Kismat indisk mat & bar — Restaurant in Sandefjord

When I last visited this restaurant last Summer, I didn't have a great time. I wrote a reasonably generous review, giving the benefit of the doubt, because I was relatively new to Norway, and wasn't sure that this sort of food wasn't normal for the area.

This time, after another year of eating Norwegian Indian food, I feel better qualified to say that this is, unfortunately, not a good restaurant.

When we arrived, we were immediately given popadoms. Great. The service was average to good for the whole evening, so no real complaints there.

My main problem with this restaurant is that the food is not Indian food. At least, it's not any kind of Indian food I have eaten anywhere else (and I've eaten a lot of it). So the flavours are unique, you ask? The dishes are original and creative?

No, that's not what I mean. It was a little like being in an unsettling dream, where everything looks familiar but tastes slightly wrong. For my main course, I ordered Chilli Chicken. What was put in front of me was Chinese-style sweet-and-sour chicken made with tikka. It was unbelievably sweet, with a thin sauce and not really any other taste besides. My partner's Paneer dish appeared to be made from (lots of) sugar, cream, cumin and turmeric, and tasted of nothing. Paneer is not exactly a flavourful protein - you need to try a bit harder than that to make it worth eating. It tasted bland even to my partner's sensitive palate.

Just as on my last visit, they brought out that big bowl of onion rice - again, it's a mystery why they serve this long-grain onion rice instead of the traditional saffron-flavoured basmati rice. But then I reminded myself - It's not an Indian restaurant. It's a bad restaurant with an Indian theme. At least the rice wasn't served damp this time.

Taking a break from the main course, there was nowhere to turn to escape the strange flavours. The popadoms were nice enough, but dip them in the green stuff, and you'll find it's some kind of grassy-tasting minty cud rather than the creamy raita you might expect. Try the red stuff, and it's more of the supermarket-quality sweet chilli sauce which was already drowning my chicken.

Perhaps I'll take a drink from my lemonade - oh, it's extremely salty for some reason, and room-temperature. I'll just leave that then.

I can just imagine the chef in the kitchen cooking from recipes on Google, coming up with something which looks a bit like the picture, then sending it out. I had the same experience last time I visited - the food was as if the chef had only ever had Indian food described to them over the phone, then they attempted to make something which looked about right.

We were very thankful for the buttery nan bread, which was the only part of the meal which was reasonable, because otherwise we'd probably have had to stop at McDonalds on the way back.

Now we get to the real reason for my one-star review. The price. The fact that they have the stones to charge such outrageous prices for food which is at best poorly executed, and at worst so bland or sweet that it can never have been tasted in the kitchen, really makes me mad. I left the place feeling as if I had been robbed.

I should mention, in case it is not obvious, that I am not Indian myself. I have never eaten in India. But I have eaten at hundreds of Indian restaurants around the world. As such, I feel comfortable recommending that you should definitely eat at any one of those other restaurants, and not this one.

If you want a good-quality Indian meal, go to the New Ambassador in Larvik. If you want an acceptable meal at a reasonable price, go to the Bombay Tandoori in Tønsberg. If you want to pay through the nose for a terrible meal, go to Kismat. Sorry, that should be Ksmat, as the 'i' in their sign...

Fantastic service and a brilliant location made this a dinner to remember. As expected the menu was quite extensive and at the higher end of the price range. Kismat also had a fully stocked bar and is family friendly with a childrens menu available. Ample parking outside.

As I mentioned at the top, the service was first class throughout, with one eagle eyed waiter noticing a lipgloss smear on my wife's wine glass who then swooped in to replace the glass with a new one. So it's down to the food.

Nice warm plates and a rather basic side of popadoms was followed by some excellent main courses. I ordered the chef's speciality which was one of my favourite dishes - the lamb gosht. It waa delivered piping hot, with smooth creamy spinach and fluffy rice - it could not have been better.

Well, that would have been the case if it wasn't delivered mild, instead of the vindaloo strength I specifically ordered. In saying that it was so delicious I ate it anyway, it was that good.

When I mentioned to the waitress when paying the bill that it was a mild dish instead of the extra strong that I ordered, she casually remarked that the cook had probably forgotten to add the spices. I had already guessed that!

So would I go there again? Perhaps, as I wasn't entirely convinced it represented good value for money. There were several small children playing hide & seek under our table during our meal, the issue of the missing spices and the rather high price.

But all in all, a nice experience. They also have an outside area which is great...

Ordred take-out on a Sunday, and they said on the phone the wait for the food was 45-50 min. I arrived 50 min after the order was placed, and there were two other costumers waiting for their take-out. Their employee told me that my order was 10-15 min late. After 20 min, I asked again about my order, and I was told only 1 more minut. I ended up waiting 45 min before my order was given to me. When I paied I asked for compensasition and they gave me a great precentage off. The food tasted great, so no bad words about that. The 1,5 hour wait when I was told 45-50 min wait, was really playing with my patience...