It's really not easy to write a 2 star review of a place that has proportioned me so many wonderful…read moreauthentic Indian meals in Brazil overt the past few years (in their other restaurant though !)
This unit of Samosa & Company is an ambitious undertaking by the owners, kudos to that but then what is ambition if it isn't well managed. The space is well decorated and much more spacious and larger than the other unit at Padre Machado - Vijay, the owner, is cordial as always and I was really looking forward to eating here BUT and that is where the gravy train skids off the tracks - they really need to get their act together. Let me get to the nitty gritty of it :
a. It was a really hot evening but that is no excuse for the beer not to be chilled - nothing like ice cold beer served at a quick rate to soothe the nerves. The beer wasn't that cold, the service was slow and we really needed to push the servers to get more beer.
b. I was waiting for a few friends to show up but the server came over like 3 times to ask me if I was ready to order the starters and after I told them that we were waiting for friends to come over, they still kept popping up and asking us to order. So we did order, their mutton 'samosas' and to our surprise, it wasn't available - this is on a Friday night at around 8-8:15 pm with the restaurante not even half full...ok, so we ordered the veg samosas which took over 20 minutes to come.
c. Starters -
i. Samosas - their trademark dish - has been reduced dramatically in size and quality.
ii. Pakodas - if waiting for over 20 minutes gets you a plate of 'not-so-fresh' fritters, I wonder what would come next.
iii. Chicken Tikka - Needed a lot more marinating. Overall the starters bombed and together with the slow, unresponsive service it felt worse
d. Main Course - This took like over an hour, yes over an hour to come ! We were ready to cancel our order and walk out (as quote a few tables had already done, due to the slow service) but the food came and I won't complain, their main course, comprising of their house dal, mutton vindaloo & hands chicken, was good and satisfying - this is where their strength is. If only they can fix their service area.
e. Dessert - We tried the gulab-jamuns & the indian kulfi : both were quite nice and surprise oh, surprise !!!....they didn't take long to come
The major problems at Samosa& Co. (Al. Jau) are :
- Insufficient & untrained staff
- Too elaborate a menu : over 70 different food types
- Kitchen size is too small for the salon
- Fix their samosas - after all its their trademark dish !
I am rooting for this place to do well and I am going to return to see if they have improved : their strengths are their main courses and the desserts.
I would love to recommend this place but for now better stick to their Padre Machado unit.