My wife and I went here last night for dinner and we had quite a strange experience. We ordered the appetizer platter, garlic naan, chicken tikka masala and the chicken vindaloo. Unexpectedly we also received a side of sexism, courtesy of the house
To start, we ordered the appetizer platter. It arrived with a ground-meat samosa and an assortment of pakora. The samosa had an unexpected gaminess that was not pleasant, the pakora was fine. During the appetizers, we noted that above the well-built bar in the dining area there are two large flat screen TVs. To our amusement, one of them was playing Law and Order: SVU. In the middle of dinner rush, on a 40in flat screen, we were treated a scene depicting a woman being roughly violated on a subway. My wife and I have as much love for Detectives Stabler and Benson as any American, but they aren't always the best dinner guests.
For our main courses we decided to order tikka masala and vindaloo with a side of garlic naan. For the tikka masala and vindaloo we were asked how spicy we would like them prepared on a scale of 1 to 10. My wife and I told our waiter that we both enjoy spice and would like the heat to be somewhere around an 8.
The food came out after an acceptable wait with the naan and a side of rice. The main courses were nicely presented, however, when we tried them we were both surprised to find that the spiciness was very subdued and that the flavor which is to be expected of those dishes was not present. In my dish, the chicken was tough and clearly over done. Our garlic naan was a let down as well; greasy, flavorless and on one side undercooked. Having read the rave reviews on Yelp, this all was disappointing.
Our waiter appeared not long after we began eating to check on us. He asked my wife if it was spicy enough for her and she told him that no, really it was not at all. He laughed and asked about mine, joking about whether or not I could handle it. I was confused by this, because as I have mentioned in this review the spice profile of this food is something I would expect from a children's menu or a low-brow buffet.
He explained to us, to me actually with a conspiratorial grin and wag of the eyebrows, that he had the cook prepare my wife's food very mildly while he had mine prepared "much hotter." My wife asked him why, which promoted more odd grins and eye contact with me. Unable to explain himself he offered to have the food redone, which we accepted.
The food came back out 10 minutes later and to the credit of the restaurant, it appeared to be entirely new food with a fresh serving of rice. On round two, the chicken in my dish was tender and well prepared. My food now tasted similar to vindaloo but was certainly not anything to be excited about, while my wife's still was some kind of powder puff, mickey-mouse interpretation of tikka masala.
Our waiter never returned and from then on we were attended to by the hostess, who was very pleasant. As we ate though, we began to really consider what had just taken place. Why would the waiter have decided that my wife actually wanted a dish that was very mild, while I actually wanted a dish that was much hotter? Our interactions with him left his view of women obvious, and left us feeling slimy in a way that I rarely feel when I am not dealing with furniture salesmen.
We will not be returning to this restaurant. I strongly discourage anyone else from doing so. read more