New Delhi Diamond's — Restaurant in City of Ithaca

This is a well-appointed and pleasant restaurant. The window booths are lovely. The staff are polite and do their best to serve, even when busy.

We went to have dinner at around 6pm on a Saturday and it was a full restaurant. Some potential customers were told to come back in 20mins. It took about 10mins for us to be seated and have menus. We then waited another 10min to order. At ordering we asked and were told that almost none of the apetizers were made in house (we asked because had just seen a big 'frozen Indian food' truck leaving from the street). So, we ordered curries and nan. After ordering, the food came about 20min later. So it wasn't until around 7pm that we had food.

Unfortunately, the food was not what we asked for in terms of spice level. The curries' tastes were okay/average but we wanted the spice level requested. We asked for as hot as possible for the lamb and medium for the chicken, but found the 'hot' one mild and the 'medium' one sweet. We asked for this to be corrected and the curries were taken back to the kitchen. In the meantime we snacked on the garlic nan, which was a bit dry and flaky, but okay/average. We also tried a bit of the jasmine rice, which was nice and fluffy.

They brought the curries back 5min later and the 'hot' one had become intolerably salty and the 'medium' one was mild. We asked for chilli on the side to at least raise the spice level. They brought us a small dish with dried chilli powder. We were hungry enough at this point to at least try a bit of the meat. While the lamb itself was a bit tough the taste was okay (though the sauce still way too salty), the chicken had obviously been frozen and was tough.

At this point we had lost our appetite and even felt a bit sick. We asked to speak with a manager. They were very polite and asked us what was wrong. We explained the experience and they immediately offered to refund the entire meal. We offered to pay at least for the nan but they refused.

Overall, I do not recommend...

After our tiring and fun walk in the Cascadilla gorges trail, we decided to eat an Indian buffet lunch here. We arrived at a busy time as a family of eight. So we could not sit together as we would have liked and we did not feel particularly welcome there.

Once we seated ourselves we started exploring the food, I should say all the curries were undoubtedly tasty, Dal makhani or Baingan. Bhajia was great too. The naan basket was being filled extremely slow not sure what caused the delay. There were so many customers waiting for naans.

Typically Indian restaurants have great desserts and at least a couple of them. Here it was just Kheer and it was the worst kheer I ever tasted. It felt as if rice was cooked separately and cold milk poured over it. Thoroughly disappointing kheer! They were very slow in filling up water in glasses and picking up used plates. We had to find them and request them to do so. The hosts and waitresses did not care to ask how the food is or if we need any drinks or explain why there was an outrageous delay in making naan/ bread. However they were happily chatting away with a few other patrons and even enquiring about their family etc. particularly at a table right next to ours. Selective attention and preferential treatment was evident (I don’t want to speculate the rationale).

At the end of it, I stood in line so I can pay and leave. I said we were a family of eight including two kids, so she can calculate the total. The lady said she will not charge for kids, to my surprise. I enquired why, but I was not given a reason. To be totally honest, I would rather be properly charged and treated/ served well. If I wanted to save money I would have chosen fast food, I came here craving for good food and...

Service was an abomination!! It was almost like deliberate one blow after another.

Me and my girlfriend entered around 8:20 to 8:25 and left at 9:16 We could have been told no, we are closing, but we were asked to sit anywhere.

We ordered.

Veg Pakora came first. It was nice. We were waiting for the next thing to arrive, which was Shahi Paneer and Garlic Naan.

Instead of giving food, dessert was put on our table first.The dinner arrived after dessert (first tiny bit shock).

Shahi Paneer was on-point, garlic naan was mid!

While we were eating they turned off the music in the restaurant, and also turned down the lights. (Second shock)

At around 9 I asked if I can have another Garlic Naan, I was told no with an attitude it started to feel like I should not be in the restaurant at all(Third shock)

While eating, the waitress came to the table and put the card machine to pay!!! While we were still eating!! (Fourth shock)

We got so surprised about this and we were disappointed with how we were being treated, we were just contemplating if she (the waitress) was deliberately doing this or was this by mistake. But as you can read ine after another things were happening.

Then the last blow came which made it very clear that she was deliberately being mean and terrible towards us.

Final blow- we paid, we got up. While I was just wearing my jacket looking, I was sitting right next closest to a gate and just looking at this exit. She went ahead and locked it. If she could have waited 25 seconds we would have been out. But she chose to lock it.

It was almost like they felt like they let us in and did us a favour by letting us eat!!

I wish I could tip...