| rev:text
| - I stopped by with my friend on Fri. night for dinner before seeing The Nutcracker at the Benedum. Between the convenient location in the Cultural District, the good reviews from other Yelpers, and the reasonable prices, this place seemed like a potential winner. Unfortunately, however, the food and atmosphere left something to be desired.
The a la carte dinner menu is pretty extensive, and includes most of the usual dishes offered at Indian restaurants. Because I'd tried samples of chicken makhni (butter chicken) from friends at another Indian restaurant in Oakland and really liked it, but had never ordered it myself before, I decided to order it. Bad move! The sauce was less creamy than that served with the dish at the other restaurant (see photo), and the chicken was of poor quality--all dark meat, with several pieces of gristle that I had to pull out of my mouth while eating (as discreetly as possible, of course, to avoid grossing out my friend). This version of the dish was disappointing, to the point that I only ate a bit more than half of it before abandoning the rest.
In addition to my entree, I ordered a mango lassi, as I usually do at Indian restaurants. Even this was a disappointment, given its thinness in comparison to versions I've had at other Indian restaurants around town.
My friend ordered the malai kofta, a vegetarian dish consisting of potato balls stuffed with paneer and vegetables in a light cream sauce with nuts and raisins. She let me try a bite or two, and it tasted much better than my chicken makhni. If I'd ordered this dish, I probably would have finished it and left with a much better assessment of the food than I did. Indeed, my friend did so, and expressed satisfaction with its quality.
Aside from the quality of the food, I was rather unimpressed with the ambiance, which I'd describe as a notch below no frills. There was no music, the wall decorations were pretty sparse, and the tables were unadorned except for menus under the glass tops. Moreover, the place had a slight aura of griminess that was apparent from the odd odor that I encountered upon entering. Service was okay, and the food came was served in a reasonable timeframe, so I have no major complaints there.
Overall, I've had better Indian food in superior settings at other places around town, so I probably won't return. It seems as though most people come here for the lunch buffet, so it's possible that the quality is better than their a la carte cooking. If you do order a la carte, I'd recommend sticking to the chef's specialties (the malai kofta was one of them), and avoiding the chicken makhni, for sure. If I went solely by my own experience, my rating would be a 2, but my friend seemed pretty pleased, so I'm averaging to a 3 to better reflect our combined judgment.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)