East India Co. Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Portland

We came here to celebrate a birthday after reading reviews. We thought we would have a good experience but unfortunately we did not. We had several reservations changes due to people canceling at the last minute and ended up going from 8 people to 4 people. We ended up having car trouble and tried to get their as soon as we could so our reservation didn't get changed, we called ahead to let them the staff know so they were aware and said we would be fine.

At first glance, the restaurant is beautiful on the inside once you are taken to the main seating area past the bar. We had our elderly mother with us and the stairs right at the entrance were a challenge for her. As we get walked in by the hostess, there's a beautiful seating area with a backlit mosaic on the ceiling and nice large booths with curtains draped on each side. We thought it was really impressive in person.

It wasn't busy in the restaurant at all, there were maybe 6 people total besides our group of four that came in.

We thought we were going to be seated in the main area where everyone else was. Our hostess seated us in a small cramped booth facing the coat racks and corridor to the bathrooms.

After we sat down, we kindly asked if we could be sat in a larger booth or even at the tables in the main area. The hostess said that the booths were all reserved and they are a minimum of 5 people. We said ok, thats fine. We figured people were going to be arriving to fill up the booth and other tables.

We sat and ordered food, as we waited for our food the waitress walked 2 people who had just come in and sat them down at a 5 people booth. We thought ok, those people must have more people coming because they just told us those booths were reserved for 5 or more people.

Our appetizers came, still 2 people at the booths. Our food order came out, still 2 people at the booths. We ate our food, still 2 people at the 5 person minimum booths. At this point we were pretty upset. My husband went and talked to the staff and they were arguing with him that all the booths were reserved for other people and the staff was trying to defend one another.

We were done in about an hour and a half. The same 6 people total in the whole place were still there or finishing up.

I think the staff had no idea what customer service means. Sticking us in a cramped booth and then lying to us that the bigger booths were only for 5 people or more then walking a group of 2 people to sit and eat at the 5 person booth right in front of us?!?!?! What?!?

All the reserved tables didn't get full and nobody showed up while we were there.

The service was abysmal and the food wasn't all that good. Everything came out lukewarm.

Don't go here to eat, go to India House a block away or pretty much anywhere else. India House was our first choice and we wish we had gone there instead, we've always had great food and service there and we totally regretted trying this place, lesson learned.

Treat your customers better!!! We're never going...

We went as a group of four last Friday night. We were seated at a table near the entrance of the main dining area. The place was beautiful and very nicely decorated. Overall good experience. My only complaint is about the service.

Our waitress was rude and seemed to purposely avoid our table (more on that later). We ordered drinks along with our food. 20 minutes later, we had already had to ask the waitress for our drink again. In total, we gave her three reminders before the one drink was brought out. We asked the very attentive busboy for the drink, and he had one made and brought out within minutes whereas the waitress put blame on needing to make more of the tea, even though the busboy clearly did not have the same problem. The waitress avoided our table. She went to other tables around us to see how they were doing, but I do not recall her doing that with ours. She refused to split the check for us, and handed our bill off to another waitress to give to us even though she walked right past our table and to another one at the same time. We were charged extra for the flat bread brought as a table appetizer in the beginning when we asked for more (similar to that of chips at Mexican restaurants, who typically don't charge more for more chips). It was the most expensive Indian restaurant I have been too with everything extra costing $2-5. Usually my partner and I can get Indian for $30 whereas this ran us $40.

That night, we left the waitress' tip to the busboy. He was the one helping us and bringing our items whereas the waitress avoided us, never acknowledged our disappointment and never apologized for the lack of quality service....

One of the worst night at this restaurant.. Even it was weekday we had called and made reservations with clear specific details requesting booth with curtains as today was my wife's birthday so kids wanted to celebrate.. We walked in and it was close to empty only had 2 or 3 customers.. This guy manager Prince put us in regular booth and I told him about we making clear specific details for curtain booth and he was worst that he told us flat no. We're shocked and asked are you serious and he was. We almost walked out but did not wanted to spoil family and kids mood. After arguing he gave us booth but kept telling us that as if he he was doing favor and kept repeating that it is for 5 people. I told him can you stop saying again and again as we are customers and here to celebrate. Now to add to our agony let me share the food, lamb and chat was not bad but Paneer Tikka masaka and grill Paneer was worst and totally tasteless. Even the Portland cart food has awesome panner dishes. To top the pain I would have given one star service but we still end up giving 20% gradiuity just because other staff was very nice. We will never go and also posted and shared with friends on all social media about worst evening and to ban this place. I repeatedly asked if I can speak other manager or owner they just gave me restaurant card as Mr Prince said he is...