My wife, our daughter (6 months old) and I came here for dinner, as we were staying nearby on Alpers Ave. We read the reviews on Zomato while looking and it looked to be excellent and we have enjoyed a lot of Indian food on our various travels around the world.
The food was excellent. We had ordered the mixed non-vegetarian platter, it came with sizzling aplomb, very tasty chicken tikka, some kind of sausage (though the menu said it was seekh kebab), a few pakora, and two samosas. It also had two dips, a mint yogurt type, and some kind of sweet (plum?) one also.
We ordered in addition to that a Kadhai Chicken, and Bhuna Lamb, along with a Lachaha Pratha, and for drinks, the Chef Masala Tea. All of the mains were really great. The chicken however tasted better than the lamb, with the lamb being similar but not the same to a korma type. The rice was bountiful, the dishes plenty in sauce and meat (though the meat pieces would have been cut a little smaller, not so large chunks) was cooked wonderfully tender and succulent. The pratha was okay, nothing special unfortunately. The tea was a good flavour, and I sweetened it to my taste, and my wife to hers (appreciating that we could add our own sugar to it, rather than it being a pre-determined sweetness).
Unfortunately the service level is why I was unable to put a 5.0 for you, though I really wanted to. The staff who sat us down were very polite, which was great, but they were very quietly spoken. We had asked for recommendations, what was 'something special here', and they asked chicken or lamb. We said lamb, and it was offered either the rogan josh or korma, which either they must have been very special, or they thought we just wanted something at you pretty much could get at almost all (good and bad) Indian places.
In addition to this, we sat at a small table, which was originally plate placed for 3. Our 6-month old daughter was seated in one position, and was obviously not eating, however your staff did not have the presence of mind to take away the cutlery nor the plate that was placed for that seating, which meant it was very crowded once all of our drinks (two water glasses, plus two mugs of the tea), plates, the sugar bowl, jug of water, two dishes, and large rice dish was place on the table. I do commend that they came to ask if everything was okay, but it was so quiet that I barely realised we had been asked, before they sped away.
In the grand scheme of things, I didn't have a lot of expectations beyond that the food would taste great, which the main dishes did. It is now nearly three hours later as I write this, and I am still feeling very full. Next time we come to Auckland and are in the area, if The Chef is still open for buiness (and I hope it continues to prosper strongly), then we will definitely come again and try more of the menu.
tl;dr - Great tasting food, plenty of rice provided with dishes, well priced, servers need more confidence.
Edited for Spelling.
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