Bibi Ji — Restaurant in Melbourne

Expectations Vs Reality

We went last weekend to Bibiji to try out the banana leaf thali. The way it’s promoted on Instagram by food vloggers and the reality we faced at the restaurant were extremely opposite. Let’s start with a series of events.

We reached the restaurant, which had a beautiful and colorful ambiance with flowers, Hollywood posters, and a lit-up bar. Once we reached our table, we were cramped up. Four of us, with a kid, had so little space on the table that there was no place to keep an extra glass of water. Then the staff came in and gave us the menu, which again occupied 90% of the space.

Anyways, after battling through that, we placed the order. The staff took the order for four non-vegetarian thalis and drinks. We expected the drinks to come first, but the entrées came first—all vegetarian. We waited for the non-veg entrées because we ordered non-veg thalis. I asked the manager, and he seemed a bit surprised. He came back with one chicken entrée and said, “Here is your entrée,” but it was not supposed to be there. I was not sure what he meant. After connecting the dots over the weekend, I realized that the non-veg order was never taken. The initial staff who took the order got it wrong.

But here’s the twist: once our mains were served, which were supposed to be in a thali format, all the curries came on the plate, fighting with each other and creating a mix of master curry which tasted different, definitely not tasty.

And the master twist: where are our drinks? Again, the manager came and asked, “Are you sure you ordered drinks?” and came back again to ask who took the order. Great customer experience. Bro, first please give us the drinks and then sort out who, what, why, and how.

Suggestions for New Restaurants: Keep Your Menu Tight: Just keep 3 entrées, 3 mains, and condiments, and experiment. This helps in maintaining quality and managing the kitchen more efficiently. Get Acclimatized with the Setup: Ensure your restaurant setup is well-organized and can accommodate the expected number of guests comfortably. Familiarize Your Staff: Ensure your staff is familiar with the distance from the kitchen to the dining area, the order format, docking method, etc., to improve service efficiency and customer experience. Overall, while Bibiji has a beautiful ambiance, the service and food quality need significant improvement to match the expectations set by social...

This is the review for the dinner service of Saturday night the 21st September 2024.

Food review as follow. Our order consisted of:

1. 1 Amritsari fried fish ( entree) 2)1 goat curry ( main)
2. 1 laccha parotha ( layered flat bread)
3. 2 roti (wholemeal flat bread)
4. onion salad
5. 1 green apple mojito
6. 1 cherry sour tap beer

The fried fish was just fine, covered in a spicy batter and deep fried. Served with a green chutney garnished with lacchas ( jullienne) of fresh ginger. The goat curry and onion salad were really disappointing. Goat curry was lacking in flavours and spiciness that usually comes with this specific curry. It also left some bitter after-taste making this dish non enjoyable. There were only a couple of pieces of meat and the rest were just bones with gravy. The curry was garnished with some julienne cut carrots and fresh ginger. The onion salad consisted of a bowl of red onion slices drizzled with some oil and spices with very little salt. Laccha parotha and rotis were nice.

Beverages review Green apple mojito was ok and so was the cheery sour beer ( from tap).

Service We were served by Bri who was very helpful in setting up our table as we requested and for explaining the menu options. She also kindly offered us samples of wine to choose from before placing our orders for the drinks.

Location Bibi Ji Restaurant opened after the previous venue Cafe Notturno shut down after 45 years of successful trading. Bibi Ji's ( which means grandmother in punjabi) restaurant tries to replicate the look of a typical indian place. That can be clearly noticed by the writings on the walls (written in hindi) and on some pickles containers on each table. The roof curtains make the place look like some sort of "tent" like those used for indian marriages banquets.

The total price for the dinner was $ 123...

After following the news of its opening on Instagram, I decided to try this restaurant for my birthday. The vibe of the restaurant was good but the food and service was below average and poor. I went in to try the vegetarian banana leaf thali, which apparently is the highlight of their menu (otherwise it is a standard menu). The sever took our plates to replace with the banana leaf. The sever came and told us that there’s no banana leaf and couldn’t do the thali. We expected they would give us an option to have the thali in the regular thali, but seemed like the chef was not ready to serve. My suggestion for future, either stock enough (better ordering management) or provide an alternative. We then decided order from the a’la carte and our whole order was vegetarian. We ordered Aloo Tikki chaat (vegetarian) for entree and when the dish was served it looked appealing but when I took the bite, I could taste something which was not vegetarian. It was either meat or fish sauce. I asked my partner to taste and he said this is definitely not vegetarian. I asked the server to check if they had used the same pan for cooking as the meat or if they have put any sauce, which is not vegetarian. The server went to the kitchen and a few minutes later, the front of the house manager or the host came and apologised for serving the dish which was not vegetarian. They did offer to replace the dish but being a vegetarian, we decided to not replace the dish and asked to cancel the rest of order. We then requested the bill to pay for the drink and entrees but the host was kind and did not charge us.

Overall, I was disappointed with...