SANKRANTI AUSTRALIA — Restaurant in Melbourne

Some things were great, other things, not so much. I was super excited to see Mysore bonda and Punuglu on the menu as I have never seen them at a south Indian style restaurant in Australia. Mysore bonda was fantastic. It had a crunchy outer layer with a soft fluffy interior. The taste and the consistency was awesome(chef you have nailed it, I love it). The disappointing part was the chutney. It was served cold. It lacked tadka or thalimpu, it lacked seasoning and the chilli hit that one would expect from it. Punuglu tasted a bit dougy. We also had some chat items, panic Puri and papri chat. Full marks for presentation but again panic puri juice was very cold and lacked punch. THE BIRYANI: OMG I love my Biryani and Sankranthi mutton Dum Biryani is one of the best in Australia.(Trust me, I know. I grew up in Hyderabad. Enough Said! 😀). I could tell the meat was slow cooked and tender, the rice aromatic and flavoursome and it is actually cooked in Dum. I even confirmed that with the manager at the time. If I was rating just the biryani, then 5*. This restaurant is a good 40 min drive from where I live and I would gladly drive for that biryani. Ok enough about the biryani. moving on. The restaurant itself is descently decorated and has good furniture. My request to the owner, there was some funky smell going on near the handwash area, please fix it immediately. Staff and the manager all seemed very nice and polite and they seemed to be trying but overall the service felt slow. Finally I would say I'm not here to name bash. Sankranthi has some interesting items on menu, please don't get me started on the biryani again 😉, has a lot of potential, OBVIOUSLY, I recommend the biryani but...

Food: excellent Staff: rude. ( eat fast and leave fast - restaurant is about to close) Service : very poor

Overall it's better to go for good restaurant.

Response to Owner:

We called to restaurant and order two mutton briyani. When we arrived staff told it's take away, then I explained her clearly that I came from very far, inspite of so many other good restaurant I choose your restaurant only and I can't take take away food and can't eat outside the restaurant either by standing or sitting on roads.

Then with v sad tone, she told to have it here. Eat fast and leave fast. I kept quite, I was waiting for plates, as I can't eat from take away box. After few minutes later when she came from inside, I asked her plates. Then she remember to bring it.

I felt v bad and we both ate food like beggers and finished it fast or again we both might get scoldings.

Only reason I choose Sankrathi, because of delicious taste.

Before leaving I explained her and told I was v disappointed. Then she replayed I should have left as my shift got finished, only for you I have waited here for 1 hour.

Whatever, I would happily accepted whatever staff told, but, because of me, my friend lost his respect. I would have came lone.

Please make sure to treat customers happy. In this competitive food business, if customer choose "Sankranti" means there must be some positive sign.

I hope I would find another good restaurant soon.

Thank you for...

Firstly, No one have attended the table to take the order until we called someone from the main counter. Pathetic service, especially the lady who took the order was rude.

Main course was served before the starters. The man who served us main course had no idea about starters we ordered. He said he will check and confirm.

The Veg Manchuria taste and smell was off. It wasn’t fresh at all, the lady who served us said “we always prepare food in batches for every two days” when we let her know about the Manchuria. So, she literally confessed that it’s not fresh.

Chicken lollipop was dipped in some sweet sauce, i wouldn’t recommend this to anyone unless they prefer sweet chicken.

Chicken 65 pieces were cold and sweet

Chicken tikka masala was OK

Gongura chicken smell and taste was off, not fresh at all.

Gutti vankaya curry smell and taste was off, not fresh at all

Nan breads were cold. There was no difference between the butter nan and garlic nan. They all look and tasted same.

Rumali roti was OK

Enjoyed Coke Zero atleast to feel better after tasting the awful food.

Finally, the lady at the counter should learn some customer service manners and need to learn how to be polite with customers. Atleast the robot in the restaurant was well behaved after all lol.

Never going back to this...