Sahib — Restaurant in New York

Made reservations for 7, called before hand to confirm BYOB policy. However when we got to the restaurant, the situation turned to total confusion very rapidly. The waiter, after seating us down informed us that we are not allowed to bring our own, despite the fact that the restaurant does not have a bar. When we protested, he tried his best to explain with a big unbefitting smile and suggested that we should go to Dhaba, next door which he said is also owned by them and has the liquor license. Walked out saying no way we are going to patronize their sister restaurant, Dhaba. We figured there are plenty of choices on the curry hill. Landed at Chote Nawab and as we were being seated, to our bemusement saw the same waiter with a mystifying smile from Sahib escorting a party of customers to Chote Nawab. Upon enquiring from our current waiter, we were informed, its also owned by the same management. At this point we were praying things need to get better. We were starving. But alas , that turned out to be a wishful thinking. The current waiter with no smile, this time, curtly informed us there is a steep $15 corkage for wine and $3 for our own IPA beer. We had reached a point of complete submission and agreed to all the charges. The waiter insisted on pouring the beer into the glasses and proceeded hastily to do the same and as we watched in disbelief half of the beer erupted into a volcano and flowed over to the table. After a customary apology proceeded to repeat it again. Now, this was turning into farce. Unfortunately, this left a bad taste even before we could taste the food. A friendly tip for the management (Hemant Mathur and Shiva Natarajan), besides focusing on exotic dishes and getting glowing reviews from NY times, a little attention to training staff at customer service will help build business for the long haul rather than annual opening and shutting down of their restaurants, like Haldi which also opened with similar fan fare and glowing reviews like Sahib only to shut down...

We came in for lunch and the restaurant was empty so we asked if we could sit further inside the restaurant because the door was being left open and it was cold. The elderly gentleman who sat us said no and told us to sit down "there" which was the closest table to the door. So we sat down and kept our jackets on during the entire lunch. Then came to ordering the food. The waiter was a little rude and short with us when we asked questions about what sides come with what entrees. Typically basmati rice is served which curries but not here at Sahib which is a bit odd but fine we ordered a side of "rice with peas" (they sprinkle 4 or 5 peas on top the rest is plain). We order chicken tikka masala, chicken makhani, and their "award winning biryani." Presentation wise everything was fantastic and the chicken tikka and chicken makhani were superb. The biryani on the other hand was basically inedible. It looked amazing with the top being encased in a perfectly cooked dough. It looked beautiful so I was very excited to eat it however when I brought it closer to me I immediately recognized the pungent smell coming from the biryani even before breaking the top layer of dough. It was drowned in saffron flavoring and every bite just tasted like saffron and heat, nothing else. It was very sad because it was cooked perfectly but inedible because of all the saffron. It was like eating flowery perfume. All in all it was an ok lunch but not worth 100 dollars especially when I couldn't even eat the...

The Kori Gassi, aka "coconut chicken curry" is fantastic and I would get it again. It's red and pictured below. You don't need to get roti with it because it comes with rice.

It's cheaper to order by calling them than ordering online by around $5 (but I also get free delivery, so it may be more than $5 without that).

The samosas were solid. Potatoes in bread. I might not get them again because they're a large amount of empty carbs and the entree was filling enough without them.

Loved the boneless chicken curry. I got it mild and that was good. It has a ton of flavor in the sauce, and not wayyy to much oil to make it super high calorie. They replaced the daal with chickpeas because the daal usually has dairy in it :) Came with eggplant fried as appetizer and some roti for less than $20 :)

I had the Gosht Baliram togo. It is described on the menu as "Red lamb curry, corriander seeds, red chilli, ginger, garlic, fresh coriander slow cooked to perfection" The sauce was delicious but there was wayyyy too much oil on it (see the pools of oil in the attached image), and it kind of weirded me out that it was delivered in plastic due to the chemicals leeching into it while it's hot. I know it's normal to use plastic for hot food like this, and so a lot of people aren't worried about it, but that was my experience. I would love to get it in-person if it didn't have a crazy...