Amaya Express Burlington — Restaurant in Burlington

I really wanted to like the food, sadly it missed the mark on nearly everything.

This is a review for delivery. Ordered on Saturday night through online ordering system. The food showed up in 40 minutes during the busiest time of the dinner, it was obviously rushed. Shrimp Byriani, Red Masala Chicken Tika, Steamed Basmati Rice, Poppadum with chutney and garlic nann. Payed a $7 delivery charge plus a tip. Overall cost $55+

The BAD: Shrimp Byriani tasted like a 3 day old MUSHY rice mixed with UNCOOKED spices and a touch of canned tomato sauce. Shrimp cooked from frozen, chewy and overcooked. Overly spicy but spices weren't cooked and did not develop any flavour at all. SAD :( Red Masala Chicken Tika was a reheated precooked chicken absolutely dried out. Came with a side of overcooked quinoa and a dipping sauce (read more about this fantastic sauce below) with diced cucumber and under cooked carrots. Seems the quinoa was an afterthought to justify the 4 pieces of chicken for $10.25 (quinoa had zero flavour). Chutney was straight from a can; was a watery mess. Naan was chewy with a dab of garlic smothered on it. My stale and expired Naan in the fridge from the grocery store had more flavour after i reheated it in a toaster.

The GOOD: Poppadum was very tasty and very well made it made the canned chutney bearable. Who ever made the poppadum was the only person responsible for saving this meal from zero stars. The steamed Basmati rice had the most flavour out of all the dishes and was cooked perfectly. I would like to thank their rice cooker for making the perfect rice. The dipping sauce for the chicken was fantastic. Next time please douse all your food in this sauce and sprinkle poppadum on top please!

The meal was dead on arrival. This is strictly my opinion but this was the saddest indian food I have ever had ever.

P.S. The dinning experience may be completely different; still I am extremely disappointed for a chain that has 13 locations to have such a lackluster attempt at whatever this sad excuse of a meal was. I truly hope this review helps you to revamp and change for the...

Stayed at the Waterfront Hotel Burlington a few months back for work and wasn't entirely feeling the hotel restaurant's menu. Did a quick Google Maps view of the local restaurants, and decided to give Amaya Express a try. The reviews were quite good across the board (4.5/5) so I had a feeling that I'd be happy with the choice.

I called in for a takeout order, and the guy answering the phone put me on hold for what seemed like 5-10 minutes. I put him on speaker and stayed on the line. He came back on after and apologized profusely for the extended wait, because he was being swamped with in-house orders. I called around dinner time, so it was an entirely plausible excuse. Most restaurants won't even apologize, so the fact that he seemed genuinely sorry about it went a long way.

I ordered palak paneer, steamed basmati, and a lamb biryani. I skipped lunch because I flew in from the West Coast, and I was without food since the morning. The walk over to the restaurant was quick, and the food was ready when I arrived. He thanked me and apologized again for making me wait on the phone.

As the photo shows, you get a lot of food! Everything I ordered was packed to the top, so they definitely don't skimp on the food and make sure you're getting your monies worth. The food was piping hot, even when I got back to the hotel, and absolutely delicious. I ended up saving the other half for the next day.

I'll definitely be returning to Amaya if I'm ever...

You will like this place if you've never eaten Indian food before and you have no frame of reference for what Indian food should taste like. The place is clean, the service is good, and it smells deceptively authentic as far as Indian restaurants go. But that's where the authentic experience ends. My friend and I had the butter chicken and vegetable korma. I asked them to make my order (the korma) spicy. The dishes had absolutely no spice to them at all. They were actually on the sweet side (too sweet even for typical korma & butter chicken standards). I asked for extra spice (masala) and all they said they could offer was 'chilli powder.' What kind of Indian restaurant doesn't even have fresh green chillies? On top of the bland food, the dishes are ridiculously overpriced. Naan should always be served wrapped in foil, so that it doesn't get stiff while you're eating. Most established Indian restaurants know to do this. I really wanted to like this place, especially given the positive reviews. Maybe it was just the dishes we ordered, but, at the high cost, I won't be going back to test...