A perfect combo of catering, dine in and take out services with outstanding food

This past weekend I was invited to a friend’s birthday celebration which was being organized by another friend at her home. I inquired if it was a pot luck dinner and what could I bring but was informed that the food was being catered and thus just to come and enjoy the party.

I reached my friends home promptly at 9:00pm and then settled in after a round of hi n hellos. The hostess soon announced that the appetizers were set up and we should come and partake some of the ‘Aloo tikkis and Chole’. The tikkis and chole had been dropped off earlier in the evening and the hostess had warmed them up and when served they were a big hit with the crowd. The tikkis were perfect, soft inside with a slightly hard shell on the outside. The balance of flavors of the tikki was good and it was fried golden brown to perfection. If one wanted to eat them plain, without the chole you wouldn’t miss anything as they tasted great. However the addition of the chole which was spicy & little sour (khatta) took it to a higher level of deliciousness.

Once we were done with the appetizers, our evening moved onto playing dumb charades and then right before dinner time, the crew from Lally’s came back to drop off the dinner. One look at the food and we all decided to stop the game and attack the food :-). The dinner menu consisted of ‘Vegetable Biryani’, ‘Dal Makhni’, ‘Mixed vegetable subzi’, ‘Naans’, ‘Chole’, ‘Palak Paneer’ ‘Boondi Raita’ and ‘Salad’. From past experience I know that often when you get food catered from a restaurant you don’t get tasty food. At times the food is cold, too spicy or too bland, too oily and worse of all tasteless. However, the food from Lally’s was exceptional. It was warm when it arrived, it was very delicious with right amount of spices (though some of our friends found it a bit spicy), it tasted like authentic Punjabi food and not like a mix of Punjabi and Canadian/American flavors wherein the spices are reduced and toned down. While we ate there was almost complete silence (which I believe is a sign of good food as everyone is busy enjoying the meal rather than talking). A little confession, I think we all overate as the food was finger licking good.

Now that I have tasted the food from Lally’s catering services, will recommend them to all and of course have them cater my next get together too.

In addition to their excellent catering services, Lally’s also has a restaurant where you can choose to dine-in or take out. In the past I have picked up their ‘Vegetarian Thali’ often on my way back from work which comprises of ‘Rice’, ’Roti/Naan’, ‘2 vegetables’, ‘ 1 dal’, ‘Salad,’ ‘Raita’ and ‘Dessert’. Their selection for vegetarian food is good and the taste is excellent. Your options usually are ‘Dal Makhni’, ‘Mixed vegetable subzi’, ‘Chole’, ‘Palak Paneer’ ,’ Methi Aloo’, ‘ Sarson ka Saag’, Shahi Paneer’, ‘ Tadka Dal’, Rajma’, ‘ Sukhe Aloo’, ‘ Bhindi do Pyaza’, ‘ Karele ki subzi’ and much more. The dessert that accompanies the thali is either ‘Gajar ka halwa’ or ‘Gulab Jamun’ and they both are to die for. I have also had their ‘Chole Bhature’ which I think is the best chole bhature in the city and of course all their ‘Chaat’ items are great. They also have Indian sweets or ‘Mithais’ which are made onsite and are always fresh and yummy.

The restaurant’s forte is authentic Punjabi food which is priced reasonably and is served up with good customer service. Lally’s Sweets & Tandoori Restaurant is located at 499 Ray Lawson Blvd, Brampton, ON – L6Y 4E6 and their hours of operation are 10:00am – 9:00pm daily. As they are located in a strip plaza there is ample parking (except when it is Diwali and then you might need to search for sometime before you get a spot :-)).

The restaurant and catering service receives 5 stars in SRM’s book.

Delicious take out Indian food at India Bazaar Sweets

Review of India Bazaar Sweets

As you know, I am a combo of Bangali and Tamil cultures & grew up in Delhi. My mom, an amazing chef made sure that we developed a taste for Punju food & made it often in addition to the regular Bangali and Tamil food at home. So, when given an opportunity regarding what I wanted for dinner after a day of sightseeing I immediately jumped at the opportunity of take out from ‘ India Bazaar Sweets’.

If you are imagining a fancy desi restaurant then let me tell you that this it isn’t so as this is a small little outlet in a desi grocery store. They sell mithais, samosas, pakoras, thalis and other Punju dishes. I ordered a vegetarian thali which included Naan/Roti, Rice/ Hakka Noodles, 3 vegetables, 1 dessert, salad and pickle. I chose naan; rice and the 3 vegetables were Saag, Shahi Paneer, Baingan and Gulab Jamun for dessert. I was asked to wait 5 -7 mins as they had to make the naan. I browsed the store while I waited for my order to be ready.

