Desi Dhaba / Kebab Bar & Grill - LEANDER TX — Restaurant in Leander

UPDATED RESPONSE: We ordered saag, dal fry, 2 orders of basmati rice, 2 orders of butter chicken, 3 paratha, and 3 naan for dinner which we never got. Denise came to review our receipt of our order to check what we received, we told her we only got the apps and she stated that she wanted to confirm so “we don’t get a part of someone else’s order”. If you wanna tell the full story please be honest. Yes we had beers, BYOB, there is no sign at your location that this is not the case. We got apps which I noted in the review above. We tried to pay at the end with Denise and Ali before leaving, neither of you gave us the time of the day. Still we felt bad and wanted to pay for apps however you stated “it’s on house”. We didn’t “eat for free”, when your customers offer to pay and you don’t genuinely want it to “be on the house” then maybe take the payment. Although it doesn’t seem like my experience was that different from multiple customers on yelp.

We went for a family dinner. Upon arriving, we got in line to place our order and we were told to sit at a table and the host would come take our order since we were dining there. She didn’t come for about 30mins. We then ordered our food. We got 3 apps about 30mins later. Our samosas came out frozen, we notified them and they remade a second batch which came out frozen on the inside as well. The 3 chicken apps we tried were okay., nothing mind blowing. We ordered dinner 10mins after ordering our apps because we realized the service was slow, after waiting another 1 hour we asked for an update, we’re told it will be out in 2 mins. After another 15mins, we asked for another update, we were told 2-3 minutes. We waited another 10mins and realized they never started to make our order. We told them to cancel our order which there was confusion as to what order.

We basically sat for over 2.5 hrs and didn’t even end up with...

We (family of white peeps) ordered several different dishes, the sauces were all delicious, but we likely won’t be back for several reasons. There’s no “Order here” signage, so you have to rely on a guy pointing at one of the trailers for where the menus and the lady taking orders are. Then seat yourself on the cots pulled up to plastic picnic tables.

Just be aware: The menu had no indication of spice levels, and several translation issues - saying things like “pickles” instead of “peppers”, and calling something “very cheesy” when it’s ground up paneer inside the kebab meatball style, not the stringy-cheesy you might be expecting. Water bottles were brought over while we waited, which was great!

Our food was set down by a lady who greeted us in Spanish and didn’t tell us what she was setting down, only that they were hot. We had no idea the dishes wouldn’t come with rice, or that it would all be chopped up bits of bones with pieces of meat adhered to it, so that was irritating to try and eat with a plastic fork. Because the knuckley bones made it impossible to eat with cutlery, I had to get my hands all up in there which would’ve been fine if I didn’t have my long hair whipping into my face (and mouth) because I didn’t go there expecting to be eating with my hands.

So if you go, heads up about the confusing order process, lack of signage, cot seating, no shade, chunks of bones and meat bits, and rice sold separately. Otherwise it was like I said, delicious. Great flavor, not great...

Visited this weekend. A must-go place for kabab lovers who enjoy outdoor sitting.

Superb ambience. Very upbeat and fun with lights all around. There's a little play area for small children. They have multiple TVs and the big heavy duty "wall mounted" fans all around so even on a hot August night, it felt good enough to sit out. The entire atmosphere has a desi vibe to it which makes this place unique.

Service: There is one gentleman who knows literally everything and he's constantly running around making sure everything is running smooth. If you're struggling with anything, he's either watching you - ready to help or just make eye contact him and he's there to help. Not thrilled by the rest of the staff but this guy makes up for all of them.

Food: *Samosas, 2/10. = They were not fresh, peas turned hard like brittle. *Chicken Soup =2/10. The flavor was more of a bland curry like with about 2-3 small pieces of chicken. I love soups and this was a total disappointment. *Garlic naan: 9/10. Very fresh and tasted like homemade. *Kababs: 9/10. We tried the lamb boti, chicken malai kabab and chapeli kabab. All were extremely flavorful and tender. They took a while to bring these out and it makes why! Loved all the kababs. These came with Rotis that we weren't thrilled about. But the garlic naans we ordered on the side were very good. *Chutneys & Raita - 9/10.

We're going back for the overall experience and especially for the kababs. I hope they will improve...