The South Indian Restaurant — Restaurant in Göteborgs Stad

Preface: I grew up in Tamil Nadu. I can make a pretty good Kurma (not the same as Korma, although it is derived from it). I can cook several Tamil recipes and I have cooked for more than 40 people in the past. I am not a professional cook/chef.

I was here with my one year old daughter. I had explicitly mentioned to the waiter that I would like a vegan dish. There were not many on the menu. One might think that's normal for Sweden. And that is true. However, in Tamil cooking, if you discount ghee, there are several thousand recipes that can easily be made vegan!!!

I had explicitly told the waiter that I would like zero spice. He nodded his head and said "for sure".

He first came back with a vegetarian version. I am not appalled or shocked by the fact that it was vegetarian. After all, I grew up a vegetarian and I would have eaten it, had I known it was going to be waste. However, I had not touched it. So I assumed someone would eat it after all.

Then he comes back 10 mins later (and 30 mins after my 1 year old and I are seated).

My daughter tasted the sauce and she would have nothing to do with it. Because it was quite spicy. The waiter had not understood what zero chilli meant or he had manipulated me into agreeing to buy something.

I was extremely hungry and wanted to gobble up the food I had paid for and leave so that my daughter could have something she didn't find hurtful.

The so-called kurma they served, had one whole potato, less than four pieces of carrot, about 4-5 peas, and a hell of a load of coconut milk (not whole coconut). And I could not smell any 'anis' tasting stuff in it. The signature aroma of a Tamil Kurma is the fresh coconut and 'sombu' or fennel seeds. I have experimented with fennel root and stalk - they all add to the flavour. Zero protein. zero fibre. Zero Veggies.

Overall: Tasteless and inauthentic mess that one is forced to finish if one is starved, has a hungry kid and wants to leave the restaurant not wasting any food because one has experienced what it means to have food wasted or thrown away.

ps. I also found pieces of paneer in my "kurma". They had probably removed the paneer and waited a bit pretending to make...

Food taste is good, but the quantity for the price they charge is not acceptable at all. When it comes to quality, I would like to give as less as possible as they give you frozen food (In my case frozen Barotta) which I didn't expect from them especially for the price I pay.

Worst of worst service and handling of customers. I even overhear them commenting on other customers in Tamil :(

I would personally not recommend going to this place but one wants to get a taste of what south indian food would taste then there are not many options in Gothenburg presently

Response to the owner's comments...

It was not about the sauce for the bread, but how I was treated as a customer. I was told that I could get extra sauce before I ordered the bread and when I asked for the sauce I was not only turned down but was constantly ignored with no neglecting response. I only understood that there are other better south indian restaurants in Gothenburg wish I had known this before.

Regarding the food quality, I can tell you the other food(Mango chutney) that you served as part of the kids meal is definitely not prepared by you. If I'm right it was some processed food that you can find in the supermarket and is not definitely not Indian or South Indian. The reason why I say the parotta was frozen is when I ate them after 10 minutes it went so crisp and doesn't felt fresh.

May be you have your reasons and you may be good but my experience with south Indian restaurant chain in the last few times were bad and this was the...

Food is hit and miss - both of us who are Indian found the food was either "okay" or really not good. Chicken 65 was burnt and dry however I was told "that's how it's supposed to be here" and was dismissed on my genuine experience being of Indian knowing how it should taste and it definitely isn't how it tastes anywhere else. The Fish 65 didn't have fish that was fresh - the salmon used (which is unusual for fish 65) was grey which indicates its older. However after providing feedback on the chicken we didn't say anything. That's something we noted on the reviews that the staff don't take to feedback well but where people don't mention anything they are saying "you should've said, we'd have resolved it!"

For the mains, the Prawn Biriyani was nice however the veg Kurma that came with it was not Kurma and just tasted like butter chicken sauce

I had the Chicken Chettinad however whilst it was fine, it didn't taste as I'd expect and was much closer to a spicier butter chicken - definitely more closer to North Indian taste.

Overall, service was slow, albeit, apart from the comment on the Chicken 65, the lone waiter was generally nice. The restaurant didn't seem to judge the crowd well and had one waiter for a almost full restaurant which resulted in a 1.5-2 hour lunch which was a lot longer than expected. When we arrived it was essentially empty but became almost full. I don't know if they expect a quiet Sunday afternoon or that they only staff one waiter...