4719 Ashford Dunwoody Rd, Ste 104
Atlanta, Georgia 30346
(770) 353-3000
www.viceroyindiandining.com/
Greg and I first dined here on August 22.
We returned with our book club on September 12 after an afternoon at the movies watching Eat, Pray, Love - Laura, Sheila, TJo, Marilyn, Christy, Rich and Greg.
Ambiance: 7
This restaurant was surprisingly nice even though it's located in the Dunwoody Wal-Mart strip mall. Tables were covered w/white tablecloths and the lighting was soft. The one drawback was the white tile floors which left the dining room feeling a little cold versus adding warmth to the room.
Food Quality: 8
Chicken curry was delicious - tender meat, perfectly spiced orange curry
Service: 4
Arrived at 9:20 on Sunday. Restaurant closes at 10p. When the hostess sat us, I noticed our waiter walk by our table and he immediately checked his watch. The initial service was a bit unfriendly, but our server seemed to warm up throughout service. We ordered the "dinner for 2", complete with vegetable samosa, garlic naan, chicken and shrimp tandoori, chicken curry and vegetable malaie kofta. For dessert, they gave us ras malai (delicate cheese patties in flavored cream milk - interesting, but would not order it again). After the appetizer, two other servers appeared and we received frequent stops at the table to explain dishes and check on our meal. Food was prepped quickly and service was very efficient.
When we commented about their promptness, one of the servers said, "we close at 10". Although he smiled, we could tell that they were dead serious about closing at 10p. There were 4-5 other tables when we arrived and by the time we received our check, there was just one other table. The primary server came by to pick up the check before I had a chance to get my credit card...they were obviously in a hurry to get us out of there. When we finally left, I looked at the time and we followed the last table out the door at exactly 10:01!
Service improved on the second visit. Our reservation was at 7:30, so I'm sure this made a difference for the staff! Generally, their servers aren't very friendly, although they are attentive. The owner was more friendly and stopped by the table once or twice to check on us.
Value: 6
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If you have a moment, allow me to share a little history regarding the Book Club dinner experience. Eat, Pray, Love is a story about a woman's experience in Italy, India and Bali. We thought it would be great to see the movie and then eat at an Indonesian restaurant. I had been researching Indonesian restaurants online for a month or two and found it to be a bit challenging because there aren’t too many restaurants specializing in “Indonesian” food. Some of the searches pulled up restaurants that have since gone out of business, so just when I thought I found the perfect place for us, I would later realize that the posts were 3-4 years old and then stumble across another website confirming that the restaurant was closed.
I was, however, finally able to identify 5-6 different Indonesian restaurants in the greater Atlanta area. One night after work, I convinced a co-worker to join me for dinner so that I could try one of the Indonesian restaurants before dragging all of the book club friends there. Well, we turned up at Nelayan which received pretty decent reviews on UrbanSpoon. Unfortunately, the door was locked and the window blinds were closed. We managed to peer through a crack and could tell that the place was completely empty.
We then drove to another location which was only a mile away from the 1st place we tried…only to discover that there was no sign of an Indonesian restaurant existing at that address. We then tried a 3rd place and somehow ended up on Roswell Road/Riverside Drive and could have driven ourselves right into the river if we would have followed the GPS directions! You would have thought that I’d be smart enough to call ahead to the restaurants after the 1st attempt….but I didn’t figure this out until after 3 attempts and only after my co-worker suggested that we call ahead before driving any further (doh!). I called the next two places on my list and was able to connect with someone on the other end of the line, so alas, I confirmed that these two places were still in business!
So with my co-worker caravanning behind me after an hour+ of touring through Alpharetta and Roswell, we drove another 30 minutes and found ourselves in T-Jo’s neck of the woods…some Hong Kong Market in Norcross! We located the shopping plaza…but would you believe that we couldn’t find the restaurant to save our lives?!? We drove through the entire parking lot, even circled behind the building and got a beautiful view of their dumpsters and back entrances….I have no idea where that place was, so we ended up eating at a little Thai restaurant because we were absolutely starving and exhausted by this point.
After dinner, with one last option on my list, I had this “not-so-bright” idea to do a “drive-by” after dinner before heading home. Batavia received good ratings on UrbanSpoon; however, a few reviewers commented that the location was “shady”, so I had kept this place as a last resort for us. Plus, judging from the online pictures, this place looked more like a cafeteria. Batavia is located on Chamblee Dunwoody, west of Buford Hwy…and boy, they weren’t kidding about this place being shady. There were a bunch of guys sitting around the parking lot and as soon as I pulled into the lot, several of them started walking toward my car. I found Batavia, of course it was at the back of this 2-story, run-down commercial building. When you see window security bars on every window, that should be a good sign to leave right away, especially when it’s after 10 o’clock at night and a handful of guys are walking toward you…so that’s just what I did!
So, to my disappointment, I couldn't find a Bali-like restaurant for us to try. We decided to enjoy Indian food which is how we ended up at Viceroy. As it turned out, it was more conveniently located to the movie theater and we ended up having a great time!
