We recently dined at Riwayat, which I've seen described as a Pakistani or Southern Asian restaurant. I believe they recently opened. The space is lovely. The chairs were very comfortable. Service was generally friendly and attentive, although I'll discuss one issue at the end of the review that may be cultural, rather than a missed opportunity.
Collectively, my family ordered the Chicken Lollipops, Tokri Chaat, Chicken Biryani, Shrimp Tandoori, Beef Haleem, Palak Chicken, plain naan and a Peach Blossom Spritz. Overall, the food generally ranged from pretty good to good. I'm not an experienced eater of Pakistani food. So I'm speaking more to traditional food standards, rather than authenticity.
My favorite dish was the Chicken Biryani. The bone in dark meat chicken was reasonably tender. The rice had good texture and flavor.
The chicken for the lollipop chicken was tender. The sauce was decent.
The Tokri Chaat had good flavor, color and texture. The chaat ingredients were cold, as if they had just been pulled from the refrigerator. In my experience, the chaat type ingredients, are usually more room temperature.
The spinach gravy for the Palak Chicken had good flavor, but it was less viscous than I'm used to.
The Beef Haleem was a completely new experience for me. It seemed to be a puree of lentils, wheat, beef and spices. It was well plated, with slivered ginger and jalapeno slices. I didn't really connect with the dish, but it seemed well executed.
The naan was about average.
I'm not sure if an issue we experienced with water for the table was a cultural issue, or a missed service opportunity. We weren't served water automatically. And at least 10 minutes passed before we decided to ask for water. After we asked, a few more minutes passed, and our server brought a bottle of Saratoga water. My family drinks a lot of water, rather than soda or other beverages, when we dine out. So we finished that bottle pretty quickly. We had to ask for another. We were not charged for these bottles btw. I noticed another table did not have water either. So I'm not sure if this is a cultural issue, or if they were just behind on this particular night. I will assume the former and not downgrade my review score. Although I have to say for the restaurant's benefit, whether or not we promptly get water in a restaurant without having to ask, would affect whether we frequent a restaurant. I think the same is true for many people.
Overall, our experience was about 4 Stars. I wish Riwayat luck with its restaurant opening. read more