Avani Asian Indian bistro

I am really struggling on how to rate this place. The food was pretty incredible, some of the best Indian I’ve had in my entire life, but the service was some of the worst I’ve had in a long time. I really hate giving negative reviews, but we definitely had issues.
I think I’m going to go with 3 stars with the caveat that you should not attempt to visit this place on a Saturday night, or if you do, get a reservation. Don’t be like us and just show up, because this place is really popular and was incredibly packed when we went in.
We were warned of the long wait, and it was at least half an hour before we were offered a seat at a high top near the bar area. We ordered some of the stuffed naan, because that sounded really delicious and we were starving. We figured that we could use that as a snack while we pored over the menu.
We got the naan, but then the server disappeared. It took about another 20 minutes for her to get back to us to take our main order. We ordered samosas, Chicken Korma, and then she started to leave… before we were finished ordering.
«No, we wanted Mangalore Curry also!»
«Oh … okay.»
I dunno, maybe we were just not communicating effectively. It was pretty deafening in there. Maybe it was because it’s not customary for a party of 2 to order so much food (I actually noticed this, a couple of tables seated near us were splitting one dish.) I am not entirely sure, and our server wasn’t really that forthcoming.
We were not in a drinking mood that night, so Lee ordered a soda. I am not a soda drinker, so I stuck with water. Unfortunately, the server never stopped by to refill my water, even after I requested more.
The food was incredible though. The stuffed naan was delicious, cheesy and fresh and soft. The regular naan was also delicious. Both curries were wonderful, full of flavor and delicious. I am still thinking today about how delicious it was. Like I said, the best I’d had my entire life.
I would go back here again, because I think the quality of the food is worth giving them a pass on service at least once, but I really think I’d only go if we had reservations.

My partner surprised me by bringing me to Avani. It’s our first Indian restaurant together in Mississauga, and I loved the experience. A great start to 2016!
From the outside, you wouldn’t be able to tell how nice the ambiance and décor are set. It’s definitely casual for lunch and yes you can bring a date in the evening!
Happy: I ordered stuffed naan with kale and sweet potato. It was definitely filling, which I didn’t expect. I had aloo gobi (cauliflower and potato curry) to dip my naan which was thick and flavourful. I wish I could cook this dish at home! My partner had the chicken curry which could have included some veggies and he had it with roomali roti which he was a bit disappointed that it wasn’t anything special.
Not happy: It’s bit pricey for lunch, but it was worth the experience.
Verdict: We would definitely go back for special occasions and to bring our friends there. I love how the naan/​roti are freshly made.

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Their food used be really good. Not so good now. Bland and soggy. But it’s the staff. they are just plain rude. particularly to women. It is hard work to get service. They look right through you. Even the female staff rolled their eyes at the rudeness of the male servers Only time in my life I have not left even a penny tip. Never go back. Don’t need this kind of rude service. What a pity. Not the fault of the servers but the management No one is watching and no one gives a damn. Shame that it has gone down this way. time for a manager to be out front watching.
Please don’t review this business if you received a freebie for writing this review, or if you’re connected in any way to the owner or employees.

I visited Avani Bistro and here are some comments–
Ambience– Nice
Food– Tasty
Service — Fast
The one thing i didnt like was no real friendliness from staff. They were professional, no issues but the attitude was same as u may visit a dhaba, then why pay over twice for the food? The food was tasty but no shortage of places in GTA serving tasty indian food. the service expectations from such places are higher, similar to any fine dining place but here they just seemed interested in us eating and leaving. Hence giving 3 stars instead of 4.

Went to dinner this past Saturday night. Place was PACKED… a good sign. Slight mix up with our reservation, but was sorted out quickly. Stand out dishes were the lamb chops & Gobhi 65. If you’re looking for a higher end Indian dining experience, options are limited. This is one of the best!

I went to a 1 year old’s birthday party here yesterday and everyone was raving about the food! The style of cuisine was very unique and although everything was excellent, my favourite dish was the Malai Methi Mattar. And don’t forget to try their Mango Lassi! Good experience.

The best Indian restaurant in the GTA.
Especially great are the various kebabs and variety of breads they make. Those are what really set them apart from the sea of Indian restaurants out there.
The décor is also very upscale, and is great for entertaining business clients.
We’ve never left disappointed — always satisfied!

Went here for lunch with a friend who recommended this for good Indian food.
To be honest I drive past here all the time, and I never knew this place existed. Its not that its small either… I think I assumed it was a spa for some reason??? Lol
Place is a good size, and very nicely decorated.
We ordered butter chicken and chicken tikka with butter naan, and garlic naan. Both were very good and flavourful. I really liked how each chicken piece was moist and was the chicken breast. I hate when places don’t cut off the fat or bad parts to their meat. The garlic naan was also better than the butter naan.
The only downside I would say is price. They don’t have a lunch menu, and their dishes do not come with naan or rice, therefore you have to order it separately.
Our lunch came out to be about $ 50 for the two of us.

The indian food here is delicious and the service is wonderful. We had the grilled chicken platter. The spices and variety in flavor was delicious. We then ordered garlic naan, chickpea curry and butter chicken. All the dishes were perfectly seasoned and the naan was light and fluffy. The waitress was attentive and the ambiance was lovely. Very clean and quiet. Overall, this restaurant provided a lovely dining experience for Indian food in Missisauga. However, please note that the prices are higher than an average Indian place.

Nice food and nice ambience!
We went out on a busy weekend evening here and the restaurant was jam packed. Luckily we made a reservation well in advance.
We ordered a veg platter in starter and it was really good. Methi malai matar is a must try here. Naans were soft and daal makhani was good.
Overall Avani is one good Indian fine dining place to experience.

The server was not very knowledgeable about the menu and did not inspire confidence. It took a while before our food came, my daughter got the wrong dish, and my wife’s rice was almost cold. To be honest the dishes tasted great but bad service and the wait would dictate that I would never go back.

This place is so pretty. Very nice dining room, spacious and warm. The staff is great, attentive and peasant.
The food is really good. Like, stupid good. The staple, butter chicken, was spicier than most, but on par with Sweet Palace, which is the golden standard for Indian food. The apps were really good, we had the crispy fried vegetables and they were so delicious. the paneer dishes are also great, very fragrant and delicious.
The parking kind of sucks, the plaza is very busy and it’s at a strip of road directly across from the Heartland Walmart. That’s a terrible place for anything, but trust me. If you survive the left turn into the plaza, you’re in for a great meal!

We ordered veg sampler (upsize) for starters. It was nice though the quantity really didn’t increase that much considering the amount for upsize. I ordered for a green apple vodka but it was too much diluted.
Main course we ordered was malai kofta and baingan patiala. Malai kofta was very nice. Baingan patiala was just fine. Butter naan could have a little more butter on them. But all in all this place is much much better for indian food than a lot of other places in toronto!

This is definitely my top pick for Indian fare in Mississauga. Delicious food, great ambience (casual enough to bring family/​friends yet upscale enough for a date), and attentive service. I really only have 2 words for this place: DAT NAAN. