Khazana — Restaurant in Melbourne

Update as of 01 Nov 2022:

These guys are hell bent on proving that they can go up an extra notch every time I visit, while I try ordering newer dishes for my reviews.

Today I had to admit to the restaurant owner Ali bhai that the dinner deserved 6 Stars.

We ordered everything vegetarian today, and we had 4 teenagers in our group. Even the teens liked the food.

Today's order: Sarso Saag, Chholey, Achari Bengan (eggplant) [this eggplant dish was out of the world!], Gobhi masala, Bhindi masala, Paneer mutter masala, garlic naan, tandoori roti, aloo kulcha, onion salad etc.

Update of August 2022:

Khazana is a fine dining restaurant and lives up to offering the finest Indian food.

It was our 3rd visit and the food was amazing! We ordered dal makhani, goat curry, Lamb Rogan Josh, Sarso ka Saag (accompanied by specially prepared makki Ki roti, which is not a regular menu item), paneer butter masala, garlic naan and butter naan.

Another special item that we tasted today was chilli naan. If you live spicy food, ask for this naan. You may get lucky!

Verdict: a must go place!

Previous review:

Everyone in our party loved the food. All dishes were balanced, had the right combination of spiciness, aroma, temperature and presentation. Chicken was well cooked, juicy and soft. Same I found for paneer tikka.

Ali Bhai who's the owner, suggested Amritsari chicken which was indeed very good. We also ordered chicken Madras which is one of my favorites and chef here didn't disappoint me.

Garlic naan, normal butter roti, cheese naan, were all soft and warm. That tells me that the flour was freshly kneaded.

My friend ordered Malai methi mutter which he enjoyed. I tasted it and it was sweet, which is not my preference for curries. Kadhai Paneer was delicious. North Indians enjoy onion salad as a side dish which I only found here. Don't get confused by the name though. This salad is only onions served with a mix of spices. If you like your food hot & spicy, this is the thing you want in the side.

Desserts can be difficult to choose when there is a lot of choice. I love Gulab Jamun, but Gajjar ka Halwa (made of carrots and loved by billions of Indians, and I'm not even exaggerating. :)) is a sweet that you eat in winters, so we ordered that. I hadn't tried Paan Kulfi ever before, so that was another item was ordered. Both were great.

I was amazed with the service. Other restaurants can certainly learn from Khazana about top notch service.

Ambiance is definitely great. There was no loud music. You can actually have a good conversation while light music plays in the background. Great for larger parties too.

There is space outside, which I'm sure it's full when the weather is good or bearable.

A multi-level parking is located right diagonally opposite the restaurant.

Overall, a good experience....

I would like to give you a quick and brief review on my experiences at this establishment. I would have to say it's one of the worst experiences being Indian which we all know is a spicy food I decided to ask if I could have the chicken tikka masala mild, (I did elaborate the word mild twice to him to ensure this was mild). I asked how long it would take to be ready and was told approximately 20 minutes I told him no worries I'll sit outside let me know when it's ready mind you I had eye contact that's how close i was. I sat outside for a good 30 minutes before I decided to walk in and ask a question of how long to go where I was told it shouldn't be long at this point I've noticed a bag sitting behind him which you could say was someone's takeaway but as I was told it shouldn't be long I didn't think it was mine. Another 15 minutes past before I decide to walk back in and ask him is it ready he turned around and said oh yes here it is disappointed you could say yes as many other things I could say but I won't. I can not describe how arrogant and rude the staff are but its made me write this reveiw to warn other's. By this time I was starving and I was on the way home as soon as i opened the mild chicken tikka masala you could smell how spicy it was and it was HOT, so now I've waited 45 minutes for a meal that I can no longer eat so my review on this is do not go there do not even bother trying the worst service, now food which I couldn't tell you about because I didn't get to eat it!! If I could remove the one star that I gave to give this review I would... The only reason I gave the one star so I could review and let you all know I repeat do not bother there are better things out there even 2 day's old...

Food was delicious, however the manger was extremely unfriendly and unprofessional when requested to explain why we were unable to take our leftovers home.. We ordered 3x set course meals, and couldn't finish them, so as always instead of wasting the food we paid money for, we asked for a takeaway box. This is where we were hit by a surprise and a straight NO answer! When we asked why, the manager rudely explained that they don't allow take away on the specific set course we ordered due to people taking advantage of the 'all you can eat' (which we didn't know at that point) and 'apparently' order extra refills to take away home! What was even worse, he treated us like we were the 1 in 100 that actually do that! The statistic is based on what the waiter said to us! I explained our reasoning, that we didn't have a single refill or anything extra and that we simply would like to take the food, we paid for and couldn't finish, home! With a raised voice, causing a scene, he stated his restaurant policy and denied our request! Instead he was happy to throw our food in the bin!! Dear manager, not everyone is the same, your policy is unreasonable! Listen to your customers, and make reasonable adjustments to your policy, especially work on your attitude towards treating people. Its bad for business! We have been there many times before, sadly this was...