I had very high hopes for this restaurant, because when we walked in it looked really nice…read more However, we ended up running out, having paid for food we didn't even receive. Here goes.
Myself and 13 friends made a reservation at this restaurant around 6pm, for 8pm that night. Obviously, this is short notice for such a large group, but we thought it would be ok because we tried calling, and when they didn't answer we assumed they would rather we use the online portal for making reservations. We did so. We arrive at 8, and the first red flag should have been that they didn't have a table set up for us (we did say that we had a reservation and the woman at the front was all "yes, yes, sit here."). Anyway, they take our orders quickly, we mention that we have a train we'd like to catch at 10 pm (again, we thought this would not be a problem since the restaurant closes at 10 pm), and they said that that would be fine.
Fast forward 40 minutes later, we haven't even gotten the water for the table that we ordered, much less any food. One person from our group goes inside to ask for an update, and they say that they just put the order in. This seems odd, since a family that came in after us had ordered & already received their order. Obviously it is easier to make food for 4 people rather than 14, but I would think they would have at least put our order in, rather than waiting around on it, but whatever. Maybe they're really fast.
They are not. It is now 9:30, no food has been brought out, still no water either, and everyone's worried. At this point we're asking if we can cancel the order, if they haven't started. But oh, they actually have started making the food by now, so that's no longer an option. We again reiterate that we want to catch the 10 pm train (aka it's the last train that will get us home that night so we HAVE to catch it), they say they'll get it done in time.
At 9:50 pm, we're all standing by the door, antsy and ready to go. The food starts coming out in brown paper bags. The woman at the front (I'm getting owner vibes from her, so I will refer to her as the owner from now on) explains that they didn't have time to add spice to the food, so if we don't want it to be bland, we could take some of these spice packets and add it to our food. Now comes the good part. The owner starts lecturing us. She says that making Indian food is very time-consuming, because they make it from scratch. She wonders why we thought 14 people could possibly be served in the limited amount of time. At that point, the member of our group who actually made the reservation points out that we had a reservation & that if they couldn't have served us in that amount of time that she could have said so when we walked in. Apparently the owner was unaware we had a reservation, because she didn't answer the phone and doesn't check the online system! Nevermind that we explained we had a reservation when we walked in. I think once she realized we actually had a reservation, that perhaps she should stop blaming us and try to make it right. She started handing everyone free drinks from the cooler, quite frantically. I do appreciate the gesture though.
At 9:55 pm, 10 of us head to the train station, running with the food that had come out. Four people stayed behind for the last of the food, mostly naan, and to pay. We all 14 of us make it on the train with nearly a minute to spare, so things are starting to look up. Until we start distributing the food. Somehow, SOMEHOW, everyone manages to get what they ordered except me. I ordered two things, and received neither one of them. But, because we had already paid and were on the train, there was nothing I could do about it.
So, I paid for food that I did not receive. The free drink I got was good though.
So, in summary: This place is probably fine unless you're a big group. Also, don't trust that your reservation went through unless you actually manage to talk to a real person on the phone. This experience could have been less horrible if the food was amazing, but from what my friends had (since they were all wonderful human beings who shared with hungry ole me), it was nothing more than fine. It was also expensive, even if you do actually receive the food that you paid for.
