Mumbai Local Modern Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Alberta

The food was average at max, bordering below average. We ordered Pav Bhaji, Chole Bhature and Chatpata Mojito. The pav bhaji’s bhaji tasted like it was the masala from butter chicken, and not actual bhaji. The pav looked like they were hit by a train, and later learnt that - that’s how their home made buns looked! Mild chole was spicy, and trust me, I know my spices. I had asked mild because I was planning to share it with my toddler, but why care! The only saving grace was the bhature. They weren’t bad. And we were hungry. The drink Chatpata Mojito was a lot of jaljira and chaat masala mix, which was a good shock, but the mint leaves were revived from dead, and overall the drink was a swirling disaster.

This was the food.

But the staff, I would give them a negative 9000. The service was a riot. They didn’t have accommodation for a toddler, even when they had taken a reservation for two adults and a toddler. Apparently they had a high chair but the leg broke, and it’s not stable and so on. Ok. That’s fine. Next We waited for an hour for our food, only to get to know that they had missed our order completely. After an hour a male staff came to us, and asked us “are you waiting for takeout?” When I said “No”, he rushed in to confirm it. Shortly after he went into the kitchen, did some stuff and came out with my pav bhaji. The one that looked like it was hit by a train. Then we asked for the Cholle Bhature. And they kept that promise of getting it in five minutes. The second female staff who came to our table visibly rolled her eyes at my wife when she said, “I’ll hold you to those 5 minutes!” And then when we expressed that it looked like a hack job of a missed order, they threw discount at us, immediately! The third female staff came to us to ask if everything was okay? When my wife asked if the order was missed? She admitted and said “Probably that could have happened!” Not a single person really cared. It was a resultant that evening running at max 30% capacity, and when asked why the order was so late, they were like - as you can see the kitchen is super busy. And I was like, are you kidding me man! 😂 (most of the restaurant was empty) Overall, I hope you have a better experience that we had, but this was an absolute absolute ABSOLUTE disappointment for us.

Save your monies and time and go to “Indian Authentic Cuisine” restaurant instead. The food is fire 🔥 and the staff there is extremely pleasant...

If I could, I would give this place 10 stars. Easily the best Indian food I’ve had in all of North America. The service was probably one of the best I’ve ever experienced. The people were incredibly humble and delightful to talk to. We took a detour of over an hour on our way back to Vancouver just to have food at the restaurant!

Food

Daal Makhani - This dish had the perfect balance of everything! You could taste the smoky flavor (which is incredibly rare to find) and the daal had perfect amount of creaminess along with the other flavors. The best I’ve had in North America and probably also the best I’ve had in my life.

Misal Pav - It is near impossible to find this dish in any Indian restaurant outside of a few places in India. This is a street food dish that’s easy to mess up but what was served to me could easily pass as something you’d find in Mumbai. The dish brought back childhood memories and I’d highly recommend it if you like the dish!

Garlic Naan - Perfection Personified.

Service

The manager/owner of the restaurant amplified the experience for us. We reached the restaurant at prime time and while there were seats available he was honest enough to tell us that he was short staffed and couldn’t accommodate us for 20 minutes. We appreciated the fact that he cared enough for his customer’s experience instead of guaranteeing our business by asking us to sit and making us wait until his backlog cleared. Very few people do this and it was very refreshing to meet someone like him. He was also very welcoming and a jovial person to talk to.

Our server, Melissa, was amazing as well! Always on top of things and always had a smile on her face which only amplified the already amazing atmosphere!

The chef was kind enough to come out and talk to us. Very humble person who started out from Mumbai and made his way here. He talked about his culinary education and explained how he makes his food and it was a very delightful...

Zero in Customer Service. Didn't get to even eat the food.

Visiting Banff with a relatively large group (3 families / ok to use separate table per family). Due to the large group size, I made sure to call in advance to ensure that they can host us with minimal waiting time. The person on the call told us earliest he can accommodate us is at 8pm but won't hold it for long after that and I committed to reaching there by 8pm. On reaching there, they told us that they don't allow reservations on phone and they never received that call. First of all, if you don't accept reservations on phone, you say exactly that to anyone calling for a reservation.

I showed one of the staff my call log and he said I likely spoke to Pramod who just left and that they will accommodate us in few minutes and pointed to couple of large tables that are freeing up soon.

Almost 30 minutes later, they again backtracked and said that they don't accept reservations and I never called and they never agreed to accommodate us. Also, Pramod shows up and says he just came and never spoke to us. And the guy who committed to giving us a table in few minutes, washed off his hands from taking any responsibilities as well.

It was a disaster in hospitality on so many levels. Few things could have resulted in a very different outcome. On phone, they just needed to say 1 thing: "we don't accept phone reservation". In person, they could have tried to manage the situation rather than repeatedly calling us a liar (indirectly), making us wait for 30 minutes, not adding us to their waitlist from the get go, and not communicating from their end at all. But instead they left us (including Seniors and Kids) with a sour taste.

They somehow seems get lots of positive reviews on daily basis. Didn't get to taste the food so not sure if they have genuinely good service or are...