CholaNad Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Chapel Hill

I was thrilled to have my birthday lunch at CholaNad... Being South Indian, I crave the flavors from my childhood and was looking forward to lunch. Well, we walked into the restaurant and waited around for a couple of minutes hoping to find a greeter and be seated. When we finally veered around the corner, we found a gentleman who was clearly uninterested and was ensconced in his cell phone.

After being seated, we were given menus. I expected a better standard of hygiene in this so-called high-end fine-dining restaurant where the average cost of an entre is $22-$25.. I would appreciate menus that don't have curry fingerprints all over them... and tablecloths which were begging to be stain-treated. Maybe it all works okay in their mood-lit dinner service, but in the bright afternoon sunlit room, the stained table cloth and fingerprint-laden menus made me cringe.

Our waiter seemed kinda peeved that we had come in and wasn't particularly genial. Our side dish of tomato pulao came in a bowl with some rice spilling out and looking "half-eaten"... totally a turn off. Not exactly high-end by any stretch of imagination.

Then the second dish came in, staggered.. and then the third a few minutes later and finally after a good 15 minutes after the third came the fourth dish... You would think that a table of four people would get their dishes served at the same time... it was off-putting that we all got our dishes staggered... not exactly ideal for the last person waiting on their dish staring at the others chow down their lunches to prevent the food from getting cold.

The only saving grace was that the food was good, but the service and the overall cleanliness of the restaurant left a LOT to be desired. I doubt I would ever go back considering the plethora of other delicious, reasonably-priced Indian restaurants in the area, who are eager to please and retain their clientele.

Why area, I would just go down Franklin Street to Vimalas or Mint and eat an equally good meal in a more inviting ambiance. In retrospect, my decision to go to CholaNad for my birthday lunch wasn't the best experience. I really hope they pick...

For y’all who don’t want to read, here’s a short take: Poor service, dispassionate management, egoistic kitchen, and the food, though good, not good enough to make up for the rest!

We called for a reservation between 9.15 & 9.30 pm. The hostess put us down for 9.30 and said they would accommodate 15 minutes +/-. Upon arriving at 9.15, the hostess told us we’d arrived 30 mins too early and she will have to check on our table. We were seated in a corner table, soon after this, when it seemed other tables were available. The table was unbalanced and was a mild annoyance, but we were willing to overlook it because we were excited about dinner. It took our waitress a while to realize we were seated and waiting to place our orders. We tried the fried fish, which despite showing up late was excellent in taste. We had to wait a good 20 minutes after the appetizer, before we even saw our entrees.

When the entrees finally arrived, my wife got the Madurai curry dosa which is supposed to be “inner coated with egg and curried lamb”. What we were served was inner coated with egg. The lamb was absent, other than for two small pieces, which were not over a teaspoon collectively. Also, it was supposed to be curried lamb, but we didn’t taste any seasoning. Upon bringing it to the notice of the manager, he seemed unsurprised at the problem and mentioned that it was a regular quantity of lamb served on the item. He offered to serve lamb meat on side. Upon hearing that, my wife politely declined, and said if that’s the best they could do with the dosa, she was fine with it. The manager then offered to “talk to the chef” and returned about 15 minutes later with a sample dosa with only lamb meat and offered to replace her plate if she liked it. By then, we had lost our appetite; I finished my entree, the ethnic mutton curry(which surpassed our expectations in a good way). We paid (including the dosa) and left, much in anguish....

We have been to fine dining (Mark’s, PWB, undercurrent in the Triad) , this...

Huge disappointment ! 4 stars is totally misleading for this restaurant. The food was really bad. We ordered poori kizhangu. The poori was made probably in the morning or the day before. Poori is always made fresh upon order. The fish kuzhambu was frozen gravy which was probably weeks old reheated and served. Was horrible and we had to waste it. We ordered Madurai curry dosa. This one also seemed like it was a premade item that was served. Total disappointment!! There was only one waiter who was managing the 4 or 5 tables that weee occupied. His service was good but otherwise everything else was a huge disappointment and we are not returning.

Edit: the owner's response clearly shows their attitude towards their business and customers. When a consumer takes the effort to go and provide feedback either the experience was too good or too bad. In this case it was too bad.

Edit2: word on the street - "Don't go to cholanad, it was good a while ago but has deteriorated a lot these days." This is what we literally heard from our friends but we thought hey it still has 4.1 stars on google, can't be that bad and we were in the area that day, so we tried this place. I can't comment how it was before but food quality is bad now. Instead of looking inwards and asking whether on the particular day the review was posted, did their kitchen really serve fresh poori (I wish I had taken a pic and posted), the owner is arguing with the customer. I really have no vested interest in this review. More good restaurants, more options. Spend more time fixing your problems instead of arguing with customers who give feedback - only 5 full tables on a Saturday afternoon and only one waiter managing the entire place is proof of what this place has become. If you went to other South Indian restaurants in west Cary on Saturday afternoon the place is full and you will...