The Colonial Neutral Bay

Food was ok! Service can be improved upon Good ambiance

Eat was okay! service can be improved on good ambiente

My wife and I have been here a number of times. Being a Saturday this time, the restaurant was very busy, too busy in fact because of the significant takeaway business. As a result the serving of the food to restaurant patrons was very slow and we noted others complaining. The food continues to be excellent. The only complaint in that regard is that there is insufficient chicken in the butter chicken dish relative to the very tasty sauce. Annoyingly yet again was the waitress taking the dirty cutlery from the entree plates and placing them on the main course plates not just our table but others as well. Should at least be asked whether one would like clean cutlery. Yet again the tap water served continues to be disappointingly room temperature because the bottles sit on a counter but they happily provide glasses of ice when requested. Notwithstanding what we regard as deficiencies, the restaurant continues to be our favourite Indian restaurant because of the quality of the food and availability of vegetarian dishes in particular the eggplant but disappointingly no more the pumpkin.

I unfortunately had a terrible experience as I was bitten by something fleas??? and came out in a terrible rash up and down both arms. I was sitting in a window seat and suspect something was in the carpet. My fellow diner did not have an issue, so I think I was just unlucky. I asked to be moved and that was done promptly after I explained the issue. Fortunately my fellow diner had an anti-histamine and after 30 mins or so the itching eased. I must say that the food was lovely, but I was disappointed that no one approached me at any stage to check if I was ok given the reason I needed to move. I'm going to be charitable and assume our waiter who didn't seem to have a strong grasp of English, may not have appreciated my issue. I was there to celebrate my birthday, so it was not an ideal experience.

Very average indeed. Took 20 minutes to be asked for our first drinks order and then another 15 for the drinks to arrive, albeit that they were not the drinks we ordered. The food arrived quickly though was lukewarm and tasted like it had been made offsite. The naan were almost stale and just warm, the lamb kofta was definitely reheated. The meal was expensive and left a bitter taste. Many better Indian restaurants in Neutral Bay.