Indian Room - Milton — Restaurant in Brisbane City

Overview: Indian Room (I.R.) is a new Indian restaurant located in the heart of West End's dining and entertainment precinct. It's situated at the busy intersection of Melbourne, Boundary, Mollison, and Browning Streets.

Food: My wife and I dined at I.R. on a Sunday night in August and ordered a selection of dishes. We started with papadums and mint chutney, followed by samosas with tamarind chutney, lamb saag, and amritsari fish. We also had naan bread and a large bowl of Basmati rice, and to drink, a couple of Kingfisher Ales and a mango lassi. We were impressed with the freshness and taste of the food. The samosas had a soft filling and a crispy coating, while the fish was succulent and tender. The standout dish was the lamb saag, with tender meat cubes in a creamy spinach sauce. The naan bread and fluffy basmati rice were perfect accompaniments. The presentation was neat and attention to detail was evident. We finished with a delicious gulab jamun dessert, served with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.

Service: Despite the restaurant being busy, the service was flawless. The friendly owner/manager made us feel welcome from the moment we arrived, and our booked table was ready and waiting for us. Orders were taken quickly, and drinks, entrees, and main courses came out in the correct order. Both the owner and his assistant were polite, efficient, and pleasant, and our evening ran smoothly without any hitches.

Atmosphere: When we arrived at around 6:30 pm, the restaurant was fairly empty, but it soon filled up, giving it a lively, fun, and energetic vibe. The interior design is modern and stylish, with brown, yellow, and white colour tones, comfortable upholstered seating, and large tables. It's spacious and airy, making for good acoustics, and most tables have a view out onto the bustling streetscape of the West End. The overall ambience is casual, laid back, and relaxed, making it a perfect place to enjoy a fun night out with friends or family.

Cost: Our bill came to $106, which included a couple of drinks, a starter, two main courses, rice, naan bread, papadums, a few sauce bowls, and a gulab jamun dessert. We booked through the Eat Club and saved about 19%, bringing the bill down to a more reasonable $86. While that may seem high due to hyperinflation, we still found it to be fair value for the quality of food and service.

Toilets: There are no toilets in the restaurant itself, so you need to grab a key from the manager and head outside to the adjacent apartment complex, where you will find a couple of toilets in the car park. While it may sound inconvenient, the toilets were relatively easy to find and reasonably clean and well-maintained.

Parking: Parking can be a bit tricky in this area, but we usually head straight for the nearby Soda Factory car park, where you can get two hours free and even after that, it's quite reasonable at about $3 per hour. Street parking near the Hotel West End is sometimes available.

Summary: Overall, we had a fabulous evening at I.R., and everything ran smoothly from booking and paying via the Eat Club app, to ordering, food quality, service, and ambience. Toilets and parking can be a bit of a challenge, but they are not insurmountable obstacles, and we're definitely up for a...

Currently been sat down for 1 hour and 15 minutes and no food served. We were only served drinks after 50 minutes. I want to be sympathetic and imagine something has happened for the restaurant to be so severely understaffed on Valentine's Day, but please communicate with your customers.

Update, 2 hours in: after asking for a refund from the food ordered through the QR code, the front desk said our food was being prepared for takeaway. I said I didnt want the food and that I wanted a refund. I was told to sit down as "I had waited 2 hours, I could wait 5 more minutes".

15 minutes later and still nothing. My partner went up to ask about our refund and a waitress quickly rushed over and handed him an Uber Eats bag. He came back to me, confused, to which I explained we were waiting to get a refund. My partner then went back over and spoke to the same man that I did. He was told we weren't getting a refund because we refused to pay for the two dishes that came out after an hour and a half (one main and one entree, the entree we had to send back because it was cold) and our drinks. The man told my partner that he'd told me that and that what I had paid for via the app was "enough to cover the meal". Which is refusing to refund the meal. He then disappeared out back and didnt come back.

After, we waited for another 10 minutes or so, dumbfounded as to what to do. As it was around 10pm by that time, we felt like there was nothing we could do but leave. We've now gotten home to find food missing from the Uber Eats bag. Photos attached are from my qr code order. (The first lot of food we ordered in person and also did not receive items there, but at least we did not pay for that).

No house pickle, no mango chutney, seemingly only 1/4 of a garlic naan? We received only the chilli paneer, malabari fish and the pappadams.

This is $62 of food!

I'm a fierce lover and supporter of the Brisbane food scene and I have never been treated like this. I want to point out as well that we were not the only ones, we were one of at least 10 tables that had the same experience, as well as several takeaway orders we watched waiting outside for over half an hour.

I sincerely hope I'm contacted for a refund of what we also didnt receive in the takeaway bag, but if not I have no problem taking this further.

Update 3: after speaking to management, a full refund is being offered, which I really appreciate. Richa's response was professional and respectful, they are a credit...

"A Culinary Odyssey Through the Depths of Despair"

Ah, the Indian Room - where dreams of a romantic dinner go to die and time stands still. My girlfriend and I, in our infinite wisdom, chose this establishment for our much-anticipated night out. Little did we know we were about to embark on a gastronomic journey that would make Odysseus's voyage seem like a pleasant afternoon stroll.

We arrived, breathless and anxious, a mere three minutes late . The aroma of spices filled the air, tantalizing our senses and lulling us into a false sense of security. Oh, how naive we were.

Our first clue should have been the staff, frantically placating disgruntled patrons like a circus juggler trying to keep plates spinning. But we, eternal optimists, soldiered on. We ordered drinks and starters at 7:50 PM, blissfully unaware that we had just entered a temporal anomaly where minutes stretched into hours.

As the clock struck 9:00 PM, our single entreè arrived in a grand flourish - cold as the heart of the restaurant owner who clearly despises paying customers. We sent it back, because nothing says "fine dining" like reheated leftovers, am I right?

At 9:15 PM, a lone dish emerged from the kitchen - my lamb shank, a solitary island of edibility in a sea of culinary disappointment. My partner, however, was left to watch me eat with the enthusiasm of a starving artist at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Her main course? Still a mythical legend, whispered about in hushed tones by the kitchen staff.

But wait, there's more! When we dared to ask for a refund on items we never received, we were told they were "being cooked." Apparently, in the Indian Room, food preparation is a process akin to aging fine wine or fossilizing dinosaur bones.

The coup de grâce? After waiting for two hours, we were told we could wait five more minutes. Because clearly, what's another five minutes when you've already wasted a quarter of your day in gastronomic purgatory?

In conclusion, if you're looking for an evening of exquisite frustration, lukewarm food, and a masterclass in testing the limits of human patience, look no further than the Indian Room. It's not just a meal; it's an endurance test. Bon appétit, and may the odds be ever...