Thali

Horrendous service and that’s what’s going to stick with me about this restaurant. The food was okay and the ambience was also decent.

The service: the restaurant wasn’t busy, we were a total of 5 guests in the restaurant. Two of the guests came after us and ordered after us and still got their food before ours (they were Indian in race). We thought that was a bit odd. But we ended up waiting 45 minutes for our food (we only ordered one main platter each and on appetizer). On top of that, whilst we were waiting 3 of the employees/servers sat down at one of the tables and served themselves a bunch of food. While they indulged in their food, we sat their watching…

Never visiting again.

Have good looking entrance of Thali restaurant. Full furnished of dining. I have had dinner with my family and friend family. We ordered chicken Thali, shrimp Thali, starter chicken pakora and chicken Briyani. Nice meal. Every people should enjoy their foods. Not spicy food. Anyone like spicy food it’s not suitable.

I’m not Indian and I don’t know how it is for an Indian taste.
But I loved absolutely everything
Food was raguante, not too hot and very tasty
Thank you

The restaurant has great ambience. Looks upscale and the interior decor is great.

The food could be better as the quantities and portions are small compared to the prices charged.

The service and attentiveness is good. Having more vegan dishes would have been great as we were with some friends who were vegan where they felt not that many choices were available.

I will say the food is pretty on point. The “Chai” tea is extremely questionable. It tastes like black tea that hasn’t been steeped long enough with a dash of milk. Our experience was great until we questioned them on their tea and then we were all made to feel unwelcome. For this reason I will not return nor recommend. This is not how you treat customers.

This has to be one of the best meals I've ever had in my life, no exaggeration. We will definitely be returning. I would recommend the Thali dish that comes with an assortment of items, every single one better than the next. We ordered a bottle of wine with it so our bill was a bit higher but the amount of food you get for the price you pay is very generous. I can't recommend this place enough.

We recently had a special family event catered by Thali. I cannot say enough about the entire experience - the service and the quality of their dishes made it an unforgettable experience for my family. Thank you, Thali, you exceeded all expectations!
Wishing you all success!

Food, mainly meat was over cooked, flavors were ordinary, service was complicated (waitress did not speak loud enough to be heard) did not seem to care either. I could name at least 5 places with much better Indian food.

Been excited to go for years after trying their other location on St. Laurent before the fire. Exceeded my already high expectations I loved it.

Lived up to being one of Ottawa's best Indian restaurants. Great service, great food, great atmosphere.

Great Place. Loved their food. I have been their three times and never disappointed. Customer service is good and the store is also well maintained and lit. Should definitely visit with your friends or family.

The name of the restaurant is Indian but there is nothing much Indian about the food or the ambience. I wouldn’t call it authentic Indian food. There was minimal use of any spices or flavours. The quality is still better than other Indian restaurants in the city as it wasn’t greasy or oily but the taste is mainly focused on what majority of the people (non-Indian) here. For someone who was born and raised in Kerala, this food is a joke. The restaurant advertises about being authentic Kerala/Indian food but Kerala thali doesn’t include Basmati rice. It includes Kerala Matta rice. Kerala curries are mostly cooked in Coconut oil but the the food we had here wasn’t cooked in Coconut oil or may be was cooked in very minimal coconut oil. The food was too bland to be called as Kerala food or even any South Indian food. The Mushroom curry was mostly North Indian style, the chickpea curry was north Indian style. The beans curry was too liquidy, felt like a soup. We went there for dinner on 26th January (Indian Republic Day). There wasn’t anything Indian about the ambience or the interior except the name of the place and the copper-steel thali they serve food in. We didn’t even see a single Indian flag or any colours representing Indian. So shameful for an Indian restaurant to not celebrate or even acknowledge Indian Republic Day.
However their other restaurant (Coconut Lagoon) had some event and was fully booked two weeks in advance. So we thought this restaurant would have something Indian that could remind us of home. Very disappointed.

OMG, best thali l ever had. I had the Maya Thali, with lamb and shrimp. The shrimps were fantastic, as was everything else. It was a lot for one person! But a bit small to share, unless you order an appetizer as well. The service was good and efficient, and the whole vibe was pretty nice.

