Despite the shabby flea market look of the outside (more on that later), the first trip to Deezi held promise. A warm, inviting room, all the right smells, a demure but friendly greeting, an air of quality was pervasive. The food was pretty standard Persian fare. The stand-out dishes were the mirzaghasemi (a smoky mash of roasted eggplant, tomato and garlic ), the mast o mosir (thick yogurt and shallots) and the sir torshi (pickled garlic). Deezi's fresh made flat bread was fresh, hot, good. The kebabs were just a bit above "good" but not great.

Ordinarily, this would be a nice evening out, with some good and sometimes excellent food but the presence of a few tiny fruit flies flitting around the table was off putting. We chalked it up to an anomaly - the food (and bread!) kind of made up for it.

The second trip was not so great. Remember that shabby flea market out front? I guess it's one thing to put out couches, and stuffed chairs and small beds in front of your restaurant for your waiting patrons to rest themselves on if you always have a long line of people waiting to get in. But every time I have driven by (which is often and at different times of the day - I live about 1/2 mile away), I have never seen even a full parking lot. So the entrance looks like a Salvation Army truck just dropped a load of donations.

Dinner this night was a train wreck from the first step into an empty, and sadly waitstaff-less room. Eventually, someone came out and seated us. Rather than tell us that there were some items on the menu that they were out of, we were left to drool over the descriptions of the food and plot our feasting. It was only when we started to order that our waitress told us the bad news. And that was only for starters. OK, fine. But even then, the starters seemed as out of whack as the miscues. The most o mosir was as thick and tasteless as cream cheese, the mirzaghasemi tasted steamed instead of roasted, and the only saving grace for the apps was the fresh bread. But they seemed to be running short on that as well.

For the main, the kebab list was decimated too (again, we were left to order and then she told us they were out of several that we wanted) and she finally said that she'd bring us the combination platter of kebabs. The koobideh was undercooked just enough to make the texture of the usually semi-crispy, ground lamb-beef like mushy meatloaf. The chicken and beef were under seasoned and slightly over cooked.

The final event of the evening was being informed of a credit card machine malfunction and the possible 15-minute wait for "authorization". Eventually, the card was swiped enough times to get everyone paid and by then we were all more than glad to leave.

Deezi Cafe could really be a great addition to the other Persian/Turkish/Middle Eastern places here in the South Bay but these experiences leave me wondering it they really care about staying in the restaurant business.