d'Tandoor Restaurant Damansara Utama — Restaurant in Petaling Jaya

This is a review based on a dining experience on Thursday 8 April 2021. First of all, the decor. I would have preferred a classy decor with vague Indian furnishings and faux Mughal paintings. Instead what you get is a decor quite similar to Pizza Hut. Enough said. Anybody sceptical should go in and see for himself. We ordered the kurma Zafar Shahi, paneer Shahi and chicken biryani. The kurma was way too sweet and diluted; the beef was tough, was obviously not fresh and not even cooked properly. It seemed to have come out straight from the fridge and dropped into the kurma. I got the shock of my life when I tasted this since it was touted the house speciality. This was a dish made for Bahadur Shah Zafar; I can't imagine the last Mughal emperor wanting to eat this muck. If it was served to him, the cook probably wouldn't even be alive by dawn the next day. The Shahi Paneer was obviously made using the same spice mixture as the kurma Zafar Shahi. Again this was unexpectedly sweet and diluted, watery. It was edible but unremarkable by any standard. The chicken biryani was equally rotten. In fact the chicken meat wasn't cooked properly and was even a little raw. On top of it, it didn't taste fresh. After our impressive experience at the SS15 D'tandoor, this was a major letdown. A pity, because this was supposed to have been the original joint. Obviously standards are different here. The service was on the brusque side, hardly welcoming. After serving the most appalling dishes and having us pay for it, they didn't even have the courtesy of opening the door and wishing us good night. I should add that we didn't finish the food that night. Our appetite had been spoilt by the ghastly experience. I should add also that food took a while to be served, presumably because they were too busy with delivery orders. This place has mixed reviews; in fact, most of the reviews were decidedly negative. Our experience dining here simply confirms what the rest of the customers feel about this place. This is a total rip off and a waste of time. Just stay away from this place, at least until they brush up their act. The way the waiter who took our order treated/eyed us was as if we couldn't afford to pay or that they were doing us a great favour in admitting us. And all this to partake of a meal so abominable that I have not been able to write about it a good many weeks after the horrifying experience. Just do your palette a favour and keep well away...

Do not order from this restaurant for delivery. They purposely reduce the quantity of the food for delivery thinking that delivery customers are easier to con.

I recently just ordered from The Ganga Cafe and their food is good with good portion. Their paneer butter masala has more than 30 cubes of paneer inside it, instead of just 4 cubes given by this restaurant. I do not have any relationship with The Ganga Cafe and just want everyone that want a good food to be able to get it, instead of getting conned here.

Also, until this date I still do not ask for any compensation from the restaurant, as I have lost hope on it after ordering multiple times and only having very little portion every time I order.

Their palak paneer only has 4 very small pieces of paneer inside and the rest are sauce, and yet they have the audacity to sell it at 17.5. They admit they are doing this, but just say they apologise and will do better next time. What sort of reply is this?

While the restaurant has replied to compensate, I am not interested in any sort of compensation. Foodpanda has already refunded the amount of the entire order to me and I am not interested in any free dinner from the restaurant as I have no confidence in them not acting out of spite and polluting the free food. I have been ordering around 10 times since last year and while their portion is always small and has been reducing, I have to admit the food is good. However, this time they have gone over my limit and 4 small pieces of paneer in a 17.5 palak paneer is just a joke. This is also not a single occurrance as other customers also posted similar reviews before me. Just sort reviews by "lowest" and literally top few comments are about the portion. Order at...

We were at D’Tandoor Damansara Utama to celebrate our sister’s birthday last month.

Called them earlier to make reservations and they recommended that we order in advance so food would be served early without much waiting as we were a group of twenty. That turned out to be good advice.

Parking is not so freely available in this area but we were, fortunately, able to find parking spots for the five cars.

The place is well lit and there was ample place set aside for our group. We did not have to wait too long for the food to be served.

Overall, food was very good and in particular, the beriyani was a standout as was the fried cauliflower dish. The Nawabi Mixed Tandoor was very good and the Raan Sikandri (a leg of lamb) was awesome and it was easy to understand why it took 12 hours or more for them to prepare this fabulous dish.

When the food arrived, we thought we had over-ordered but given how good it tasted, we finished everything.

Service was very good. En. Syafiq, in particular, paid a lot of attention to us and ensured we were attended to.

There was pleasant music in the background and nothing too loud.

In summary, this is an excellent place to have a meal especially if you are a group and are able to order in advance as they take care of everything.

I asked my niece Rowena for her feedback and here is what she said:

“Had a family celebration recently here. Pre-ordered food was delivered in time and staff were very accommodating towards my family. Fairly decent cost for 20 people, and the portions were appropriate for the given number of people.”

We will definitely be going back to D’Tandoor for excellent...