Hi
I buyed porotta beef curry and thali and salmon kerala curry.
Porotta its taste like frozen one.because it's not like normal kerala porotta and in the menu they mentioned kerala special beef curry. Am really sad to tell you its absolutely wrong especially am from kerala and I know how kerala beef curry should taste like.and for salmon kerala fish curry they make that curry not for kerala people may be it's for Canadian people. Thali is good.
Suggestion- please cut the beef into small pieces and try to avoid waste parts of the beef. Can add some spices and can be spicy and for Canadian it can be no spicy.
Fish curry tell your cook or chef please go to Kottayam and study how to make fish curry.
Porotta you can get a sample from kochin kitchen or le kochin.
Thali you can keep like this.
For the price
Usually I travel a lot all over Canada I had food from most of the kerala restaurants
For porotta first time I paid 4 cad for single piece and it's not real kerala porotta.
Ambiance is good.
The supplier
one kerala lady I spoke is talk nice. But the guy who came is not at all friendly (may be he think i will not give tip bec am a malayali)
Other 2 suppliers 40/60 service means you can check the camera.
OVERALL
good for Canadian people not good for kerala people. Taste wise and money wise. (dont think am we poor guys came and had food from there, am also Kottayam and thiruvalla achayns.)
Please make more tasty food because I heard chef suresh pillai Is also coming to start his business in Ottawa.
Once Canadians had food from his restaurant they will **** you all.
Just my suggestion if you need you can take it or discard

I really wanted to like this place. I really tried, twice. Once in 2022, and now in 2023 and I have been equally disappointed both times. As a Keralite, aI was excited to see kerala cuisine being enjoyed by Canadians and being represented so beautifully in this aesthetically pleasing restaurant.
However the taste of the food has always been below mediocre. Everything is so watered down and bland, and chicken in the chicken curry was uncooked and I couldn’t eat it. I felt sad to see Kerala food being perceived this way. The only thing in the Thali I enjoyed was the rice pudding, which was surprisingly delicious.
I have also not been a fan of the lack lustre service, I have always felt unwelcome whenever I walked in here.
The curt responses from the hostess at the door always makes me want to leave right away. They could really improve on their social skills or hire someone else to take care of customer service. I will not be coming back.

Tried the maha thaali with chicken and prawns. Found the place to be overhyped. Chicken was rubbery. Did not find the food tasty at all. Only the goan prawns and filter coffee were the two good items. To be honest, did not find it worth 50$. The vegetable curries were curries of mushroom, zucchini and a few other green vegetables.

Good service and food.fair price. I am not a huge fan of Indian food and loved everything I tried!

Amazing food and an outstanding sommelier. The menu has Wine pairing for each item! A little on the pricey side, but worth it.

10/10 would recommend
Got the Vegan traditional thali and would get it again in a heartbeat. Lots of food for the price with quick and friendly service

Had a great lunch. Friendly efficient service. Fantastic food. Lovely ambience. One suggestion would be to refill water glasses a bit quicker but otherwise a great experience.

This was my first chance to dine at Chef Joe's downtown restaurant Thali, having been a regular patron of his east-end restaurant Coconut Lagoon. His food was as good as ever, the service was excellent, and everyone in the group I was with enjoyed their meals. Everyone chose a thali, with differing proteins, and I had lamb. I will enjoy eating at Thali any chance I have, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys South Indian cuisine.

Excellent service and atmosphere! Order the traditional or the maha thali, a bit of everything and v tasty.

The food is delicious. The service is always fast, friendly but not overly fake happy. Seems like the honestly love what they do there. On our last visit the Sommelier went out of his way to help us pair great glasses of wine with our meal. Best Indian food in Ottawa, top shelf service, very well designed space. Just go eat there.

Great food, insanely quick service, and accommodating staff. Such an amazing experience and can’t wait to bring more people to try this restaurant out! 11/10 would recommend

Nice ambiance but food needs a little improvement, no variety at all. Chicken was not cooked throughly.

