RaagOn50th — Restaurant in Minneapolis

Edit: The owner is definitely a good businessman who has asked local Indian community to give favourable reviews. Maybe he gives them discount to eat here. Because even if he paid me I would not eat here. Problem is not fusion food, problem is bad food, the diarrhea I got after eating it, the bad service, and bad quality of food. Its definitely not worth the standard they claim and definitely over priced. You are better off going to Central Downtown and finding another Indian place. Because this food is not Indian food. American-Indo food at best. Indian food does not have to be greasy. People sell it like that to make business. Anyone who claims so obviously has no idea what Indian food is. Pani puri is sold throughout India and what they sell is absolutely rubbish. The Biryani is fake (owner claims its derived from Pilaf) and no its not. Pilaf is an amazing food. What they make is oily and tasteless. It has no spices and no taste. People have a misconception that “spicy” means chilli. But it doesnt. Food can be spicy and sweet with no chilli. Spices enhance flavour not smoke it. It is not Awadh Biryani rather an insult to a generation of people making Biryani since 10AD. The tomatillo is supposes to be tangy but it was plain sugar. The food is greasy, the laccha parontha and Biryani is the greasiest I have eaten. If that is what they were avoiding they have already failed. Food has no flavour and is bland. Do not know how they got an award. To be honest the owner’s denial really infuriates me. On top of that they lie to public by making up stories about food that doesn’t exist in Indian cuisine. It is good to be ambitious and make your own cusine but do not misguide people like me who are looking for Indian food not your trial and error food. Advertise your food as fusion food and do not call it Indian food.

Review: We ordered Paani Puri, Lamb Awadh Biryani, Paneer Tomatillo and Dal Malhar. Firstly none of the food is Indian. The Paani Puri is not pani puri. Its just juice with no filings. The price at which it is sold is over priced. 7$ for five flake balls and 10ml of fruit juices. I would give it 1/10 for presentation. Paneer Tomatillo tastes like the chef wanted to make a paneer dish and got confused what he wanted so just threw in sugar. All in all it is a fried panner (unhealthy) without taking the hard work of dipping paneer in sauce for atleast 15 minutes so it softens on the palette. It is the worst paneer I have tasted in my entire life. $20 for this dish was a waste of my money.

The Biryani is what really made me cry. Biryani is a magic dish which is a blend of meat, rice and spices. And this Awadh Biryani has norhing. And I don’t mean the chillies I mean the spices. The whole spices. It had none! Like did they forget it? Its merely rice coloured orange with burnt onions on top which made it bland and bitter. It is just not worth paying $24 for a pack of coloured, tasteless rice. It did not even have salt. The onions were burnt too much and left an after taste. They try to make it fancy by oiling the dough on top. The waiter did not even cut it for me. Like what kind of person would want a burning dough on hand?

We were still hungry so we ordered Dal Malhar and asked her please make it spicy. But the waiter did not seem to understand Indian food or what spices mean. She probably just asked the chef to fill the dal with chillies. It was so hot we couldn’t eat it unless we wanted to die of heart burn. So we decided to leave the food and just go. $16 for this was okay priced. Total bill was $110 which is a total waste of my money. I will never go there.

To conclude, if you are someone who likes bland or sweet food, then yes this is the place for you. You will absolutely love it. It won’t be Indian food but it would be what you like to eat.

If you are like me who likes to eat authentic food then this is not the place for you. This is not Indian food. No matter what owner claims, it isn’t. Just go somewhere else if you are...

I don't often leave reviews and I hope this critique is read and understood in the spirit in which I give it. I recently retired from a 40 plus year career in the service industry, both front and back of the house. I have worked in just about every aspect at one time or another. I give this review with decades of experience behind it.

My date and I arrived and were greeted and sat pretty much immediately. I had heard about Raag from someone and looked at the reviews. The website said fine dining. The decor was very nice, the place is clean the seating appropriate and comfortable. There wasn't a lot of clientele so the crowd noise was low but the music. The music threw me. From hip hop to The Eagles. It was all over the place. Their website said fine dining but the atmosphere didn't. First the music and as we entered the scrolling signage reminiscent of signage at a Kwik Trip. I recommend a change in music, get rid of the sign. It's great if you are running a truck stop. Not fine dining nor progressive. It looked good but a good look only covers one sensation. Atmosphere hits everything. All the senses create an experience.

