Haveli
Haveli
Foods from Haveli
Comments

2014 May 7
Came here last week for the lunch buffet. Food was yummy and worth the price.

PROS:
1) Tandoori Chicken: Delicious, perfectly spiced and the chicken was BBQ'ed ! --Only problem was that the chicken pieces were small ei. they would cut a drumstick or thigh in half -_-.
2) The paneer and eggplant curry with tamarind sauce
3) Good nan and basmati rice along with yogourt and other sauces (that I did not try)
4) Friendly service with constant refills of water and clearing of plates.

CONS:
1) Gulab Jamun was a bit on the "cake-like" side, I suppose not enough semolina for my liking. The gulab therefore absorbed a lot of the syrup which was very sweet. Nonetheless, I still ate it because I'm a sucker for Gluabs.
2) Mushroom curry was bland.
3) As stated above, chicken tandoori portions were weird...


2013 Mar 8
I stopped in the other day for a quick lunch and had some great food. This buffet has a wide selection of mains, sides, and desserts with great meat and veggie offerings. I had beef madras, mussel curry, mint lamb, and mushroom curry. I sopped it all up with some great naan. Very good and very quick, a steal at $13.

2012 Aug 31
Date of Visit: July 27, 2012

I had initially planned to try this place out for lunch on my recent visit to Ottawa, but, after a disappointing and abortive attempt to order a meal at The Cornerstone Bar and Grill one evening, I decided to have supper here instead. Thankfully, my experience at this establishment was an order of magnitude better than my original choice

The Dishes
Jheenga Pakora ... Rating: 2 out of 5
Lamb Vindaloo ... Rating: 4 out of 5
Plain Parantha (Paratha) ... Rating: 3 out of 5

Overall
I wasn’t ‘wowed’ by Haveli (and much preferred my meal a few days earlier at Shafali, but, that being said, I still see the promise of the place and would very much like to return for a meal in their very nicely appointed interior. The service was generally good, the ambience pleasant, and the dishes I sampled, though not especially exciting on this occasion, have left me with a curiosity about the rest of their menu. I shall return… Rating: 3 out of 5

See a full pictorial review at: sybaritica.me


2012 Jun 25
Dinner here on Friday was fan-freaking-tastic. I think all of the issues from before may have been addressed by new servers/updated menu.

I went with two colleagues. We were greeted warmly by the hostess, as soon as we walked in the door, and our waitress was friendly and very engaging. I was having trouble choosing a beer, and she highly recommended the Mill St. organic to pair with our food order. A really nice fit.

The menu is huge (and posted online), so I had pre-selected the menu before we got there (with the blessing of my dining companions.

Onion Bhaji - the only real "fail" of the meal. When they arrived I thought they had made the wrong thing. For all intents and purposes they look like deep fried shrimp - long, battered, and cornmeal-coloured. They were very "bready", floury, and each only had a few pieces of onion. Not at all like the crunchy onion-packed chikpea floured brown balls I'm used to. Comes with a minty yogurt sauce. I would not order this again.

Cheese Stuffed Sikh Kabab - One of the best things we ate. Ground lamb skewers cooked in the tandoor. Supposedly stuffed with mozzarella, but I think that melted out. I DID NOT CARE. Absolutely delicious and juicy, with fantastic spice blend (clovey, sorta)

Murgh Makhni - Butter chicken. Unconventional but very good. Charbroiled chicken pieces added to a butter chicken sauce. Not sweet (thank god), but creamy and savoury. I don't think the chicken spends long in the sauce, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The charry flavour remains, as do the crunchy bits. Dark meat only, no squishy bits, very tasty.

Bhaingan barta - Amazing dish. Eggplant roasted with tomatoes and peas, then gently spiced. A true example of the magic of slow Indian cooking, when all separate flavours blend into something amazing. A smooth-ish veggie blend that any eggplant fan will love.

Saag paneer - A "wet" version (I have had drier versions, where the spinach is chopped and has more of a spanakopita filling consistency). Processed spinach with a VERY generous serving of soft, delicate paneer. Very simple flavours - two thumbs up.

Onion parantha and onion kulcha - These two came together, and to be frank I could not tell them apart. Both were flat breads stuffed with onion. Not a whole lot of onion flavour, but moist and with a very nice char from the tandoor. The other diners (more into bread than I am) loved these.

Half serving of basmati - what can I say - basmati done right.

Chutney plate - Mango chutney, chili chutney, hot sauce, Indian pickle. Mango - jammy. Chili -YUM, spicy. Hot sauce - just chili oil. Pickle - SO salty. Inedible to my palate.

The owner stopped by mid-meal to check in, which was nice, and you are asked to fill out a comment card when the bill comes (I commented on the bhaji).

Highly recommend, will definitely be back. No idea re: final bill (thanks to amazing boss)

2012 Mar 25
We had great service three different servers. The one problem was they forgot our saag paneer but was brought our a few minutes into our meal. Chicken vindaloo bottom of pic was just hot enought with a nice tangy tomato base. Lamb vindaloo left was also good. Lamb madras ordered hot top of pic tasty. Rice very good with crunch textures from nuts and veggies. Everything was spiced perfectly. To the eye portions seemed small but I was filled and that says something not an easy task. Saag paneer did not get into the pic since it was late arriving. Prices seemed on par with other Indian in the city at $15 for the dish. The owner stopped by at the end of the meal to chat and joke and one of our servers was also quite chatty as well. Not sure what happened with the reviews below. There was a new menu maybe a new chef was hired.

2012 Mar 25
Had a good experience last night after the auto show. All our dishes were tasty. The regular naan was a tad on the dry side but the stuffed naan was yummy. Pic is of Haveli Tokkri=stuffed naan,whole wheat naan,regular naan,roti.

2011 Aug 7
Karen is correct. The market location has led to a deterioration of service. The lack of superior Indian cuisine has given haveli a false sense of security. If a rising Indian chef opened nearby I could imagine a great competition. Haveli is now the George Forman of Indian cuisine in Ottawa, rather corpulent self important and selling mediocre product for a large profit.
Usual: murg mahkini, masala lamb, vindiloo, aloo gobi, lamb byriani, the aloo chat appetizer used to be very good, sometimes they can be coaxed into a mushroom and pea dish which is no longer on the menu. Ask for it I find it is often their best. Good paneer and naan. Real tandor.

2010 Apr 30
OK, so apparently my review was questionable... I guess I didnt provide enough information?

We went on a weekday evening, I think it was Tuesday. The restaurant was not busy and in fact we kind of felt like we were bothing the server. We ordered from the menu and the chicken dish had way too much oil for my liking. It was floating in it. We also ordered dal which was missing some flavour, it just wasnt up to par. I cant explain it further than that. I am used to Indian food being full of flavour, this really wasnt.The naan was tastey however. For the amount of food we ordered the bill seemed way too high.

So, all these things made ita bad experience, and I have found some better places in Ottawa. I kind of feel like since it's in the Market, they dont have to try as hard. Customers will just eat here due to the location.


2010 Apr 19
Karen - what kept it from being a good experience for you?

2010 Apr 16
Not a good experience for us :( I wont be going back

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