before i start on how the experience turned out with respect to food, i would like to mention about how i noticed that most of the patrons that evening while i dined here were non indians. i just hoped at that moment that justice would be done to indian food here. why you ask? for non indians who have never visited india, this may be the closest they would come to indian food. so an indian or rather a foodie like me would want the food from her country to be represented in the best possible way . is it too much to ask, to be served authentic indian food? didn't think so!
husband and i visited kanishka on sunday prior to our customary indian shopping at bellevue. that's right we took a pretty big detour because of the ratings on yelp . the opening hours played a heavy hand as well.
the menu had quite a lot of options. we settled on a gobhi manchurian , a north indian thali , methi paratha , chicken pasanda. we were served gobhi manchurian first. it was very ketchupy for lack of a better word. that is not ideally how it should taste. it was a let down but the funny part is it turned out to be one of the best dishes we were served that evening.
the north indian thali was supposed to have three chicken dishes, three veggie dishes ,a chef's special and a dessert as per the menu.we received two chicken and four veggie dishes . the thali comes with a naan. thali comprised of chicken tikka , chicken butter masala??? , chola curry, dal, aloo palak , raita and another gravy which was clearly forgettable . i literally cant remember it. chicken tikka was the savior as it fared in between average and good.
the dal was strange but definitely didn't categorize as bad. the aloo palak had a slightly bitter taste which was off putting. the choley were a disaster. the chicken butter masala was the worst ! to be fair this is not the first time i have had such terrible chicken butter masala in seattle area before.
the chicken pasanda was a creamy gravy (yellow) and it somehow reeked of methi(fenugreek).
it was again not authentic at all.
the dessert which was the gajar ka halwa was not so bad. it was definitely not perfect. clearly the dessert was hurried as the shredded carrot deserved some extra stove time before the addition of the milk. anyway husband enjoyed it . he has clearly transitioned into american indian food in the five years here. i sure hope i never do.
the service although deserves a mention. i drink a lot of water and it was as though the server had telepathic power . everytime i took my last sip he would show up out of nowhere to refill my glass. oh dear server ! may god bless you!
a couple of them kept coming around to ensure everything was served. i would have liked to fill them in on what i felt about the food but i was not allowed to do so by my better half who clearly recognised how agitated i was with the entire culinary experience.
all this for 45$. my god . what a loss!
in short , i know there isn't much i can do to in the kind of food that is served at "indian" restaurants here but i wish the folks here understand that this is in no way authentic indian food that we indians are so proud of. i rarely declare anything about my cooking skills but i am surprised that i can cook better food than a restaurant. not so good for the restaurant huh?
* the review is objective and is on the basis of having devoured indian food for 26 years and four months across several restaurants and home. i for sure have very low tolerance for food that is labelled as something that it is not.i have recently moved to seattle area and am yet to find a spot that serves 'authentic' indian food. apologies for stressing on 'indian' so many times throughout the review. it was a much needed emphasis.*
namaste!