Real Flavour of India, Victoria Park
We booked at the Real Flavour of India in Vic Park (893 Albany Hwy) for S's birthday dinner on tuesday night, and although I have mentioned it before, I thought I should post a dedicated review. As I have mentioned previously, despite liking the food, I hadn't visited this restaurant in over a year because they treated my parents pretty poorly on a previous visit. However, I braved it again January and found it ok so suggested that it might be ok to try again with the family. The other option was Jewel of the Park but Dad was sure it would be too busy and noisy in there (yes even on a tuesday night), so we decided on the Real Flavour of India.
We had booked for 10 even though we only had a party of 9, so there was plenty of room at our table to the side of the restaurant. We were seated and served by a friendly waiter chap but the night didn't start well when we ordered 3 serves of samosas and only got two, and the poppadums (surely the easiest entree that there is) came out a long time after the samosas and bahjis and arrived sans-sauces (and broken for some reason). Next the drinks, and our lemon squashes came as lemonades (we were told by the well meaning waiter that thats the way they did them at the restaurant but I suspect they were just out of the squash), and the lemon, lime and bitters were the sort that comes from a bottle when it is the easiest thing in the world to make from scratch. Now these things seem very nit-picky but when the drinks were $3.50 each and we had one each, it adds up. Also they didn't have all of the beers listed on the drinks menu, necessitating one in our midst to have to go through the available beer options rather than be able to order what he wanted. However, on the up-side the mango lassi was apparently very good!
After we had finished the entrees, the plates were not cleared in a timely manner (the restaurant wasn't busy), so Dad started piling them up on a neighbouring table (rather embarassing). Along with wrapping paper from birthday presents which also got deposited on an adjacent table (cringe!). However the waiters could have been easly on to the plate and wrapping paper situation, and if they had been paying attention surely they would have been.
Next the main courses came out. I understand that it was a big order but still the food was very staggered with some meals arriving long before others (and the last dish arriving just as we were finishing up). The rice also didn't come out until some time after the first dishes arrived, again a small thing but annoying. People didn't really want to start eating without rice and before some others got their food but there was no point in waiting around. Besides, we shared all the curries around so no one went hungry (and R managed to eat about double the amount that anyone else could!). So to the food... we got the nilgiri korma (mixed veg), malai kofta, palak paneer, aloo gobi, tandori angare, tandoori lamb chops, chicken tikka masala and a beef dish that I am not quite sure about. We also got some plain and garlic naan breads for the table. When the food arrived we tucked in. And the food was fantastic, really really good. We were very happy with the taste and quality of the food, but again service was patchy as we had trouble getting the attention of waiters at times. In the end we had just one too many dishes, but it was also good to try a wide range of curries. At the end of the meal there was enough left over to make two take away packs for the next day.
We had asked the waiter to put our birthday cake in the fridge earlier in the night, and when we tried to retrieve it (like many aspects of the meal), it was a long time coming. And this is on a night when they were not busy in the rest of the restaurant. They were also able to provide us with matches which was good of them (we did ask if they had any). When the cake eventually reappeared it was lucky that we were too full to bother about eating it because no plates were provided for the eating.... I had specifically asked at the restaurant when I booked about whether it was ok bring a cake and they said it was fine and it can't be THAT unusual to have cake after the dinner. So I stand by my point that they should have brought us plates with the cake. Lastly there is the matter of the bill. After we had decided to skip desert on account of being too full, we wanted to get the bill and get going. Various people in the party was all asked for the bill to be brought and after about 10 mins it still hadn't arrived so we asked AGAIN. Finally we were told we had to go and get it from the till, which seemed very unprofressional and led to Embarassing Bill Behaviour being conducted in the middle of the restaurant. I just don't like the exchange of cash and the examining of the itemised list in such public circumstances. Anyway, I would have far rathered that they brought the bill to the table for us to organise it there, and I really can't see a reason why they would not do this at a proper restaurant (it's not a fast food establishment). All up it was $265 (just over $29 per person) for a lot of good food and poor service, but we still had a good night.
In general, the wait-staff seemed unsure of themselves and didn't seem in control of what was happening in the restaurant. Also there was the matters of the substituted drinks, the slow response to requests, the tardy clearing of entree plates (and menus for that matter) and the refusal to bring the bill to our table. The manager swanned about the restaurant, occasionally making an appearance but seemingly not actually doing very much (he should have been monitoring his staff to keep an eye on any issues). I re-interate - we were very happy with the food, so I would suggest that these problems we experienced are with the management of the restaurant and not with the chefs. Therefore the problems are entirely fixable, but I doubt we will be going back there with a larger group any time soon when Jewel is just up the road (where the service is very attentive), and perhaps we can look at booking the smaller rooms there to minimise disturbance from noise in the restaurant.
