The Host Fine Indian Cuisine (Richmond Hill) — Restaurant in Richmond Hill

All reviews are subjective. My experience and taste may not be the same as yours.

First, the positives: Excellent service. Normally, I find service at Indian restaurants slow and simply not up to par. Here, the service was very good. Our server was attentive and quick, and for a party of 9, literally made zero mistakes. The owner, Archana, came by our table a couple of times to check up on us. As we were celebrating my birthday, she even provided dessert free of charge. I thought this was a very thoughtful and generous gesture.

Now the negatives: The pictures you see for 'The Host - Richmond Hill' are false. We picked this restaurant based on the pictures under 'Vibe'. We were expecting a large, spacious place. What we found was a very small place with no more than about 8-9 tables, all very close to each other. One of the people in our group actually felt claustrophobic. I am not sure why they would post pictures that are not of this location. I think maybe one or two pictures depict this restaurant, the rest are simply not true. Overall, food was very bland, clearly catering to the non-Indian community. I ordered chicken vindaloo. If you know anything about vindaloo, any vindaloo dish is supposed to be pretty spicy. Not here. Spice level was probably about 1 out of 5. We also ordered chicken biryani. It literally had no taste and tested like rice crispy. Extremely bland. There was a lot of chicken and lamb dishes, but no chicken sheek kababs. This is a staple appy or main dish at any Indian restaurant, and we were surprised they did not have it on the menu.

I cannot give this place more than 2 stars. The those 2 stars are only based on the very good service. We will not be returning here. I feel bad for giving this review as the owner was very gracious, friendly and attentive. However, the food and the vibe killed it...

WORST RESTAURANT Do not waste your time and money on THE HOST Who dont know how to host

I would go below 1 star if i could. We entered the restaurant after reading good reviews about it @ 9:05 closing time was 10 No server or host welcomed us when went inside to ask about it and got yelled at to wait at desk.

We got seated next to the only table in the restaurant. He SLAMMED the napkins on the table as if he wasn’t very happy that we came in when he was already closing one hour before the close timing (we called before going).

After we got seated we were told that restaurant is closing and we need to order right now this is not even a minute after seating (literally, not exaggerating) There was only 2 tables including ours.

When i told him about my appetizer course right away and asked him to give me couple more minutes for mains, he yelled again asking us to order right away he is not going to wait and kitchen is closing and stood giving us an angry look on the face.

It was this moment we decided to walk out. This is the worst restaurant experience in my life. Even the other table wasn’t very happy with his hospitality. They asked for tea after their drinks in the end and he refused straight on the face very arrogantly.

Date September 7,23 9:05 pm

Please reconsider your staff in the restaurant and hire some well qualified staff. If you were the owner of the restaurant closing that day you should be ashamed of yourself for treating your guests like this. And if you think any of the word written above is a lie please go check your cctv.

Never wrote a review like this but the guy in the restaurant...

These guys are the biggest scam artists and take advantage of customers, and I've been hesistant writing this review for 5+ years now.

Rewind when we came as a group of ~20 senior high schoolers for a birthday. We split off into groups of 4 to make ordering easier, and wanted to pick one dish per person and made our order. After placing our order, they explicitly made an announcement to our group one dish only fed 2 people, so a dish/person was not enough. For example, if we only ordered 1 butter chicken, they said it was only enough for 2/4 people, and the other half wouldn't get to enjoy the dish. They recommended that 2, or even 3, of the 4 dishes (per group of 4) should order double quantity, and we took their word for it. When the food arrived we had more than enough for double the people attending. We didn't finish half of the food, and there were dishes that weren't even touched because we over ordered way too much upon their suggestion. Hindsight 20/20 because we could've just ordered more later, but they prompted us to order more of this, more of that...

Mind you we're barely young adults, and they knew it was for a 18th birthday, but we were very naive and they took full advantage of the situation. Their recommendation of 1 dish = 2 people is only true if that was the main course and nothing else. But 3 dishes for 4 people is enough, and a dish/person is more than enough with leftovers to take home in a doggy bag.

Fast forward to today I decided to give it another chance, but they're still doing the same garbage service pushing customers to over order. But the food tastes great so hats off...