Desi Contemporary Indian Casual & Gabru Bar — Restaurant in Campbell

Opened very very recently in Campbell CA, we heard of this place on Yelp and by their menu and deco of the restaurant , Chef Pathak (originally from Bombay /Mumbai, my hometown) and the Punjabi owners seemed to want to explore the exotic flavors and cuisine of North India, while on its journey, from Punjab first to England during post Colonial times and eventually reaching the west coast of USA only recently. To jazz up the dishes they have given them names that remind you of rural Punjab, almost immediately taking you to memories and visions of green Mustard fields with a tractor plowing them and the great foods that has transformed British cuisine But this is where the journey detours. No, this is not pure North Indian cuisine, no curries served over rice or accompanied with Naans and Daal Makhani, just hints of those exotic flavors in the fusion food they serve along with the ubiquitous Fish and Chips of England under a very Indianized name and also the tacos and bowls that are quite popular in California.A very brave venture and I could see the vision in their menu and sense it in their execution of each dish preparation too! Wait let me not get ahead of myself and start from the beginning of my visit. Slightly off the busy downtown area and tucked away to the side, parking was a breeze (on a Friday evening) in the private parking lot And they do have Dog-Friendly outdoor seating - But without any awning overhead, difficult to use in the cold rain. The main dining area were rows of neatly arranged tables, almost reminded me of a canteen rather than a restaurant. They need to get creative here. But seats were comfy and the indoor lighting was good (something my old eyes require to really enjoy any meal!) The wall deco created just the right ambience of North India and complement the cuisine flavors. Will let the photos speak to it. were What we ordered Desi Paneer Bhurji Tarts, $8 - rating 4/5. 6 Small pastry shells that are typically used for desserts in Far East Asian cuisine that were filled with Paneer Bhurji and topped with pickled onion bits. Quite tasty, but portions need to match the price Gabru Samosa Chaat $9 - rating 5/5. A plateful of smashed samosas with Chole (Garbanzo beans cooked in authentic Punjabi chaat masala) By far the star dish we had, but again portions need to match price Lamb Galauti $15 - rating 4/5 . 3 small mounds of Lamb cooked in exotic spices served over mini naans. While the better half was wanting it to be more "melt in the mouth" consistency of the lamb patty, I found it to be very tasty. But we felt that that this was too pricy for an appetizer and for the quantity served. Chicken Kathi rolls $12 - rating 4/5. Indian style Chicken burrito, staple street food of Many metropolis' in India, each with their own take. A parantha - Wheat roti covered in egg wash, fried and rolled into a burrito with precooked chicken chicken along with some curry sauce of sorts and other condiments. We missed the fresh slivers of onions in it, something that is a must have in a kathi roll. The addition of the butter chicken curry to it seemed to make it more sweet than savory which the better half found off-putting. But I was ok with the flavors and we agreed that it was good value for the price. It actually comes with fries or salad. We ordered Fries but unfortunately that was served late - well after we had finished the kathi roll. And they did not come with any sauce. Evidently they serve mint Chutney with it, but did not have it, so we had to make do with ketchup. All in all, we felt that while they had a great vision and spot-on flavors, they need to get their service and pricing -to-value provided aspects improved to really make it. They've promised to work out their kinks ( after all initializing a restaurant business is not easy) and we in turn vowed to given them a another chance.Will definitely...

Let me be clear, while I’m giving this restaurant 2 stars, it’s purely for their food.

We arrived at 6:45pm to eat outside and the “host” was confused about our reservation but ended up sitting us outside like we asked at the most uncomfortable table I’ve ever sat at. The chairs were so low and there was no leg room plus the table was too high for how low we were sitting-this was the least of our worries. Someone brought us waters quickly and then 5-10 minutes later we were greeted and ordered our drinks and food but the server didn’t write anything down. We decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume she has a good memory. 10 min later she came back with another person who had an iPad to confirm our order. We had to correct a couple mistakes but no big deal.

Our drinks came and they gave me the wrong order but because I could already tell this was going to be a train wreck I just drank what they gave me-I found out this was a smart decision. We then we’re served an incorrect order which the server insisted that we ordered and made it seem like our fault for the mistake. I tried to be gracious and ask them to use the paneer from the incorrect dish and just put the tikka sauce on top but they took it back and we wouldn’t see them again for a while. This mistake was corrected 30 min later by a luke warm paneer tikka and served by itself in a tiny pan, without the naan, biryani or my husbands order. We did receive these other items about 30-40 minutes later after repeatedly asking servers and the manager when our food was coming out. All who never got back to us on the status of our order or cared to get us anything in the meantime while we waited…and waited. We were here for 2 hours by the time all our food came out. No one came to our table to apologize about the wait, ask if we wanted anymore drinks (our cups were empty for a while) or come to see how anything was going even though our food was taking ages to arrive.

Unfortunately, it just seems like this place is understaffed and extremely under trained/disorganized. Despite our horrible experience, we remained patient and kind to the staff because we knew this was likely not their fault and still tipped them well all things considered. We will not be...

After seeing a lot of videos about this place on Social media we visited this place last weekend. The ambience of this place is really nice but there was some funny smell in the restaurant.

We ordered Verde Cutlets,Kulcha Chalupa Tacos(Veg),Tikka chance on me and Gelato Kulfi with Mango Falooda.

The Verde Cutlets were recommended by the server and were good with hummus. The other sauce tasted funny. The quantity of the cutlets for the price was less.

Kulcha Chalupa Tacos with Pindi Chole stuffing : The Pindi Chole gravy was undercooked and not seasoned well. The fresh veggies on the tacos added a crunch but couldn't add taste to the undercooked chole.

Tikka Chance on me: This was one of the flop dishes that we ordered. The bruschetta was very soggy and paneer+cheese was not seasoned well. It didn't come with any pesto nor did it have any jalapenos. A very bland,soggy dish and difficult to eat. The server was kind enough to get us some mint chutney and tamarind chutney which was good and we could eat the dish.

After eating the above mentioned appetizers,I was in fix that their main course would be not that impressive so we ordered dessert,Gelato Kulfi with Mango Falooda. The kulfi was old,hard and nuts in it had some weird taste. We struggled to take a scoop of it as it was like ice. It was definitely not a Mango Falooda gravy as you can see in the pic,there were no vermicelli or nuts in the Falooda. It was simple sweetened canned Kesar Mango Puree with some red syrup. Really terrible. We asked the server about the dessert,that it was not as they had described in the menu and they asked us to choose another dessert and waived the cost of the present one. We didn't choose any other dessert because by that time we were highly disappointed and just wanted to leave.

Overall it is a restaurant with a good ambience but definitely no good food. We drove about 35miles one way for this dinner and realized that it was a waste of time and effort. The hotel staff were extremely well behaved, accommodating and soft spoken. But there is no match for their high prices of food and the taste of food. They should try improving the taste of their dishes and make it a...