Commonwealth Indian Restaurant — Restaurant in North Bethesda

I and my fiance went to this restaurant to celebrate our engagement. After reading the good reviews about food and bad reviews on their service we still went ahead. Mind you readers, this is a very long post. We made a booking for a table of two, we reached and they gave us a table in 10 minutes. Once we settled down, the runner came and gave us the glass of water and Nobody bother coming to our table for next 15 minutes. We understand it was a friday and very busy hour for them. We waited patiently and we see a guy asking us for the order we placed the order for Dahi ke tikki, goan shrimp for appetizers and he just ran away without taking our drinks order. He came back took our drinks order; bought our appetizers and we were waiting for the drinks. Almost halfway to our appetizers he came back to confirm our drinks again and he got the drinks after we finished our appetizers, to enjoy the drinks we ordered pizzan (an appetizer). I would recommend their goan shrimp which was just delicious. The chutney with dahi ke tikki was very very bland. We ordered malabar curry and paneer butter masala for main course. Somehow ten minutes later they misplaced our order but they took it again and bought the food at pretty much fast pace. Food is delicious, but their service is just utter bad. I would recommend their yellow malabar curry and goan shrimp. They prepare their naan really fresh. They two stars are only on the food. We asked for check, We waited for ten minutes. Meanwhile, a couple next to us had arrived while we were eating our main course, they were done by the time we asked for a check, Funny enough, they paid their check as well while we were still waiting for our check. I got so furious by then that paying them so much on the food and service they are treating us like we are eating food for free. The discrimination was very very clear. I walked out of my table went by the counter and asked them to take my card and walk out.

We ordered- 3 appetizers, 2 drinks, 2 entrees, rice, naan and Sitafal icecream for dessert (which is not sitafal and malai kulfi btw) total bill $117 + 10% tip. (they didn't deserve the tip though)

I would never recommend this place to anyone, even though their food is good only due to...

Punchline: food poisoning for both of us. Keep reading if you want the whole story, but that first line should be enough for you to avoid the place. Good things: finally somewhat upscale (as in not depending on buffet crowd for it's survival) Indian restaurant in Rockville; sophisticated, even if eclectic to the fault decor; wait staff trying hard to be helpful; two page menu with easy to understand dish descriptions, foods tasted good, though not $60 per person before taxes and tips good. Not so good things: lounge chairs do not go well with dining tables resulting in an awkward leg position and the table being closer to your shoulder then your elbows— very uncomfortable; silverware is lying on a bare table, which may be responsible for our miserable condition the following morning; cocktail/beer/wine list was brought about 10 minutes after the menu; drinks didn't arrive until the food; the only good thing about our Tamarind Margarita was an alcohol content, otherwise it was unappetizing drink made with suspiciously looking ice; food presentation is at 2 out of 5 (china looks good, but it ends there); almost every eatery at Pike & Rose are priced unreasonably high, but a bowl of soup at $11 or a chicken appetizer at $13 are outrageous. Our experience in short: two of us ate absolutely different things without sharing with each other: asparagus bisque, chicken kebab appetizer, Rogan Josh, chocolate curry. None of us finished even one drink. We have got a bout of diarrhea and a terrible case of vomiting. Talk about Uttar Pradesh dining experience at...

One of the best Indian restaurants in the area !!!! Right from the beautiful and elegant interiors to the cosy seating, Commonwealth impressed us completely. Restaurant opened recently and that shows in the attention to detail in every step. Hope they keep up their standard in quality and awesome food. Now, coming to the food, let me just simply say - WOW !! We started off with Masala chai and Mango lassi as our drinks. I expected masala chai as regular indian chai with milk. But this was fragrant black tea with subtle taste of spices. It was refreshing. Again, was expecting the regular mango lassi like we get in other indian restaurants, but the mango lassi here was amazing. You have to drink it to know it 😉. We had Goan Shrimp, Dahi ki tikki and murgh tangdi as appetizers. Shrimp was cooked very well and the sauce had perfect flavor. Dahi ki tikki was also a surprisingly perfect combination of hung curd and sweet figs. Chicken drumsticks also were cooked very well. My kiddo's comment after the first course was "This place is blessed by God, I am sure he comes here everyday !!' From the entree's, yellow crab Curry is s must try. We got Dal tadka, fulka and Naan too. Like they say "it's in the small things", along with main course, we got masala papad with mango chutney, indian pickle, quinoa salad, raita and some pickled onions (complimentary). We were in food heaven!! We were so full by the end of main course that we couldn't try out any desserts, but options like sitafal ki kulfi and chocolate curry sound tempting. We will be going back there...