Rasa - Burlingame — Restaurant in Burlingame

My experience here started off good but went down hill. First I came in and the lady who was hosting welcomed us. She even had these tattoos on her wrist which could be considered contemporary Indian which was nice. It seemed like she belonged there.

Next up she pointed us to our table...keyword being "pointed". At any half decent restaurant the host usually takes you to the table and makes small conversation. However, this was not the biggest issue since our table was close by and in bit of a tight spot. So let's overlook that.

Next came our server. She was nice for the most part and the food was pretty good as well. Along with the food we ordered 2 drinks, one being the mango ginger and the other being mint cucumber cooler. We didn't like the mango ginger because we found the ginger to be overpowering. When I asked our server to remove it from the table she asked us what was wrong with it and I proceeded to explain to her. However, at the end of the meal I would discover it was not removed from the bill. I know that may sound cheap but I essentially paid for something I did not drink. The glass was still full when it was removed from the table. For the future if they don't want to remove an item from the bill then maybe at the very least the can offer a replacement of that item with the correction the guest mentions.

Moving on the desserts. Good presentation but they felt a bit lacking in terms of concept and flavor. Not bad either but I would consider the desserts as being average. Also they brought out the wrong dessert and had to go back and get the right one.

Throughout this entire experience the hostess was nowhere to be found. A hosts job is not to just give tables but to actually "host" the guests. Throughout the service the host should be going to every table at least once just to see if the experience of the guest is fabulous. This is mostly to make sure the guests leave satisfied. However, not once did she come to our table and if she had maybe we would have told her how everything went instead of writing a 3 star review on here. Or I may have just given a much better review.

Once you add all these up I just don't feel like this is a place that deserves a Michelin Star. Not to mention they have a Health Department score of 63/100. That is definitely not Michelin star worthy. Going forward I would hope the could maintain...

Overpriced, and not as flavorful as I would have expected. The ambience was good and the service was great too. Among drinks the mango-ginger-tito was fabulous, probably the best item I had on their menu. But, everything from there went pretty much downhill.

The Bombay sliders were good, not great, very mild flavor, no spice. The tamarind chutney was tangy enough but the mint chutney was neither minty enough or spicy enough. They also gave us gunpowder and ghee as a spice mix to apply in the buns, but it didn't really add much value to the dish. Two tiny sliders for 18 dollars - - not worth it.

We ordered the Bollywood dosa and asked them to apply the ghost pepper chutney spread inside the dosa, but there wasn't any inside when the dish was given to us. So they got it in a separate bowl on the side. That chutney was very hot and spicy as advertised and a saving grace for the dish, because without that the dish was just a pretty ordinary masala dosa. Again can't justify paying 18 dollars for it.

The gali aloo paratha was perhaps the biggest disappointment of all the dishes. I'm not sure what style of aloo paratha that was but, it was nothing close to how actual aloo Parathas are supposed to be or how they are supposed to taste. No spice, very mild flavoring, low salt. The Parathas were too thick and soft from outside, the filling was very bland and it felt like the masala from masala dosa was repurposed as the filling for the aloo paratha.

I have good things to say about the Jafrani kofta curry. The cottage cheese kofta itself was cooked to perfection, and curry was creamy, sweet and had a great flavor profile.

The dal tadka was again quite unsatisfactory. The whole appeal of dal is that it's a comforting savory soup like dish that makes your day when it goes down your throat. No salt, no spice, no onion, no garlic, no ginger, no asafoetida. It felt more like a dish sick people are given in hospitals because they can't digest any spices. 18 dollars for that??!! Hell no!

Having said all the above, I will come to this place again to try the allepy vegetable curry, the genovese dosa, and...

I'm no way an Indian food expert, but from what I had it was all very delicious. It is Michelin star so it was nice to see that the pricing and booking a reservation wasn't outrageous. I highly recommend making a reservation when you come here as I saw some people get turned away when I came on Saturday night. We ordered the Calamari small plate: 3/5 - The dipping sauce tasted Indian, but otherwise it's your average Calamari -$14 Basil Dosa: 3/5 - It was good, but I didn't think there was anything too special with it. I think what I really liked is the red dipping sauce that tasted like a soup -$18 Wild mushroom Uthappam 3/5 - In my opinion it was a bit bland, I couldn't really taste the mushrooms and needed to use the sauce to bring flavor -$18 Butter chicken 4/5 - Honestly all butter chicken taste good to me wherever I go as it's my go to dish. Although the butter chicken here is delicious, I don't know if I could tell the difference that it was a Michelin rated butter chicken -$29 Paneer in Tomato cream sauce 5/5 - It is one of their new dishes on the menu and it was really good! It is a bit sweeter (comparing it the butter chicken), but I really liked it -$29? Halibut curry 3/5 - The halibut was very soft and it was presented in a nice way, but otherwise taste factor it was okay -$32

Overall I would say that this restaurant is worth it to try. The portions are small though. We ordered all of the above for 4 people and we ate everything, but left very full. The service and food is good. I don't know if I could tell that it was Michelin rated if I hadn't seen the plaque that they have up. Definitely want to try their drinks next time as it looked super fancy. The ambience of this place is good where it's quiet enough to hold a conversation, but not too quiet where it becomes awkward. If you come here for your birthday they sing to you and give you a free ice cream scoop. Parking is on the street. I don't think this will be my go to Indian place, but definitely want to come back once a while when I want to entertain friends who are in the mood for...