Had a great experience at Thali ️ ; good food, beautiful ambiance, and amazing staff!
Will always cherish memories of my first anniversary! Thank you Thali Ottawa for making our day special. Looking forward to visit more often!

We were so impressed with the service at Thali! We celebrated a birthday and the staff brought out the cake we brought on a nice plate and went above and beyond by decorating the cake with icing sugar and added some candles (I forgot to bring our own). The food was fantastic, definitely recommend the crab cakes! Thank you for making our night special!

5 star because of the customer service and presentation of the food. It's an great environment for family dinner or with friends.
The food was okay some dishes are very bland. If you like indian food but not spicy then it's a perfect restaurant for you.
I would say it's a fancy Indian restaurant.

Someone with true Indian taste buds would know that food here taste not authentic at all. Each and every dish I ordered was brand and not upto the mark. Gave 2 stars for Ambience and service by my servers

I ordered Vegetarian Thali and the food was below average. Based on the ratings and reviews, my friends and I went there. To our surprise, the food was pathetic. It might be famous for non-vegetarian food, which we don't eat but the vegetarian food was disgusting. The Thali from Thali restaurant which should be mouth-watering (restaurants name is from a dish of different cuisines) - was the other way around. The roti was like the ones we get from supermarket- the frozen or the preserved ones (ready-made from factory). It never tasted like hand-made and was very hard. We had a total bill of more than 200 bucks which I felt like most wasted money. Sorry for being rude, but I am really disappointed as I had higher expectations. I would never recommend it.

The service was fast but was nothing exceptional. The food served was not warm enough and also that the roti that they served in the thali is the frozen roti that we get from outside. Such an exceptional place should work on their food a lil bit more. Placed in the heart of downtown, a little of bit of changes to the thali can make it a better place to dine at.

A. Ma. Zing. A platter of various Indian dishes, all of them delightful and outside the "usuals" at your favourite resto.

Simply delicious! With new flavors every time you go. Highly recommend it. The staff is also lovely!

Delicious. Food looks good and taste better. The environment is also very nice. I'd definitely come back.

I have been to Coconut Lagoon which is like parent restaurant of Thaali. Quick service but definitely not one of the great taste of indian food for the price. They serve "ready made frozen paratha naan" into the plate which is available in walmart and Freshco as well. Great location but they won't able to go far into the business if they will keep serving the thaali with same style and price!

Very good food and filling. I love the concept. I strongly recommend that you go before noon as it gets very busy during the lunch hour

Everyone working here was really sweet. The food was really delicious and I
especially appreciated the large portions!

Delicious food, gorgeous presentation, great service. Arrive early to snag a seat or make a reservation to guarantee your spot. Great venue for large groups!

Authentic food, incredible ambience and great service! As South Indians, we enjoyed every single dish - sambar, beans thoran, zucchini curry (tasted like olan), pumpkin curry (was matthan erisheri), eggplant curry, paneer etc. Best experience & food in North America! Thank you!

This was a hopping place at lunch time, and the food was delicious, hot and served quickly. Will be back!

I was worth the trip! Their famous chef did a great job with the menu. There isn't a huge selection of items but the ones they have are awesome. Just have a seat at one of the common tables and try one for yourself!

Good food but terrible service. Just walked out of the restaurant and the experience was so sour that I have to post this review to let others know. Our assigned server did not bother giving us a menu or nor did he take our orders. We had to call another server to place our order. Our assigned server did not bother showing up at our table and when we asked him to get us a refill of a curry, it never showed up.we requested twice and still did not show up. The food is good but pricey, considering the service we received. I would not recommend going there solely because of their service.
This happened on Saturday on March 30th around 1pm. The other server tried to help us but it wasn't the table he was supposed to serve.

Great food at Thali! Would recommend coming early as it gets packed with the downtown lunch crowd. There are long shared tables in this restaurant and the staff turns it over quite quick. The $18 thali comes with a lot of different dishes. My favorites were the mushroom and squash. The dessert was a little dense and too sweet.

