Clay Oven Indian Cuisine
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
Phone: (818) 995-1777
08/08/2007 Posted by iversphoto
My wife and I visited this restaurant twice. On our first visit, the service was mediocre, but acceptable. Everything took a very long time, waiters went the entire meal without checking to see if we needed refills on drinks (which we did). Which I could understand if the restaurant was full, but there were only six tables of customers in the entire place. We ordered chicken and lamb tikka masala, and naan. Naan came out burned on the edges, no apology. Both tikka masala dishes were bland, with cheap, fatty meat in it. Despite the poor food and service, tipped the waiter extremely well (25%, thought they might just be having a bad night). Likewise, didn't complain or say anything rude to them, as my wife manages an extremely successful restaurant in Santa Monica and we completely understand that any business can have an "off night". We decided to give it another chance, so we made reservations for Valentine's day. Arrived on time, and we were seated. Then nothing. Twenty minutes passed (not an exaggeration, I checked my watch) and we didn't even receive water. No one took a drink order, asked if we'd like an appetizer. Nothing. Tried to flag down a waiter - was completely ignored. Finally flagged down a busboy, asked if we could get someone to take our order, he said OK. No one came by. Five more minutes went by. Meanwhile, the couple next to us (who had arrived 10 minutes later than us) had ordered, their food had arrived, and they were halfway through their meal. Finally, my patience at an end, I went over to the manager, stood three feet away from him, told him that we had been waiting twenty-five minutes and needed a waiter. He looked me square in the eyes, then turned away and completely ignored me. At that, my wife and I left. After all, there's no point in being treated terribly just to receive bad food. Don't know where all the 5-star reviews are coming from - there are way too many restaurants in the area that are so much better.
Pros: None - mediocre food, bad service
Cons: Everything - just an overall waste of time
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