Ananda — Restaurant in Maryland

1900, 24MAY2024: Worst Service Period. Let's clear the air, we are a diverse group, so was this prejudice or bias? You decide. Have ate at Ananda a dozen times, always spending $200-400 on carry out or dine-in, always tip 25-30%. Was a long-time Royal Taj patron, but switched to Ananda, which proved to be a horrible mistake. Walk in before a group of five. We are a group of four. Get seated first. Group of five gets drinks, gets orders taken, and gets appetizers before we get our drinks. Drinks run out, must flag down Manager for re-fills. Group who sat down after us has dinner before we order dinner. Must flag down to get order in. Must flag down manager for appetizer plates to be cleared. Food comes, naans missing. Have to flag down server to re-order naans, which in itself takes 10mins. Nanns arrive after meal. Server stops by, for the first time of the evening, after three of the four members are done eating to ask how the food is. Did not check once throughout the night. Hours before, server read back order and naan was listed on server's scratch pad. Talk to Manager, he claims an accident forced all patrons to arrive at once and we ordered naan after food came. Not sure how this translates to groups arriving after us and having plates cleared, drinks re-filled, and food delivered while we sat with no interaction without physically flagging someone down? Manager agrees to make bill right: manager removes the one naan and gives two glasses of champagne on the house. I did not want to tip, service/prejudice deserved zero tip. Our party tipped far too much. This was a celebration evening and the service/prejudice made the evening horrendous. I once had a ‘bad night’ at the Prime Rib in Baltimore City and without me saying anything, Manager comped the entire check ($750). The comp here was a joke/non existent for the horrendous experience and obvious prejudice we endured. Will not return, will no longer recommend. Back to Royal Taj, which adds 10mins each way, but service is always top notch and I never-once had to have a teachable moment with the Manager, ever. Pretty tired of prejudicial people, so tah-tah, Ananda. You were fun while you lasted, but imitation upscale Indian just...

The food at Ananda is as extraordinary as the setting! The service is pleasant, but could be a little more attentive given that everything else here is high end, including the expense.

If you've been on Maple Lawn Boulevard, you've probably passed this large single story building without imagining that it is a beautiful fine, upscale Indian restaurant! The bar that greets you when you walk in is well stocked and as handsome as the rest of the interior, but we chose to eat on the veranda, which is in classic high end style as in India, and surrounded by a lush landscape that (thankfully) blocks any view of the uninteresting surrounding area.

The paneer special appetizer featured great paneer, but the butter chicken-like sauce was good but uninteresting, so next time we'll try their palak paneer, or the Cilantro Lime Grilled Paneer. On the other hand, we'll probably have the incredible Tamil Tuna that we had every time that we return. The beautiful cubes of sashimi grade tuna belly surrounded by mint, mango, and avocado with a tamarind reduction and toasted sesame seeds is a perfect small plate that can be easily shared with a couple of people, but you won't want to.

Ananda has an excellent selection of breads. The Keema Naan, which is stuffed with ground lamb, is authentic and delicious, and the garlic naan that accompanied Crab Malabar was as light, fresh, and moist as it was toothsome and tasty. The Crab Malabar itself is lightly seasoned au point individual pieces of lump crab with Vidalia onion, lime, and kernels of Sweet corn. Fantastic!

Such an amazing experience wouldn't have been complete without the excellent challah bread pudding served with cardamom creme fraiche and roasted bananas that we shared, and the espresso that I had, and the chai that Crystal had, were perfect with it.

Go for drinks, stay for dinner and dessert, we're looking forward to returning...

Just left a really disappointing late dinner at Amanda. I used to come fairly frequently pre-pandemic and previously had good experiences, but tonight was bad. We had a party of 8 in the back room (with a few other tables back there occupied as well). Drinks were ordered, put in our apps/entrees and got to chatting. Server doesn't come back after that and eventually we realize how long it had been and how hungry we are. Someone goes to track our server down, and a woman who I am assuming is the manager comes over and apologizes and says they are firing everything right now, it seems the ticket was never put in. She offers us a complimentary bottle of prosecco, which between 8 people is half a glass each. We get our food well over an hour after the order was placed. Because everything was fired so quickly, the batter on my friend's cauliflower was not fully cooked but she didn't want to wait for something else. I got the chicken jalfrezzi, which was okay but I've had better from much less expensive takeout restaurants. We wait for a long time after entrees, I have to go in the other room to track down our server to order desserts (if they can be brought out quickly). Glasses from drinks we had finished were never cleared, the manager never came back over to see how the rest of dinner panned out. We were charged for things we did not order and had to find the server again to have the check corrected, then split it up ourselves. I honestly can't remember the last time I had service that bad, especially at a restaurant where they really upcharge for the atmosphere and service. Mistakes happen but this was a comedy if errors and I don't plan to be back any time soon, sad that it's a place I really used to like. Luckily the company I was with was great or it would have been a very long and unpleasant evening - we joked that we were the table that...