Always in search of new fusion cooking, we stopped by this place tonight. We spoke to Bharti about some of the below feedback and shared with her our thoughts. She was kind and working especially hard ( it seems that tonight they had fewer than usual staff).
The Food:
Four stars because the food is fantastic. Anything that is south indian on the menu, is fire. Amazing spices and perfectly fresh. Very impressed by how tasty the food is. Having high expectations for Indian food in general, they represented spicy south indian dishes very , very well. We had the Ghee Roast Chicken, Paneer 65, the Tawa Fish Fry, and Paneer/Veg Biryani. All great.
The "Chinese" variety was not so expected and honestly they could eliminate it altogether. We go the veg noodles as MILD, and they were fresh but nothing to repeat. The restaurant would do much better being less confusing as an indo chinese place, but rather a go to south indian street food place. If you wanted noodles for kids, perhaps have a kids menu with simple dishes, rather than brand yourself as a "indo chinese".
Definitely come here for the food.
The ordering workflow:
We shared this with Bharti. It was confusing. You need to go to the counter to let them know if you want to carry out or dine in. If you want to dine in, you pick a table, and the waiter brings over a tablet from which you can order . If you want a to go order, you walk over to the wall where there are paper signs that indicate those are for to go ordering. While we were dining in, we saw a gentleman order food from the wall, and then sit down at a table to eat. Not his fault, super confusing. A regular customer sitting next to us, also stated she didn't like the tablet ordering. Bharti mentioned this ordering system helped with saving time, and not having to wait for someone to take your order. But the trade off here, is not getting to talk to anyone about recommendations, it's stressful to the customer to order based on photos, and we still had to call over a waiter to ask questions. So unless you have only repeat customers that know your menu fully, this is not a good initial experience for the customer. The ordering kiosks are located in a wierd place too, if there was a full house of people you would have to be hovering over a table to place your order. I would get rid of those and maybe have a counter option. Honestly I would get rid of the whole tablet ordering altogether. Definitely post a menu online, and have some paper menu's available for your less tech savy customers, if you decide to keep the tablet ordering system.
The service:
So... we came in on a night that wasn't well staffed (happens sometimes) and we could see Bharti filling in and running around. She was so friendly and kind, and did it with a smile. She was bringing out orders, taking orders, talking to guests, basically everything. Its a family business, but I would leave kids out of the kitchen, and the chef which I believe is the husband, kept calling out for Bharti while she was talking to us. I can see she was stressed and he was kind of annoying, calling her name out every second and asking her to come to the kitchen. You need more professionalism, your wife was working super hard and doing a great job keeping customers happy.
Overall, you must definitely try the food, they really do have a special talent here. Running a restaurnt is hard, and we hope that they take some pointers into consideration. We talked to Bharti at length after our meals and shared this information. She brought up an intersting point. She stated that desi (Indian origin) customers expect food immediately and are not willing to wait. But if that same customer goes to an american establishment they would never complain even if they waited for over 45 minutes. I agree with her. There needs to be a cultural shift here. The food we got was amazing, and served super fast. But we as customers should give the restaurant staff grace and they shouldn't feel pressurized. Let's all be mindful that good food takes time to cook. We hope to be back and hope to see it a little less chaotic and more organized next time. Great, great food, and that will definitely be the cornerstone for your success and return customers. read more