The Secret Kitchen - The Indian Saga — Restaurant in Sydney

Secret best left uncovered - bad customer service with pricey uninspired food served in best cutlery with beautiful ambience. That's my experience of The Secret Kitchen in sum total. Price to variety ratio just cannot be justified and dishes are just ordinary. I have had dined at this place quite lot of times owing to nearness to the place I worked before and also as a family.

Quite recently, we been there for my birthday pre-booking the place at 8. We arrived on time and were settling in for about next 15 minutes, taking some photos and were promptly told that kitchen would close at 9 and to please have the order soon. As we got about doing that, we had another reminder followed by another (and another) as if we were holding up the place just before it's closing in span of 10-15 minutes. Lo and behold around 8:45 to 9, there came two sets of groups who into the restaurant and they were having gala time relaxing. The experience left us in very bad taste and we made the point to the manager.

Anyway, talking about the food, don't ever order the Biryani's here as it's just not their forte. Absolutely no dum or juiciness to the rice and you are left with really dry rice with good amount of chilli powder mixed in. During initial days, it was good but can't bear it now. Rotis / Naans and curries are of decent taste and quite delicious. When it comes to starters, it is left wanting. Paneer Tikka (really dry and pieces being large, doesn't taste good) and schechwan manchurian was brought in about 3 minutes from the time we ordered and was bit gravy. It could have been pan tossed a bit more and made it more dry. Tandoori Murg was chewy and hard.

Credit to be given where it's due. It's a place perfect for taking photos, dishes served give you that feel of being in a very posch niche restaurant. The glasses for drinks are really ingenious and lot of drama added making it more appealing. Place too is well docorated, it has some small hut like seating places that gives enough privacy.

To conclude without a good mix of entrees or desserts, it doesn't have the pull that could please us. You can have all the razzmatazz but they need to focus on pricing and quantity. We would not be returning to this one and so it goes the dwindling number of restaurants from Bella vista for nice...

It would be good if the place stays a secret. Let me explain. This was dinner for two with two kids there for company. First the good bit, the place has a good decor, booking is essential and saved waiting in the ques and the service was acceptable. Now the reason to wish others to save their money, the food is way overpriced for the quality. Lets start with the starters, ordered the Manchurian to share, had way too much salt, enough to cook a family meal, so skipped the second starter and ordered some fries for my son. The fries were store bought frozen fries that were deep fried, nothing that the other restaurants don't do but given the price tag, I expected fresh, and besides fries at fast foods places taste better. Now the mains, ordered fried fish in south Indian curry, Matka Ghosht (goat cooked in a pot) along with Lacha Parantha. The free hand on salt story repeated with the fish curry and the goat was bland and lacking all flavor. The Lacha Parantha would have been better if it was store bought since it lacked any and all flakiness of traditional Lacha Parantha, even the store bought. The worst part was the drink named "God' Own Drink" and listed as chef's specialty. Given it's $10 price tag, I expected some creativity or effort on part of the chef. Well it turned out to be a milk shake made with Rooh Afza, a concentrate commonly used in India during summer and widely available in Australia costing $4.50 for the whole bottle (you only need to use two table spoon to make 250 ml milk) . I like Rooh Afza, but don't bait the customer by calling it by another name, don't be deceptive to the paying customer by calling it the "God's Own Drink". In case anyone has a doubt, you are welcomed to prove me wrong, buy the Rooh Afza bottle for $4.50 and 3 liters of milk for $4.00 and mix according to the instructions on the bottle and you get 3 liters for less then $10 of the highly creative recipe of "God's Own Drink", you are welcome. So to summaries, you pay for the decor but the food is bad for the price. The place is over hyped by reviews, but the food is only addible if given for free to a famished...

(3.5 stars) The hunt for hariyali chicken ($32) led me to The Secret Kitchen - Australia (TSK) in Bella Vista. Wacky is probably the only way to describe this spot, which sits below ground in a car park in the sprawling Lexington Corporate. Whatever TSK lacks in location, they make up for by being a bit extra in everything else. A blue lake of luridly coloured water lilies runs through the centre of the restaurant. A series of screened off cabanas offer semi-private dining for small groups. Gilded birdcage chairs were offered, and then refused, by us and all subsequent guests, with everyone opting for chairs or raised Ducati yellow booths.

The cages extend to the food. Mango cheese samosa ($25) sees a stick of six small cheese samosas and a pair of onion rings arrive in a mushroom-shaped cage with spicy mango sauce passed separately. Dhokla fondue ($21) dangles metal hooks of steamed yellow-hued split lentil and rice cakes (dhokla) over a thick and overly-salty spicy, cheesy, lentil lake. The green hunks of chicken I arrived here to eat were a bit pastier and more muted than the exemplar that inspired my visit in Fiji. They arrive on a box with two sauces (a green chutney and a peri peri aioli), a dressed red onions salad, and fresh lemon to cut through the yoghurt. We wrap them in a chilli cheese naan ($9) that was flat rather than fluffy, lacking the promised chilli bite.

A TSKfied smoked cosmopolitan ($21) arrives in a cloud of dried ice, but otherwise replicates the standard drink. You have to wait until it clears to drink it without smoke coming out of your nostrils. The extended period of smoking created a thin ice sheet over the top of drink. A rim of bright red TSK special spice mix proved a better update to the TSKfied Bloody Mary ($20). An Indian sweet counter at the point of sale allows you to exit with a hunk of your favourite sweet ($3/2) after a dining experience that is—at bare minimum—a...