Drunken Monkey Indian Tapas Bar & Restaurant — Restaurant in Adelaide

Hello, It saddens me more to have to put up a bad review, but we (me and a couple of my friends) had the most appalling experience at the restaurant! A couple of weeks back we ordered takeaway from the restaurant after reading and hearing about the place, but was hugely disappointed. The food was loaded with fat and didn't taste right. To straighten things out, we emailed them personally about the issue out of professional courtesy as we thought businesses need constructive feedback and not public shaming. We got a positive reply from Mr. Mani, stating that we would get our next order literally on the house if we were to order again. The following week, we were about the area in North Adelaide and just thought we'd have a chat with the restaurant but didn't prepare ourselves for the shock of events that followed. As we introduced ourselves to the 'friendly' bearded gentleman waiter and stated the issue with the food, I feel we were let down on a number of things: Mr. Mani didn't even have the courtesy to return the gesture and speak with us (as it was this gentleman who replied to the email). When you say 'Please don't hesitate to contact me.....happy to assist you anytime' you need to mean it! You really need to look into new recipes without the amount of fat that you put into your dishes (I come from a family of chefs back in Mumbai, so please don't tell me that much fat and oil is necessary). We did not come there to beg or bargain for free food (the way the bearded gentleman waiter tried to negotiate a 5..10..15...20$ discount on what should've been literally on the house) , therefore I think it's important how your employees handle genuine customer complaints. We had to throw away whole dishes because we were scared out of our wits with the amount of oil and the awful taste. We waited for a couple of weeks before putting up a review, but I guess that a customer complaint didn't seem important enough for the customer service business!

Am pretty sure I won't (nor my friends) want to dine in such a cold hearted restaurant.

Jovan

PS: I wonder if Google should come up with negative stars for these...

I attended Drunk’n Monkey for dinner on Saturday night. The menu had Tapas options followed by regular options. Underneath the small plates it states, “Select Any Two Choice, Select Any Three Choice or Select Any Four Choice”. It appeared you saved money doing it this way, so I chose three dishes from that list, along with a curry, Naan bread and Raita. After waiting quite a long time the first three dishes came out, I got the Chulbul Mushrooms, Suicide Wings and Samosadillas. The wings and mushrooms were so heavily deep fried and greasy, and the Samosadillas were not crispy at all. I struggled to eat any of these and found myself pulling off the batter. I hoped the main would be a little more promising….

I waited a long time for the main to come out and it wasn’t until I stacked up the earlier plates to make it really obvious that a waitress came over and removed them and asked if I was ready for the main. For the main I got the Paneer Butter Masala (my usual go to at other places), it was extremely average, and the cheese wasn’t very nice. I got the Bullet Cheese Naan (chilli cheese Naan) to go with it and again it was so greasy and tasted nothing like Naan generally tastes. I also ordered a Raita and it was literally a bowl of yogurt with nothing else in it.

When it came time to pay, I was served by a bearded man at the bar. When he advised the price, it was a lot dearer than I had expected. I asked to see the invoice and noticed that I had been charged for three small plates individually and not as a Tapas option (Select Any Three Choice). When I explained to the waiter that I had chosen the three plate option, he was quite rude and condescending and said that you have to tell the person serving you that you want it as Tapas and he argued the point and was very dismissive to my feedback explaining how confusing it is when you see how it is displayed on the menu.

Overall my experience was pretty dismal, I would not recommend...

Great food, misleading menu, terrible manager. Like other reviewers mentioned, the new menu makes it look like you can order multiple small plates for a cheaper price. We did order more small plates to get this 'deal' as it seemed great. When we went to pay, we were actually charged more than we were expecting. We had already paid but thought to tell the manager that the new menu was confusing and made us order more than we otherwise would have.

His response was nothing less than some of the worst customer service I've ever received. He was rude, condescending, told us the menu was not misleading and no one else had mentioned it (clearly they have as there's at least one other review mentioning it), and was actually laughing at us.

We weren't looking for a refund. We weren't asking for a discount. We just wanted to tell him that they might want to change the wording on the menus or let the staff know to warn customers.

We've actually been to the restaurant several times in the last couple months and planned to return regularly, but the absolute rudeness displayed by what seemed to be the manager was utterly embarrassing and appalling. We will definitely not be back.

Not only that, but the entire time we were there he was not wearing a mask. This is a clear breach not only of health and safety directives, but clearly breaking the law. This man is on a power trip and needs to be put in his place by the owner. If he was running one of my businesses I would not hesitate...