Kismat — Restaurant in New York

First I have to say that I don't like giving restaurants bad reviews. But after eating at Kismat Restaurant 3 times in the past couple of years I feel I have to tell it like it is. Each time I have gone there I have hoped that the food would get better. Unfortunately in my experience it has not.

I love and have been eating a wide variety of Indian food for years having lived in S. London and now working near Curry Hill - so I have eaten a fair bit of S. Asian food from a variety of regions so I know what is reasonably good and what is not. My experience with Kismat each time has been disappointing. Every time I have walked out thinking why did I waste my money here on extremely mediocre and barely indistinguishable food. The good things about this place - the decor and service and the onion naan - for that, I gave it one star. Last night my girlfriend and I ordered a mango lassi which which was a glass of some sort of mango tasting syrup in either watered down yogurt or milk with little bits of mango. Our shrimp curry was small overcooked shrimp in some sort of brown bland sauce. The mixed vegetable Du Piazi - Jalfrazie also in some sort of bland brown sauce was barely indistinguishable from the sauce of the shrimp curry. The saffron rice had a really bad after taste (not from the little or any saffron that might of been in it). One bright note was the onion naan which was very good.

It is such a shame that this place serves such bland mediocre food. It could easily be better without much effort. I guess because they are the only game in a neighborhood with few good restaurants, they can get away with it. If you want to try some very good Indian food at similar prices in Manhattan, get on the subway and head downtown to 27th & Lexington where you will find much better fare. A number of Indian restaurants have recently opened in Harlem (which I haven't tried yet) so that might be a better option. I doubt they can...

Day of visit - July 8, '23 - Around noon.

Never had SWEET SUGARY Samosas in my life and SUGARY SWEET Chicken Biryani as a native Indian man.

This is what I received when I ordered a plate of samosas and a chicken tikka biryani at Kismat. Recently, I moved to Washington Heights and have been contemplating ordering food from this place. I decided to eat out at this restaurant with a visiting Indian friend from Boston.

We both were disgusted by the food taste. More details below —

1/ Veg. Samosa was sweet AF and we had to ask for the chutneys to the server a minute after they were brought to the table. So he got back with chutneys from a common chutney utensil ONLY AFTER we asked for it.

2/ Chicken Biryani was disastrously sweet with coconut shavings on top of it!!(wait, what!!?? 😳). From the look and taste of it, we felt that it was basically a vegetable peas pulao with some chicken curry mixed into it (plus sugar). At the time of payment, we notified the guy that the food is extremely sweet and why, to which he responded stating that we didn't ask for it to be spicy when placing the order, otherwise the base taste is supposed to be sweet. We were like - what? Are we supposed to ask for it to be NOT SWEET (let alone ask for spicy)? I mean neither of us even look white for our appearance for them to assume we would eat SWEET INDIAN BIRYANI and would have to notify them to not make it sweet if we...

Having been to this restaurant before, it was the spot I chose to celebrate my wife's 50th Birthday party. I used their online service to make reservations and that was a cinch to do. I called the restaurant a few days before the party to make sure that the reservation had in fact been placed, even though I did receive a confirmation email.

Street parking can be tricky but there is a parking garage around the corner and it only cost $25 for 4 hours.

Once inside, the table for our party was all setup and awaiting the guests. I did bring a cake which the waiter carried off until it was time.

Drinks, appetizers, and entrees were all placed and after getting lost in conversation, the appetizers began showing up which was rather quick! The entrees came out about 30 minutes later and everything, I mean EVERYTHING, was amazing! There were a few leftovers which were packed up to go.

The cake was brought out and we celebrated. After having the cake, we just kicked back and enjoyed the atmosphere and had a great time. We weren't rushed to leave, which was really nice.

Kudo's to the waiter who sat at an empty table and entertained my wife's 3 year old niece, showing her how to use a calculator.

Amazing food, amazing staff! Do yourself a favor and give them a try. You will not be disappointed!

Sidenote: The green sauce they serve is amazing and as one of our guests put it..."The green...