Bombay Palace Frankton — Restaurant in South Island

Worst worst worst worst worst.. Dont go here.. I am a visitor from Canada. It was my first day at queenstown. My hotel was near this restaurant. I shortlisted this restaurant for dinner. Due to late checkin time at hotel, I decided to take my family for a quick brunch as well. I went here with my family including an elderly person and a toddler.. We had some dietery requirements which they couldn't provide. So instead of ordering for 4 people, we could only order for 2 people and hence we decided to have tea for all 4 and a starter for 2. But that awful server asked us to order more stuff. I even said we are coming here for dinner tonight too. But he didnt agree. On confrontation, he rudely said in hindi "hum yaha chai pilane nai baithe hain" (we are not here for let you drink tea with just one snack). Can you imagine, rude behavior from a restaurant at one of the top tourist destinations. In my lifetime, I have never seen such a behavior. You can go to 5 star restaurant and still order a drink and leave. They will serve you equally as other customers. But these people, awful, illiterate, discriminatory, disrespectful and totally inconsiderate.

Just don't go here, they will just disrespect you.

Edition after an extemely arrogant reply from so called owner/server Look at the audacity of this employee who replied it here.

1. First of all he is being arrogant in his replies. I thinks its his attitude. I read so many 1 star reviews. And he is replying to everyone like that. I also read how they are insensitive to dietery requirements. Once they fed meat to pure veg family. Clearly, no cultural sensitivities. Another time they sent a family including 2 kids out of their restaurant who ordered take away because they didn't want to let them wait on vacant tables. So, we were not the first ones to be kicked out.
2. He is lying about his polite behavior. He was so rude and arrogant, I can't even explain. The fact that we had less food to order (due to their cooking style) made him angry and lose his calm. He had problems in giving a tea and did not feel a shame kicking out an old lady who couldn't eat food due to dietery requirements. Again insensitive. But i am certainly glad that we did not eat food there. Reading other reviews, probably only indian restaurant who use egg in naan and same oil for meat and veg...

We've been visiting here for a while, always been our favourite Indian restaurant, but the food quality and food service time is getting worse.

The restaurant was half empty at 6.30pm (maybe two tables seated when we arrived) and we didn't leave until 8.45pm. More than two hours for 4 people to have 2 courses. There was an hour wait between the starters and mains service.

The mains wasn't great quality either, all 4 dishes fell short. Three dishes ordered Indian Hot and two of them were mild and the other was medium at best. I ordered Malai Kofta and the curry sauce was just completely off. Too much cream ruined it all. The spices unbalanced, underseasoned, and the heat just didn't exist. Kofta were great but dish ruined by the sauce. A shame as its my favourite dish, especially here normally. Hope it was just a bad day. The other three dishes were apparently equally bland. I only tried one other (Vegetarian) dish and the flavours were better than mine but it had no heat (ordered Indian Hot)

Took so long to get food we didn't want to say all four dishes were substandard, so just ate as it came.

Starters, drinks, and naan were perfect though!

And all of the front of house team were great as always.

Lots of takeaway dishes going out the door as there always is (and understandably based on the usual quality!), just hope that isn't letting the quality slip for those that booked tables.

Not sure what's happened recently but hope it gets back to how it was earlier...

This place has GONE DOWN HILL quickly.

We were a large group of 9 people. There were no other seated groups eating in the restaurant when we entered. The restaurant had pushed back our booking so we were hungry.

Nobody came to take our order. When the server was asked to come to the table she took one order for some tequila shots, without asking if anybody else wanted any drinks or food she left.

Again we had to call the server over to the table. To order our meal.

The restaurant was pretty empty at this point, then a family of 5 entered, were seated and served food before we got anything to eat.

At this point I made the manager aware that we hadn’t been receiving any service from their staff.

It still took another half an hour for our food to come. We had been seated for over an hour with nobody else in the restaurant.

When the food came the rice was a mushy blob. Completely over cooked, the curry’s were very substandard. The spices were undercooked and not balanced well.

When we complained at the counter the manager gave us a 10% discount which is what they give locals anyway.

Really bad service. Awful food. This place used to be good but last night was unacceptable and really low quality.

EDIT**

Wow doubts on the authenticity ay? Well how did I know the rice was bad if I wasn’t there that night? Why are you gaslighting your...