As we were super hungry we opened the box as soon as we got home and noticed that thanks to the compartmentalized take out plastic thali the food hadn’t shifted and thus there was no mixing of flavors between the Gulab Jamun and Shahi paneer :-). The naan was huge, super soft, tasty and still warm, the saag was plain with just onion, ginger and butter which made it creamy, the paneer was soft & the balance of flavors in the gravy was perfect, the Baingan ki Subzi was a mash up of Bagara Baingan and Baingan do Pyaza. The accompanying jeera rice was soft yet fluffy/khila-khila and the pickles were tasty too. And by the time we reached the Gulab Jamun we had high expectations and thankfully we weren’t disappointed. Each and every vegetable dish was full of flavor and delectable and a treat for the mouth.

If you are looking for a good take out place where you can get delicious desi food at a reasonable price then head to India Bazaar Sweets (formerly known as India Bazaar Fresh Pik’s). And if you want to enjoy the dine in experience, wait for a month and their restaurant will be up and running. They are located at 10405 Kennedy Rd N Brampton, ON L6Z 4N7. Parking is free and there are lots of parking slots so finding one shouldn’t be a problem. The staff is courteous and very efficient ensuring all orders are handled in a professional manner.

They receive 4.5 stars in SRM’s book.

 

Veggie Chicken dishes rule at Indian Sweet Master

When I heard about the vegetarian options available at a particular Indian restaurant, my interest was piqued and I headed on over to try out the dishes and decide if they were as good as promised. So, we decided to visit ‘Indian Sweet Master’ in Brampton to check out their fare. As it was around 6.30pm the place was packed with people standing in line to place their order/ pick it up and the line zigzagged and reached the entrance door. Looking at how busy they were we almost walked away but the tantalizing aroma of the food made me rethink our decision and we decided to place our order. We did however change our minds regarding wanting to sit and enjoy a relaxing meal at the restaurant and instead decided to do a take-out. We placed the order for ‘Veggie Fish Pakora’, ‘Veggie Platter’ and ‘Veggie Chicken Biryani’ and were told that the wait time would be 30 minutes.

With time to spare we decided to browse the desi stores in the complex and do some grocery shopping too. When we returned to the restaurant in 30 mins, our order was ready and as we took it and sat in the car to head back home the aroma of the pakoras, tikkas, biryani was heavenly and it is a mystery how we didn’t gobble everything in the parking lot but managed to bring it home all in one pieceJ.

First up on our menu was the fish pakora which was soya wrapped in seaweed and besan and deep fried. One bite into it and I was stunned how close in texture it was to a fish pakora. The chutney that accompanied the fish pakora was okay, no great shakes, however just the pakora was great and it needed no accompaniment. A word of caution, if you don’t like the ‘fishy’ smell then don’t heat up the fish pakora too much in the microwave / toaster over as otherwise the fishy smell is overbearing and you won’t be able to eat it. (Learned that the hard way after toasting the leftover pakoras the next day and almost choking on the intense fishy smell, which did disappear after the pakoras cooled down).

Next we opened the box that contained the Veggie platter and boy was their portion size generous. There were 3 different kinds of veggie soy tikkas which resembled the chicken tikkas so closely that I was scared to take a bite, in case they had made an error and given me chicken tikkas instead of veggie. There were 6 pieces of soy tikkas (3 different marinades – plain yogurt and spices a.k.a seekh kebab +red color, yogurt and spices a.k.a. chicken tikka + green chutney a.k.a haryali kebab) , 3 pieces of paneer tikka, 1 piece of cauliflower, 1 piece tomato, 1 bell pepper and 1 large piece of onion ( all marinated in yogurt and spices and grilled). Each and every soy tikka, paneer tikka, tandoori vegetable was perfectly marinated and cooked. The paneer was soft and cooked to perfection and one could taste the marination when you bit into it instead of being bland. The tikkas were moist and flavorful and a treat for our mouths.

Even though we were stuffed after having ½ portion of the fish pakoras and ½ portion of the veggie platter we decided to taste the veggie chicken biryani. N boy am I glad that I did as it was yummy. The mix of the spices to the proportion of veggie chicken (soy chicken) was good. However there were a few things I didn’t like about the biryani, one of them being that it had too much of mint leaves and it seemed the kitchen staff had chopped up the leaves and stems all together or used dried mint leaves along with their stems and these stems and excessive leaves were a pain in the butt. We had whole stems chopped into pieces which were hard and if you bit into one just ruined the taste of the biryani. And I also think that they should have given a raita with the biryani as an accompaniment. The veggie soy chicken pieces were moist though the rice seemed a little undercooked (I guess to keep the rice fluffy/ khila-khila they undercook the rice which doesn’t seem necessary to me as have made biryani and have managed to make the rice fluffy yet soft).

