Mehak Indian Bar & Restaurant Chantilly — Restaurant in Virginia

Follow Up Response to Owner: My intent was neither to be sarcastic nor was it intended to induce a reverse insult by you to me, a patron. My review was an attempt to produce an unbiased personal opinion which I thought I was entitled to do at any restaurant I visit. Unfortunately, there is no rating here on yelp to reflect 'not applicable or neutral', so I will graciously increase my rating from two stars to three stars in an attempt to take the high road here.

However, your statement that providing patrons with Nestle plastic bottled waters is a special benefit is your entitled opinion. For me, I am not in favor of my family drinking water in plastic bottles due to proven leaching of plastic degradation over time which is toxic for human consumption, pending the length of time the water remains in the bottle and the quality of the PET rating of the bottle. Neither of which I can determine on first time entry into your establishment. Also, in my opinion, serving a larger group with plastic water bottles appears aesthetically tacky for a restaurant that wants to position itself among higher priced restaurants. The table remains cluttered with Nestle brand plastic bottles.

Regarding privacy, I won't spend time arguing this point with you. I simply want to inform the people that do take issue with the constant bombardment of security webcams at every turn and location that they can decide for themselves how comfortable they are with the numerous surveillance cameras that are pointing towards customers as they walk in and sit down in your restaurant.

Lastly, be prideful for your accomplishments, but no so prideful that you ignore your patron's opinions. Best wishes on your continued success.

Original Review: I appreciate all the good reviews but our experience was not in line with our expectations of an upper echelon restaurant with higher than average price points on the menu. Upon entering for the first time and being seated, the waitress brought us mediocre brand of bottled waters. We asked if they served normal filtered water like most restaurants and they stated they did not. While other patrons might be okay with such type of plastic bottles, we do not believe in drinking water that has been exposed to low quality plastic bottles for an unknown amount of time. Unfortunately, we could not stay to try the food because without water, we would not be able to sustain our dinner, especially spicy Indian food. I also noticed there were an exorbitant number of security cameras pointing at patrons from all directions. Not sure what the intent is for the owners of this restaurant, but I don't appreciate places that don't respect people's privacy. After leaving, we just happened to see another Indian restaurant called Aago very close by, and well, you can also read my review of that restaurant. Perhaps one day, we might consider carry out for Mehak just to see how their food tastes, but we are not comfortable returning...

We’ve been to this place once or twice, and also took out another couple of times. While the food is nothing to rave about, it is also not bad. The only reason we went back today is because the food is ok/good. The two stars is specifically for the customer service we received today. There were two young ladies managing the floor this afternoon (10/16/2021). One of them was courteous & apologized for the inordinate delay, although pointing out that they have more busy today because of Dassera catering orders. The other young lady was argumentative, and just didn’t think there was anything wrong. We were dining in, and had to wait for upwards of 30 mins to get one of the three entrées we ordered, along with a couple of rotis & rice. The other two entrées took an additional 15 mins, by which time the rotis were not only cold, but also hardened up. After the first 20 mins, we requested for one of the entrées to be brought out quicker so our 5-yr old can eat. The young lady noted that all of the order will come out together & in no time. Not only that didn’t happen, but the order was staggered with much delay. When I informed the lady that service today has been poor, and there were many takeout orders that were going out before the diners are being served, the lady became defensive & argumentative. One of the takeout customers even screamed & stormed out. She was just trying to pass the buck by stating that the chefs were delaying or I should report this to the owner. She didn’t think there was anything wrong for customers to wait 45+ mins to get their order. Not once during the 45+ mins did she come to apologize for the delay, or was there any remorse after we reported our displeasure. There are Indian restaurants with better service outside of the 3-mile radius that are worth the drive. And the food here is ok, not outstanding, so you ain’t missing much if you make the drive to...

I had ordered from Mehak since it opened. We never had a bad meal before this. Infact I loved a lot of thier dishes and it was a quality alternative to when I did not feel like cooking myself. Recently it changed ownership, sad to say, I will never be ordering from here again. I come from a family of famous restauranteurs from old Delhi. I grew up on punjabi/ mughlai food. This is no longer that. The naan is a hybrid south Indian refined tandoor parotha type thing, masquerading as a naan. The boiled saag was thrown from the blender into a pile of half burnt paneer and spices without any simmering so it was falling apart. One of original Mehak's best dish, is now uttertly ruined. The chicken Tikka masala is now lower quality half raw chicken full of fat, dumped in a goopy mess of tomato paste. Every thing we ordered was a symphony of SHORTCUTS!! This was not cooked by anyone familiar with north Indian cooking or even a professional chef. This is now the product of a home cook who is not familiar with north Indian cooking. North Indian cooking may seen deceptively simple but it all about timing and building layers of spices and aromatics. Shortcuts are glaringly evident if you are familiar with quality food and cooking. In the north we don't make the spice mixes, dump everything together and hope for the best. The simple act of how long to simmer the saag can make the dish taste raw, overcooked or fall apart. Another good restaurant bites the...