Infantaria Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Goa

While BAGA/Calangute has a lot to offer, food is and never will go out of fashion at these tourist hot spots of GOA. Among the many many restaurants Infantaria has always been in the good books of food lovers including mine, until my recent visit to the restaurant.

I walked in around 10:30 PM to a rather surprisingly empty restaurant on a Saturday evening but was half glad that would have a better service.

While the live music was charming, the service throughout rest of the evening was less than impressive.

It always pains me to look for a steward in a near empty restaurant, when all you should be doing is standing on your toes to attend the meager crowd present. Anyway, after having someone's attention, we placed our order for few beers, Chicken Burgundy, chicken manchow soup, Schezwan noodles and fish fingers. Chicken Burgundy in all fairness was good. The fish fingers were fine but for Rs 380 and that portion the value is low.The chicken soup was more of a gravy than a soup. Soup has broth. This had water mixed with a ton of sauces. An utter disaster.

Then came the noodles, which on its face value appeared to be "hakka noodle". Upon notifying the server, came an acknowledgement with an astonished face as if he knew it was coming. He replaced it thankfully.

Then I asked for Beef patties to go along with the beer. The server denied the availability. I said, fine and continued with something else.

After finishing two entire beers, he comes over and states beef was now available. I and my brother looked at each other and against our better judgement ordered the beef roast. Time was around 11.25 Pm and they were taking last orders.We ordered the mixed hakka noodles and the mixed hakka rice. They served us the noodles and the rice around 11:45 PM and did not serve the beef. After another 5 minutes of waiting, when nothing came out, I had to remind the server AGAIN, that the dish was not served.

Another 15 minutes and the dish was served but ALAS! there was no chips or salad as mentioned in the menu. I asked upfront, where was the full dish? The server peevishly replied they were out of salad and chips! I mean who runs of salad and chips? To add insult to injury the beef roast was a soggy meat affair with drippy veggies and gloomy meat. The meat looked like it was soaked in a wash tub for 8 hours before it was brought out to ridicule us. Even worse after all this, they had the audacity to charge the entire amount of the dish ?!! Shameful.

Wait, its not over! Who was at fault when the food came out late? The guest or the restaurant? Well, shouldn't the guest get time to eat the dish if the dish is served late? Why would you dim the lights and make it nearly dark for no one to be able to see the food? That is just a rude way to shove your customers out of your doors.

Completely miserable and utterly unacceptable! This was it for me at Infantaria.

You as a reader may have a different opinion or have received better service and congratulations to you for that but for me it was quite the opposite. Never again Infantaria or should I say - Infant's Area....

We chose this place seeing the high ratings on Google, but after visiting, I understood how they got them. They offer discounts or free items if you like their page/share on Instagram. That’s their hack.

Now about the food, I’m a big foodie, and so is my family. We try local cuisines everywhere we go. But here, apart from one item, everything was a disaster. • Cinnamon roll: Only saving grace. Soft, fresh, and very good. • Hot chocolate: The hot chocolate we actually ordered was served cold, not even lukewarm. When I asked them to make it hot, they microwaved it, and the glass came back too hot to even hold. • Water: We first asked for water, and they brought mineral water. When we said we don’t want bottled, just regular water, the elderly staff member who was taking order, frowned, raised his eyebrows, and in a rude tone asked, “So you want tap water?” Never in our lives has anyone asked like this when we requested regular drinking water in a restaurant. I said, I don’t know what you mean by that but we need regular drinking water. He later brought two glasses and placed them on the table with a loud thud. • Grilled chicken burger: The chicken patty was thinner than the cucumber slice inside. Tasteless, had to sprinkle salt just to eat it. Attcahed is the pic. • Goan fish curry combo: Curry was okay, but the fried fish had zero salt. Absolutely bland.

On top of this, there’s no ambience at all. Very hot, because it’s in open space, looked like parking area converted to restaurant. Except for the cinnamon roll, the food was pathetic. Everything lacked taste and quality. If you genuinely love food, please don’t waste your time or money here. The ratings are misleading, they are built on freebies for Instagram tags, not real...

The place is right on the Baga-Calangute road. Just loved the food here. I can't remember how many times we frequented this place on a single visit. They have live music on some days.

Waiting is terrible on weekends & more terrible is that there is no waiting list you just have to scout for a table and it might happen that someone who has come later might get a table first.

The place is highly understaffed & service is darn slow. Sometimes you just need to get up & call the wait staff & you can't seem to blame them either as sometimes therez only 1 person managing 15 tables.

Review:- Dish Name | Price | Rating out of 10 | Comments (If any)

Vegetariana Pizza | 360 | 8 | Regular kinda pizza Risotto Alla Basciola | 320 | 9 | Everyone loved this Veg Makhanwala | 250 | 8 | Prawns Angara Masala | 380 | 8.5 | Gravy not that red. Decent size & qty of prawns Alla Infantaria | 320 | 7 | Red Pasta Pollo Funghi Porchini | 340 | 9.5 | Chicken Spaghetti. Too creamy with loads of chicken Cheese Garlic Toast | 210 | 8.5 | Chilly Cheese Toast | 210 | 9 | Butter Roti | 40 | 8 | Butter Naan | 50 | 9 | Cheese Garlic Naan | 120 | 9.5 | Naan filled with cheese Choc Ice Cream | 45 | 8 | Fresh Lime Soda | 50 | 8 | Oreo Cookie N Fudge Brownie Shake | 210 | 9 | Toblerone Shake | 260 | 8.5 | Dutch Truffle Cake Shake | 210 | 8.5 | All shakes were not that chilled Infantarias Own Shake | 210 | 9.5 | Yummy. With whip cream Death by Choc With Vanilla Ice Cream | 200 | 8 | Death by choc cake was a bit diff Almond Choc Torte | 100 | 8 | Sada Chawal | 90 | 8 | Chocolate Croissant | 230 | 9

Will update the list on subsequent...