We ended our delicious dinner by biting into ‘Petha’ which was succulent and melted in our mouths and was the perfect level of sweetness and end to our delicious meal.

I would say that a visit to ‘Indian Sweet Master’ is a must for all vegetarians who want to try tikkas, kebabs, biryani and pakoras. Their other menu items are also tasty though wouldn’t say very different from other Indian restaurants. A word of caution though, if you want to do a takeout then give them approx 30 mins as they are a very busy restaurant and you might be window shopping till your food is ready, which can be a good thing too ;-). Their prices are competitive; it was $6.99 for the Veggie Biryani, $5.99 for the Veggie Platter and $5.99 for the Fish Pakoras. If you want to go and have your meal in the restaurant, you can be sure you will get finger licking delicious food that will make up for the lack of peace and quiet. Parking is free and there are a lot of parking slots so finding one shouldn’t be a problem. The staff is courteous and very efficient ensuring all orders are handled in a professional manner.

Indian Sweet Master is located at 503 Ray Lawson Blvd Unit #7, Brampton, ON L6Y 0N2 and is open from 10am – 10.30pm daily.

The restaurant receives 4 stars in SRM’s book

 

Perfect combo of good food and customer service at India’s Taste

It doesn’t happen often that we go out for a meal on 2 consecutive days, however this weekend was one of those rare occasions that after trying Gurulukshmi on Saturday we decided to check out ‘India’s Taste’ in Brampton on Sunday (July 20^th,2014) for dinner.

When we walked in at 7.15pm the restaurant was already buzzing with activity. We approached the hostess and informed her we needed a table for 3 and she said she would check availably and if we wanted to do A-la-carte or the Buffet. Once we told her we were there for the buffet she went to check on table availability. As we drooled over all the ‘mithais’ on display near the check-out, the hostess came back and informed me it would be 5 mins as they needed to clean the table. The wait however was approx 2 mins before the hostess led us to our table and we decided to attack the buffet immediately :-). By the time we came back with our appetizers, the table had fresh glasses filled with water, cutlery, extra napkins and a water jug. The stewardess appeared as soon as we sat down to ask if we wanted ‘Chaat Papri’ and we told her we had already got some and so her follow up question was if we wanted ‘Dosa/Idlis’. We ordered 1 Dosa and also asked if we could have a ‘Tandoori roti’ instead of a ‘Naan’. She smiled and said she could certainly get the roti for us and the Dosa.

The stewardess brought us the Dosa and checked if we needed anything else and when we asked for a ‘Naan’, she smiled and went to place the order. We had decided to share the appetizers and they all were delightful. The choices varied from ‘ Paneer tikka’, ‘Gobhi Tandoori’, ‘Papri Chaat’, ‘Golgappe’, ‘Veggie Spring rolls’, ‘Aloo tikkis’, ‘Chane ki Chaat’,‘ Fish pakora’,’ Macaroni salad’, ‘ Green salad’,’ Corn salad’ to ‘Kebab’ n much more. We tasted the ‘Dosa’ next which was good too, however I felt the ‘Sambhar’ needed some more Sambhar powder and imli in order to get the perfect South Indian flavor. The accompanying coconut chutney was pure coconut without too much dal yet lacked the ‘south Indian tadka’ to make it really delicious. One thing I didn’t like was that there were pieces of ‘Vada’ in the Sambhar which weren’t too good and I would have preferred a plain vegetable Sambhar minus any vadas.

When we came back after helping ourselves to the main course, the table has been cleared of all the appetizer plates and the naans and tandoori rotis we had ordered were placed in baskets on the clean table. We dug into ‘Palak Paneer’, ‘ Methi Malai Paneer’, ‘Dal Makhani’, ‘ Bhindi do Pyaza’, ‘ Baingan Bharta’, ‘Saag’, ‘Jeera Chawal’, ‘Goat Curry’ and they were all yummy. Only thing that wasn’t yummy was the jeera chawal which could have been cooked a bit more as the rice felt kind of uncooked to us. The tandoori roti and naan were soft and warm which was a great accompaniment to the main course items.

