Randhawa's Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Gold Coast City

We had a terrible experience at Randhawas and won’t be heading there again. Hailing originally from India, we wanted to try Randhawas as it seemed it be a luxury fine dining restaurant. We had a tiresome day and went for dinner. While we didn’t have a booking, the lady at the reception was very courteous and we were seated within 5-10 minutes. We were initially enjoying the decor and ambience. We ordered Amritsar Fish which was decent and my husband ordered beers. We had asked for goat curry (Indian hot version) for mains and it arrived soon with the tandoori roti. At first we were delighted to see the curry was piping hot just as we like it and started enjoying the food (though the tandoori roti had ghee and we usually don’t prefer ghee - though we didn’t ask about it initially).

Soon to our dismay I found a piece of hair in my goat curry and quickly called the gentleman serving us. On showing him the hair, he kind of laughed at seeing the hair and just took away the goat curry without saying anything. We then waited for him to remove our plates. He came back after a while and then took away my plate but didn’t take away my husbands plate. Thereafter another lady working on level 1 came and replaced my plate with the cutlery. All this while my husband plate hadn’t been removed and the breads were going dry and we were let what was happening. We requested the gentleman who had served us to call the manager and were let waiting for much longer. Then we called another person serving tables if my husbands plate could at least be removed and be replaced with fresh plate. This was done though they didn’t bother to give him fresh cutlery. My husband politely asked the second person what would happen with the rotis as they had gone stonecold by now and this gentleman asked if he could microwave it for us!! We were appalled at the turn of events and requested again if we could please speak with the manager.

At first we were told our rotis or breads will be microwaved for us. We’ve never had microwaved rotis at home as these are always a had fresh in any Indian household. In the meantime the replaced goat curry arrived. White it was hot in terms of temperature this one wasn’t Indian hot as we had previously requested. We were growing tired of repeating ourselves so we didn’t mention anything about this. Thereafter the manager who was a lovely lady came and apologised to us and we told her we understood it wasn’t her fault, though we never expected this in a restaurant like Randhawas. She was really courteous and profusely apologised on behalf of the staff and asked if there was anything she could do.

My husband still didn’t have a spoon to have the curry and had to request for it separately. Our replaced roti soon arrived and the manager offered to order another round of roti for us. Soon after as the 1st floor starting getting a bit empty, we heard the staff arguing in the background. There was also a girl who was serving tables and had been scolded for not doing her job well and she kept dropping cutlery on the floor as she went around tables. She seemed least interested in customer service and was throwing around utensils in the bar area quite loudly. We were keen to finish our food and go back home as this was far from the fine dining experience we had been looking forward to. We went to the main reception to finalise our bill.

As a compensation the manager did not charge us for 1 tandoori roti and mentioned that while it takes 3 days for bio membership to be activated and one needs the card to avail the vip cost price, she would offer us the vip price on our bill for tonight (and that vip price is not always offered on all items but she would put it across for our bill). All in all we won’t be going back to Randhawas and felt while the decor and location were superb, the customer service simply let it down. The food portion size was quite decent and the manager seemed the only responsible lady in the staff and we felt sorry for her as she seemed hurried, rushed...

I have been dining at Randhawa’s for over 8 years, and this is the first time I have been compelled to write a review, I was absolutely shocked at how we were treated from start to finish, we had a party of 4 plus a toddler.

The manager was argumentative and unable to take on feedback, she would continually get defensive and take no accountability of what had transpired. It was rather shocking to watch it play out. I’ve summarised the issues below, it would taken me all day to detail all the issues we had.

No food or drink menus on the table when we arrived.

Bar forgot to make our drinks, had to ask after 15 mins what was happening. Total 20 mins for 3 drinks.

1 Entree took 40 mins to prepare, we said if the mains could be rushed as we had a hungry toddler.

Was told after we ate the entree if they wanted us to start to make the mains! So you don’t start making the mains until after entree is finished? I’ve never heard of this.

