Red Pepper Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Virginia

I was excited to see this restaurant was open! I had thoroughly reviewed the menu at home & was prepared to order when I walked in the door for dinner. The front entry doors are not really marked & if you walk up the stairs instead of using the ramp, you'll have to pass a set of doors to get to the entrance. In addition, the door is rather difficult to pull open, so much so that I thought I was at the wrong door & looked to see if there was another possible entrance before tugging on the door again. The restaurant is quite nicely adorned - bordering on elegant but still comfortable. There was a function going on in the event room & it was packed with people. The main dining room had 3 occupied tables, a small bar not yet in use & a rather large buffet which I was told is for their daily lunch buffet from 11am until 2:15pm. The host/server seated me & a little over 5 minutes later returned with a menu & apologized for forgetting about me. I wasn't in a hurry so I didn't mind, but I did find it funny considering there were only 3 other seated tables. I told him I already knew what I wanted, the tandoori mixed grill. He explained that they did not yet have a chef to prepare those kinds of dishes, but expected to have one within 2 weeks. I told him I would be happy to return when I could get the dish I wanted. He asked if I would be willing to try their house special, a biriyani rice dish. I hesitantly agreed & opted for medium heat with extra hot sauce on the side. The portion size was rather large, but the dish was over $20 so it's good that there was a bunch. The flavor was excellent! I tried all the different proteins in the dish, tried it with & without the raita & with & without additional hot sauce. The only negative I found was the chicken. Although the taste was right on, it was very dry. I will definitely be returning to this restaurant in a few weeks to try the tandoori - probably going to check out the...

Nice to have an Indian restaurant here in the Bristol area. We hope they are able to make a real success of it. We've only been once (for dinner, early Saturday evening) and may go again for a lunch buffet to check out a few more dishes. However, there's room for improvement.

1. the payment system needs to change. Currently, diners do not get an itemized bill at the table. You simply go to the register and they inform you of the cost. I mention this because I was overcharged by about $20 but didn't realize it until we had already left. I'm hoping it was a mistake rather than a purposeful gouge. Regardless, changing the payment system to include an itemized bill would solve the problem whether or not it was a simple mistake.
2. the food was not bland though our entrees both lacked depth of flavor and neither were savory. Even the garlic naan was ho hum. On the other hand, the chilli paneer appetizer was quite good.
3. the initial service was quick and attentive but then disappeared from the table. Our entrees came less than 2-3 minutes after our appetizers were served and the entrees were left cooling on the table the table while hurriedly finished the appetizer. We didn't get our garlic naan and had a somewhat difficult time flagging down a server and, even then, it didn't show up until we were almost done with the meal. Dirty dishes remained on the table throughout the meal.
4. the dining room is actually very pretty, maybe even a little "elegant." I felt a little underdressed for how nice it looked though the other diners were similarly attired. They did a really nice job choosing the tables and chairs.
5. they should probably make peace with the "retina center" across the parking lot because the row of exclusive parking signs for that business forbade restaurant parking directly adjacent to the restaurant...

The main take away: do not expect correctly spiced food. Staff is fine. Explanation: We decided to eat here after work on Christmas Eve. Called to make sure they were open and they were. All is well. Come in at 5:30. Staff was nice, regardless of any language barrier. But the issue started when ordering our main dish. I asked for medium spice (I like medium to hot, depending on the dish) and my date asked for very spicy (he has a love for extreme heat). We were served the most poorly spiced dishes I have ever gotten at any restaurant. Not even mild. So lacking in spice the dishes were rendered semi bland. This cuisine is known for warm, complex flavors. We tried to eat it to be polite but it was just so bad. We both work in food so we get it, things happen. But someone checked on us and I asked if we could have literally anything to add some spiciness to the dishes. We were given a very small amount of chili paste. My dish was able to meld alright with it to make it at least mild. But it did not mix well with my date's tikka masala. We just nibbled a bit more and asked for boxes. I've eaten here a couple times during the lunch buffet with friends and just assumed everything was poorly spiced to appeal most to the local pallet. But why were we even asked what spice levels we wanted if there was not going to be any difference, let alone flavor? I'm not sure if I can support this place as I've read through other reviews and see some consistency issues. To the owner - please don't respond to this like you have with others apologizing and asked for another chance in the future. Explain in detail how you are going to better you business besides just "we will discuss with...