Kricket Club — Restaurant in Seattle

Glad to see a new restaurant in Ravenna and want it to succeed. Without changes, Kricket Club is only half there. Hence my interest in this detailed review.

Kind and friendly service if not always attentive, great atmosphere, lovely decor. Bathrooms okay on the surface but less attention to functional toilets (ahem) which are old or holdovers. Fix this.

Yes to the pumpkin soup starter. Delicious, warm, flavorful. Leave out the weird crouton accompaniment or make it better. It was bland and reminiscent of a communion wafer.

Appetizers: ghobi 65 (cauliflower) is creative but a bit dry (overcooked and all moisture removed) and one note. Needs a yogurt dipping sauce on the side. $12 is too much.

Sweet corn fritters was the best option. Consider serving in four shareable portions rather than one large tart.

Vada pao (fried potato patty on a sweet bun) was too starchy and gummy - essentially a potato slider. Lacked texture, and freshness - would rework with potatoes as the base and a creative pickle and yogurt sauce on the side.

Bengali Kathi roll wasn’t great. Chicken overcooked (likely a recycled version of leftover chicken), blended with potato, over spices, and wrapped in a carb roll. Was mushy, with no bite or texture. Potatoes were both too hot (spicy) and under spiced (eg lacked the richness and complexity of Indian spices and very under-salted). As above - mixing mushy potatoes and wrapping in carbs doesn’t work. Recommend smaller wrap, pickle accompaniment, yogurt dip, and some crunch. Cucumber accompaniment was also just not tasty. Needs more freshness in cucumbers, more salt, more vinegar. Soggy and not crispy as needed with this otherwise bland dish.

Kala tikka murgh was an interesting idea, but again overcooked (eg under-marinated and then over-cooked) so it was a blackened piece (coated in charcoal) without chicken tenderness. A pity.

Tiffin box chicken: this was identically spiced to the roll above. Quite dry again. Served only with naan, surprisingly in flavorful dal (watery, lacked salt and spice) and a lackluster tough roasted slicer of carrot and meek pickle. Also setting was a metal container so hot that the servers scorch their hands to open (because of course the heat is conducted to the stack, uninsulated containers). Disappointing.

Tiffin box saag. The main curry here was excellent. The favorite of all four of us. Accompaniment had the same problems as above. Suggest option (naan vs rice), greatly improving the dal, and picking up the bland “pickle”.

Yogurt (harita raita) was a watered down mess, served without a spoon. Unfortunately we were able to pour it as it was the consistency of soup. Use real yogurt. Make it properly, add fresh cucumber )salt first to remove excess water), whole cumin and salt. Disappointing and ?$9. Please.

Dessert: Rajbhog Kofi had excellent flavor. Problem is that they make it ahead of time and put in deep freeze. Then they serve without letting it warm a little, so a spoon can’t even shave away a bit of the frozen “ice cream”. This is a fixable plating error. Fun flavors and rose chia was interesting with texture.

Cucumber accompaniment was also just not tasty. Needs more freshness in cucumbers, more salt, more vinegar. Soggy and not crispy as needed with this otherwise bland dish..

And a pickle comment: “pickles” appear to be bland shavings of ? Kohlrabi without sufficient vinegar, spices, salt and time. This is a critical vegetable and acid element, especially given the many menu items which are soft/mushy and starchy. Step it up. Add traditional spices, more salt, and proper vinegar.

Hoping the chef sits down and eats at her own restaurant. She will be disappointed. Hoping it motivates some upgrade, especially as the bill (without alcohol) came to $50/person.

Hoping for some serious thought into making this place what it could...

My experience at Kricket Club was mixed.

Our server was warm and friendly and happily provided extra explanations of menu items or provided recommendations, however, he struggled to get the balance of attentiveness right

When we arrived, he made us feel rushed to get a food order going. First we'd barely had a chance to read the cocktail menu, let alone the food menu and when we were ready to get our cocktail order in, he was asking again about the food order. I think he could do well to relax his approach a bit.

Later, when our mains arrived, he failed to ask us about a drink order and disappeared quickly, after which it was a challenge to get his attention. This was frustrating because I felt like I was having to work to do so, all while watching some other staff members seemingly standing around doing nothing.

When we finally did get the drinks order in, it took about 20 minutes to arrive. The restaurant was probably only half full, so this seemed a little extreme.

The food was a mixed bag too. We started with the Gobhi65 fried cauliflower, which was tasty and I overall enjoyed. It could have been a bit better if the batter on the outside was a little more crispy, as it was a little on the dense/tough side.

