Indian Cottage — Restaurant in Sawtell

The owners wont like this but I need to provide an honest review. Having lived 20 years in South Africa and another 10 years in the UK - I have a liking for Indian Restaurants and also a good knowledge of the various 'popular' Indian meals and what they should taste like. With this restaurant, I was very much looking forward to trying it as Coffs Harbour is definitely lacking when it comes to quality Indian Restaurants (which is amazing considering we host the Curry Fest in Woolgoolga each year!) I ordered a Chicken Madras and a Butter Chicken as a takeout last night.. Ok, so my first 'disappointment' was when I came to collect. I saw the lady get my 'pre made' poppadums from a large plastic container near the kitchen. Oh no... a true Indian Restaurant makes fresh poppadum to order. Seriously, they take 10s to cook. Pre-made ones taste like a bag of chips/crips left open overnight. I get home and I seek out my Madras curry. I assume that the darker, red looking container would be the Madras and the lighter yellow one the Butter Chicken? I taste the 'darker red' one and its sweet - no spice.. Ok, so thats the butter chicken.. I then taste the yellow one hoping that the order is correct. Yes, the yellow one is the Madras...but the problem is that it has no SPICE... Their menu describes the Madras as 'medium-hot'. Seriously.. it was mild at best and before you might say, I have a higher spice threshold, let me compare the spice level for you. I would say the spice level was equivalent to a KFC Zinger Burger. Look the flavor was OK, but it just frustrates me that you have all these 'Indian Restaurants' on the Coffs Coast and none of them seem to know how to make an authentic Madras Curry?? In the Uk, if you order a Madras, you know about it. Summary, this is just another 3 star (average) Indian restaurant on the Coffs Coast. Lets call it a family friendly Indian Restaurant where you can introduce your children to Indian cuisine without having to ask the chef to...

It was a sheer disappointment visiting this place. I & my husband entered the restaurant at 17:45 PM and to surprise very few scattered customers in the dining area.

1.One of the staff took our order after 15 mins later when we had just papadums on our table unlike others. (Papadums are always served with mint chutney)

A family of 6 members later appeared, and within 10 mins their order was served. !!! That ain't reasonable, right? We were clueless what's going on? I waved to one of the girls and got no heed.

At least keep informed what's taking so long. I understand whole staff is busy taking orders over the phone as well as walkin customers, but it doesn't mean to neglect your customers!! This is not customer service.

I stood up and raised my hand, and then thank God- a staff member approached. Upon asking she says, "sorry for the delay as we have take away orders". This isn't done at all. Your responsibility is to check the customers in the dining too.

Quality & presentation of food: Curries overflowed from the serving bowl, #ChickenDoPyaza & #PaneerTikkaMasala were not up to the mark. Paneer tikka was sweet, Capsicum undercooked!

For entree we had ordered, PapdiChaat. Anyone who doesn't know the taste of such authentic dishes will definitely say "wow amazin".. For us it was a disaster!! No sign of basic ingredients. Don't fool people & you take 20 whole minutes to make Papdi chat???

Hygiene in healthy eating joints: always tie your hair while working and serving customers.

I have worked in food and hygiene industry for two years in an Indian restaurants as well as at Subway, you can't just lay your standards...

We were very excited to see an indian restaurant locally where we booked our stay for few nights, even we are thinking for ordering food for next night dinner. Ordered a lemon lime bitter came so so sweet we could hardly drink, tandorri chicken full, portion size great had a first bite seemed like the chef was very lazy to marinate the chicken, tandoori paste was just on the top...i dont think any good busy indian restaurant like this dont know how to make a tandoori chicken #whyyoukillagoodindianmeal, Atmosphere too hot seemed like the kitchen had no exhaust so the air was into the dinning area... Got our bill at the end, handwritten bill and apparently the undrinkable lemon lime bitter was charged too, so asked if they can take it out , the lovely staff were very APOLOGETIC with it, but the lady with specs, sorry we havE already made the drink so youve to pay... i have never dine any restaurant where a food and customers meant nothing to the business... We really hope they bring flavours and also a great service to the community, indian dishes are r da best, please go through the details and fix them.. thank you to thOSE two lovely staffs who served us and being nice.

I can give them no stars but due to those two staffs, i have...