menu.
The Caprese Flatbread was delicious: Â tomato slices, mozza, and basil. Â Brick-oven flavor and freshest of ingredients. The Stuffed Mushrooms we found on the menu are no longer an available item. Â Menu offers enough variety for those who love quality party nibbles: meatballs, potstickers, salads, and the ever-popular charcuterie plate.
I don't mind sitting at the bar. The bartender was professional, the Pacers were playing on two flat screens, and, to the glee of our budget, there was SunKing on tap. Â But this was supposed to be a "date night" and I think we would have stayed longer and tried more menu items if we'd had our own cozy spot at a table.
Nice place for a romantic date - just be sure to get a table. Â Fun place for a girl's night out - plenty of wine and foodies that no one had to prepare and not a meat market atmosphere.
This place is horrid, the owner has no business owning a wine bar or any type of establishment that involves serving the public. Â I have had better food from my freezer, their wine selection is a joke grocery stores have better selections than this place has. Â Hopefully this place will do Carmel a favor and close so something GOOD can go in its place!
Review Source:Do not purchase a groupon for Shiraz! The deal is totally misleading. As stated, it seems that you get $40 worth of food and drinks for $20, plus a bottle of wine to take home. In reality, you get $20 worth of food and drink, plus a bottle of wine. So basically it's not a deal at all, just $20 for $20. The owner was rude and combative when questioned about this. Very dissatisfied with the experience, would not recommend to anyone.
Review Source:I was expecting this place to be terrible based on the reviews, but I actually really enjoyed my visit. I went on Valentine's Day with the boyfriend and used my Groupon to get a few tastes of wine and flatbread. The flatbread was not bad, but didn't have much flavor. The setup is very similar to Tastings, one of my favorite spots in downtown Indy, and I recommend against going to any wine place like this for food. Sure, maybe some cheese as a snack to go with the wine, but food is just not their specialty. Come here after dinner.
The important aspects to me are the wine and the atmosphere. We hung out on the first floor since it was more crowded upstairs with the live music. I enjoyed the background music, funky, casual decor and furniture, and being right next to the red wines to get refills. The server woman was a complete spazz and kept forgetting things, but I was in a good mood and we didn't have to wait long for our food, so I just found her amusing. I'm happy there's a wine bar like this so close to me in Carmel, and I will be sad if it closes because people think it's a restaurant. I recommend coming here to experience something different, and just to relax, chat, and drink some wine.
OKAY FOR THE WINE - HORRIBLE SERVICE - AVOID AT ALL COSTS THE FOOD. Â WE INSTEAD WENT TO STEAK & SHAKE AFTERWARDS WHERE THE FOOD WAS MUCH BETTER. Â LETS HOPE THAT THE KITCHEN NIGHTMARES - GORDON RAMSAY LIKE CONSULTANT CAN HELP TURN THIS PLACE AROUND.
I would give Shiraz 1.5 stars.  I had a mixed overall  experience at Shiraz.  The concept sounded interesting and my wife, my friends, and I decided to give it a try.
PROS: Â Shiraz is in the new and trendy Arts & Design District of Carmel, IN. Â The place looks new, has two levels, and the upstairs section where we were seated felt like a neat, trendy living room. Â Interesting/ good concept where there are wine dispensers and you get a swipe/ account card and can try different wines. Â You can choose small, medium, or large wine fills.
CONS - THE FOOD: Â It needs a serious overhaul. Â We tried to order several small plates for a group. Â The waiter came back on several occasions after 20-30 minutes stating that they were out of what we ordered. Â The owner then stated that everything was on the menu. Â Then more feedback from the kitchen and waiter: So with 2-3 not available, and we ordered alternatives. Â The lobster mac n cheese for $15 was not worth it. Â It was like a dry store bought mac n cheese box where water was added. Â The cheese was very little and tasteless and there was only two or three very small pieces of lobster - which took some effort to find. Â The crab cakes tasted very fishy and we wondered it they were spoiled. Â There were also a couple of shell fragments in crab cakes. Â The beef skewers were very dried out, burned, and overcooked. The flat-breads looked like they came out of a freezer/box from the grocery store. Â The toppings were skimpy. Â We returned the food and got our money back. Â
CONS - SERVICE: Â While we got our food refunded, the owner (older lady) got upset at our criticism of the food, yelled back at us, and called us Midwestern Hicks. Â I disagree - my wife and I are foodies from the Chicago area. Â We have traveled internationally and several times to California to San Francisco and Sonoma County - where the owner claims the concept came from. Â
GORDON RAMSAY-LIKE CONSULTANT: Â We talked to a gentleman there and he mentioned that he was a consultant hired by the owner. He was nice and professional, and agreed that the food on the menu needed an overhaul. He said the owner had threatened to fire him several times when he offered her constructive criticism. Â
OVERALL: Â This place has potential, but the food offerings need to be improved or dropped all together. Also, the owner needs to be more professional like the consultant when offered both compliments and criticism. Â The food at Steak and Shake was much better.
