Octima Restaurant Bar and Cafe — Restaurant in Goa

Horrible experience. We were there for dinner on 11th Jan 2019 and based on reviews on Google were expecting a good experience.

There was only one more Indian family other than ours at the restaurant. Most of the other visitors were not from India.The owner who was a lady came to introduce herself. We asked for suggestions from the menu, she declined to do so. We then requested her to take our order. She declined to take our order and proudly declared she doesn't take orders. We should find a waiter and order our food.

It took us half an hour to order drinks as waiters were extremely lazy. We ordered our food and started waiting. We were then shocked to see that the lady owner was taking orders from Europeans and Americans (basically anyone who wasn't Indian) despite her initial claim that she doesn't take orders. Everyone who wasn't Indian received their order (even the ones who arrived after us) in reasonable time and started eating while we were kept waiting. After 2 hours our food arrived at which point we complaint to the lady owner about this racial bias. She was unapolegetic about the whole affair and said that food preparation takes time. We then asked for a bowl for our curries. She reluctantly ordered one of the waiters to bring the bowl and sarcastically declared that in her 10 years of being owner of this restaurant no one has ever asked for bowls! Since we were extremely hungry at this point, we started having our food. The dishes were ordinary. You can have such a meal at any ordinary shack in Goa at probably 40 pc of cost and much better service. As we paid for our meal and were leaving the other Indian family also started protesting the unfair treatment and racial bias. Once outside, I started to wonder that how was it possible in 2019 to act in such a racially biased manner against your own brethren. Guess some souls never got independence.

Reasons to visit-If you like paying high price for bad food and ordinary music Reasons not to visit: If you do not belong to...

The restaurant owner has replied to this review and raised few questions. Hence I have to update the review:

If you dunk boiled chicken pieces in a yellowish gravy and call it Afghani Chicken, it will come out as a disaster. And serving it with a half fried egg will not make it better. Even Afghanis don't serve it with egg. And no, I did not even taste it. It was my wife's experience. Oh and I do know how to cook it the authentic way and if you want, I'll teach your chef next year when I come back to Goa.

The reason I said we will be back is only because few of your local customers recommended you after chicken fiasco and I have been to enough restaurant to know that a restaurant should not be penalized for one off dish.

Please learn to take the criticism in positive manner.

• Original Review Below *** The restaurant is tucked in the by lane and is over shadowed by Mke's Place. It is run by a couple and service is quite slow. So give more than enough time for your food to arrive. Typical delay is at least 20 minutes when the restaurant is less crowded. And now we come to food. We ordered pork roast and wanted to order some tandoori chicken but were told that they didn't had tandoor chef. And that is where we made the mistake. We asked for kebabs and our hostess had to again refuse - no tandoor you see. So I asked if we can have Chicken Afghani. Our hostess, Fatima, probably in peer pressure, said we could. But what came in the name of Chicken Afghani was any thing but Chicken Afghani as this is a dish I frequently cook at home. Pork Roast was good, roties were excellent but Chicken Afghani destroyed our experience. I did inform Faitma about this faux pas and she tried to save the face saying that it is their version of chicken afghani.

I understand that this may have been a one time thing and the restaurant has been recommended to us by some of our Goan friends so we are going to visit them...

I thought you will take my comment seriously and improve on your behalf but on the contrary you labelled me audacious, in the jest you told us that you prepare any food in Goan style, and you hope this gives you a getaway from serving tasteless and bland food to us, yes we finished the food you served us because our culture is to respect the food and not to waste it, I think you should try Mike's place to understand how Goan style of food is, they know how to improvise, any how this will be my final comment, since you spoke ill about my family, I made these comments, it is upto you now, you will still make pathetic food and defend it here, or learn some cooking. FYI no one is looking, it is our KARAMA. You choose to be a restaurant and hotel owner and in my view you should change your occupation. Again this matter is closed from my end, I will make no further comments... Thanks for replying to my father, you have truly shown that STANDARD OF YOUR FOOD IS AS LOW AS YOUR COMMUNICATION SKILLS, not only it is sad to see you desperate but you inability to take criticism makes me feel sorry for you, my father commented about your food, he made no personal comments and as a customer he has all the rights to do so, and as a restaurant owner it's your job to accomodate all types of customers, but the your reply shows your and your restaurant's standard, again to finish I feel sorry for you and may God...