We had booked for 10 even though we only had a party of 9, so there was plenty of room at our table to the side of the restaurant. We were seated and served by a friendly waiter chap but the night didn't start well when we ordered 3 serves of samosas and only got two, and the poppadums (surely the easiest entree that there is) came out a long time after the samosas and bahjis and arrived sans-sauces (and broken for some reason). Next the drinks, and our lemon squashes came as lemonades (we were told by the well meaning waiter that thats the way they did them at the restaurant but I suspect they were just out of the squash), and the lemon, lime and bitters were the sort that comes from a bottle when it is the easiest thing in the world to make from scratch. Now these things seem very nit-picky but when the drinks were $3.50 each and we had one each, it adds up. Also they didn't have all of the beers listed on the drinks menu, necessitating one in our midst to have to go through the available beer options rather than be able to order what he wanted. However, on the up-side the mango lassi was apparently very good!
After we had finished the entrees, the plates were not cleared in a timely manner (the restaurant wasn't busy), so Dad started piling them up on a neighbouring table (rather embarassing). Along with wrapping paper from birthday presents which also got deposited on an adjacent table (cringe!). However the waiters could have been easly on to the plate and wrapping paper situation, and if they had been paying attention surely they would have been.
Next the main courses came out. I understand that it was a big order but still the food was very staggered with some meals arriving long before others (and the last dish arriving just as we were finishing up). The rice also didn't come out until some time after the first dishes arrived, again a small thing but annoying. People didn't really want to start eating without rice and before some others got their food but there was no point in waiting around. Besides, we shared all the curries around so no one went hungry (and R managed to eat about double the amount that anyone else could!). So to the food... we got the nilgiri korma (mixed veg), malai kofta, palak paneer, aloo gobi, tandori angare, tandoori lamb chops, chicken tikka masala and a beef dish that I am not quite sure about. We also got some plain and garlic naan breads for the table. When the food arrived we tucked in. And the food was fantastic, really really good. We were very happy with the taste and quality of the food, but again service was patchy as we had trouble getting the attention of waiters at times. In the end we had just one too many dishes, but it was also good to try a wide range of curries. At the end of the meal there was enough left over to make two take away packs for the next day.
We had asked the waiter to put our birthday cake in the fridge earlier in the night, and when we tried to retrieve it (like many aspects of the meal), it was a long time coming. And this is on a night when they were not busy in the rest of the restaurant. They were also able to provide us with matches which was good of them (we did ask if they had any). When the cake eventually reappeared it was lucky that we were too full to bother about eating it because no plates were provided for the eating.... I had specifically asked at the restaurant when I booked about whether it was ok bring a cake and they said it was fine and it can't be THAT unusual to have cake after the dinner. So I stand by my point that they should have brought us plates with the cake. Lastly there is the matter of the bill. After we had decided to skip desert on account of being too full, we wanted to get the bill and get going. Various people in the party was all asked for the bill to be brought and after about 10 mins it still hadn't arrived so we asked AGAIN. Finally we were told we had to go and get it from the till, which seemed very unprofressional and led to Embarassing Bill Behaviour being conducted in the middle of the restaurant. I just don't like the exchange of cash and the examining of the itemised list in such public circumstances. Anyway, I would have far rathered that they brought the bill to the table for us to organise it there, and I really can't see a reason why they would not do this at a proper restaurant (it's not a fast food establishment). All up it was $265 (just over $29 per person) for a lot of good food and poor service, but we still had a good night.
In general, the wait-staff seemed unsure of themselves and didn't seem in control of what was happening in the restaurant. Also there was the matters of the substituted drinks, the slow response to requests, the tardy clearing of entree plates (and menus for that matter) and the refusal to bring the bill to our table. The manager swanned about the restaurant, occasionally making an appearance but seemingly not actually doing very much (he should have been monitoring his staff to keep an eye on any issues). I re-interate - we were very happy with the food, so I would suggest that these problems we experienced are with the management of the restaurant and not with the chefs. Therefore the problems are entirely fixable, but I doubt we will be going back there with a larger group any time soon when Jewel is just up the road (where the service is very attentive), and perhaps we can look at booking the smaller rooms there to minimise disturbance from noise in the restaurant.