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Mayuri Reston, VA Indian Restaurant
| Address Mayuri Indian Cuisine
2316 Hunters Woods PlazaReston, VA 20191 Closed
Other Virginia Indian Restaurants |
Closed
|
Mayuri Reston: Gods in the Kitchen; Devils in Dining Room
Folks, is there a recession in the U.S. or what?
You say, we’re living in a depression.
You sure?
Then why the f**k is Mayuri Indian restaurant in Reston (Virginia) so full and why are people standing in line at the entrance, signing their names in a black-book and waiting for their names to be called out.
Aha, maybe, there’s an illegal desi striptease here!
Alas, this is no striptease joint. No showing of the brown-skin we so dearly love.
Folks, the long line attests to the sterling quality and filling quantity of Mayuri’s food.
Not even all the clownishsh antics of the wait-staff devils in Mayuri's dining room can mar the dining experience at this Northern Virginia Indian restaurant.
Mayuri is a cornucopia of delights - for both the gourmand and the gourmet.
Mostly Tasty Appetizers
Alu Bajii was hot unlike at most Indian restaurants where appetizers get short shrift and are rarely even lukewarm.Idlis were soft, fluffy and yummy with the accompanying carrot-onion Sambar.
Utappam encrusted with onions, green chillies and cilantro looked and, more importantly, tasted like the authentic stuff with and not the white hard mass that other Virginia restaurants like Angethi dish out.
Sambar, Chutneys
Carrot-Onion Sambar was hot and flavourful though we felt a bit more of tamarind would have lifted it into the out of the world category.Tomato and Coconut Chutneys were fresh unlike in some of the Virginia Indian restaurants like Rangoli where they serve freezing cold Chutney. Mayuri’s Tomato Chutney was sour but not spicy enough for our hardened palates. But the Coconut Chutney was too much on the bland side.
Mostly Spicy Vegetarian Fare
Panner Makhani was easily the vegetarian curry that we enjoyed the most.Flavorful with a medium thick creamy tomato sauce neither too spicy nor bland, we enjoyed the Panner Makhani with Poori, Plain Rice, Vegetable Fried Rice and Chicken Dum Biryani.
Close on the heels of Panner Makhani was the tasty Baingan Bartha made of mashed egg plant and tomato. Fortunately, it was not dripping with oil as it often is elsewhere.
Gobi Manchurian was crisp and slightly sour while Karela Fry was tasty. When mixed with plain rice, the tomato+onion Dal was a winner.
Vegetable Fried Rice with Carrots, Onion and Capsicum was reasonably warm, flavourful but had way too much oil.
Alas, cheap quality of rice and lumps marred the pleasure of Curd Rice that came with cilantro and mustard seasoning but with the Mango Pickle it was still a delight.
Sure, there were some big misses.
Among the vegetarian items, Channa Masala was an utter disaster. Lacking any flavor, it tasted as if a big heap of chilli powder had been mindlessly dumped into boiled Channa. Plain awful.
Mostly Tasty Non-Vegetarian Curries
Chicken Tikka Masala made of chicken breast cooked in masala sauce was a treat that we relished with both Poori and rice.Ginger Chicken made of boneless chicken was tender and tasty though we’d have liked it better if it were a tad spicier.
Make sure you leave room for the Chicken Biryani. Boy, was this great.
Cooked with boneless pieces of Chicken and spices, Mayuri’s Chicken Dum Biryani was awesome.
Tandoori Chicken was just OK, no different from what we’ve had at scores of other Indian restaurants.
Alas, Chicken Jalfrezi turned out to be a spiceless watery mess. Yuck.
Good Poori, Horrible Naan
Poori was well puffed up, hot and tasty.But Mayuri’s Naan was one of the worst Naan breads to have touched our lips.
They were hard, cold and tasted terrible. Luckily since Poori, Chicken Biryani and Vegetable Fried Rice were good we did not suffer much.
Mayuri Desserts
We topped off our lunch with Gulam Jamun, Banana Kulfi and Mango Ice Cream.Gulab Jamun was divine with the warm sugar syrup and Mango Ice Cream was tasty with a strong mango flavor.
But steer clear from the Banana Kulfi.
Although the Banana Kulfi had a nice banana flavor it lacked the smoothness of Kulfi with too many icy flakes. Also, it had so little sugar that we wondered if it was aimed at diabetics.
Devils in the Dining Room
Like most Indian restaurants in the U.S. the achilles’ heel of Mayuri is the atrocious service in the Dining room by the clueless waitstaff.When we entered Mayuri around 12:50 pm we saw a group of six people waiting near the entrance. The moron behind the cash counter never told us and some others who were waiting that we had to enter our names in a black-book to be called in the order of first come first serve basis.
We realized that we had to enter our names as we saw other people who came after us (presumably regulars) entering their names in the book.
After waiting for about six minutes, a short waiter called our names and showed us to a four seat table. Barely had we settled into the chairs, when a tall waiter appeared out of nowhere and brusquely asked us to move to a different table. This time it was a booth. We did not say anything and as ordered moved to the new table.
The second tall waiter cleaned up the table and brought water glasses and a water jug. He filled up the water glasses and quickly disappeared without caring to offer us napkins or spoon, fork and knife.
The clumsy bunch of clowns never realized even later that they hadn’t given us either napkins or silverware. We picked them up from a corner table.
Worse, they never cared to remove the used plates from our table promptly and never refilled our water glasses until we were ready to leave.
However, such is the quality of Mayuri’s food overall that we’d ignore the stain of the poor service. - © VAIndia.us