10/25/09

Just by the looks of the menu, can tell it's not authentic

by mwhip

As a person of Indian descent, I've tried Indian food not only from my native country but also in Australia, England, and 5 states. I've passed by Bombay Cricket Club many times and have never even been tempted to go inside, even on days when my craving for spices reached an exponential height.

First of all, I may be overreacting, but I have a major problem with them calling their menu "the exotic and delicious recipes of India AND THE MIDDLE EAST." The Middle East and India are completely different areas of the world, with different types of foods. Now, if this were a fusion restaurant or the type that would serve both kinds of food, I wouldn't have such a problem but if you browse the entire menu, you can see that there isn't a single Middle Eastern food item on it except for the salads.

To me, everything from the menu and the lack of any Indian staff tipped me off that the food wouldn't be authentic, but maybe more suitable for the American palate (hence the mixed reviews about the food.) If you notice, for those well-accustomed to Indian dining the food was horrible whereas others that may prefer a more toned-down taste may have found it 5-star. But all-in-all, it probably isn't real Indian food. Real Indian food would mostly likely be found at some hole-in-the-wall in Beaverton, if anywhere in Oregon, at half the price and twice the flavor.

• Pros: Probably nothing
• Cons: Everything

10/06/09

Don't Believe The HYPE...

by hawaii71

I usually do not take the time to write reviews because I frankly do not have the time, and I have worked in the biz for years so I understand it is not easy. Unfortunately, I had a less than stellar experience upon my first visit to BCC, and it continued once I left the restaurant and made a call to the female owner.

The taste of the food was fine...had no issues. We ordered the lamb shank, which was one of the most expensive entrees on the menu. When my spouse went to take her first bite, she discovered that it was refrigerator cold. I informed a lady, who I later found out was the owner. It appears that they reheated the same lamb and brought it out to the table some ~10 minutes later. By that time we had eaten our eggplant and rice, and were too full to take more than a couple of bites of the reheated lamb.

To close out our meal we ordered a Chai tea and coffee. Shortly after we were given our bill. Do you suppose that either the server or the owner came back over to apologize for the cold food, or offered to take at least a coffee off of the bill, or offered dessert? Let me answer that for you...Hell No!

Since they were busy upon our departure, I decided to call back to express my concerns with the owner...wrong move! To simply put it, I truly think she is presumptive enough to think that her establishment can serve me cold food and I am supposed to be fine with it. Her response was as cold as the lamb and condescending. I actually left the conversation thinking I should have paid them double for my cold lamb. "We have been here for 15 years" blah blah blah..."We can not please everybody" blah blah blah...

Looking at the overall review scores (34 - 5 stars and 35 - 1 star, and a bunch in the average range) it appears that this owner has been reading too many of her own headlines. No matter how long you have been around, you need to remember that you and your restaurant are only as good as your last day. Unfortunately, today was my first and last day of ever visiting your place, or giving you the benefit of the doubt when talking to others. Just think, a $2.5 cup of Chai and a little fake remorse could have gone a long way.

• Pros: Server was personable
• Cons: OWNER

07/17/09

Owner has issues

by pierre137

All these reviews about feeling rushed all stem from the owner being overly-compulsive about turn-over. I once overheard the owner saying he "turned on the fan" over a table, so to make it uncomftorable so they would leave. He has been charged with drinking at work and seems to take out his frustrations on the staff. The food is decent, depending on what you order, but they use a lot of food coloring, and it is extremely overpriced. Also, I've noticed there are hundreds of fruit flies that are all around the kitchen and bathroom, making me come to the conclusion that the kitchen leaves a lot of food out. The only time I come here is when the food carts downtown are closed, and I always get it to go.

• Pros: filling food
• Cons: food coloring, rude owner, dirty atmosphere, rushed.

06/30/09

Unbelievably Overpriced

by PDX1Foodie

Very expensive Indian food in an average ambiance

• Cons: Price for quality is low.

05/01/09

Consistently good

by Trillium

We really enjoy this place. The food is consistently good. Even though I don't like overly sweet drinks the Mangorita goes quite nicely with the spicy Indian dishes.

We sat out on the side walk one summer evening and it was delightful. We could watch all of the people walking by and enjoy awesome food, drinks, and professional wait staff. Fun experience!

