I really really really feel like a horrible person for doing this, but my three star review will ruin their perfect score. I'm not proud of this, but I have to be honest.
The service is 5 stars alone and the servers were especially patient when we couldn't decide what to order or how to choose from our Groupon menu or the price fixe menu. We had purchased a Groupon for 4 ppl, but only 3 were present, so they wouldn't let us use it. I don't see what difference it makes as they're still making the same money whether or not we take some of the food to go, but they claimed this was policy.
We decided on the Chicken Tikka, Vegetable Samosa and the Chaat to begin, followed by the Saag Paneer, Lamb Rhogan Josht, Chicken Chettinandu, and the Beef Vindaloo. This ended up being the price fixe for 2 but we added a person for $17.95.
The wine is a fabulous deal, although a bit misleading. Their sign on the window says $10 bottles of wine. But underneath that, there is small print reading 'Bottles of wine at cost + $10' I think I prefer this to a $10 bottle of wine, because I'm sure the quality of said wine would not be very good. We settled on the Strewn Reisling-Gewurtstraminer, which is a local favourite of mine from Niagara on the Lake and I was pleased to see it at $22/bottle on the list.
The decor is very nice and modern and the size of the restaurant is quaint, allowing for very attentive service.
We were greeted with a complimentary appetizer of some sort of a spinach and potato croquette. It's always nice to get an amuse bouche and this was as tasty as they come.
The Chaat was okay, but it had pomegranate seeds on it and our friend is allergic. More for us. The samosa had been thoughtfully cut into three by the kitchen so that we could all share. The Chicken Tikka, cubes of marinated chicken breast were very tender and flavourful, but not as crunchy on the outside as I normally like.
What I found lacking in all of the curries was a distinctiveness in flavour. They were all pureed without any of the lovely brown bits of smoky onion and bright ginger. There was a homogenous quality to all of them that left me a little cold. Saag Paneer was bland, Beef Vindaloo didn't have any of the vinegared heat which is typical of the dish, Lamb was not exceedingly tender and was missing any trace of a yogurt tang. The Chicken was probably my favourite as it had a wonderfully refreshing coconut aroma that helped it to stand out from the other dishes. But the last time I had Chicken Chettinandu, it was very spicy with chili, clove, corriander seed and much more aromatic than creamy. Regardless, it was the stand out entree.
I had Rasamalai for dessert and it was very small (just a little half ramekin) but delicious and I was pretty stuffed and couldn't have eaten much more.
I felt that the curries here were very dumbed-down for the North American palate. Perhaps this has something to do with their very white, uptown location on Mt. Pleasant, but I've definitely had much better Indian food.
Most of the stars go to the excellent staff who were patient, informative, kind and provided us with a wonderful dining experience.
Would I go back again? Yes. The wine is a great deal and I'd like to see if they can make a good go of some of the other items on the menu. With all these five star reviews, maybe we were there on an off night. My friend also still has the Groupon she purchased, so maybe I will be her dining partner for the next time.