Daawat

The chicken curry and butter chicken are acceptable. Butter chicken does not contain tandoori chicken, which it should — I think they fixed this after my discussion with them. Rotis are light and crisp, very good. Pleasant ambience and service. Moderate price for buffet.

I was hoping for tasty Indian when I first arrived in Edmonton, and this was the first place I tried. I went in early for lunch one day, and I was the only person there. The thing that struck me the hardest when I first walked in (despite the gorgeous linens and lush fabrics draping the place) was the complete lack of fragrance!
How do you run an Indian restaurant that doesn’t positively OOZE with the smell of the wonderful seasonings used in Indian food? I didn’t understand that.
I got the lunch buffet, and the food was adequate, but I like my food to taste… you know… Indian. This was a very lukewarm version of that. I don’t remember anything being particularly memorable.
The waiter was attentive enough, and left me alone to read my book, but I just felt uncomfortable, and couldn’t put my finger on it.
I’ll keep trying until I find the perfect spot for curry and butter chicken. This wasn’t it.

Andrew suggested this restaurant because it was different from the norm. A couple of our coworkers who don’t like Indian food were out of the office so it was time to venture a bit. I was told it was an Indian buffet which I haven’t had since I left Toronto. I had it once in Mississauga so I was curious to see what the west was like in that respect.
Walking in, the lights were dimmed but of course, enough to see. We sat close to the front of the restaurant seated at the table in a circular fashion.
As we venture to the back where the buffet was, there was a pretty good selection of foods. Not to say it’s like your typical Chinese buffet, which I’m totally sick of by the way. They had a salad/​veggie bar first which includes black and green olives, various chutneys then veggie pakoras. These tasted different from what I had before but nonetheless delicious. The second round I had saffron rice, beef curry, butter chicken, paneer, dal with black beans. For dessert was rice pudding and gulab.
In the midst of this, we were brought some naan. I love me some naan but I don’t know. It seemed a little burnt and not has hearty as some naans I’ve had.
I would definitely visit here again. I see there’s a Whyte Avenue location, although some of you know me an venturing south of the river. LOL We’ll see folks.

I have great things to say about Daawat restaurant as a place to go to, to enjoy a meal. I’ve been there several times and I love the scents, I even love the décor. Always, the customer service has been a bit suspect — never would anyone return a smile, or say thank you to any compliment I delivered and rarely did someone come by to refill water or check on us.
However, today I called them just before 4pm for a delivery of 8 items. The last time I called for delivery, there was a mix-​up regarding palak paneer so this time I double checked that indeed what I was ordering was cheese and spinach (divine!) — because there was some confusion between myself and the fellow on the other end, I ended up asking, «What’s in the palak paneer?» The fellow responded, «well, there’s paneer, with palak in it». *sigh* It would have been funny on its own. Language is not always easy.
The food was delivered to us 2.5 hours later (one hour after I called to ask if the food was on its way to us, we live 20 minutes max from the restaurant), and cold in temperature too.
It’ll be the last time I go to Daawat west end, I’m afraid.

Service at the Mayfield restaurant was sub-​par. It was obvious that the people working didn’t want to deal with customers… not that it really mattered, we couldn’t understand them through the quiet talking mumbles anyway.
Don’t ever order a milkshake. I know, I know ordering a milkshake at an Indian restaurant doesn’t make sense but we wanted to try the mango and coconut versions. Too bad they were warm and fairly «liquidy».
We had the buffet, and some of the food seemed a little mushy. Which was interesting considering we dined almost as soon as the restaurant opened on a Sunday evening so it should have been fresh. The flavor of the food itself was great, which is why the rating got as high as 3 stars because nothing else about the restaurant was near as good.
I came, I tried, I don’t need to go back.

I have only been to Daawat located in Mayfield Common and not to the one on White Avenue. The interior of Daawat is all red — too much red in my opinion, but I have read that red colour envokes appetite so I guess that was the idea behind red walls, red drapery and red linens on the tables. When we came in, the place was not busy and we were seated right away. Jesus, did it smell good in the restaurant — all the delicious aromas! The buffet was not what we were after, so we reached for the menu. It was eclectic, and all food descriptions made me salivate. I have decided to go for a butter chicken ($ 14.95) with naan bread ($ 2.25) while my dining companion ordered Paneer Tikka ($ 12.95). Fifteen minutes later we were enjoying our food. The only other place were I have tried butter chicken is Oodle Noodle, and only during my visit to Daawat have I discovered whar REAL butter chicken should taste like. It was mildly hot and savory, and naan bread was the freshness itself. My companion’s dish turned out amazing as well. Both portions were very large so we could not possibly eat any dessert although some of them sounded appealing, i.e. milk balls in cardimun syrup.
Our server was friendly and courteous as he kept refilling our glass.
At Daawat, I had a very pleasant experience and I definitely will be coming back to try more authentic Indian dishes.

I am familiar with Daawat, having dined several times in the Whyte Avenue location. The west end restaurant has all the ambiance and excellent food that I am used to. The lighting is low, so we were partially blinded upon entering the Daawat (which means, «the invitation»), but after the fog lifted we indulged in the lunch buffet. At only $ 12.95 (beverages not included), it is the best value in the restaurant. There was a huge selection of vegetarian dishes including one paneer (cheese) dish, several veggie curries, and mouth-​watering pakoras. The meat selections were equally as tasty and included tandoori chicken (my favourite), beef curry (his favourite), chicken curry, and butter chicken. Three choices for desserts were fresh fruit, rice pudding, and gulab jamun — fried milky dough balls served warm in a thick syrup. A choice of three or four different kinds of naan bread was offered to us, and brought in a basket. The staff was friendly, attentive, and eager to explain the food — this was my companion’s first time exploring Indian food, and it was a mild introduction (although the beef curry made him sweat!). A family business, one of the servers even recognized me from the Whyte location!