I never go out for lunch with lunch usually being scoffed at my desk in front of my laptop as I respond to emails or write reports - so today was definitely a welcome change. It was good to walk into an empty restaurant at lunch hour as this would have meant quick and efficient service; however, Nirankar failed us in many ways.
As we entered the place, we saw lunch specials from $9.90 and even as low as $8.50 on a chalkboard; however, we were handed dine-in (nothing was 9.90 on this) menus.
When asked about the lunch specials which are $10 on their website, we were told that these no longer exist and are only from Mon-Wed. When I questioned them further about how then were these "weekday" specials, the waiter continued to say that the website needed to be updated. I thought this was quite unprofessional. I then asked what the chalkboard outside was for and he finally brought us "Lunch special menus" which actually started from $11.90.
So the lunch bowl includes one choice of curry, rice, salad and "papa" (which I assume is pappadum and not a human being or an undiscovered plant).
We ordered the butter chicken lunch bowl and the lamb rogan josh lunch bowl (where I asked to replace the rice with naan). For starters, we got 6 momos (Nepalese dumplings with a tinge of spicy tomato chutney) for $8.50.
The momos take 10-15 minutes to steam which we were warned about. They were quite doughey but nice with mince chicken inside and a delicate spicy thick tomato chutney to dip them in.
Our plates were slowly taken away and our lunch bowls brought.
So, my friend's lunch bowl was soggy pappadum, butter chicken and rice with a leaf as salad.
My naan arrived separately to my lamb rogan josh (which I appreciate) but no salad and pappadum. I felt cheated.
The naan was delicious, the lamb rogan josh was just the right amount of spicy (so when you ask for very hot - you'll get an average spiced curry) and the butter chicken had a nice charcoal flavour to it without being too sweet (which I appreciate). Their tomato base in the lamb rogan josh was definitely fresh.
The waitress tried to take away our plates while we were still eating.
This place has potential but I think they need to work on a lot of factors such as false advertising on their website and customer service (the waiter was quite incoherent).
Their food when compared to some restaurants I have been to in Melbourne is definitely above par - fresh and delicious! read more