They do use Habenero for their level 5 spicy dishes and you can taste that flavor. Otherwise... definitely love this place!

• Pros: outdoor seating, good food,
• Cons: using habeneros for spice, a little rushed, reservations req

04/02/09

Naan good, everything else horrid

by mommysloan

My husband tried to do a good thing by surprising me for my 30th birthday. Considering we had a party of 7 you'd think they'd let us sit at a table set for 8...no, instead it was a table set for 6. The owner was rude not only to us but to his servers. Considering the economy you'd think he'd want to make it a pleasant experience. The naan was good and that was about it. The food was bland and uninspired. For our large party we were told that only five things could be ordered at a time and that we should "double" on the order to feed our party so the kitchen would not be tied up. I will NEVER go there again and will share my horrid expereince on every network site possible. Whomever wrote the positive experiences must know the owner.

• Pros: good naan
• Cons: rude, bland food, not accomadating

03/21/09

Worst Place in Portland

by Mugdha

Being indian we always wanted to try indian cusine in portland. So we booked table for 10 people at BCC. We were happy that this time we are getting reservation at BCC (its very difficult to get reservation here...may be because of small size of restaurant, we unfortunately mistake that as good quality resturant before). We got reservation for 9.30 pm and few of us were there at 9pm. unfortuntely they had to wait at bar and were irritated by manager by asking again and again when other people will be arraving.They even threatned them to give our table to someone else.rest people reached bcc exactly at 9.30 and then waitress announced that we should give our order at earliest as kithen will be closing in 15 min. I have a sincere question to ask all of you, why you are giving reservation in case you are going to close in 10 min. moreover when we have booked table in the evening at 7.00 pm. forgetting all this and with fear that we wont get table for so amny people anywhere on sunday night, we decided to go ahead with the menu our waitress suggested. she even pointed out that we should take same dishes, so taht it will be easy for chef to cook. so, si chef going to pay the bill? after all this, when we got our dishes, it was at all not indian taste to chicken and veggies. worst part was our chicken was undercooked. only good part was rice, but i guess it was cooked in bulk and not for us specially. We will never visit nor recommend this place to anybody. Just wanted to tell owner that he has lost some valuable customers. many of us were bachelors and would have been regular customers to the place provided food and service was good. Indeed worst experience which spoiled our sunday night.

• Pros: i cant find any
• Cons: high price, arrogant staff, poor quality food

03/07/09

Overpriced and lacking in flavor, but nice atmosphere and I had a fine customer service experience.

by anodyne

I love Indian food and really, really wanted to like this food as I've been put off by poor customer service at India Grill, my usual east side spot.

I ordered a simple meal of vegetable samosas and vegetable jalfrezi (about $20). Unfortunately both dishes were so bland as to be inedible to me. The only strong flavor came from the rice, and I found the amount of cardamom overpowering. Not even the chutneys helped. One was too heavy on the cilantro for me and I found the other as bland as the dishes it was intended to flavor.

I'll have to keep looking to find Indian food on the east side that matches my experience at the carts downtown.

• Pros: Atmosphere, customer service
• Cons: Food

02/28/09

Had to wait while tables sat empty

by AliciaS4444

We arrived on-time with 7:30pm reservations for my boyfriend's birthday dinner celebration. The other couple who was joining us was 20 minutes late. We had to wait for them to arrive while we looked at 3 open tables. They said it was their "policy" that everyone would be seated together. In the meantime we stood there as the wait staff and other patrons bumped into us. We were finally seated at one of the empty tables we had been looking at for 20 minutes. The wait staff was nice enough, but the food was just OK.

02/27/09

inexperienced and rude waitstaff

by nomadwanderlust

My daughter and I have been coming to BCC since they opened and have always enjoyed the food. That is not likely to change. However, several weeks ago we brought her boyfriend and after finishing our meal we tried to talk. The waitress twice tried to get us to leave the table and when we wouldnt she went to a corner and stared at us until my daughter and her boyfriend asked if they could leave because they felt uncomfortable. It would seem in this economy that customer service would be prime, if you want to attract new customers and keep old ones. The owner should be careful of who he hires or he may lose a few

• Pros: great food
• Cons: some of the waitstaff reflect badly on the restaurant