Have you ever seen Robert Irvine GUT out a complete place and change stuff around in 'Restaurant impossible' ??
Have you seen his sinewy muscles flex as he picks up a big hammer and smashes down a wall at a dodgy moldy looking restaurant?
Have you ever heard his oh-so-cute accent.. sigh..!
Oh well, I digress from my review.. the point here is - this place is the PERFECT place for that show.. they desperately need help! The moment you walk into this place, an unpleasant smell hits you, the place looks like it hasnt been cleaned in over a year, the servers/ owners look like they have given up on the place, they try to make up for lost profits by charging you extra for every modification they make to your meal.. the list is ENDLESS!
He needs to come fix this place.. seriously.. But then you would ask, WHY do I give the place an 'A-OK' aka 3 stars? Well - the answer is simple.. I feel the food is decent and their heart is in the right place.
I ordered to-go on the phone, the lady I spoke to did not speak English very well and it took my a good 10 minutes to get my order right. Now I am Indian myself, so I did try to speak to her in Hindi too, but turns out that was alien to her as well :( All she spoke was Telgu, and I am far removed from that!
So, I walked in after about 20 minutes, to this musty smelling place, I am silently thanking my stars I am not here for a sit down dinner! (At the same time, I shudder to think of what the kitchen would look like)
Anyways, I had to wait an additional 10 minutes for my food. The food is by no means cheap btw, compared to a lot of other Indian places, they are up on almost every dish by $2-$3.00. Also, they charge you extra for everything, including pickle - which would be considered pretty blasphemous, had you been in India.. but then again, this isn't India!
Now for the food, I took my food home, happy to see the appetizer, my samosa, was still piping hot. The samosa itself was ok tasting, the skin had tonnes of blisters though - because they did not heat the oil to the right temperature when frying the samosa (yes, I am an Indian Food snob - when you grow up in India, watching your mom cook for you, these are the little things you learn right off the bat!) The accompanying chutneys were pretty tasty, I must say. I was able to eat only one samosa that day, had the next one the next day, and it still tasted yummy- and oh, they had PEAS in their samosas, which I absolutely love! Traditional samosas always have peas!
I had the Daal tadka, which was pretty decent again, a bit TOO spicy for me (very typical of food from Hyderabad, which is where the owners are from), but it threw me off.
Now for the bread, I asked for Tawa bread (made on a skillet, instead of the oven), which is easier to do, healthier and much more homey and yummier). Let me say that NOT many Indian restaurants in the US will do that for you. However, these people did! I cannot say it was the best I had, it was a bit too thick and doughy for me, but they did it, which was awesome!
The pickle I asked for as a side was yummy and hot (yes, I DO like hot pickle), the raita (yogurt) was ok, a bit too liquid-y for my taste.
All in all, I would order simple food here again (I would NOT experiment with shahi paneer, koftas etc), and keep hoping one day Robert Irvine will show up, flexing his biceps... read more