Red Fort Family Garden Restaurant — Restaurant in Karnataka

PRELUDE :

I've dined here twice - once with a friend in the last week of October and later with a group of friends in the first week of November. The first experience wasn't appealing and decided to give it another shot. I'll focus more on my recent experience

AMBIENCE :

The place is neatly done with outdoor lawn seating and a covered building splitting it into two halves. Lighting along the walkway is too BRIGHT - thanks to the LED lights - would prefer warm lighting any given day. Restrooms are clean and tidy. (the outside wash basin was clogged though)

The location is just brilliant - easy access from NH4 - restaurant is built along the service road with good parking facilities guarded by a staff.

STARTERS :

After glancing through the menu, we decided on Sweet Corn Pineapple Chicken Soup, Sweet Corn Bamboo Soup, Chicken Manchow Soup, Paneer Sate and Cheese Chicken as starters and ordered soft drinks to wash it down.

While listing down our order, we're told that Sweet Corn Pineapple Chicken Soup and Sweet Corn Bamboo Soup were NOT available. We then settled for Red Fort Special Non Veg Soup and Veg Garlic Ginger Soup (the latter one is not listed on the menu and was suggested by the staff).

Fried noodles were MISSING in the Chicken Manchow Soup and we were served a separate bowl with fried noodles after making two requests. We passed around, shared the soup and found it okay. Cheese Chicken was great and Paneer Satay, good.

MAIN COURSE :

We asked for full Arab Tandoori Chicken, Rumali Roti and Triple Fried Rice for main course. Rumali Roti was NOT available and we're warned that Arab Tandoori Chicken is dry and we better order some curry. Staff wouldn't place the order unless we order a curry and we opted for Dal Fry and Butter Naan. Few minutes later, we're told that Arab Tandoori is NOT available and we went with Tandoori Chicken.

Tandoori Chicken was served and we had to wait a while for the Butter Naans. We asked them to serve the Triple Fried Rice and they're like we didn't place the order. We're amused, back at square one and placed the order again.

Butter Naan was DRY unlike the ones we're used to. We liked the Tandoori Chicken (seven medium sized pieces) but the Mint Chutney didn't appeal our taste buds. Triple Rice was good

[Last time, we asked for full Tandoori Chicken, we're made to order half the quantity and we ended up buying another half - guess they didn't know how good we eat. The Tandoori Chicken was 'juicy' and not that dry as per our liking and the Butter Naan was soft and good. And Rumali Roti was NOT available]

DESSERTS :

We asked for Fruit Salad with Ice Cream and a scoop of Chocolate Ice-cream. Fruit Salad was NOT available, the later smelled BAD and SPOILT. They acknowledgement the same and assured we won't be billed.

SERVICE :

The service was NOT forthcoming and leaves a lot to be desired. For instance, we had to request twice for the missing fried noodles in the soup, glasses were not provided with the mineral water etc.

MENU :

Though they've an exhaustive menu, a fraction of the dishes we asked for were NOT available.

BILL :

They DO NOT provide printed bill - all you get is a handwritten one.

AFTERWORD :

The place has a great untapped potential given the easy access from NH4 & city and being one of the very few restaurants that serves no alcohol and remains open close to midnight where you can take along your family provided they improve the service and...

Redford Restaurant is on the Poona - Bangalore Highway, in Davanagere City. Restaurant is spacious and garden is well maintained. it has small conference hall for Birthday functions. About 15 members of the family went for dinner at Redford.

We had ordered Veg Manchow soup, Gobi Manchurian and Andhra Chilly Chicken. Veg Manchow soup was OK, Gobi Manchurian was good. However I had different Andhra Chilly Chicken with Green gravy. It was coated with Corn flour and fried. This is the first time I tasted Different Andhra Chilly Chicken . Taste was OK.

later we had Baby Corn Manchuria , Mushroom 65. Baby Corn Manchuria was OK. Mushroom 65 was well prepared and Excellent.

For the main course, ordered Chicken Hyderabadi, Mushroom Kadai, Veg Kadai along with Roti and Kulcha. Mushroom Kadai and Kulcha were excellently prepared. Remaining items were OK, Ordered Dum Veg Biryani, Jeera Rice and Curd Rice.

Veg Biryani was like Spicy pulav, Jeera Rice was good. Surprise was Curd rice , which was sprinkled with Tutty fruity ( used in cakes) along with Coriander. I am surprised with the innovation. Till now in curd rice , other hotels served with Cashew, grapes, along with carrot, Pomegranate. Without Tutty fruity, curd rice is OK. In this hotel, I see hotel chef is expererimenting with dishes , first in Andhra chilly Chicken, Veg Dum biryani and Curd tasty. Before innovation chef should taste the food and optimise instead of trial on Customers.

Service is Slow , the waiters stand at the corner. Even for removal of plates, waiters need to be called. Training to be given on how to serve the food the guests sitting on the table.

Overall...

A Saturday night dinner out with the friends was what we had in mind as we drove to Red Fort. After going through the long menu, we were disappointed to find out that most of the dishes were not available.

Furthermore, the attitude of the staff towards the customers were quite irritating. As a customer, I felt as though I wasn't welcome. There was an instance when a waiter literally shoved a whole bunch of cutlery, scaring the entire table!

The starters were good. For the main course we had ordered Tandoori Naan and a full Tandoori chicken. The Naan reminded me of "Pappad", only that it was very thick and extremely hard to chew, leaving our jaws hurting. The Tandoori chicken was good, which was our only relief for the night. We had also ordered for a Veg Triple Fried rice, which caused a little bit of a confusion among the staff: they weren't sure if we had ordered it or not. The confusion was sorted after a short delay.

As we progressed to Desserts, we had ordered Chocolate Ice cream. Imagine the shock we had as we figured out that the ice cream was spoilt! Never in our lives have we ever come across spoilt Ice Cream!

The bill was easy on the pockets. The restaurant would be a good place for the students living Davangere, if they improve the service and the food quality there.

Even though the dinner was less than favourable to our palate, we came out of the restaurant learning a very valuable lesson : Even Ice Cream...