I ordered the Desi Daaru – Old Monk, Thumbs Up, coriander, chaat, tabasco as my cocktail. It was nostalgia in a glass for a kid who grew up in India. The ThumsUp is a drink we had instead of Coke which was not allowed in India till the 90’s I believe. Old Monk is a rum that all my older cousins would drink around me. I would sneak a taste of it when I was 12 years old. For these reasons, I enjoyed this cocktail very much. If you don’t have the described memories – I’m not sure how you would feel about Desi Daaru. Imli offers a nice collection of cocktails to choose from though.
There is good news here. I have been to Imli 3 times and that means I like it.
The other good news is that if they fix their service – which really needs to be fixed… this could be one of the better Indian restaurants in NYC.
I met a couple of friends for brunch yesterday afternoon. We sat at the bar for a few minutes and were greeted by one of the owners – Vincent.
We moved to our table in the back which is a very attractive covered patio.
I enjoy sitting here and it is the perfect place to eat with the coolness of the air conditioning.
First, for the food. Then I shall address the service.
This is
Tandoori Chicken Salad
$11.99
Tandoori chicken, greens, red onions, dressing
It was surprisingly good. I mean what I imagined was not what came to the table. The chicken was tender and flavorful. It was topped with chutneys and seviyan or bhujia (fried chickpea snack akin to crispy vermicelli). This gave the dish a wonderful crunchy texture. I would definitely order this again.
A tiny complaint – the portion size was rather small for $11.99
My friend ordered the chicken and egg roll.
We had it the last time we were here too.
It’s quite a nice dish – the rolls are akin to a kathi roll. Meats rolled up in a flat bread similar to a tortilla. Actually, if you didn’t tell me that it wasn’t a kathi roll, I wouldn’t know that it wasn’t one.
My other friend wanted to order something from the regular menu which we asked for.
He had the Ginger Salmon described as
-Ginger, garlic and turmeric sauce on the menu – $22/-
It came with Basmati Rice on the side.
I took a little taste and I tasted something very sour – that is a good thing. I believe it was tamarind – but they don’t mention it on the menu. The salmon was cooked well and the flavors were pleasing without being too spicy.
I liked it very much as did my friend who is from India and so I will assume, knows Indian food. He also ordered a tandoori roti which he also liked very much.
When we had come for dinner a few months ago – I remember enjoying the roti which is thin and cooked perfectly in the tandoor.
I ordered the
Scotch Egg Burger
–
14.99
Brioche Bun, Scotch Egg Meatball, Garnishing. Fries.
Bacon (add $2)
The meat I believe was lamb was nicely seasoned. The egg yolk as you see was not overcooked BUT the egg white! I have no idea what they did to it. It was dry and crinkled as you can see in the right picture. I pulled it apart and tasted it separately thinking that maybe it was an ingredient that I wasn’t aware of.
No – it was egg white that was rubbery to the hilt. I think it got that way because the eggs were cooked at a very high temperature.
If there is a rolling boil as you hard cook eggs – it results in an awful rubbery texture in the egg white.
This is not to say that I will not order this dish again, but hopefully, if the powers that be are reading this – they will talk to their chef. It is a problem that can be fixed very easily and then I would recommend this dish wholeheartedly.
We finished our meal with a dessert called Paan Kulfi.
Kulfi is an Indian ice cream usually flavored with saffron and pistachios. Their twist was to flavor it with Paan which is a is a preparation combining betel leaf with areca nut. It is eaten in India after a meal as a digestive or a mouth freshener. It has a unique flavor which is hard to describe.
I am not one who is into sweets as a rule, but this was quite nice. It was not too sweet as many Indian desserts can be and the Paan flavor was prominent. One of my friends doesn’t like paan and so she didn’t like the dessert.. the other one did because he likes paan.
It was a special on the menu and so I don’t know if they will always have it. It is an acquired taste and so, for those who enjoy eating paan – should enjoy this dessert.
That takes care of the eating portion of our afternoon.
Now about the aforementioned service.
I am sorry to say the service at this place is lacking and that can greatly impact how a customer feels about a restaurant and if they will return.
The restaurant was not busy and our appetizer dishes were not cleared for too long. Then when the plates were taken away, our table was dirty with food that we had dropped as we were sharing. No one bothered to come and clean our table.
I finally took my napkin and cleaned the table because nothing irks me more than a dirty table.
I think our waiter realized and was then more diligent in cleaning our table.
For various reasons, including that I am in the food business – many people ask me for Indian restaurant recommendations. I happily send people to Imli but have received complaints of the service. This is a pity because I really like the food and the decor of this place.
It would be so easy to spruce up the service. Make the waiters more informed and watchful. Nothing major – but it makes all the difference.
Not to belabor the point, but there were three waiters that I saw in an almost empty restaurant – and so I see absolutely no reason for tables to go untended to, and maybe replace our napkins each time they take one away because it was dirty.
Now this is not a service related but kitchen problem – it took an abnormally long time for our food to arrive.
And the biggest surprise and disappointment was that all our food except for the salmon was cold. And I mean totally, absolutely cold. I am guessing that the other two dishes were made, held on the side while the salmon was prepared. The salmon was hot and the rice was cold. The waiter came and asked us if he could replace it for us – without us even saying anything. Maybe he touched the rice as he was walking it to us.
Okay, I’ll stop now.
To recap – I enjoyed the brunch that I had at Imli restaurant yesterday afternoon.
I was meeting my friends after a very long time and so the long wait before our food arrived did not bother us. It gave us a chance to relax and catch up. But if someone is on a schedule – and has somewhere to go… I can guarantee you – they would be upset and may not return.
Dear owners of Imli, please take my humble but pointed advice and you will have one of the most successful Indian restaurants in NYC.
Until I dine out again!
Indian Culinary Center, NYC 