Dhamaal Restaurant — Restaurant in Brisbane City

I'm a local reviewer and review restaurants based on their food quality, customer service and taste. I don't care about the presentation - as long as it tastes nice.

We visited Dhishoom during the holidays and visit Brisbane and the quality was so bad that all of us had funny stomach afterwards.

As soon as we got in, the restaurant had a very unusual smell, staff wasn't nice enough to notice we had a kid with us and kept on saying is it just 3 and I had to repeat twice "no we have a kid with us too"!.

We had to ask for a baby chair twice until we got one.

The girl at the counter gave us a piece of paper and pen and rudely said, write your order and call me when you're ready. - It would have been nice to at least say "Please" or "At this restaurant, we do things differently"

Now the food & drinks:

I ordered "Masala Soda" and it was just soda water (not chilled) with a tiny bit of salt in it. I was expecting a bit more kick in it and given it was 32 degrees and more ice in it.

Gol gapaa: was probably the only thing that was fresh at the restaurant and it tasted good because of sweet yogurt.

Dabeli: It was bad, like really bad. It was missing pomegranate which is the main ingredient and peanuts were off. Like someone had been saving them since the '70s.

Dal fry: I asked twice if it's yellow mung dhal and the girl said yes it is but it wasn't. Tip for staff - You need to know your product. Being an Indian restaurant, I was expecting a little more kick in it, but it was extremely mild and staff never asked the spice level.

Veg Manchurian: needs more balls in it (like the photos in the menu)

Lacha paratha: was way too dry and brown - didn't taste nice at all.

Nan's - Regardless of how bad the food is, an Indian restaurant needs to make a very good nan bread. Dhishoom was bad at this too, nans were brown, tasted off.

We were given a feedback form at the end, and the staff never looked at it. - What's the whole point?

Overall - I would like to give it 1 star and I would not...

We’ve been regular patrons of Dhisom, the only local vegetarian restaurant that serves delicious no-onion, no-garlic dishes. Being nearby, it’s been a family favorite for a while, but our recent visit left us disappointed with the service experience.

Upon arrival, there was no greeting or welcome from the staff, which set a disappointing tone for our dine-in experience. We expected a warm atmosphere, but it felt rather indifferent. Even though the restaurant wasn’t busy—with just one or two occupied tables—our table was dirty, and we waited for a staff member to clean it. After a long wait, we had to request someone to clean up.

When it came time to order, we specifically requested for all dishes to arrive together, as there were six of us. However, they brought out each dish one by one, leaving some of us watching while others were eating. This kind of staggered service wasn’t what we had in mind, especially after being clear with our request.

Although the food itself maintained its authentic taste, we were disappointed to find the dishes served cold, including the dosas. This was unusual for Dhisom, as we never faced this issue on previous visits.

We also have a suggestion regarding the plastic glasses and plates used for water and food. They look a bit cheap for the otherwise great experience you aim to offer. Replacing them with something more refined would certainly enhance the ambiance.

Food remains delicious and well-priced, but the service leaves much to be desired. From the lack of welcome to the absence of smiles, the overall experience felt unwelcoming. It seems like either there aren’t enough staff members or they need further training to improve the dining experience.

We’ll be back, as we love the flavors and have been loyal customers, but we hope to see improvements in service and attention to detail. This feedback is meant to encourage enhancement, not as a complaint—please don’t take your regular customers for...

The experience from the start was not a positive one. Booked a table over phone for 3 (+kid) and had confirmed booking for a certain time. Upon arrival there was a wait which is understandable as it gets busy over weekends.

No greetings by the server and were left abandoned on table with menu for a while until we approached wait staff that we were ready. Though had seen other customers walk to counter to let the wait staff know they are ready to order.

We had a bit of water spillage over table and requested wait staff if this can be cleaned up, were ignored multiple times even after requesting multiple times if this can be cleaned, seems like they overlooked and cleaned the table in front and back so were left ignored until we left and had a table with water till we left. Walked down towards counter to request we this can be cleaned up, were handed few tissues to clean it up ourselves.

Food - Plain butter dosa was soggy and thick like uttapam while others coming out of kitchen were fine. While discussing with wait staff they really didnt wanted to do anything and didnt bother to take the dosa back or offer a new one. We didnt even bothered to send it back as our child was hungry and the wait staff kept arguing. Manchow soup was a let down, dont bother to order. Naan was ok and paneer tikka masala was flavourful.

Upon checkout we did mentioned the experience we had was not pleasant and from the past this was one of the worst experience we have had. Being a regular customer of vegetarian food this was our number 1 go to, which we are going to avoid now since there are many options. If wait staff arn’t ready to take feedback (despite they argued stating that we are running short of staff and only have 2 people) there are plenty options...