Next it was onto the desserts and there were a lot of choices which ranged from ‘Gulab Jamun’, ‘ Gajrela’, ‘Rasmalai’, ‘ Tiramisu’, ‘ Fruit Cream’, ‘ Ice cream’, ‘ Assorted Pastries’. The tiramisu surprised us as we didn’t expect a great tiramisu in an Indian restaurant. The Rasmalai however was another story as the milk hadn’t been thickened enough and the dumplings were kind of hard and it was too bland. The fruit cream, mango ice cream and Gulab Jamun made up for it as they were outstanding.

Once our stomachs were full we sat n relaxed and chatted and our stewardess never once came by to hurry us up or bring over the bill. When the food had settled a bit we left the restaurant after paying the bill n tipping the stewardess who gave us a smile on our way out.

I think some of the things that made our experience at ‘India’s Taste’ memorable were the food which was finger-licking good, the ever smiling stewardess who hovered in the background and anticipated our needs yet never once was over-bearing or rude, the ambience which was tastefully done up and very clean and last but certainly not the least would be the fact that the owners of the restaurant were there all the while and interacting with guests/stewardesses in order to ensure that things moved along smoothly.

I would recommend checking out India’s Taste (900 Ray Lawson Blvd, Brampton, ON – L6Y 5H7) if you are looking for delectable food and great customer service.

India’s Taste receives 4 stars in my book.

 

Excellent food awful customer service a combo at Guruluxmi

I never thought I would start writing my food blog with a review for a restaurant however I guess u got to take the plunge at some time so why not with a restaurant review 🙂

I went to Gurulukshmi on July 19th, 2014 for lunch. I had made a reservation for 1.30pm and as my friends were late coming in from Buffalo,NY, I explained the same to the hostess who informed me that once my friends arrive, I could tell her and she would make sure we got a table.

Once my friends arrived, we were seated immediately, however there was no one to take us/guide us to our table and we were told it was table # 4 and we found the table and settled in. As soon as we sat down the server brought us the menu cards and within 2 mins came to our table and asked  ‘ Are u ready to order, any suggestions’ . When we said we were waiting for someone and needed more time he walked away and returned again in 3 minutes with ‘ Are u ready to order, any suggestions’ . We did explain that we were waiting for our friend who would be there soon and we wanted to wait for him, however the server told us maybe we should order our appetizers and then if needed can order the main course once our friend arrived. We arrived the ‘Cocktail idlis in sambhar’ and 2 sodas and 1 lassi. The appetizer arrived within 3 mins and then again the server asked if we needed any suggestions and so we decided to order our main course. We ordered the ‘Paneer masala dosa’, ‘ Ghee masala dosa’ and ‘Chettinaad masala dosa’. Thereafter, our friend arrived and we asked for another menu and it seemed our server wasn’t too happy as he had to come back to take the order. The last main course item was ‘Rava masala dosa’.

The first 3 dosas arrived and then we had to wait 15 mins for the last dosa. The server then came back at 2.30pm to inform us that it was ‘Last Call’ and if we wanted to place any order we should do so immediately. We ordered ‘Filter Coffee’ for all 4 of us. However, we had to wait 20 mins for the coffee to arrive and before the coffee arrived our server slapped the tab on our table and walked away. We were surprised as he didn’t even say the usual – I am leaving the bill here, but please take your time. Once we noticed that there were people strolling in and being seated we asked another server if we could order dessert and he said we could and gave us the menus. We managed to catch our servers attention with a lot of difficulty and when we ordered a plate of ‘Rasmalai’ and ‘Gulab Jamun’, he didn’t acknowledge it but instead picked up the bill went to his station, made the changes and slapped the new bill and walked away.

Our coffees arrived followed by the dessert. We had mentioned that the 4 of us would sharing the dessert however we got only 3 spoons and thus asked for 1 more spoon. Our server came back after 10 mins and plonked 3 spoons on the table and walked away without a word.

Our server never once checked on whether the food was good, whether we wanted to order anything else. The food was finger licking good however the level of customer service provided was so poor that it made our experience awful.

Expected much more from Gurulukshmi as been a customer for quite a few years and never experienced this attitude. I guess moving to a bigger location meant they gave up on providing good customer service and made up for it by having a shorter wait time for seating and food.

My conclusion after seeing our server interact with other guests in our area is that you talk to your server in Hindi , keep asking them for suggestions (even if u know what u want  and understand the menu ), don’t try to add desserts to your order once you have ordered the main course or flirt with him (like the girls on the table next to us) and you will get better service. Maybe next time we will implement these into our modus operandi and then perhaps we will get good service that will match the great food.

Gurulukshmi receives 2.5 stars in my book.