East India Company Pub & Eatery — Restaurant in Winnipeg

Back in 2013 I was in Winnipeg for work for a month, as an engineering firm was relocating from Winnipeg to the Twin Cities where I live.

After work, the highlight of the evening for myself and the other Americans was going out for a good dinner around town. I'm half Indian, so quickly found this place and wanted to give it a shot.

First off, I must say that growing up with Indian food almost daily and visiting India a few times, I am pretty picky. Most Indian restaurants in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area tend to be pretty bland as they're afraid of offending the Nordic locals. So I have tried many places around here and was disappointed.

East India Company was a breath of fresh air. It is the best Indian food I've had outside of India. The buffet was great with so many choices, even lamb. Each of these dishes was flavorful, high quality, and hot when it should be and still flavorfully spicy when it didn't (like the tandoori chicken). The dal was top notch as was the wide array of desserts. I ended with a wonderful chai, concluding one of my best restaurant experiences ever.

I've used this place as a reference for what an Indian restaurant should be ever since then, and finally last month I got a chance to take a personal trip to Winnipeg. I'm not lying when I say that part of the reason to travel 7.5 hours up north was simply to try this place again.

Was it going to hold up after 13 years in my head? After kicking the snow off my boots and coming in, I smiled knowing that I was in for a treat. I took a bite of the lamb curry and it was just as good as I remembered it. I went on to other dishes and they were stunning too. I made sure to pass these compliments on to the owner.

My only complaint is that I wish it was closer to me so I could eat here more often!

Winnipeggers, you have a jewel on your...

Just had this tonight and although serving size was decent for what we paid, the whole experience was below standard. After we got to our seat, my partner’s chair was broken and had to be replaced. He ended up doing that himself despite informing the server.

Server also never came back to take our order after she gave us menus. After waiting for a while, we tried multiple times to catch their attention (even for some acknowledgement they’re coming after what she was doing) but the server kept ignoring our raised hands. I had to stand up and ask the server if someone else was coming to take our order. After we received our food, we realized they made an error and did not give us the cheese naan we ordered. We mentioned this at the end of our meal, they finally provided it to us.

We had the biryani and butter chicken. Although we asked for medium spice for both, neither of the dishes had any spicy flavor. The “butter” chicken came with a very light off coloured soupy sauce and did not taste anything like butter chicken. They sell bottled sauces at the counter and whatever they served us was not the same as that butter chicken sauce.

At the end, we requested for to go containers for the leftovers. The manager (I assume since he was in a suit most of the evening) provided us with containers for our leftovers. Once we received it, there were crumbs in the containers and clear oil stains (as per images attached). These were clearly previously used and were not cleaned properly either. I informed the server about this, and an apology never even came from the manager who provided those to us. It is unfortunate as the place looked promising when we walked in. Hopefully their service...

If you are well-versed in the history of Indian politics, the name of this restaurant should be reason enough to steer clear of these dacoits. The original East India Company robbed India of its wealth under false pretences. Decades later East India Company Pub & Eatery has set out to do the same to residents of Winnipeg.

Let me start off with the most ridiculous thing this place does - they charge almost $33 for buffet and still make you pay for naan bread! I have been to thousands of buffets and not one has ever done this - especially the ones charging over $30 per person.

They are also quite sneaky about this as they do not mention it until you are seated and have started eating already. I was quite disappointed about this as I had called the restaurant before heading over to enquire about the buffet price as well as the selection of items offered but this was not mentioned.

Secondly, their service was definitely lacking as I had to wait for over 20 minutes to get naan by which point I had already finished eating the items on my plate.

They also happen serve the most repulsive butter chicken I have ever had in my life. The butter chicken was made using slivers of dark meat and had more water than cream - it was so bad that I had to deduct a star just for it.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, the manager was whining about a group of people that did not tip enough and told the server to add gratuity next time around without asking. While I understand his sentiment, he should know better than to speak ill of his clientele in front of a customer paying for his meal - highly unprofessional!

Avoid this place if you can - I definitely won’t be...