East India Company Restaurants — Restaurant in Ottawa

I'll break this down into 3 parts; atmosphere, service, and food.

Atmosphere: I like the vibe. Tables are nice, decor is great. I would however like more music, or louder at the least, as if I can hear the conversation from the other tables in a room of 50 tables with 3 occupied tables it just feels like everyone is listening to other tables conversations and conversations tend to die.

Service: We were greeted quickly and seated where we wanted. Server did come and do their 2 bite checks. Water was refilled quite often. That being said service failed quite heavily on some other points. I didn't see our server smile once and she never felt warm to interact with. She didn't let us know about the saturday/Sunday free dosas. Lastly when we mentioned some issues with the food she felt disinterested and like it was a hassle to her to mention it to the cooks.

Food: The food was OK. I went there with an Indian friend who spoke highly of the restaurant. We made sure to come for the buffet so we could try a variety of things. Some of the dishes were cold. Other like the tandoori chicken were unevenly seasoned or just not at all. When mentioned to the server she mentioned others complained it had been over seasoned which could be part of the problem. The butter chicken, which tends to be one my favorite dishes in Indian restaurants, tasted just awful. The chicken was tasteless the sauce was just OK. We ordered some Naan, which I will never understand why it's a la carte in an Indian buffet just offer an all you can eat naan for a fee instead, it came crispy. I never had crispy Naan before, not a fan. Felt like it was just overcooked and passed off as intentional by the server when we asked why it was crispy. Dessert wasn't that much better. I had the rice pudding but it felt like soup. It was too liquid and just felt like the base wasn't cooked long enough to let it thicken. It still tasted good just poor mouth feel. We tried all the other deserts most not being really impressive however the caramel mouse was just beautiful. The texture and flavor was perfect. I also understand that some places offer Golub jamun either hot or cold. Why not just offer both ways? Personally I rather cold to have more of a syrup base.

I think covid has seen quite a few restaurants have to adapt, with some unfortunately having to cut costs in turn reducing quality depending on style of restaurant. However as covid restrictions are essentially gone some restaurants have become complacent to the quality they could get away with and slow to bounce back.

My Indian friend and I both left disappointed with the quality of the food. Personally when I go to a restaurant I expect higher quality than stuff I can just reheat at home from the freezer. My overall opinion is the kitchen probably just doesnt taste the food before sending it out.

We both additionally started to feel unwell shortly after returning home and ended up feeling quite sick from the food...

Veryyyy bad service. Mediocre food. Need to wait for water for 20 minutes. Large discrepancy on billing. Would never recommend anyone this restaurant. Stay away from this restaurant.

Dear Owner, you took out time to respond back to my original review which I know whatever you stated is a fabricated lie because the communication between our party and your staff was cordial and only clarifications were asked for the additional charges, no one black mailed you or your staff with a negative review, no one requested you to take off charges off the bill, bill was paid in full. I would simply request you to please 1) train your staff to be attentive to your guests requests 2) improve on the quality and taste of your food 3) communicate the hidden costs of your AYCE add-ons when anyone orders it 4) it doesn't show well on your part that you count or track the food being eaten by your guests. Like yourself I am a small business owner as well and know it does not feel good when some one gives not so good review but at the same time you should also understand your customer's expectations and how to come good on those expectations.

Another addition to the original review - date Jan 12, 2023 - the one and the only time I visited this restaurant was in May 2022 when I was in Ottawa for business. The other day I was talking to one of my colleague who was in Ottawa for business recently and visited this restaurant as he was staying at a hotel close by since the location was convenient to him. He also shares the same opinion as what I had stated in my original review. The quality of the food is not good and he'll skip it next...

So my brother and I didn’t know where to eat last night and so my brother recommended this restaurant he’s been there. At first with a 3.9 star review I was a bit sceptical but my brother said he’s been there and my brother has a wicked sense of good taste so i didn’t second guess him. When we arrived we were taken care of right away and seated we chose to go with the buffet option. Just looking around it was clean and proper. At first I ended up with rice curry and samosas that was a 4/5 then for the next dish we both got buttermilk chicken and rice and words can’t describe the taste of that the chicken was tender moist with love with the sauce that makes u just want to drink it it’s that good. We were full after half eating half of the second plate we finished with the plate but it was a struggle it was too good to leave for waste. Over all it was fantastic they’re proper with the restaurant and the meaning behind it all I will be back for sure and highly recommended this restaurant best Indian restaurant I’ve currently been too and will be back. For how clean the place is and how good the meals were and the customer service was amazing overall it’s a 5 star 3.9 does not justify how amazing...