Mains took 1 hour 20 mins to come out from when we ordered. Mains were drip fed over a 15 mins period, and didn’t come out together.

Rude staff, the manager provided the incorrect discount, I had a vip card that gives me 10% off and she applied the wrong discount. When I asked to fix she argued saying she gave us extra rice for free instead, something I didn’t ask for. Also read the room, we clearly had a terrible dining experience and you’re trying to haggle me on $10.

Poor communication, we asked twice about the meal as not everyone got entrees and the people were getting really hungry (was almost 8pm by this point). Got told they would be 5 mins, was another 30 mins after that.

Absolute circus of a front of house, the staff had no idea how to run a restaurant. Not their fault, they all looked under the age of 16, with one boy looking about 12 It was getting close to 8:30pm and we hadn’t finished our food but were super tired so we asked for takeaway containers. They never came, had to ask twice for them.

The manager continued arguing with me over the discount applied (it was wrong on the bill). No apology or explanation, just super defensive and blaming how busy they were on the lateness of the food.

The Indian female manager needs to work on her communication skills. It was so evident we were upset and disappointed with the service (we said it to 2 different wait staff). You couldn’t bother coming over and explaining the situation or offer g an apology. In fact, you were laughing at me when I said I didn’t ask for free rice and you argued with me after the incorrect discount given for members. You couldn’t seem to keep a straight face and were laughing at the situation. Not sure what was funny about paying customers being upset with waiting so long for food and meals coming out together.

Seriously, invest in training your staff about front of house processes and get rid of that manager, she provided absolutely no value to your restaurant and in fact i will NEVER dine in again.

So disappointing as the Indian food you provide is great, that’s what makes the whole experience so...

Absolutely WORST takeaway experience from the Emerald Lakes restaurant tonight, after years of being fans & supporters of Randhawa's.

Phoned & placed a home delivery order at 6.35pm (2x curries, 1x rice, 2x naans). Was advised of longer wait times for delivery, but assured food would be delivered in 1-1.5hrs between 7.30-8pm ~ I said that would be fine. I tried phoning again at 8.10pm to confirm order was on its way as it was past the 1.5hr timeframe, however I was on hold for 14 minutes before hanging up. Tried again & after being on hold for 20 minutes, I once again hung up. By now it was 8.45pm and more than 2hrs since placing the order. I decided to drive to the restaurant before it was due to close at 9pm to see where my order was. I repeatedly tried phoning the whole way, but it just came up as busy line (I'm guessing they turned their phone off to avoid calls??).

At the front counter, I explained that it was now 2.5hrs since I placed my delivery order, and it hadn't been delivered (and noone had been answering their phones in past 50 minutes that I'd been trying to get a hold of them). The staff member spent a few minutes trying to find my order, then informed me it had been missed earlier so they had just re-made it before I arrived {coincidental?!}. They offered to refund delivery fee, but I said I wanted a better rate of compensation for waiting 2.5hrs for a delivery which hadn't even left the restaurant, then having to drive there myself to find my food order, and for their complete disregard for communication.

After going back & forth, the staff agreed to refund delivery fee and cost of one of the curries. Then after trying unsuccessfully 5 times to process the refund on my card, they finally gave me a cash refund (I'd been in there for close to 20 minutes trying to resolve the issues).

The last insult to injury was when I arrived home and the naans were barely warm & very rubbery. My husband's curry (beef madras) was ok but not a medium spice like we ordered. My curry (chicken korma) tasted like boiled chicken that had been thrown in to a bland sauce at the last second. The WORST curry I've ever eaten from Randhawa's, or even any indian restaurant/takeaway. I only ate about 1/4 of the curry before throwing the rest away (my husband agreed that it tasted like flavourless boiled chicken).

Extremely frustrating and disappointing experience . After 7 years of being loyal customers, this has left a very...