For the mains we got the Gosht dum biryani (Slow cooked Goat), Tiffin box saag paneer with sides of Lobiya (black eyed peas) and house made pickle.

The biryani was an impressive presentation, arriving in a round ceramic dish with a cooked dough sealed over the top, like a large pot pie. The waiter cut through the dough to open it up and the steaming spicy biryani was revealed inside.

The dough top wasn't particularly tasty, so we assumed it was mostly for presentation.

The biryani itself was very spice forward to the point where I'd imagine there might be many people that would find it too much. The amount of heat was fine, but I found the spices slightly overpowering. The amount of goat in the dish was a little scant and I came across several pieces of bone. There were some good flavors in the dish, but I found it just okay due to the detracting factors.

The saag paneer was also thoroughly enjoyable without blowing me away (4/5) and the Lobiya was amazingly tasty -- both me and my dining partner agreed that we could have eaten a giant bowl of it (5/5).

The house made pickle, to my taste, was quite frankly gross. The choice of vegetables was odd and included a root vegetable that tasted bitter and like dirt to me along with overly fibrous slices of unpeeled ginger. The vinegar was too light and although there was some kind of spice, it was hard to get over the core being fundamentally unenjoyable.

The drinks were also hit and miss; 2/3 cocktails were misses being pretty unbalanced. The fourth drink was a honey lavender cider from a can, which was delicious and paired well with the food. At $17+ a cocktail, they need to slap harder than that to justify the spend.

The decor and atmosphere inside make for a good place for a nice meal out, however, we were seated at a 2-top that looked directly into the central service area where staff often congregated or waited around. This really detracted from enjoying the nice ambience. They should try to screen it off.

Finally, this is yet another restaurant following the trend of weird mandatory service charges that may or may not be a tip. The menu explains the 20% service charge is retained by the business and 75% is distributed to the staff in form of commission.

Using the word commission makes it unclear whether it is a tip, yet on the check it is listed as "included gratuity" and the receipt comes with a line stating "additional tip".

Overall 3/5, wouldn't rush back at this price point. Certainly wasn't a complete fail and had some...

TLDR: Fine dining Indian restaurant. Amazing unique food, good ambience, expensive with pretentious portion sizes, but very Poor service.

I’ll start with the good stuff about this restaurant:

Food; Food here is expensive and the portion sizes are extremely small like tapas, but this is expected in a fine dining restaurant. The menu is very unique, unlike other Indian restaurants and the dishes are plated to perfection. We started with a small pumpkin soup with a side of goat cheese kulcha that was offered complimentary. This was absolutely delicious. I wish this was offered on the main menu as well, I could eat a bowl full. I have never tasted pumpkin soup so good. I had the bun Maska & chai which was superb. They got the bun Maska exactly right like the Irani cafes, right from the white butter to the tutti-frutti bun. The elaichi chai was well made too, but wish it was served hot instead of luke warm. We followed this with the small plates of Goan Prawns & Gilafi Kabab. The Goan prawns was excellent, served with soft bhature-style bread. The Gilafi goat seekh kabab too was soft & tasty, albeit a bit too spicy but still yummy. For our mains we ordered a “Tiffin”. Which is served like a dabba service in India. We got the Lamb Salli Tiffin, which came with Lamb Salli, Dal Makhani, Pulao and a salad. The Lamb Salli was a major disappointment. It had a sour aftertaste, more like a Goan sorpotel. However the dal was absolutely buttery & flavorful. Pulao was more of jeera rice. And the salad was just plain bad. We also ordered a side of the Warqi paratha which was good. We ended our meal with the Kulfi for dessert which was excellent. Though it came plated with some bitter tasting chikki that I did not enjoy. In drinks, you can’t go wrong with the Golden Detox.

Cons: For the exorbitant prices that this restaurant charges, I would have expected excellent service but they don’t get even the basics right. After being seated, literally nobody showed up at our table for at least 10 mins. No menu was given, neither was water served. After 10 mins a waitress showed up asking for our order, we literally had to google their menu and ask for water. During the course of the meal, even though our water glasses were empty, no water was either offered or served. I specifically called & requested the waitress for water, which she said she will bring but did not. On finally getting the attention of another server, we got water served on our THIRD try. For this poor service, they charge a default 20% tip.

Honestly if the service wasn’t so terrible, I’d give this place a 5 star review. But if you pay premium prices at a fine dining restaurant and are forced to pay 20% tip, the least you can expect is to be served water without begging for it...