Chutnify — Restaurant in Berlin

UPDATE: Today a colleague who made a booking received a call from the restaurant on her private (!!!) number. And the person on the phone was demanding to clarify to him why did we leave a negative review. Shady and very unprofessional!!

Let's start from the beginning - we were a big company of people, so I booked a place for 20 people few days in advance. On the phone it seemed to be no problem, and I also received a confirmation by SMS with date, time and number of people. At the day of booking I came to the restaurant and checked myself at the reception (counter?) where people seemed stressed and surprised that I have booking for such many people. They kept asking me and confronting about the amount of places even after I have showed a confirming SMS. In the end we got our places with a small delay and had to wait in the foyer/ on the stairs.

We ordered drinks in the beginning and had to wait for them around 1 hour, despite beer was staying on the counter and waiters was not extremely busy (according to the mount of people in the restaurant). Also, waiter had quite a problem with arranging the order for drinks.

Food was tasty, therefore this one star. However, sauce bowls was not even filled to the half and despite the taste, food was very overpriced for Berlin. There are much more worthy quality-price Indian restaurants and fusion kitchens in Berlin (markthalle 9, W-cafe, etc).

In the end, since we got a separate bill, waiter was not able to properly understand who is paying for what and as a result we had people paying for the wrong things and waiters trying to make people pay for the thing they didn't get!!! Like expensive cocktail someone else had and I was asked to pay for it. Like, what?!

Also, we were speaking both English and German fluently, so service problem was not because of the misunderstanding or so. They seem just don't care.

We are pretty used to service style in Berlin and was not expecting much, but this still was terrible. Strongly recommend to choose another restaurant and enjoy your...

Soul-less food and bad service. Would never go again!

So this review comes a couple of months later. We went to Chutnify for dinner and ordered a Chicken Thali and a Vegan Thali. To be fair some of the things were tasty. Others were cooked without any soul. It seemed like these dishes were prepared in bulk and not prepared to order (just judging by the temperature of the food). But well, this is just my speculation. The worst, though, was the service and the arrogance of the staff! Here is my brief account:

Chicken chettinad, chana masala, sambhar and naan - all good preparations. Well done!

Idli: Idli was like biting into a lump of rubber. It absolutely did not feel freshly prepared. Having grown up in India and being an idli-lover, I do have quite some experience with idlis of different kinds. Veggie korma: It was some kind of yellow sauce, no flavour at all! I know korma is a mild sauce but this preparation just seemed loaded with cream or something similar. The flavours were totally missing. Service: Well, the worst. After finishing our meal, and paying the bill and with a decent tip, I mentioned to the staff that the idli was really not good - chewey and rubbery. The staff's "humble" response: "have you eaten idli before?". Seriously?! Irrespective of whether I have eaten idli before or not, is that how you accept feedback?! The staff seemed absolutely not open to listening, and rather rude.

I know this restaurant was among the first ones to give a bit of a twist to how Indian food was served in Berlin. However, maintaining a legacy requires continuing work and humility - both of which seemed to have evaded this place with the passage of time. It's not an inexpensive eatery - it's only fair to expect some service and decent (if not the best!) food to have the experience of...

The first time I came to Chutnify I was really excited to see an Indian restaurant that represented a lot of the things I miss most about home. If you're an Indian living in Germany you've no doubt visited at least a dozen Indian restaurants that are extremely gaudy and shabby at the same time. With brightly draped fabrics and a mismatched array of "traditional Indian" artifacts jammed in every nook and cranny. In this sense Chutnify is breath of fresh air. It looks modern and I won't have it think twice before inviting anyone out to dinner.

The is problem is I don't live in Berlin and I have visited Chutnify on 3 separate occasions over a six month period. This has left me feeling slightly cheated. The first time around the food was amazing, there was a novelty about the palace and the options had something something for both north and south Indian. On my second visit the menu was somewhat more limited but still tasty. Today on my third visit I'm disappointed to say the menu was even more limited and the food albeit still tasty leaves something to be desired. My samosa chaat has a total of 4 whole cardamoms which I find gravely excessive for one small plate. The dosa was good as ever but he sambar left something to be desired. This at the prices that they are offered makes one think twice before returning.

Overall I'd still come back because of the whole package that Chutnify has to offer, but if the menu gets any more limited I don't know how much longer I'll keep...