SNAPSHOT:
An over-hyped restaurant with average food and horrendous service; the place is literally over-rated with their yelp rating being 3.1 from 61 reviews but *somehow* their google rating being 4.1 with 1,061 reviews.
FULL REVIEW:
I generally don't review a place until I've been there at least twice. However, I genuinely don't want to drive two hours round-trip for this place again, and I think my first experience was bad enough that I can go ahead and review it.
Context:
I was there with my white wife (I'm Indian) and her parents for mother's day 2025, our reservation was for 6 PM and when we arrived the restaurant felt half-empty, we were seated at a four-top in the middle of restaurant. By the time we left around 8 the place was bustling.
Service:
1/5 stars, do not recommend. They initially seated us at two different tables because my in-laws got there a little before us and were seated under our name, but the concierge didn't make that connection. The time it took our server to greet us was average, she had our drinks entered and brought out in an average amount of time. Her return to take our initial order was a little delayed. After waiting for quite a while (but not yet frustratingly long) they brought out my mother-in-law's entree (tandoori chicken) and the table's appetizer (gobi 65). We then thought the food was coming out...it was not. Her entree's arrival was also when we discovered our utensils were mismatched. Almost 20 minutes later my wife's entree (dal makhani) and the three orders of naan and roti came, though no explanation was given as to which was which (they all kind of looked the same). By then my father-in-law had already gotten up and complained, and he is a patient man. Ten minutes more and my entree (butter chicken) and my father-in-law's entree ("authentic" fried rice) came out. My mother-in-law had almost finished her food by the time we started eating as we had asked her to start so that her food wouldn't get cold. With my newly arrived warm entree I was tasted my wife's (by then) cold entree. My father--in-law's entree was brought out in a tiny and unstable (wobbly) but of course ornate bowl that he didn't understand (and the server didn't explain) needed to be scooped out and put into his plate, partially because she put the rice bowl ON his plate making him think that's how it is eaten (and I didn't want to get involved because by then he and I were both frustrated). Then they brought us another order of rice for no reason, at that point we just didn't question it
Suggestions for better service would be better trained staff, in some cases much better trained, and slightly bigger tables. Had we been given updates on our food, another appetizer brought out on the house (or even at least suggested), and had the food come out at once I could give this restaurant a three star rating for service; had they done all that in under hour then I could give four or five stars. When my father-in-law complained someone (the manager) apologized and said they were expecting 600 people that day, which is when we looked around at the half-empty restaurant, and that they had just moved...neither of which really is an excuse. They didn't seem understaffed on the floor, but I'm not sure what the state of the kitchen staff was and it's entirely possible they need more people back there. This place's target audience *appears* to be upper-middle class locals, which in Dallas is mostly white people, but right now their service says "We have the standards that immigrants in the 1990s would expect". With all this being said, service is almost ALWAYS a problem at 95% or more of the Indian restaurants I've been to in my life, and being Indian, I've been to a LOT.
Food:
3/5 stars, passable if you're hungry but nothing special despite attempts at fun and fancy presentation assuming you get your food at least warm when it arrives (my butter chicken was just a bit above lukewarm) and at the same time as your naan/roti. I found the menu a bit hard to follow as they have gone for somewhat novel takes with some dishes as well as silly names that are not at all helpful. Was there chicken tikka masala on the menu? I don't know, but there was definitely a dish called "Tikka Journey", which *kind* of *sounds* like CTM but I wasn't sure and the server seemed overwhelmed by the question so I dropped it and went for the BC. My wife's dal was bland (and cold), my butter chicken was meh, the gobi 65 was flavorful but it was almost soggy when it feels like it should be crispy (could be wrong about that).
Suggestions for better food are to bring in some more classics, and maybe change a recipe or two, as well as update the menu.
Ambience:
4/5 stars but this is less important than the first two so it barely counts, in fact it may even hurt it because your expectations are elevated.
Price:
I paid about $50 more than I felt I should have. Despite our service issues, I tipped though I really didn't want to. read more
