Address: 107 Bridge Mall, Ballarat, VIC 3350
Dinner for two: entree, main course, non-alcoholic beverage = $60
I have been of plenty of Indian restaurants, and never have I witnessed such shocking food, service, ambience, and value for money. I went to Ballarat, and checked into Tandoori Oven restaurant situated in Bridge Mall. I was hoping for a nice, quiet Indian dinner but instead got “crap all” for the money I spent. Watch out for the loud phone! It’s bloody loud and annoying!
Food
My microwave can cook better than what I ate. I ordered a mattar paneer, and I could tell that it was reheated crap. The top surface was warm, but the the core was cold. The entree was just as worse, the samosa was served with soya sauce and vegetables but no mint chutney despite asking a few times on the night. Never mind asking for water, it just won’t show up. More in the service section.
Service
They had 1 waitress for 7 stables. The ratios were poor. The entree took 40 minutes to come, and the main took another 30 minutes to come. The food was just thrown onto the table, and the waitress didn’t explain which was which. Sure enough she had tons of other customers to handle. The restaurant should never have 1 waitress for dinner servings. The water never came, despite asking a few times. We just gave up, and eat hot curry without any water. We even saw the some random guy (presumably the owner) who brought his grand child into the restaurant and walked around trying to calm the child. At this point, I was quite amused!
Value
The bill was around $60 which one would think is a pretty good deal for a dinner for two, but in the context of my experience it was throwing money in the bin. Totally not worth it.
Suggestions
Here are just a few, owners pay attention:
* Put more serving staff, don’t be stingy!
* Keep the phone volume down, why is it so loud
* Make sure your staff explain the dishes, and also I suggest throwing of food is not appropriate
* Improve the lighting in the restaurant, it is very dark
* Keep your family where they belong, which is not in the middle of a restaurant
* Always ask for feedback from your customers: “how was the food tonight?”, “is there anything else we can do”
I could just keep going, but doing these things will bring you up to a pass level (and keep you busy). Then we will think about things further.
Rating – 2/10 (very poor)
I would never go there, nor will I recommend anyone else to go there.
I found this review of this wonderful restaurant quite unfair. My family and I are regular eaters at this restaurant and have never experienced anything like this. The staff are always polite and helpful and the food is nothing but tasty. Before you assume, no I am not Indian, I am a Aussie born and bred who believes in giving everyone a fair go.
I give this business a 4/5 everytime.
hi vicky, i am glad u enjoyed ur experience at tandoori oven. good to share it with us. i must say my experience was very poor as reflected in my review. having said that, my opinion is not universal and i appreciate your input. perhaps if i head ballarat way, i will give tandoori oven another chance. i happen to live very close to tandoori oven when i stayed in ballarat, and often saw the chef and waiters lingering outside smoking, especially at the back where the mcdonalds drive thru is.
so it did put me off a bit.
Hi, recently I and 5 friends went to have a meal at the tandoori oven.
When I first entered the restaurant it had an unfriendly feel about it and staff that didn’t even smile. When I sat at my table to join my friends, I found out that a waiter had come to the table to take orders for drinks. One said they would like 1 beer and then the waiter walked off before anyone else could order drinks. A waitress then came back to the table with 2 beers, as my friend only ordered 1 beer, he advised her of this and see said “no you ordered 2″ and wouldn’t leave the table until he took both. Wouldn’t this be against responsible service of alcohol??? And isn’t the customer always right??? Obviously not in this case.
Once the beer had placed on the table one other friend was able to order a drink but once again the waitress left without getting the all the drink orders. This is where I joined the table and found out what had already happened.
5 minutes after joining the table a waiter bought menu’s to everyone, we had to ask again to order drinks. One order was an OJ, pretty straight forward seeing juices are on the menu, only that my friend had to repeat herself 5 times while the waiter just stared at her and said nothing. Finally it was my turn to order a drink, where I ordered a Lemon Ruski, which was listed on the menu.
10 minutes later some drinks turned up to our table in a muffin tray. I saw that my drink was not there and the waitress was saying something so quiet that I could not hear as I was on the other end of the table and she would not walk around the table to give the drinks. Finally I guessed that she was telling me that there was no lemon ruski’s, already feed up with their poor service, I asked for a coke zero, which was also listed on the menu.
