HAR BAR - Indian Restaurant — Restaurant in Sydney

Let me start by saying overall the food was good. But there are points that we were not happy about -

Being of Indian origin, we know Indian food, and what was served as “kheema dosa” was not kheema in the dosa. Lamb was separated from a biriyani (the lamb was dry, but tasty nevertheless, but it was definitely leftovers from a previous day’s batch based on how it tasted as experience teaches us, and we fear it could have been somebody’s leftovers given there was plenty of biriyani rice also along with the lamb!), pulled apart and chopped into small pieces and served with the dosa which was served cold. Even though it was ok in terms of taste, it was not what one would expect from a restaurant. Kheema is supposed to be minced meat, and is spiced and added to the batter as it is fried on the pan and fuses into the dosa.

The chettinad chicken curry was great, but we found a lamb bone in it! I could have lost a tooth if not for my Indian instinct of checking everything that is served to me. That makes me wonder if the pan used to reheat, was ever cleared/cleaned off what was cooked previously on it!

Service! There was a student, a girl of Nepali origin who was wonderful and humorous, very customer friendly and perhaps new in the role. However, the food took a lot of time to be served, and the dessert never arrived. In spite of reminders of what is essentially meant to be taken out of a fridge and served (for dessert, we ordered a kulfi and gulab jamoon and rasmalai), we waited over 20 minutes after our main course for dessert before walking out, after cancelling the dessert order. We were in the restaurant for 1 hour 45 mins.

Billing beware! I was charged for a full bottle of Riesling when we only ordered a glass. It may have been oversight, but I realized this only after paying, and was checking my bill at the traffic light. Thankfully I noticed the error and went back for a $25 refund. That is not a nice experience!

It did appear that the restaurant was understaffed and maybe they don’t pay attention to new faces, our first visit after checking reviews is enough to discourage us from ever going there again.

Had a brief glimpse at the serving area as we went to pay the bill, and noticed it could be a lot cleaner than what we saw.

I feel sad posting this review because the restaurant otherwise offers a decent ambience, is easily accessible with easy to find car parking close by, deck dining. a good wine list etc. Hope you up your act, customers aren’t idiots, we can figure out when we are served lemons...

Really lovely food, but ruined by the amount of time we had to wait for it. I went there with 2 friends and we were sat at our table when it was really quiet - there was 2 other tables seated already and I could tell there was another larger table being prepared, however they were not all seated yet. Our entree arrived quite quickly, along with our drinks & complimentary papadums. It then took our main meals (only 2 meat dishes and 1 vegetable dish, with rice and naan bread) over an hour and a half to arrive. The waitor that took our order (without a notepad, not sure whether this impacted our wait times or not?) Made eye contact with us multiple times but did not attend to our table for the rest of the night. A different waitress took our order for more drinks but provided no insight as to why our meals took so long. 2 large groups had all their meals AND DESSERTS served before our mains, along with multiple other tables that were seated after us. The final straw, was finding a hair...

Great service, good food.

Lunch buffet, $15/person a. Basmati rice - fluffy and seasoned with cloves, this went really well with the curries. b. Oven-fresh naan: Be a man, go for the garlic naan! c. Butter Chicken: Lean breast and thigh pieces. A tad sweet for my liking but reasonable as a whole d. Chicken curry (forgot its name): Tastes like curry should, which probably doesn't help but this was savoury and spicy without being overbearing in the chili department. Good stuff. e. Lamb Rogan Josh: Lean chunks of lamb, tasty curry, hints of vinegar. f. Eggplant/Potato fry: This was very tasty. g. Yellow Lentil stew: Remarkably well stewed, this was my favourite.

Extras: Pistachio and Coconut kulfi, $5/serve. Very reasonable and authentic enough.

Pros: Help-yourself lunch buffet is no-nonsense, bust your guts casual dining. Buffet offerings changes daily, so the staff say.

Cons: I think parking can be a nightmare this side of town, but be a man, take the...