We were invited to an engagement party at Byblos Saturday night along with another 50-70 family and friends. The DJ played all the right music and the two waitresses worked hard. The food was bland and over-cooked. Most importantly however, was that the owner, who has no clue in running a restaurant/club or any sense of customer service, turned the night into a DISASTER. Apparantly, one of the young guests brought in a drink from outside of the restaurant, so the owner went ballistic and started searching under everyone's seats for open containers and went through gift bags looking for alcohol. He did this without anyone's CONSENT! HOW OUTRAGEOUS! He came upon a gift bag which was sitting under the table with a CLOSED and Gift Wrapped congratulatory bottle in it along with an envelope with money. While the gift-bag's owner was at the bar buying a round of drinks (highway robbery: tequilla shots cost $15 and beers were $12), the Byblos psychotic owner ""CONFISCATED"" the gift bag along with its contents. When confronted about him taking away the gift bag, the gift wrapped bottle and the envelope,"" he responded he only took the bottle and dumped it in the sink because it was alcohol! This was a closed gift wrapped bottle to be given as a gift, but that didn't matter to this idiot. He went on to scream ""its my restaurant, I can do whatever I want."" When asked to return the gift bag and the envelope with the money, he repeatedly denied taking the gift bag or the envelope in the gift bag. When he was pressed over and over and we suggested to have the surveillance film reviewed, he finally CONFESSED that he did take the gift bag to throw it out! We demanded the bag and all of its contents be returned to us. He became vulgar and he called the entire party (most are professionals or successful businessmen) derogatory terms. While we could have called the police to handle this matter since this was a wrongful taking of another person's property, we decided to pass since it was no more than a couple of hundred dollars. It was however an OUTRAGEOUS turn of events. You would think after a large group dumps thousands of dollars into one night and the rediculously high bar tabs we all ran that this guy would show some decency. Noteworthy, other than our party, the restaurant had no more than a couple of other customers, probably because of this RUDE and IDIOTIC OWNER named Amgad. Others have expressed the same antics with this guy and all have sworn off this restaurant. Frankly, I would never return and I recommend to others to try other places like Carousel in Glendale, The Gate/Mirage in Encino, or Alcazar in Tarzana rather than chance running into this LOW LIFE at Byblos.
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