My husband and I bought a Groupon for this place, then my mom ended up getting us 2 more as gifts. Â I called one day to ask how we could go about using them, and the man who answered the phone acted extremely irritated that I was asking about it. Â Then suddenly, in mid-sentence, he handed the phone over to the manager. Â I couldn't get over how incredibly rude she was to me from the moment she got on the phone. Â When I asked if we could make reservations for the following weekend to use our Groupons, she sounded very annoyed and said, "We're too busy to use Groupons, if you want to use a Groupon you can come in the middle of the week." Â I asked her if that was a policy, because it isn't listed on the Groupon, and she said "I don't care, we're too busy to deal with that." Â I called Groupon, who was VERY helpful and courteous, and had apparently received other calls from people trying to use their Shiraz Groupons. Â I was able to get a full refund on our Groupon, and my mom was able to get refunds for the ones she got us as well. Â I will NEVER give Shiraz my business, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Â I've talked to neighbors of ours who have also been treated poorly at Shiraz... I just don't see how they can stay in business with how they treat their customers.
Review Source:We went there because the web site said they had $4 happy hour food specials EVERY DAY from 4pm-7pm. However, when we showed up and tried to confirm the happy hour specials, our waiter said that there is no happy hour. I showed him the web site and he said "oh, the web site hasn't been updated". HUH?? Â REALLY?? Â In the Internet age, the web page is the first thing that should be updated. Our waiter said he would get us a "deal" on the food we ordered which equated to $2 off our spinach and artichoke dip. After that, our waiter barely visited the table and we ended up asking for our bill from another employee. Oh and there were more employees than patrons on a Friday night when we were there. On a side note, I inquired about whether or not they were doing anything for New Years Eve. The waiter said they had no plans as of yet. Hmmm. Ok. So it's just over a month out and they have NO plans for extra food, booze, etc. for the night. I'll bet they run out of everything by 7pm on NYE. We won't be back.
Review Source:Great concept but not well executed.  My wife and I tried it with a groupon - two flat bread pizzas and a $15 credit on our wine tasting card.  The venue is well appointed but a little cramped.  We were seated up stairs at a two person table which worked ok, but the tasting stations for wine were down stairs...correct you have to walk down  stairs to try the wine.  As others have said the reds at room temperature lacked a little.  Probably works as a local or stop off prior to dinner if you know what wine you like, but that doesn't,t make sense with the theme.  If we would have spent $60 for two 1 oz tastes two glasses on wine and two f
Small flat bread pizzas we would have been truly disappointed.
Went with a girlfriend for a night of wine tasting. Was told when we arrived that they weren't serving any food ... The new chef was redoing the menu. Ok, not a problem, we were there to taste wine, not eat.
The concept isn't new, carosels of wine bottles are set up around the place, and you are given a plastic debit card that keeps track of cost of the wines tasted. Offers 1, 3, and full glass tastes. There are nearly identical wine bars in L.A. that I've enjoyed.
The selection here was on the high end, the cost per taste was too expensive at 3.60 or more per one ounce taste.
We selected a bottle after tasting 4-5 wines, but were told they were out of that wine. Also out of the other label of the same grape. The server offered other bottles, more expensive and different varetal, but she did offer.
When we didn't look too excited, she offers us the bottle from the tasting carosel at a slight discount. Ok, we're game. The wine was tasty.
After that, our server disappeared. Never did our water get delivered. And when we were ready to leave, we had to track down someone to take our money. Mind you, there weren't any other customers there at this time. It took 15 minutes to pay our bill. The woman had no idea how to run the computer, credit card machine.
