Beyond India North Adelaide

The mood of Chinese New Year (Year of the Tiger) and Valentine's Day meets on this 14th day of February 2010. It may sound a bit cliche to have both auspicious and happy day occurring simultaneously on the same day.

I had to catch up with a friend this Chinese New Year and we went to Beyond India for dinner. It was a splendid restaurant and I would say that I have ever since fell in love with this restaurant. I could choose to have Chinese food instead of an Indian but for a change from my usual Chinese, so I decided to go to Beyond India.

We ordered a plate of Pilau Rice to accompany with Butter Chicken, Coriander Prawns and Plain Naans.

First Impression ~ Service

The waiter was not knowledgeable about his menu. I picked one dish which was on the Valentine's Day menu and he told me straight away, it wasn't on the menu. He took my friend's menu straight away and flipped around. If the waiter knows he couldn't remember all our orders placed in, he should have a Captain's Order slip to write it down. Unfortunately, he asked us "What was your order again?" It's frustrated to repeat it at times but I was being nice on Chinese New Year. Usually this is unacceptable.

Usually a basket of pappadums will be served to us without having asked the waiter to send it to the table once the order is placed but the pappadums only arrived about a minute or two (when asked) before the foods are served.

Plain Naan ($2.50 per piece)

Food Quality

I love the food in this restaurant. I simply have no doubts about the food they offered always. I couldn't really recall how many times have I been back to Beyond India. Every time, the food is just amazing but tonight, the restaurant failed us. It has to be the Coriander Prawns dish. The menu promises 8 prawns in the dish and the trust we received was only 7 prawns. It isn't really important but paying the price of $22.80 for that dish is not what I wish it to happen - probably you can blame it on Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year. Service recovery? Only $2.80 discount for that. One prawn cost $2.80 only?

Pilau Rice ($4.00 inc. GST)
trapped within vapours of saffron, cumin and clove

Ambiance

The restaurant has never failed me on any visit before to that restaurant. Overall, I simply like the restaurant. It has an open kitchen concept whereby you can actually see the chefs preparing food. This restaurant tries to maximize the capacity of space, thus it is really uncomfortable to sit most of the time as the waiters and waitresses tends to knock over on your tables and chairs (but many times, no sorry or pardon me was offered and they walked away as though there wasn't anyone).

Coriander Prawns ($22.80 inc. GST)

You never open a conversation with a guest with "So both of you guys are celebrating Valentine's Day as well? It makes us look like homosexuals and embarrassing at the same time. It is the Chinese New Year and we are catching up to celebrate this auspicious night. Fine, that's not about it. Usually a waiter will ask if the meal was all done before clearing the dishes away but this gentleman just clears one by one. While I was still nibbling some pappadums with some gravy from the Butter Chicken, suddenly I realized that all of it was missing including my own plate.

Butter Chicken ($18.50 inc GST)

Overall, this restaurant serves good food. I have good quality service rendered during non-peak periods but this restaurant had two new staffs who were on the floor during busy periods serving us with poor services rendered to us. For this meal, I would rate 5.5/10. This might be harsh but I do hope this restaurant will keep up with necessary trainings on its staffs. Service Recovery was extremely bad and they did not "kill" the problem at that point but asked to be reverted back by their Human Resources Manager. I find it ridiculous.

Trading Hours:

Open 7 days
Lunch 12pm - 3pm
Dinner 5pm - Late


Address:
170 O'Connell St
North Adelaide 5006 SA
Tel: 08 8267 3820
URL: http://beyondindia.net.au