Machan Restaurant — Restaurant in Nainital

On my visit to Nainital , this was the first restaurant I dined at . It's pretty much at the start of Mall road from the Mallital end/Mosque area. And the mall road was closed off for cars and was only allowed to be accessed by people on foot so this was realistically the only good option available as we were really tired after our journey and the amount of crowd present on the mall road would make it difficult to go down to any other restaurant. The mall road stays closed for cars from 6-8pm (peak season when we went it's closed till 9pm) so make sure u are ready for a walk in the crowd.

Machan is a pretty well known restaurant serving up Indian and Chinese cuisine. It's is up a few flight of stairs and is the only nonveg serving restaurant in the direct area (all other 5-6 restaurants were veg). Once you go up the stairs you see the restaurant which does have a bit of the view of the lake. But the seating is very limited and the place isn't too lit. The service here was very nice and friendly and they have an open kitchen to the back of the restaurant from where they pump out dishes super fast.

We ordered a variety of dishes to try. The first thing which came was the thumbs up and the water bottle. But the glasses they gave weren't thoroughly cleaned so my suggestion is to ask for clean glasses if they don't give them already and then yo clean it up yourself aswell before pouring water. Out of the 4 glasses 2 were not clean while 2 were. It was good that they gave straws (but plastic ones) which also I wiped and then just used it for my thumbs up instead of pouring it into a glass .

Now going to the food . We had both Veg and non veg here but only ordered Indian. For starters we ordered Tandoori Chicken and Achari Paneer Tikka . The tandoori chicken had 6 pieces , basically 4 pieces cut into smaller sizes . It was cooked well but the chicken wasn't too tender or juicy . The chaat masala topping is always nice as it makes it chatpata ( a bit spicy and tangy). The Paneer tikka was also good . Nothing too special but tasted good. Portion was nice aswell with 8 pieces served of decent size paneer. The Paneer was marinated well so the flavour was there in each bite. The outer layer was nice and crispy due to the tandoor and the inside was soft.

For mains we ordered - Dal Makhani , Mix Veg and Methi Malai Mutton . The Dal Makhani was good and went well with the sirka pyaaz and chillies. The portion was good aswell. The Mix Veg was also good aswell , infact in my opinion better than the dal makhni . The mix veg had paneer , peas , potato , carrot , cauliflower , bell peppers and the portion was more than enough. But the best was the Methi Malai Mutton which was delicious. A pretty rich gravy based of cream and methi(Fenugreek) . The flavours were subtle yet prominent at the same time. 4 pieces of mutton were served in our portion and the meat itself was fantastic. I noticed that the mutton in Nainital overall was just amazing. Very rich , good amount of fat and pretty tender the way they cooked it.

Overall it was a good place but the ambience really kills the experience. A bit dark and dingy and full to the brim (which is understandable due to the season) . This is a family restaurant and kids were crying here and there and nobody cared. Service was very good and quick and most of the food was tasty but the bill of 2100 was the thing which puts me off as that's quite a bit for the standards of Nainital and we didn't order much nonveg here either. I believe the menu on Zomato isn't up to date...

Date of visit: July 2nd, 2023.

It was morning, raining and a mood to enjoy something like Pancakes so I crashed into Machan and ordered it with some coolers.

I ordered, Pancakes with Banana and 2 Coolers. I must say that I had the worst Pancakes till date.

If you order Pancakes with Banana, you'll expect good fluffy Pancakes with Banana sliced on it along with Maple Syrup but nothing like this happened with me. They stuffed Banana into it and cooked.

Are you serious? Have you ever tasted Pancakes in life?

I confronted the person who served it, he said, "this is how we serve here". Highly disappointed.

I would highly recommend Machan either change its quality or remove it from your menu. please don't insult Pancakes by serving banana stuffed sweet Parantha.

We have almost the same experience with the coolers. Not at all a pleasing experience.... Not even satisfactory.

On complaint, the Manager showed courtesy for not charging me for the Pancakes and thankful for the same however he could not do anything for my trauma that I got from those...

Date of visit 22/11/2024 Time 9 pm approx

As a regular customer, I’ve always enjoyed dining at this restaurant, but my recent visit for our 24th wedding anniversary was an absolute disappointment. Unfortunately, the food has not been the same for the last 3-4 years, and it truly ruined what should have been a special occasion.

The taste has significantly declined, with dishes that were once flavorful now being bland and poorly prepared. To make matters worse, the food was excessively spicy, to the point where it was nearly inedible. We’ve had to deal with overwhelming heat and a lack of balance in the flavors, which was incredibly frustrating. Even simple dishes that I used to love were way too spicy and lacked the freshness and quality they once had.

As someone who has been a loyal customer for years, it’s heartbreaking to see such a decline. It’s a shame that a restaurant I’ve trusted for so long could disappoint me on such an important day. I’m not sure I’ll be coming back again after...