Indian Cottage — Restaurant in New South Wales

I’m struggling where to begin. Firstly it’s like sitting in an old dilapidated bank with little care in the decor (it probably was an old bank and it’s a beautiful old building). Dark and dismal. Despite empty seats it took us three attempts to get the waitress to move us from a table by the draughty door. We ordered papadoms. Straight out of a supermarket packet. I’m from the UK and we have some fabulous curry houses and some not so good but I’ve never seen a papadum or meal like the one we were served last night. The accompanying “raitha” looked like Heinz potato salad and tasted of nothing. The onion bahji were flat, oily and heavy. They also had pockets of salt and seemed to have had chili powder mixed late in. We couldn’t finish them. I want to the bathroom and what I saw alarmed me in terms of health and safety. A cook was frying something in the kitchen as I passed. No chef’s whites and the place looked filthy. The mains eventually arrived and the two sauces - which should have been totally different looked and tasted the same. Coconut is not a traditional ingredient of a madras, as far as I’m aware, but the madras was supposed to have coconut although I couldn’t taste it! The sauces were thick and glutinous. Not appetising at all. The rice was nice but dry. So dry I thought that too might have come out of a packet. I’m sorry to be so negative. I really am. But I can’t find anything good to say except that the few locals who were in seemed...

As an Indian myself and well travelled and visiting from England, where we have an extensive selection of authentic Indian cuisine, i was very disappointed with the food here. My daughter was very ill after eating here which added to our disappointment. The food was generally unappealing, rather stereotypical of so called Indian food and lacked any subtleties or any genuine distinguishable regional flavours. I suspect it is geared to the unsuspecting curry lover, who wouldn’t mind as long as it was a curry of sorts. We sampled a selection of the courses and were left in little doubt that this is a restaurant for those customers who don’t know or mind any better than a tandoori. Would suggest that the chef has some serious training in fine dining that is actual Indian food, with subtle flavours rather than curry powders most folk can be in the supermarket. I also suggest that the waitressing staff learn to smile more and be more helpful. I was appalled when the manageress hid from us after i pointed out that the samosa pastry was undercooked and still raw. REALLY!? Needless to say a very disappointing...

We recently had a lunch for two at the Indian Cottage. We experienced a lovely server lady, beautiful food and a great experience. The only negative was the over loud music of poor quality which in a large room where the sound reverberates was annoying. But we were there for the food. The menu is extensive and for us vegos, there is much to choose from which is a real bonus as the rest of the eating options in Grafton for vegetarians is quite limited.. You can choose how hot you would like the food chilli wise. The food arrived promptly and tasted so fresh...nothing added to pad it our=t or take away from the natural flavour. Yummo. The website has a menu where you can pre order if you wish plus organise takeaway. These guys are onto it which I really appreciate. I did mention the server lady but will say again, what a great way she went about looking after us with such a warm...