Manzabar "It's an interesting question, "what do I want for dinner?""

Tomaso’s serves up the best deep dish in town. Their Detroit Deep Dish style is especially good, with the way the cheese goes up and over the edge of the crust and carmelizes there. Yum!

I had heard from friends the service at Taste of India had improved and yesterday had the opportunity to check it out for myself. I got to the restaurant about quarter until one, walked inside and was seated immediately.

At this time of day, they only serve a lunch buffet. So after being show to my table, I headed over to the buffet. It was well stocked, steaming hot (my glasses literally steamed over while looking at the food). Everything looked & tasted very fresh.

I give them bonus points for having both rice & mango puddings in the desert section of the buffet (side note: I highly recommend taking 1 scoop of each & mixing them for your desert).

But I have to take away some of those points for having the most flavorless chicken tandoori I have ever tasted. It looked like chicken tandoori, but tasted like plain chicken (no seasoning/spicing flavors at all).

Taste of India is located in an oddly shaped strip-mall like building. I first spotted it when driving by to get lunch with a co-worker. A few weeks later, the food blogger for my local paper wrote up quite a favorable review for it and I ended up having dinner there with some friends. That first time was fabulous. The service was quick and friendly. The food was fresh, hot and delicious.

This past weekend we went back to the restaurant and things were quite different. Since we were a party of 5 and we wanted to around 5:30PM on a Saturday, we called ahead to make sure there wouldn’t be a wait. We were told that would be fine and we also were able to get one of their traditional tables, “where diners can take off their shoes, lean back on some cushy pillows and sit cross-legged on a raised floor.”

Our friends got to the restaurant ahead of my wife and I by about 10 minutes. When we walked in, we looked around the restaurant till we heard them calling out to us. As we headed around to the table, I heard the waitress/hostess say something like “good you found your friends”. Then we got over to the table, sat down and waited. And waited. And waited.

Finally, I got up walked back around to the front and told the waitress/hostess we had all arrived and we’d like some water and menus now. She came back a minute later with those items and was reasonably efficient in taking our orders. However when consulted about one of the dishes on the menu, she was unfamiliar with it and read the menu description in an attempt to answer the question.

When we placed our orders, we specifically requested that they split the bill up into 3 separate checks. This will be relevant later in this review.

We also ordered their “Basket of Assorted Breads” appetizer. It showed up promptly and our party happily munched away at while chatting amongst ourselves as we waited for our dinner. A co-worker of our friends sat down at a nearby table. The exchanged pleasantries and then we went back to our own conversations. 30 minutes pass and no food arrives. 45 minutes pass, still no food for our table but the table with our friend’s co-worker receives their food. An bit more than an hour passes and tempers are starting to flare as we continue to wait on our dinner.

At last, my wife has had enough with this patiently waiting and goes to see what’s taking so long. She comes back a minute later, saying they told her our food will be out momentarily. And lo, she barely had time to finish telling us this when a different waiter comes out with our food. Our food which judging from the temperature has probably been sitting in the kitchen for the past 15-20 minutes (e.g. they were lukewarm at best). The waiter who brought our food over seemed tired and distracted, but he was polite and efficient. If I remember correctly, he was the same waiter we had when we’d been in for dinner previously. A bit later, our original waitress came back to check on us but said something more than a little odd. I didn’t catch it at the time, but my wife repeated it to me later. The waitress came back to say she didn’t realize the rest of the wait staff wasn’t bringing back our food and then she asked if we’d like her to apologize. Excuse me? We’ve been waiting for over an hour and you’re asking if we want an apology?

It’s a real shame that the service was like this, we had been planning on introducing other friends to this restaurant. But after this evening of horrible service I could not recommend the restaurant to anyone. My wife and I might give them one more chance, but I’m in no hurry to go back at this point.

Oh and my earlier comment about asking for separate checks? When the brought us the bill, it was all on one check. Maybe they were expecting to break it up at the register, but after all the other failures in their service that evening it was just one more mark against them.

While visiting friends in the Minneapolis area, twice they’ve taken us to this restaurant for Sunday brunch. Before this I’d never had dim sum but I have to say I quite enjoy it. The staff continually walks around the room with either trays or carts loaded with a variety of dishes. Each dish only contains a small portion and the staff marks down on your bill how many of each item your table orders during your meal. I’d particularly recommend trying the pineapple buns while you’re there. It’s a lovely sweet pastry/bread with a pineapple flavored custard in the center.

My boss took our team out for a “business lunch” to Beckett’s the other day and I was highly impressed. The staff were quick and courteous. They have Strongbow Dry Cider on tap and the food was outstanding.