This was my second visit here. I arrived at the restaurant at 215pm (45mins before closing) and there were 3 guests and 3 waiters at that time. The owner took my order (thali) and the food arrived fairly quickly (within 7 minutes). The thali was not bad but lacked some of my favourite items that were served to me on my previous visit. They replaced one of the dishes with mushrooms which I didnt enjoy too much.
What disappointed me the most was that the whole time I ate there not one waiter came to offer me water or check up on me to see if I was enjoying the food or if I needed anything. Otherwise, the food, while not mind blowing, is still worth it, but because of the lack of client service my overall experience was diminished.

Great Lunch with my wife, memories of Indian Railway Thali Restaurants without the potential of bad food, great meal, too quick though, need to linger!

Incredible, flavorful south Indian cuisine in downtown Ottawa. Great thali sets, including vegetarian and vegan options. Not very cheap but it includes free refills on the rice and veg curries (the portion sizes were too generous for me to need any though). Popular place with modern decor. The service was excellent and attentive.

Only name is Indian but food has no flavour at all. Their main restaurant called Coconut Lagoon is really good so I was expecting same quality but was terribly disappointed with the food. 6 different dishes in thali and all tasted same that is sweet and distasteful. If you love Indian food avoid this place and dont waste 24$ for single thali. To make it even more worse there was hair in my friends thali.

It was amazing! The service was so fast and the staff are all incredibly sweet. Definitely recommend!

Amazing cuisine! The seafood Thali is just like what you would experience in Kerala! Maybe even better!

Exceptional food, quick service, and reasonable pricing. What more could you ask for? No wonder it is always so busy at lunch!

Pleasant surprise. Good food. Lots of food. Wonderfully spiced. Quick service. Fair prices. We have a winner!

This restaurant is beautifully renovated, but that’s pretty much it. Our dishes got mixed up, the meat had an overcooked grainy texture, the pickled mango was extremely salty, the lentils were hard and undercooked, the paneer and rice were both dry and bland, and the tuna had that strong, pungent taste you find in canned fish. The whole thing costed $85 for two people, and to top it all off, my mom had an upset stomach when we got home.

We have been to Coconut Lagoon restaurant several times, and wanted to try their newly opened "Thali" restaurant in downtown Ottawa. We went on a Monday evening, and for a Monday the restaurant had good number of clients. The open concept and modern looking restaurant is appealing, although the table we were seated on had a bench to sit on with no back support - quite uncomfortable for a dinner. We ordered a Lamb Thali, which unfortunately was below our expectation. The lamb although flavorful consisted of really hard lamb pieces, as if it had been sitting around since lunch time when it was likely prepared. The other vegetarian dishes included in the thali were all liquidy concoctions with hardly a piece of vegetable to be seen. The parootha (bread) that came with the thali was cold. The real secret to good Indian food is that it should be cooked fresh and served hot (especially the bread). The dessert was a lone piece of gulab jamun, we had hoped for south indian desert like payasam. For the rather pricey dishes (at $28 per plate, its probably the most expensive thali in Ottawa), we hope that the restaurant can up their game to something better, especially as it relates to the food they serve. The service was polite, but somewhat lethargic and slow.

Tasty large selection of tastes, that is, you get a large selection of them no matter what you order - the actual menu is very short but since each is a 'tahli, ' you will receive nearly 10 dishes to eat each in small portion, plus rice, plus a flatbread. Vegan and vegetarian options were on the menu. Offers salty lassi which is my definition of yes I'll go back - cuts heat like nothing else. While I agree that the price is high for comparable food elsewhere, the situation is the same at Coconut Lagoon, and this is in a prime location with fresh modern decor (and modern uncomfortable loud seating).

[Update]
I went back and found that they built a small vestibule to block cold air from the exterior door, kudos to that.
-
The food was delicious, service was good, unfortunately my dining experience was ruined by the poor design of the space. The exterior door is only about 10~15 feet from the dining space, there is no separation between the dining space and the exterior door. Every time the door opens, cold outside air just blasts into the dinning area. What's even worse is that the door is not just for the restaurant, it's a main exit door of the entire building. I sat very close to the door when it's -15C outside, my food got cold very fast, and I felt that I should be wearing a jacket while eating. I blame the architect & engineers who designed this space. I would love to go back, but not in the winter or not until they fix the problem.