Himalaya Restaurant Houston report

I realize the story is incredible but unfortunatly true. I've provided a number of accurate positive restaurant reviews in the past. I also love chefs with personality but in Chef Kaiser's case his behavior is less an amusing variation on the Soup Nazi theme and more simply downright absusive not to mention dishonest. It gave me no pleasure to provide a negative review of our experience at Himalaya but I felt it was important to offer our experience so that others could weigh the reviews and reach their own conclusion.

Normally I have had good experiences with several Houston Press recommendations for dining venues. I had read a glowing Houston Press review praising Himalaya restaurant for it's food, reasonable prices and BYOB policy. As a result we arranged to dine with several friends at Himalaya without ever having actually set foot in the restaurant prior to our initial visit.

None of us could have anticipated the combination of issues that arose during our dinner. It was an extremely unpleasant experience and wildly out of the ordinary. I profusely apologized to our poor guests who bore the brunt of the owner's abuse who appeared shell-shocked afterwards.

Since our own eye-opening experience at Himalaya we have noted a number of less than glowing reviews from a variety of seemingly credible people at such sites as (bodyhttp://www.insiderpages.com/b/15245076240/himalaya-restaurant--catering-houston) contradicting the extremely positive reviews provided by the Houston Press. After reading of a few of the other diners experiences we joke that at least none of us needed to use the restroom thereby avoiding the issue of having to pay either $5 or $10 to the owner for the privilege as some reviewers report. That added detail would have made our already extreme story even more incredible.

Now I take more time in reading reviews from several sources before making a final deicsion on some lesser-known restaurants.

AlainHarvey in Houston

Himalaya Restaurant Houston report

The food at Himalaya is average for Indian cuisine compared with other similar restaurants in the Houston area and overpriced for the quality. Leftover menu items prepared for lunch are served again for dinner, albeit much drier and less appealing for the wear.

There is absolutely no ambience. The owner (chef Kaiser Lashkari) has his cluttered desk placed prominently within the dining area where employees take turns reclining in a chair while rubbing their eyes and faces.

Worse, the proprietor can be a real jerk as was the case during our visit with several guests.

There is constant grinding chaos in this restaurant. Service is slow and inadequate. It was an effort obtaining basics such as silverware and napkins. Two of us never received requested glasses for our beer brought in deference to the restaurant's BYOB policy.

Dealing with the proprietor was akin to haggling with a used car salesmen. The proprietor attempted to increase his profit margin by aggressively suggesting additional food items and by substituting complimentary naan bread which accompanies many of the entrees with garlic naan bread at an undisclosed additional cost. This and other costs were not shared with patrons until a careful examination of the meal's bill revealed problems.

The final bill was not itemized consisting only of a confusing jumble of numbers and letters in place of food and drink items thereby making it impossible to determine how much each person owed for their portion of the meal.

The owner was reluctant to disclose how the bill was calculated. We ended by paying what the owner described as being due for each diner. However, it was apparent that the amounts quoted were far in excess of the actual cost of the food ordered by each person.
Worse, an inexplicable "service charge" was added to each person's bill which further inflating each diner's final cost.

Unfortunately, our dining experience became substantially worse.

While paying at the front counter, the owner unexpectedly began loudly screaming at one of our female guests who was in the process of paying for her meal.

The owner claimed that she was insulting the waiter by her decision to tip only 15% rather than a 20% tip then demanded by the owner. The owner continued to angrily insist on a 20% tip per person in spite of there being only four individuals in our small party. According to the printed menu, only parties of 6 or more pay a mandatory 20% gratuity.

The poor woman attempted to calmly explain to the owner that her order was not correct, that she never received her complimentary naan bread after several requests, and several other small issues that contributed to her decision to tip (in my opinion based on the poor service a generous) 15%. The owner continued to shout angrily at the woman, preventing her from expressing her concerns. The owner directed so much abuse at the poor female patron in the open dining area that I was forced to intervene on behalf of our guest.

We discovered the next day that the owner had also surreptitiously added an extra $1 to our already 20% tip without disclosing his actions to us. He added the extra amount when processing our credit card at the counter. We discovered the discrepancy when we compared our receipt with the listed charge for our meal on our credit card statement.

Due to the extremely ugly abuse directed at our female guest by the owner (and our party in general) and the outright dishonesty pertaining to the bill, tip and credit card charge we will never return and recommend that others with any self-esteem consider dining elsewhere as well.

Better Indian food at more reasonable prices accompanied by a more genial ambience can be found at too many other Indian restaurants making it unnecessary to tolerate the abuse and dishonesty of the owner of this particular dining establishment.

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Himalaya Restaurant & Catering
6652 Southwest Fwy, Houston, TX 77074

AlainHarvey in Houston