Walking into our private-ish room, the ceiling was literally leaking, which kind of set the tone…read morefor the night.
We started with the pani puri, and it straight up tasted awful. No salt, no flavor on the boiled, unsalted dal. They gave no chutney, no tamarind, just green water. It was really bad.
Chicken 65 was basically desi spiced popcorn chicken. Not terrible, but it needed sauce or something to bring it together. Someone later said we could've asked for sauce for this and the pani puri but if it's supposed to come with sauce, shouldn't it just come with it? We shouldn't have to ask.
Chicken lollipop was actually pretty good, just a bit salty. Spice level was fine. Gobi Manchurian was also super salty but still tasted good. I'm used to this coming with a small side of rice, nothing here.
Moving into the entrees, no one at the table really enjoyed their dosas. I didn't try them myself so can't fully confirm. The chicken tikka dosa was just a plain dosa with chicken tikka on the side, which felt pretty lazy.
Chicken Hakka noodles were very peppery and salty. Good for a couple bites, but not something you'd want to finish. Definitely had much better Hakka noodles elsewhere in Austin.
Schezwan fried rice never came out, but we were still charged for it. They did eventually make it, but by then we didn't even get to try it.
Someone got Manchurian Chicken from the entree - still did not come with rice.
Goat dum biryani - I only had a bite. It was decent.
The one standout was the Chicken Noodles & Fried Rice Fusion. Easily the best dish of the night. Flavorful but still balanced. If I ever come back, this is what I'd order.
For drinks, mango lassi was good. Sitaphal (custard apple) shake was okay. Both came in prepackaged bottles, which was kind of odd. You have a bar... why not just make them fresh?
Service was rough. The waiter avoided us like crazy. At one point we had to send someone to go find him. To be fair, we weren't the easiest group to deal with, so I'll give him a bit of a pass.
Also worth noting, everything except the noodle dishes came out room temp, which didn't help.
Overall, just a very uneven experience. A couple decent dishes and one standout, but too many issues across food, service, and overall execution to overlook.