The Turmeric Kitchen — Restaurant in Kirkland

I have visited this place for a-la-carte dinners in the past and generally found the place to be decent, if somewhat overpriced. I might have rated this place between 3 and 4 stars based on those experiences.

So why the bad rating? I walked in for a lunch buffet over the weekend with my wife. The place was overcrowded with absolutely no management. I put my name down on the waitlist, and instead of waiting in the overcrowded waiting area, we decided to enjoy the sunny day outside. I provided them with my phone number and was told that I will receive a call as soon as a table was available. I never got any calls. When I returned to check after 20 minutes or so, I witnessed people who had just arrived being seated ahead of us. When I finally found the lady who had taken down my name for the waitlist, she directed us to an empty table. As we were walking towards it, we were intercepted by another lady who, quite rudely, told us to go back to the waiting area. Fortunately, the first lady saw this exchange and cleared up the confusion and we finally had a seat.

This was just the beginning though. They kept running out of plates every few minutes so people had to wait forever to get anything or reuse their plates. The food was mediocre at best - at least on the vegetarian side - and they kept running out of a couple of dishes which were somewhat decent. To top it all, we did not get so much as cutlery or water at our table. When I tried to draw the attention of a server, who incidentally was busy chatting with customers on the adjacent table, I was rudely told to wait as she had to serve other customers ahead of us. To be clear, I never asked to be served immediately. I was merely trying to draw attention to the lack of cutlery at our table - once she was done with her conversation. But the server didn't so much as acknowledge my request before interrupting me rudely and walking away.

As if all this was not bad enough, we did not get any water until almost the very end of our meal, despite asking multiple times.

We were not the only ones. Multiple people were complaining about similar issues. A family who claimed to have a confirmed reservation a week in advance were told that the restaurant was not taking any reservations for the day.

While some of this can be blamed on the restaurant being overcrowded - perhaps unexpectedly so - but there is absolutely no excuse for the unapologetic, confrontational and rude tones being used all over the place

I wouldn't have recommended the buffet on the basis of food alone, but the mismanagement and rudeness makes it an absolute no go to me. It may be worth a visit at other times for their a-la carte offerings - although those are way overpriced for the quality and quantity of food on offer - but the buffet is an absolute no go.

By the way, I couldn't find any mention of the buffet on their website. You have to visit their Facebook page to find out about it - a fact that is not mentioned anywhere on the website.

Recommendation: Avoid the buffet at all costs - a la carte may be acceptable as long as you are fine with the massively...

I am a food lover and I make Biriyani at home regularly. We go to restaurants 3-4 times in a month. I came this restaurant twice. These are my honest review and comments to make further improvement.

1. We ordered Biriyani twice (Mutton and Chicken). It seems that both the items were NOT fresh. The best way to identify stale food is potato in Biriyani. It will not be so soft, if you keep the Biriyani in freeze and take out and boiled and serve.

Pros: a) Good part is that they made the Biriyani in huge quantity with authentic process, (NOT like instantly to prepare it turns into fried rice!!!). The favor and taste were not BAD (I would not say GOOD) and it will give you some sort of Kolkata style Biriyani feelings (We cannot expect the same taste as there are a lot of limitations like finding fresh meat is the most important).

b) Quantity is GOOD c) price is moderate.

Cons: a) Quantity of Mutton is not enough. They served 3 small pieces of mutton. What they need to make the peace bigger (at least (75-125g). They can serve 1 (if it is 125-150gm) or 2 (if it is 75-100) gm.

How to Improve: i) Order fresh mutton. There are a few farms who can deliver fresh mutton. I buy fresh mutton for home cook from a farm. Use that fresh mutton for a single Biriyani cook; do not keep it for the next day. So, order accordingly so that you can ....

ii) Keep the Biriyani item only for the weekend not all days. And be sure to sold out when you prepare. After a few months you will have a sense how much to prepare. The point is here, DO NOT serve stale food; it will cost your reputation.

I will give 1/5 for Biriyani (if I compare with Kolkata standard). I will give 2.5(If I compare with existing restaurant in Seattle area). To understand this ratting, let me compare with Naan N Curry, another restaurant (although their preparation process for the Biriyani is different, but we can compare the taste and flavor). I will give 3/5 for Naan N Curry (Renton) comparing with Kolkata (for example Aminia/Arsenal) and 5/5 comparing to Seattle area.

Chicken Chap: The worst food I would say I ever tested as "Chicken Chap". I made chicken chap 10 times at home with different flavor and taste. But here I did not understand what I ate!! Is it "Chicken Chap" or something else? Honestly, there is no iota of so called "chicken chap" taste!! It neither has chicken roast taste!! It was a curry (with NO taste!) which contains chicken. I will give 0/5 for this food, because it was chap at all for taste.

Kalmi Kabab: This is another example of the worst food. There is not so called "Kabab" taste here. We just ate some roosted chicken with some BAD masala!!! They should not keep this kabab price $17.99; it is not worthful. I will give 1/5 for this food

Good Part: We have enjoyed the fries the most. The "Mochar chop" was Awesome!! The fish fry was GOOD. I will give 5/5 for mochar chap. 4/5 for fish fry (second time it was not as better than...

We went for lunch - In short words: Great service, Nice ambience, OK food

Service: was super nice, the lady (forgot to ask her name) was very patient and nice to explain the dishes, what it's made of etc.. and she kept checking on us etc..

Food: we ordered Dim'er devil, Kolkata chicken biriyani, Machar something(forgot entire name), gobi manchurian

Dim'er devil: The best I liked is this - very very flavorful snack! (something i would consider for a next time buy again)

Kolkata chicken Biryani: was next - a standard north style biryani, nice fluffy rice, with a sweeter note (than spice). It was nice, had some nice flavor to it (much better and authentic than some of the (north) Indian restaurants out there)

Machar in banana leaf: The lady said, it's good but Bengali style (i think she was trying to warn me - but I wanted to try local cuisine). So, if u are into intense mustard and turmeric taste buds, then you may like it. Personally, I felt the mustard overpowered the actual dish(fish - the fish had 0 flavor of a fish btw) - so it was just OK for me. I wouldn't buy it next time (coz I only get mustard taste in my mouth). But if that is what is the authentic Bengali flavour, then it's one of their best made.

Gobi Manchurian: So, this would be debatable. If you are someone who like the street based gobi manchurian (i.e. the one with thick vinegar based (sweet and sour) sauce, then you may like this. I preferred/expected more of an indo-chinese gobi manchurian (i.e. less vinegar based, but soy/sweet/sour/garlic mix if sauces), so not in my next time list.

Overall food was OK, and/but portions were less (except biryani - decent portion) - from the dishes I bought, I would rate 3.75/5. But am waiting for buffet to reopen to try out more and see where it...