15 minutes later no drink had turned up. How it would ever take that long to receive a coke, when there is only 3 tables of people there, amazed me.
Finally the waitress came back to the table, no drink, no smile. She asked us what we would like to order. My friend had to ask her where my drink was. And once again she spoke so quietly that I could not hear her. I once again guessed they did not have my drink but did not come back to tell me, just left me on the table without a drink.
We all looked at each other appalled and decided we would leave. We asked her for the bill as we would not be eating here. She looked at us blankly and stood there and asked us why? “Because your service is atrocious!” She still stood there and we had to repeatedly ask for the bill.
The ones with drinks, finished them off so we could leave. No bill came to the table, so we all stood up and left. 2 friends waited to pay for the drinks while the rest went next door to the Tokyo Grill House to see if they could fit us in.
While we made a booking next door, we came back out to find our 2 friends still standing inside waiting to pay. The waitress had not organised the bill for them, she had not spoken to them, she then went and answered a call for take-away. After 10 minutes of them waiting she finally organised the bill.
For a restaurant which we only ended up having drinks at, it was the worst experience I have ever had, and I think all my friends would agree. I am happy we left before we ordered as I think it would have just got worse.
If anyone is thinking of going here, don’t waste your time with crappy service and ambience. Just go next door to the Tokyo Grill House. Once we were seated, we had menus within a minute and drinks within 5 minutes. The service there is the complete opposite to the Tandoori Oven and it was a great experience because of the staff and the food.
thanks everyone to put all the comment for tandoori oven indian resturant on this website.
what raja put the comments for tandoori oven those comments were all wrong because in his first comment he said that it will took 40 min to get his entree that is totally wrong because it only take 10-15 min to cook entree .
2. second thing he said that he saw chef was smoking. but the truth is chef did ot somke in his life. that is totally was raja’s mind making things and that is not true.
3. he also said that his son was playing in the resturant with random man that’s totally wrong because at that time that man was in india.
i personally belives that he just have personal revenge to that owner beacuse food is really good and i never eat this good food before.
Famous people ate in resturant: -
1.) Ian Haley:– The Great wicket keeper for australia.
2.) David Boon:- The Great cricket player for australia
3.) Catherine King MP:- Federal Member for Ballarat.
And Many more……
I think you mean Ian Healy.
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Re; comment 5,
Do you work at that restaurant kuljinder?
With your bad Spelling, I’m guessing that you said the the owner has never smoked in his life?
I used to work there as a waitress, and knew the owners well and that is a lie.
I will be honest and and say that I do not like the owner, he is a pig. I’ve never worked for anyone worse in my life.
The only good that has come from me working there, is that i appreciate the work that I do now a lot more.
Avoid this restaurant like the plague.
Wow I have to say this is great. Even writing that post must have taken you a seriously long time. Thanks for your effort!
I have also been a waitress at the tandoori oven. i worked for one night and that was enough. the owner is an arrogant pig. it was the worst working night of my life and i quit at the end of my shift. i was sick of returning food for being cold and food taking a long time to go out!!! Dont eat here its revolting!!!!
what is truly amazing is the longevity of this place, given the astonishing and ongoing complaints about it both here and in other forums…Where are the happy supporters (above) eating? Surely it is not the same place??I cannot believe the owner/s have any interest whatsoever in making a living as restaurateur/s, as this place is so absolutely appalling. Witnessed it first-hand myself recently…worse than awful…the food we did eventually get (55 minutes from order to 1 only entree appearing, still smoking, mostly burned, mostly inedible).we left early on , which seemed to encourage a walk-out by other disgruntled diners…on no account should anyone pay for food here…Is there an agenda by the owners to have it shut down?? a convenience store WOULD be much more profitable?? WAKE UP BALLARAT COUNCIL!!! Is there no way to shut down a business so clearly determined to be the worst of its kind?? Is there no cultural slurring occurring by this place…How come the rest of the tandoori oven cooking restaurants in australia, or for that matter, the world, don’t rise up and blackball this place? It’s giving you all a bad reputation…
The sad thing is that they don’t have to be profitable as a restaurant. Just one of many other restaurant’s making a fortune by ripping off international students for thousands of dollars to show fake work experience so that they can get permanent residency. . .
The quicker the government shuts down these scam the better…
In the mean time, as everyone else has mentioned…avoid it like the plague…