I hope they work out the issues with staffing, service and menu. Its a great location, but so far thats all it has going for it.
I'm really kind of at a 2.5 for Shiraz. I cannot say that my experience was horrible like some of the reviews, but it also wasn't stellar. Â I think the place has great potential, but they really need to work some things out. Â
One thing they really need to work on during the summer months is the inside temperature. Â While red wines are supposed to be served at room temperature, that really isn't the case when "room temperature" is about 75 degrees. It is too hot. Â I'm not much of a white wine drinker, although I did try a few and it was difficult to judge the reds since it was so hot.
Space is also an issue. Since it is self serve, they need more space for everyone on a busy night to be able to circulate and be able to get to the wine. Â
As far as service, our server was great at the beginning and walked us through the process and spent time doing it. Â Our food came in a reasonable amount of time and the food was really good. We were approached a few times throughout the evening to see if we needed clean glasses. However,as the night progressed, we saw our server less and less, and then at the end of the night, it took far too long to receive our bill and be able to settle it.
My husband did misplace his card which had about $9 left on it. One of the servers had found it and even though the owner couldn't find what she did with it, she did replace the card and the $9, which I thought was handled properly and without issue.
I cannot give any stars to Shiraz because of the terrible experience we had. I completely agree with Deb.C - we were ripped off. At first I thought that because it was a new place, that they were working out the kinks. However as the evening progressed, the nightmare continued. The layout was wrong, the "staff" was oblivious, and it was nearly impossible to get a glass of wine. This place is one big Health Code Violation. They will be closed by Christmas.
Review Source:A few of us bought a Groupon for a nice girls' night out. Evening started out OK, as they do have good wine, then things started to fall apart...
The wine machine still takes money off your card if the wine bottle is empty so watch out! Though, they did put the money back on when asked. Our Server wasn't pleasant at all and seemed annoyed being there. Around 8 the band started to play which was nice for the outside crew, but thanks to a speaker on the floor next to our table inside, we couldn't hear ourselves talk anymore. Need integrated sound system for the patrons inside that has audio controls.
The co-owner was there and encouraged us to go upstairs to the private room, and said that we had to cash out our bill first. But our Server said we didn't-- he could take care of us up there, so we went upstairs and ordered the flatbread pizzas that came on the Groupon. While very nicely decked out, going upstairs is not a great idea unless you do bottle service, as you have to walk downstairs for more wine and the Servers don't come up often. Also very odd that the converted Condo still has the full kitchen upstairs. Some lady in a jumper was chopping veggies and doing dishes that the servers brought up for all to see! Its open to the private space--they need to put floor to ceiling wall up instead of relying on the fake plants on the floor.
An hour later, we got half of our pizza order. The Server never came back up so we decided that since we were so hungry, that it was time to settle up and leave. Downstairs, the Server was short with us as he had just made our pizzas--that we ordered over an hour and 15 mins ago--why is a Server making our pizza anyway? They didn't fulfill the Groupon as stated- we paid more $ on top of purchasing the Groupon! This place was open for just 7 weeks--if they make some improvements like hire new staff, improve logistics, offer better food and tidy up the interior spaces this place has a prayer. If not...
Bought a Groupon to try Shiraz. First complaint I will ever make to Groupon as Shiraz did not fulfill the stipulations of the coupon as stated. Ended up paying a total of 53 dollars with 11 remaining on the card they make you purchase for 4$ to obtain your wine. Group had total of three glasses of wine along with two flatbreads that were supposedly "free" with groupon. Service was arrogant and condescending, and worse, absent when we needed it. Server nor "manager" did anything to promote or excite or sell a somewhat novel concept (at least locally) to purchasing/sampling wine. Overpriced, complicated and full of hubris. The ONLY reason I would return is to spend the remaining 11 $ on the card I had to purchase. Balance not refundable if you don't drink what you loaded on card. Ridiculous. I felt totally ripped off.
Review Source:We went here pre-opening. Great atmosphere. Â It's one of those places where you buy a card and then self-serve your wine from machines (or you can buy a bottle-very flexible). Their selection is very nice and prices are varied making it possible to find something at all budget ranges. Really nice menu and service was great but not intrusive. They have both outside and inside sitting options. Chef/owner was friendly and creative. Venue is small so get there early - it's going to be popular.
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