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| - I have dined at Al Hamra once only, and found the food to be quite good. Our waiter was truly knowledgable about Indian food, and was always attentive and efficient.
The naan was outstanding, and the lamb dishes were up to a pretty high standard.
I like restaurants that attempt a nice ambience, and they did achieve a step in that direction by having Indian music playing in the background at an appropriate volume. But the dining room, other than the music, is pretty generic. It certainly doesn't feel like an evening in Mumbai.
The chutneys I tasted were excellent, but they had no pickle, and no chili paste, so, as our meal progressed that became more and more frustrating. Our excellent waiter stated there would be pickle coming in (from India) soon. Of course, you can buy Indian pickle of several types in a good ethnic grocery store.
My rating of three stars is one star lower than I think the restaurant may deserve, but the atmosphere is really quite depressing. There is a stripe around the dining room of chipped paint due to chair backs scraping the painted, plastered walls. This could so easily be remedied by chair rail, or touch up paint. The lighting from rafter mounted fixtures, and focused into "hot spots", hits the walls in every which way, and the lighting on the tables is just the little battery powered fake candles. All of this adds up to a "cheesy" feeling in the dining room.
It wouldn't take much to turn Al Hamra into a truly nice place, if management should care enough to keep an eye on things.
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