Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Coriander leaf, Gurgaon - Won't go here again.

Address:
Vatika Triangle, Sushant lok-I, Block-A, MG Road, Gurgaon 122002
Ph: 0124-5062121,
email: Corianderleaf at vatika group dot com <all together>

We at this expensive, hot but really pretty restaurant on the 6th of June 2008. There were 3 of us. We were looking forward to this meal. We got a reasonably nice table at 9PM on Friday night but I suggest you reserve in advance. The place gets crowded and they mostly have small 4 tops.

As soon as I sat down I was accosted by a Finlandia sales guy who wanted us to buy Finlandia cocktails so that we could enter a lucky draw. The guy was ok.. so we bought 2 cocktails and a beer.

We ordered starters, which were all good. I guess we were really hungry. We had a veg. tandoori combo, which was good. The paneer tikka was wonderfully flavored and melt in your mouth soft. The veg seekh was also good. We then ordered the main course. We had very a standard fare, Dal Makhani, Murgh tawa masala and Paneer Makhani.

This is where things suddenly went downhill.

The wait for the meal was incredibly long. I even went to the restroom in the main vatika building - since they dont have a toilet inside. Even after that we had to wait atleast 25 minutes to get the food after our table was cleared of the starters.

All the main course dishes were too spicy. The garlic nan was outrageously expensive at Rs 65. Even the standard roti was for 30 rupees. I wonder what they put in it to make it so expensive. The service was poor. We were not served in time. We had to ask for waiter buy shouting for attention.

The place is really noisy and hot. The noise is because of all the glass walls and not because of the music. The AC does not seem to cool down the restaurant enough for Delhi's hot summers. The place was really expensive as well. Our total bill was 2790/- for the 3 of us. What really irritated me was the 220 rupees service charge. Why should I be forced to pay 220 bucks. Further, I dont think this money would go to the server.

Can you really imagine a restaurant being ethical enough to give "all" of the service charge to the waiter serving the meal? This is something I need to investigate further.

Here is the bill breakup:


Finlandia small - 598
Beer - Kingfisher - 185
Tandoori combo veg. - 295
Paneer Makhani - 335!
Dal Makhani - 240
Murgh Tawa masala - 345 (only 10 rs more than the paneer)
Garlic Naan - 45
Plan Naan - 110 (55 each)
Tandoori roti - 30
Sub total - 2203
Service Charge - 220.30!
VAT Alcohol - 172
VAT Food - 195.25
Total - 2790

I dont think we are going here again.