Critic's Review
They have an awning now, but no outside seating. Not sure what the point of this is. It still smells bad next to the sewage treatment plant.
Review 2/9/16
I didn't really want to come to this place; I'm generally boycotting restaurants that won't put up a menu with prices. But with way too many suspicious reviews up I felt an obligation to check it out.
Moe's Southwest Closes, and an Indian "Fine Dining" restaurant opens in it's place. The name of this center is "Harbor Shoppes", so I guess that's where they got the name for the place. The interior is decorated with ship related decor; unfortunately there's no harbor within view. It's about a block away.
They stop serving at 2:30, so I had to get an earlier than usual start. I drove by at 1:40pm and the place looked empty; Great, I'd be sitting in an empty storefront restaurant. If there was something else in the area I might have gone elsewhere, but I decided to go inside.
There was one table of 2 in the back; a restaurant with more employees standing around than customers. I got a table on the side with a great view of the hostess stand, where the employees spent an hour hanging out and looking bored.
It's kind of odd; they have a bunch of girls at the stand, but 2 middle aged dudes did the serving. And they're not good at it. I opened the menu and ordered an iced tea as I pondered the menu. As suspected, the prices are way too high for lunch. Anything substantial was $18-$22. and it wasn't clear if the entrees came with bread or a salad. Nothing was explained. He brought out the tea, without sugar.
I think he could tell that I was straining to find something, so at this point he mentions that they have lunch sampler specials. One vegetarian and one with meat for $2 more. Ah, thanks for mentioning it. I'l have the one with the meat.
I taste the iced tea and it's flavored somehow; mint or something similar. I'm going to need sugar with this. I try to avoid waiving my arms so I'm looking at the dude who is sitting right in front of me with some woman who came in, but I can't get his attention. None of the girls at the stand are looking either. Finally I have to kind of shout, "Can I get some sugar please". Awkward, but necessary.
Bad Indian music fills the air. If you read this site you know my feelings about storefront restaurants that are all windows. A runner brings out the sampler.
Pretty small containers. I surmised that the orange block on top was the Tikka Chicken; usually it's something with a bone like a leg or thigh. I decided that I wanted to know what I was eating. It would been pretty basic for the runner or the server to tell me what each dish is, but there was none of that here. Indian food is often difficult to identify. Again, I can't get anyone's attention. I had to yell for the second time. My server dude didn't give me the names of the dish; he just rattled them off starting in the upper left: Mixed vegetables, Chicken Tikka Masala, lentils, salad, yogurt sauce, pickled something and fried cheese. The vegetables were curried.
The chicken was good; really the only thing I'd describe as good. They could have put a more interesting rice in the sample; this was just plain, unsalted, unseasoned basmati rice. Very bland and boring despite the 5 peas. I didn't like the cheese or the pickled stuff, and the salad was useless without dressing and was mostly chunks of red onion. The lentils were basically mush; edible but not particularly tasty.
Most disappointing was the bread. It wasn't warm and it wasn't brushed with ghee or butter. The bread usually saves the meal with me with Indian food, but this stuff was useless.
So while I was finishing up 3 out of towners rolled in and they were seated RIGHT NEXT TO ME, despite the now totally empty dining room. My iced tea was empty but it didn't phase any of the 2 girls or server dude. It wasn't that good, so I just asked for my check. So I put my card at the end of the table and nobody is taking it. I'm staring at the girls at the stand, and finally one of them comes over and takes it. While I'm waiting I become cognizant that my empty glass and the platter is still in front of me. When the girl brought back the check, she practically had to move the platter to put it down, but made no attempt to take anything away.
Meanwhile the 3 folks next to me kept looking at the menu without anyone making a choice; the server dude saw my empty platter and said "Oh, we have a lunch special". They all perked up and all 3 ordered the special.
Conclusion
I'm not sure of the background of the owners of this place, but they have no idea how to run a restaurant. From head to toe, this place is a service disaster. From not telling anyone the specials (as if they don't actually want you to order it), to not explaining anything about the menu to the totally incompetent service, I can't imagine how this place operates with more than 3 tables in the dining room.
Add to that prices that are out of touch with the area, and I stand by my prediction that they'll be doing an $11 buffet in a couple of months. Nobody is going to order a $22 plate of curry for lunch in this part of town. I also hate paper table coverings. It shows the restaurant is run by beancounters and not restauranteurs.
I don't particularly care for Indian, but it's a harder sell generally than Chinese or Burgers or Italian. There's probably a reason that there were exactly zero Indian restaurants east of 95 in Fort Lauderdale before this opened. Usually that can be an opportunity, but they're going to have to do a lot better than this.
I'll set the over/under at July 1. There's no idea here that has much chance of catching on.
Never a good thing.
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