The food was meh - an all together forgettable dinner - and I would have forgotten it except for the water scam discussed below, which left a sour note.
When asked if we wanted any drinks, my wife asked for some water, and I piggybacked on her request. The waitress asked if we wanted still or sparkling, and we both responded "still."
A few minutes later, the waitress returned with two 355 ml cans of presumably "gourmet" still water (Pepsi/Coke size). Fortunately, the cans had not been opened, so I clarified and asked the waitress for tap water (and apologized for any miscommunication). A table next to ours had a carafe of tap water, so it seemed to me a reasonable request. The waitress told us she needed to check something and disappeared.
A few minutes later, a gentleman who appeared to be the restaurant's manager/owner appeared. He then proceeded to ask - loudly so that the whole restaurant could hear - if we were asking to return the drinks we had just ordered. Hoping to avoid a scene, I apologized again and suggested that since the cans had not been opened, if he could take them back and just bring out some tap water. The manager proceeded to provide a ludicrous excuse for why we could not return the cans. He pointed to the tabs on the cans - which were brought to our table slightly bent up - and explained (like I was a two year old) that the bent caps meant that we had opened the cans. (The cans were not actually open.).
Not in a mood for a fight and the public embarrassment the manager plainly intended to put us through, I said that's fine and left it at that.
We ordered the mulligatawny soup, pav bhaji and chicken biryani from a limited menu of "shareable" items. The food came out all at once, about 20 minutes later. The food was generally okay with the exception of the biryani. The rice was undercooked, and appeared to have been prepared in advance, and tossed with the chicken before service, i.e., chicken fried rice, not chicken biryani.
Although the restaurant advertises shareable plates, no additional plates were provided with the dishes. (The manager however did bring out plates to a dutch couple sitting next to us without any prodding, and came by twice more to check on them. The manager however ignored us for the remainder of the meal.)
We exhausted the two small cans of water very quickly. No additional water was offered or provided - which is rather bizarre for a table service Indian restaurant serving salty, spicy food.
Total bill came to €40. The two water cans amounted to €6 of the €40.
My advise to locals and tourists is to steer clear of this hole. Discriminating behavior like this should not be encouraged. read more
