UPDATE:
After a pretty rough experience at the restaurant earlier this week, where issues in the kitchen resulted in some extreme delays (scroll below to my original review for details), I received a message from the owner apologizing for the bad experience and inviting me back to the restaurant for a complimentary meal. I took him up on that offer, and returned to the restaurant for lunch on Wednesday. Since I've already had their famous dosas during my previous visit, I wanted to try something else off of their menu, and ordered the Chicken Biryani (details on the dish below). The dish was delicious (and they are serious when it comes to heat), as was the dosa that I had tried earlier in the week. The staff was incredibly friendly and attentive. What really got me though was the owner's graciousness and dedication to his customers. Following this visit, my perception of this restaurant has completely done a 180. I would highly recommend this place to anyone looking for good Indian food, especially if you enjoy heat.
Chicken Biryani ($13.99):
4.5/5
This is the first time that I've actually had biryani before, and I've got to say, if all restaurants had biryani like this, then I really should order this dish more often. I really liked the basmati rice, which was a bit firmer and had more texture than the type of rice that I'm accustomed to. It was filled with various herbs and spices, and was very flavourful and fragrant. There was a generous amount of juicy, boneless chicken (I'm delighted by the fact that they use dark meat) that was well-seasoned and very flavourful, and also a small whole egg. Now, you get to choose the spice level for your dish. I initially requested the dish to be as spicy as possible, but chickened out (no pun intended) and asked for the 2nd highest level of spice instead. I had seriously dodged a bullet: the dish at the 2nd highest level of spice was already seriously HOT. In most restaurants when I ask for my food to be spicy, I usually get something that's just mildly tingly; here, I was actually tearing up and had to drink a lot of water and also use the raitha that they served the dish with to numb the pain (I wouldn't have been able to handle the highest level). They seriously don't pull any punches here, and I'm impressed.
Original Review:
I really don't like writing negative reviews, but I've honestly had the worst dining experience in recent memory at this restaurant. I visited the place on a Monday, which is when they have a special where all of their dosas and uthappams were priced at only $5.99. Unable to resist such a great deal, I decided to order two dosas: their Meat & Mixed Vegetable Dosa (with chicken) and their Cheese Garlic Uthappam. The food took OVER ONE HOUR to arrive. I'm not exaggerating: I ordered before 1:30 pm, and it was well past 2:30 by the time my dosas arrived. I've never walked out of a restaurant before, but I seriously came close. I have no idea what happened, whether this was just a rare, unfortunate misshap or something common to this restaurant, but I was seriously ticked off.
The food, when it did finally arrive, did taste pretty good (details below), but honestly at that point anything probably would taste good to me. Although the staff members at the front of the house were relatively friendly and kept my water glass filled, and the prices are an absolute steal on Mondays, I'm seriously quite put off by my experience and will not be returning any time soon.
Meat & Mixed Vegetables Dosa (Chicken, $5.99 on Mondays):
4/5
This consisted of a long, thin crepe enclosing a filling of potatoes, peas, carrots (and some other vegetables) and chicken, and was served with three separate chutneys. The crepe was soft, slightly chewy, and quite tasty on its own when dipped into chutney (my favourite is the red one). There was a generous amount of filling, which was also very tasty: the food was well seasoned, with a slight bit of heat, and the pieces of chicken were very tender and moist.
Cheese Garlic Uthappam ($5.99 on Mondays):
3/5
This is an Indian-style pizza that's topped with garlic and cheese. Unlike Western pizzas, the crust was more fluffy and tender than doughy. I was quite surprised by the amount of garlic that was present; there were large pieces covering the entire top of the pizza, and the flavour did become a bit overpowering. I would have preferred more cheese (you can never have enough cheese) and a bit less garlic.
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