Tandoori Cottage Indian Restaurant — Restaurant in Melbourne

Atmosphere - The place is dated and has an unappealing smell about it similar to cigarettes. The tables are nicely set but the decor is dated and could do with a refurbishment. The seats are quite hard too so are not overly comfortable. The restaurant does not look like an appealing place to dine from the street. The AC was set to 16 deg when we arrived so it felt like a freezer, however they turned it off when I asked thankfully.

Service - attentive and friendly. They brought out the food within reasonable timeframes and continued to top up my water when i asked repeatedly (they should just leave jugs on the table).

Drinks - this place is BYO but presumably they serve drinks too (other than water), however there was no drinks list so I don't know what they offer.

Food - our table of four shared the tandoori chicken to start which was very tender and tasty. The samosas were a good size and also very nice. The complimentary pappadums to start was a nice touch. For mains, we ordered the chicken jhalferezi, beef masala and bhuna gosht with saffron rice. All were extremely tasty and generous serving sizes. My complaint about the food, however, is that it must contain MSG or a similar product as my face went red (a telltale sign of MSG) and I couldn't sleep for many hours when i went home (another telltale sign of MSG). The MSG would explain the tastiness of the food, however it is disappointing that the restaurant had to resort to this given the side effects is has on some people.

I have since returned and had the chicken jhalferezi again which was enjoyable. One of the other diners had the chicken masala which was no good. Food a bit hit and miss...

Only had 2 people waiting out the front on a very busy Friday night where the restaurant was full, these 2 waiters didn’t even have time to greet us. The female waiter was nice enough to let us sit down when we didn’t have a booking, but we waited half an hour to place an order. How were we supposed to order anything if they’re too busy handing out the food? We even went up to the counter and asked to place our order and the male waiter told us to sit down he’ll come over to take the order - and then we watched for another 10 minutes as he and the girl continued to hand out food. Would it have been that hard to take our order for 1 minute? If it took us that long to place our order how long would it take to get the food? I don’t blame the waiters I blame the owner, how about you have more people working on the floor especially when you have so many reserved signs on your tables. We will never ever come back so by saving money on staff you’ve lost repeat...

We have enjoyed the food, both dining in and takeaway for many years and tonight was no exception. However, the service was appalling. After waiting we were shown to a table (we had made a reservation). Having sat down we were then asked to move to another table against the front window which was very cold. We ordered and the food arrived in a timely fashion but there was no rice. When we finally attracted the waitress' attention she argued that we did not order rice which was not true. We then waited some 5 minutes for the rice to arrive along with another argument about whether it was ordered and also being told we had received too many naans and wanting them back. Service101- if there is a misunderstanding about an order do not argue with the customer. Fix it promptly and apologise. Trying to pay the bill at the end was another lengthy debacle. I don't go to restaurants to have arguments with the staff and get attitude with my meal. We...