Daawat Indian Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Seattle

Disappointed. Such a good restaraunt but it was sabotaged by bad energy. Today's meal tasted like smoke and mirrors. Or maybe more like their attitude. Both statements are not facts but my opinion.

From the time I walked in and they sat us until we got the check, the energy was just off. The guy that brought us to our table literally dropped menus on the first table we walked past and kept walking without even changing head direction towards the next table which he started cleaning. My date went to the bathroom but I just stood there waiting for him to say something. Maybe he dropped the menues and started cleaning that table just for us. Maybe he is having a bad day and doesn't want to look at people. Either way,, Not a word, so I sat by the menus. I eventually asked if I could move to a better table.

Our server was slightly better, but something about him was off. Maybe he and the other guy had an argument moments before we walked in and decided to hit the switch and serve us as we walked in. He was still nice. I swear when he was taking an order at another table, when they weren't looking, he pretty much gladly checked out for a moment before paying back attention. It was quick, but I seen it, and it was the look of, I'm ready to get out of here 3 hours ago.

Then came the apps. My app was deep fried. Supposed to be aloo tiki. It was, but felt like it was well made then frozen in some food processing place and not made by the restaraunt. The first one I ate was half hollow. The next was only a little bit hollow. And the last had enough spices inside to guess it was aloo tiki.

Then came the Mango chicken curry and paneer Naan. The curry had an interesting taste. The mangoes used may have been bad. The paneer Naan, looked promising and stuffed with paneer, but only stuffed at the visible openings. The first piece I grabbed had almost all the paneer.

Last was the bill, we realized we never got out Mango Lassi. So we had him remove it before paying. He seemed surprised they forgot but fronted by saying oh, you don't want it still. Uhhh, we asked for it to come out with our food, not after we paid and are ready to leave.

Fortunately they were professional and the food was fairly high quality. Just tasted like it was made with hate, not love. I'd come back, but I wouldn't recommend the Mango curry. Or the aloo tiki. Or the flavorless plain paneer on...

Well not me, my friends were craving for Indian food & I had to give in. So with huge expectations we land here in Daawat (which means a feast in Hindi) & surprised at the extensive menu, which looked exciting & interesting.

We ordered the staples, no, not the dal & Rice, we decided on couple of versions of Biriyani, the spicy basmati rice & meat cooked together with Indian spices, Indian breads - Roti & green chilli naan - a chicken curry & a chilli chicken.

The service was friendly & real quick, & I will go through the good part of the whole experience. The Chilli Naan was super fluffy, with a generous helping of spicy green chillies, hit the spice level just right. It just soaked up the curry, like a Bread should and was delicious. The curry itself was well balanced, very Indian & at the same time flavour profile meeting the needs of an international palate.

The chilli chicken, a South Indian favourite was well made, with more Indian flavours than Chinese, as it usually is back in India.

Now the biriyani, was a disappointment to be fair & less harsh. It is what we would call as a tawa pulao, albeit a spicy version. I went for a lamb Biriyani, specifically requesting to remove any sweet elements like raisins. They were accommodative and obliged to my request, but again the biriyani failed miserably to impress.

If you read my other reviews on Biriyani places in India, you would understand how passionate I am about my bowl of Biriyani. Maybe I shouldn’t have had any expectation on being served a good Biriyani here in the US, however Indian a restaurant can claim itself to be. That said, I do remember an Indian restaurant in Chicago which made me a real Biriyani on my visit, way back in 2010. The chef requested me wait for about 30 minutes so that he can give a real Indian twist to the subdued Biriyani they were serving. So there are places in US which make a good mean Biriyani, but Daawat is the not a place to seek that.

Don’t get me wrong, the Roti & curries were excellent, no doubt these guys do a good job in kebabs as well. I might return for them, definitely not for...

My guests from San Diego selected Daawat for dinner. For me, a bit noisy place to start with. Corner bar looks amazing with a view of traffic intersection. Customers a bit on chaotic form standing anywhere including next to our dinner table carrying on loud conversations. That for a start is disappointing. Even after bar tender requesting guests to go wait at the front, party conversations continued. Small partition between tables didn't stop loud conversation noise from coming across and taking over our dining space. Except for the interesting bar corner pretty blank walls create the backdrop. Orange is a theme for the place. Probably continued from previous Asian restaurant at this location.

Now on to food and drinks. Let's get the drink out of the way first. From the MENU beer LIST we ordered King Fisher. Server tried to be funny with his conversations. Fine. The server in his funny talk indicated that king fisher plant is closed for months. Still beer is listed on the menu. That's how current the emu is! Without going further or giving other Indian beer options, we got delivered Rainer Beer. REALLY? I ban people who bring Rainer beer to my home. Here my guests from San Diego and I got stuck with Rainer beer!!!! Now that's a beautiful start to a dinner evening at Daawat!

We ordered mixed tandoori appetizer platter. Really well prepared. A bit heavy on chicken pieces with a small piece of black cod. Good selection. For dinner we ordered chicken tika masala that came with a small portion of rice and, garlic and cranberry naans. Both were good. Yes, dinner items were well prepared.

Revived a nice and humble apologetic message from manager Jesse. I rate food quality as four stars. However, with chaotic behavior of guests, restaurant's inability to manage them and beer booboo- three stars is all I can offer today. Will my rating improve in the future? May be. Being located below convention center, unruly crowd must be a normal...