Old Durbar Nepalese & Indian Restaurant Brunswick — Restaurant in Melbourne

I made my first visit today, and I have to admit the restaurant did not perform up to my expectations. Before my visit to 'old durbar' I read the reviews of the restaurant, and it set the bar high (an incredibly high rating of 4.6) for the restaurant. After arriving here, I was eager to try out my favourite of what Nepali food they offer and eventually settled in Nepal's iconic dishes the 'thali' and 'thukpa' among many other famed and notable dishes.

For those who arent aware, the 'Thali' is a dish from the Thakali cuisine and has a very distinguishable feature that sets the dish apart from other dishes, its lentil soup. It is widely known in Nepal that the Thakali use black lentils in their dishes, thus all Nepali restaurants use black lentils when cooking Thali but this restaurant did not. I thought "okay, i will let this mistake slide and enjoy my Thali" but when I took a bite of the saag, I was stunned and repulsed at how salty it was, as the taste was so salty it was almost nauseating. I had never tasted such revolting 'saag' in my life and hope I never will again.

After my thukpa was delivered to me, I instantly noticed that skinny noodles were used instead of the regular nepali norm, the thick, noodles (similar to the Japanese Udon). The bowl was also sprinkled with superfluous amount of pepper. I got slightly annoyed at how they completely butchered the visual aspect of authentic and iconic Nepali thukpa but I should probably let the taste of the food do the talking right? Well, I was not right nor wrong. The broth/soup of the thukpa was incredibly salty and and pepper kept making me cough after every gulp. The broth also tasted like the product of mixing instant noodle's broth powder with water. The vegetables were also unpleasantly overcooked and extremely flimsy, etc.

Overall (TLDR), I do not recommend the 'old durbar' due to its overpriced food, and its inability to not perform up to its expectations set by incredibly unreliable and misleading reviews and completely butchering the production of authentic Nepali dishes 'thali' and 'thukpa' through their food's lousy display and abysmal cooking. This restaurant may appeal to those who havent experienced true Nepali cuisine, but will certainly be a letdown for...

I was on holiday to Melbourne. My friends recommended OD specially for live music and food but it was not as they explained.

Service 1/5 Food 2/5 Professionalism 2/5 Ambience 1/5

Namaste gesture by door staff just after entry was impressive. As soon as we sat on another Steward came and asked for order. We asked for some time but literally after 2 min she came back while my friends were still at washroom.

Wait staffs can be seen chewing gums all the time, with no smile. It looked so arrogance dragging whole vibes down.

Live music was so loud, we have to shout to talk to each other. Besides live music, all you can hear is shouting buzz from other customers and even staff had to speak so loud to communicate.

Whole ambience was offbeat and not impressed at all.

For food we order chicken chowmein, momo and chilly momo. Chilly momo was over flavoured by tomato sauce. Chicken chowmein had too much MSG. We could taste that bitterness and extreme umami flavour destroying enjoyment of chowmein.

For closer we order sadheko bhatmass and chauchau sadheko, you can feel raw vegetable oil, oiliness so much make it worst.

All recommendations was OD, OD but very disappointed, would never recommend anyone and wouldn't go back even my local friends decided...

Not sure why there are so many good reviews for this place, either the restaurant itself is giving the good reviews or people are being too generous. Went here not long ago with my girlfriend and was appalled by the food and the service. We waited 20 minutes to be asked what we would like to order and was told an hour later that our order hadn't been received. We were given the cheapest entrée as a complimentary dish for their mistake, which tasted like it had just been freshly reheated. I asked if we could substitute it with a complimentary plate of momo's (dumplings), but the waitress talked over the top of me, ignored what I was saying, and walked away. Making the situation all the more uncomfortable was the waitress and the chefs, who were all speaking angrily in Nepalese, pointing in our direction. Another 15 minutes later, we barely got through a few bites of the flavourless entrée, when we saw a family, who had arrived 1 hour after we did, starting to get their mains served, after which we had endured enough and finally decided to leave for a better restaurant. There are plenty of good Nepalese restaurants in Melbourne, but this place is definitely not...