Indian Bistro — Restaurant in Clearwater

So my husband and I have been here twice and they were both bad experiences. I'm almost tempted to give them 2 stars because whenever we've ordered there from uber eats the food is actually good, but the experiences we've had eating there in person have been down right terrible.

Both times we were there the food was so bad my (Indian) husband refused to eat it. The first time we figured it was just the pandemic (the first time we tried it was in summer 2020 as we lived right around the corner at the time). Then my husband ordered from uber eats and the food was actually decent. Not great but decent, so we decided to try and go in person again a few months ago. We figured maybe ownership had changed. Boy were we wrong...

The service was okay, they literally had one waitress who was also playing hostess for the whole restaurant. When we first got there they weren't too busy so it didn't matter but apparently a huge party of like 20 people had reservations which they clearly didn't plan well. We ordered appetizers and managed to get our dinner orders in before the big party. The appetizers were okay. The somosa's were actually pretty good. the rest was meh. Then dinner came. My husband ordered Paneer tikka masala and I got something else, I honestly can't remember, but what I do remember is their version of tikka masala was....awful. Like it didn't even smell right to me. We brought it up to the waitress and even though she was NOT indian and my husband is she literally argued with him. "well the chef is indian and he knows what he's doing" Ma'am clearly he does not. I don't know if she brought out the wrong dish or what but we did not get what we ordered for our mains. My husband tried my food and he was like yeah that's not right either. It was just...odd. Like if you screwed up admit you screwed up but, damn.

The kicker is something very similar happened the last time we were there in person, only that time we didn't make as big of deal out of it because...pandemic. But this time? 2+ years later and they still can't get it right? Yeah we're giving up on them. If you're still reading and want good authentic indian food just down the road on 19 is an AMAZING indian place called little India. EAT THERE NOT HERE.

TLDR: this place gave us terrible service and absolutely poorly made food twice. Don't go here.

Oh and the second time they...

Overall, the dishes are too hot, and they don’t seem to have any mild options that make any sense as “mild.“ The owners seem to think everything needs to be prepared only one way – to their own taste, and not to the general taste of the public. Not the best business sense. I couldn’t even enjoy the samosa because my mouth couldn’t find any flavor after it had been too completely scorched. Terrible recent experience with delivery: This strange business (pay attention – the location is under all kinds of different names online) substituted something I didn’t order with my DoorDash order, and then tried to gaslight the heck out of me by telling me I was crazy and that they never listed it on their menu, never had had it, etc., until I offered to produce pictures of the receipts, their menu, AND my order. All of a sudden, the guy started repeating the menu item over and over like he was “searching.“ 🙄 as If he really didn’t know what was on the menu all along— trying to stall forever to “verify“ everything I was saying. After his silly act had played itself out, he finally admitted that I was right, and that he would have “the manager“ (there was no other ‘manager’ on duty) get back with me. As I completely suspected, he had no intention of ever getting back with me, but just hoped that he could pocket the money and that his act would blow over. I had to contact DoorDash myself, but they never refund you. They only offer – not even with the decency of a personal call or contact, but through their website– an even exchange in DoorDash bucks, forcing you to keep doing business with them and giving them more money.

Perhaps the owner (commenting below ) will recognize the address on my receipt? ONE honest admission, accompanied by the simple decency of an apology, would go so much further than this protracted gaslight-and-scam...

Update for April 2023:. Unfortuntiely the coconut soup was discontinued, but that's okay. All the other staples of the menu are still available.

Ignore the price on the menu as they are understated substantially. So just be warned to expect the bill to be 20 to 30 percent higher than planned depending on what you order.

Also, I have see portion size and quality of the food be inconsistent. Tandoori chicken was not as flavorful and the sauces (saag and the korma) not as bold as before.

Today was nowhere as good as a month ago which was nowhere as good as 3 months ago. They do push out a large volume of delivery compare to eat-in now from what I observed. And I seen high volumes of delivery cause quality to suffer at other places as well over time. Not a positive trend.

Overall it's now just okay. On par with other Indian in Pinellas County, which overall is not great. Stars drop down to 3 from 4 unfortunately.

Original Review: So happy this place is open later than other Indian Restaurants. This will draw me in more often since I'm a late eater. Also the food is flavorful overall. The environment is casual. The service is good. The coconut soup is absolutely wonderful. Great texture and flavor both for the soup. Give it a try and it might become one of your favorite soups. The tandoori chicken is some of the best I have had in a long time. The chicken was tender and the flavor profile perfect. I'll surely be grabbing an order of this chicken again. The Lamb Rogan Josh was good, although won't be one of my favorites. The Chili Chicken was good and spot on what I expected. Looking forward to trying some other...