Darren M.
Yelp
Awful experience. Never again. Warning: Do not go at 9:30 on a Friday night, even though they close at 10pm. They do not want you there. REPEAT: They do not want you there. They will rush you and close the whole place around you while you're still eating, not just "finishing up" but right in the middle of your meal, which they KNOW you just received. They brought the food at 9:45 and soon dropped the bill and asked me to pay so they can close the register. They didn't ask if I wanted desert or anything else. Just dumped the check and asked for my money. They did this to the other parties too.
Of course then, the teenage waiter kept coming to see if my money or card were there. I didn't have more than 5 minutes to enjoy my food before this whole charade started. Then, my card didn't work because their system was off line or something. They bothered me again for the card. I actually had to get up and go to the counter, again leaving my dinner behind. This time it worked, but my food was getting cold and I hadn't even finished half of it.
The food is not inexpensive, by the way. And the portion of the main dish was smaller than I expected. And any chance of my enjoying this rather mediocre food was further marred by them asking me to pay and by them closing the place and LEAVING. Numerous employees were all fleeing the place while I was trying to eat. And it was just turning 10 o'clock. By 10:10 half of the staff and cooks were out the door. Fortunately, they didn't actually ask me to leave, because an employee was still there counting money and a server was doing some side work, but half the lights were shut and they were literally around me with their coats on getting ready to leave.
What was so alarming is that not one of the staff even remotely imagined what I was experiencing as a person who came to their place to enjoy their food. This leads me to believe they have little pride in their product, thus signalling to me that the food must in fact not be so fresh and high quality. (It could very well be canned or boxed, partially. Could depend on what you get.) No high quality cooks or conscientious managers would ever allow a staff to completely ignore a customer for the sake of their selfish desire to just close and get the heck out of the place.
Honesty, I'm not a slow eater, and I don't see why they couldn't all just allow the three or four parties to enjoy their meals without being rushed. What would 15 minutes more of their time have amounted to? Would it have killed them? Instead, now they have me using my valuable time writing a review to warn others. And they have a bad review as a result. Is it worth it? (My guess is they really don't care about what customers think.) A simple 10 or15 minutes more, as well as a "would you like some dessert or tea?" would have gone a long way. Instead I left feeling I wasted $20 and 30 minutes sitting in an extremely unfriendly, unwelcoming, stress-inducing environment.
Advice: Don't have people come in at 9:30 and expect them to eat in 10 minutes before you start shutting down. Just advertise your hours as 9:30. Not 10. I literally left the cafe with a whole piece of paratha in hand, and no one cared or apologized. Most bizarrre restaurant experience I've had in a long time.
Bottom line: Cold uncaring staff. (Teens are probably very nice, but they are controlled by their superiors) Mediocre food. (Channa Saag) And bad customer service, the way they didn't put themselves in a customer's place. But I see this is a common complaint in the reviews. And if you MUST go for whatever reason you are compelled to, do not even THINK of going during their final 45 minutes of open hours. You will be sorry.