Bricklane Curry House, Jersey City, NJ. — Restaurant in Jersey City

UPDATE TO OWNER RESPONSE: I messaged them at that email, will update if the manager responds.

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First time in my life waiting almost TWO WHOLE HOURS for food.

GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!!!!!

I almost never complain (I leave good honest reviews all the time—check Yelp) but omg… this place almost ruined our valentine’s/anniversary.

Food was good but it was not worth 2 hours of waiting good.

TIMELINE:

Our reservation was at 7:30, we got there 7:45 and didn’t get seated until 8:00. That’s fine. However, they put us in a corner right by the door (freezing cold every time someone walks in) and left us by ourselves for 30 minutes. No one came to check in on us, we didn’t even get water cups for our water.

After finally ordering at 8:30, we proceed to spend the next HOUR waiting—neither of our 2 appetizers came, our drinks didn’t come, and no one came to check in on us.

One hour came and went.

It’s 10PM and our curry finally arrives. At that point, we’re so hungry we just devour it. We save space for our appetizers (which hasn’t come yet), guess what—they never put our order in! (See Server Section) We sit around, twiddling our thumbs. 10:30PM. Nothing. 11:00PM. Alright, let’s just get our checks and leave.

MANAGEMENT 0/5

The restaurant was fully booked since it was valentine’s day and they couldn’t even take walk-in’s. It’s totally understandable that a business is busy and unable to accommodate stuff like that but it is also up to management to properly staff their restaurant to anticipate large crowds ESPECIALLY when reservations were made ahead of time. They should have a good understanding of how many guests will be dining that night and take the proper steps to fully staff their restaurant.

SERVER 3/5

This is not on the servers, I understand they were busy and it’s hard for them to check up all the time. They were apologetic and gave us a dessert of gulab jamun (which was way too sweet).

HOWEVER, the waitress took down my order by memory and I was skeptical to this since there were quite a few things but my boyfriend assured me that this was the way they did it in India. Guess what?

Ended up forgetting to write down one of my dishes—another dish never even came.

And the kicker, we had to FLAG people down by poking our heads out of our little crawl space ANY TIME we needed service, it felt barbaric.

I understand the servers are probably overwhelmed but there’s a lot that can be improved on all around the table. This was really not good.

FOOD 4/5

It was good food, I will give that to them. The other food probably would’ve been good too if we got the...

Hi. I had the strangest experience tonight at Brick Lane. I didn’t really mind because I was with great friends, and the food was so good. But we all had the feeling we just were not welcome. The service was so remarkably bad that it seemed like a front. The restaurant had 6 tables filled when we arrived about 6:30 and was at least half full when we left around 8:30. It was July 3rd - probably a pretty slow night, but they had at least 5 staff people milling around. I didn’t see if maybe there was some kind of calamity in the front of the restaurant, which is divided btwn front and back. We were in the back. No one took our order. Then when we ordered we didnt get a comical amount of things we’d ordered. When I asked for one of them our server rolled his eyes. No one filled our water. No one cleared the table. Then suddenly the waiter came and dumped the check. We still hadn’t gotten things we’d ordered or the dessert menu (we were planning on dessert).He rolled his eyes again when we asked for takeout boxes. He brought three tiny boxes although we had piles of food left. I just asked for one more little box for my beautiful friend Valerie, and the guy was appalled. It was as though he was certain I was collecting garbage to throw in the ocean. Or maybe he was intimidated by Valerie’s beauty. The one person who we were able to flag down once for water seemed very nice and was maybe a bartender/bus person. I’m now wondering as I think this through if maybe they were training new staff tonight? Or maybe there was a staff bday party going on in the front room?

There were three of us. We had drinks and appetizers and main meals - so it wasn’t that we were all sharing one soup. We didn’t smell or wear anything offensive. It really was a mystery, but we will be going back - probably to a different location. I think there are three Brick Lanes. The food is tremendous, and each item had its own array of amazing, fragrant spices. The tandoori chicken cuts with a fork.

We forgot to check to see if we were charged for the things we didn’t get. There didn’t appear to be a language or hearing barrier, but maybe there was. Maybe things didn’t make it onto the check. We were so happy and friendly but not loud or rude. Maybe we were inadvertently offensive? There is so much not to be happy about these days. I spent most of yesterday stricken by 3 unrelated tragic deaths. Maybe it’s gotten to the point that just happily chatting at a restaurant is offensive. Also, I’m gf, but I didn’t even mention it to the server so...

I've wanted to go to Brick Lane for 20 years, since they opened their NYC location. I've read about their Phaal and have seen shows where this dish was featured as the spiciest curry anyone's ever eaten. I've tried Phaal at restaurants in Canada and at Indian restaurants that claimed that they could duplicate it, but nope. The Phaal at Brick Lane was indeed the spiciest. They have a Phaal Challenge where if you can consume the entire dish under 30 minutes, you're featured in their P’Hall of Fame. I'm the lightest and slowest eater and have never finished any dish, never mind under 30 minutes, so I opted to forego the challenge and just ordered the dish to be enjoyed at my pace.

The spice level did not disappoint. It tasted like Dave's Insanity Sauce or capsaicin was used, in addition to the variety of chili peppers. My fellow diners tasted some of mine and two were immediately incapacitated by this innocuous looking dish. My son, who grew up eating extremely spicy food thought the Phaal made his extra spicy Vindaloo taste bland. Per the server, the chef wears a gas mask while preparing this dish to prevent inhalation of the noxious fumes. The plain and garlic Naan were great accompaniments to dull the pain.

The Gymkhana Style Tomato Soup was noteworthy. It tasted like it might have coconut milk in it. My fellow diners quite enjoyed their Mango Lassi after trying the Phaal. The Vindaloo and Biryani were also excellent. I don't eat lamb, so I did not try the Lamb Shank Roganjosh, although our friend said it was also excellent.

Will definitely go back to this restaurant. Might not order the Phaal again, so that I can try some of their other dishes, but then again, the spiciness of the Phaal is kinda...