The menu layout was weird. Nice looking but weird. Again, if you are going to do fine dining do fine dining. No pictures of the new owner and the kids. Get rid of it. Do separate menus for each experience. Brunch, lunch and dinner rolled into one menu isn't the way. Again, great for a truck stop/ joint but not for anything remotely upscale. Get rid of "what people have said about the place" in the menus. You have them. They are already there. You don't need to tell them about what a food critic from the Star Tribune said. Most people don't care. Spell check it as well. Manager is not spelled maneger and chilly is what we get when we leave a sweater at home on a crisp autumn day. The labelling for those of us with dietary restrictions is greatly appreciated. There is a science to menu development and good culinary schools devote entire classes to it for a reason. It is important.

When we were greeted we were asked if we preferred still or sparkling water. My date got chilled and I requested sparkling thinking it would come out in a reusable glass bottle with a glass. I was under the impression water was complementary. It was not. I received a plastic bottle of San Pellegrino and a glass with ice and lime. The glass had some advertisement lettering from what I assume is a vendor and they got the glasses as complementary swag.

We ordered the grilled scallops appetizer. I've never had scallops like this. Cooked all the way through, didn't taste grilled, and were oddly flakey. In my experience with cooking scallops they stay firm, too firm, when over cooked. Down right rubbery. These were flakey and thin. Not large and robust. It leads me to believe that they weren't real scallops but rather Skate or Pollock. Our dinners arrived while we were still "enjoying" our appetizer. My date couldn't eat hers. It was too spicy as in hot to the palate not as in a robust spiced flavor. She stated she couldn't handle spice and the server tried to help. We requested something to take the edge off the heat. It helped a little. We were charged extra for it.

The best part of the experience was our drinks. We each had a nice mocktail. The Mojito was killer. The rest was just so so at best. You would need to make some changes before I'd consider making this a destination that I would go out of my way to go to. You have a lot of...

I made reservations in advance to celebrate a friend's birthday dinner, and unfortunately, our experience left much to be desired. The highlight of our disappointment was the Allahabad Murgh Korma, which was a bad dish. To our surprise, we were told that we couldn't return it and had to pay for it, even though no one at our table wanted to eat it. We were a group of 7.

When we mentioned our dissatisfaction to the owner, we were met with arrogance. The owner went as far as comparing it to an irrelevant dish, which only added to our frustration. We decided to order another entree, as the Allahabad Murgh Korma was simply unacceptable. However, by the time our newly ordered dish arrived, the naan we had ordered earlier had turned cold because we were seated right under multiple AC vents.

We asked the servers to warm up the naan, but two of them claimed it was not possible and insisted we eat it cold. We ended up paying for cold naan and ordered a new batch because who wants to eat cold naan? To make matters worse, the owner went to the chef and bad-mouthed us, leading to the michelin restaurant trained chef giving us bitter looks and smirking.

Although the complimentary birthday dessert looked appealing, it was rock hard and impossible to eat. We tried to let it melt, but it remained inedible. When we asked the server for an explanation, he consulted the chef and informed us that it was the last one for the night, and there was nothing he could do about it. We understood the situation and didn't make a fuss since it was free.

However, what truly marred our experience was the owner's behavior. He kept parading back and forth with clear intentions to leave but then approached our table to create a scene. The owner rudely confronted us about our one-star reviews, claiming that his Michelin restaurant with multiple awards and basically didn't care about our opinions. This arrogant and disrespectful behavior was certainly not in line with Michelin restaurant standards.

As if that weren't enough, we felt that our privacy was invaded when the owner stalked one of my friends and mentioned his boss and company in a threatening response to his review. (I have screenshot to back the statement as the response is now edited by owner). This unprofessional conduct is completely unacceptable and goes against any notion of customer respect.

In the end, the bartender James was the only bright spot in our evening. He inquired about our experience, and we appreciated our server, Adrien I believe, who provided good service. However, our overall experience was tainted by the owner's arrogance, the subpar food, and the mishandling of the dessert situation.

It's disappointing that a Michelin restaurant with a supposed reputation for excellence would fall so short in terms of customer service and overall experience. We left feeling targeted due to our race and opinion, which is unacceptable in any dining establishment. Furthermore, the owner's attempts to manipulate online reviews and invade our privacy only worsened our perception of this establishment.

It's clear that improvements are needed in both the restaurant's food quality and the owner's professionalism. I hope that future guests have a more enjoyable and respectful experience at this...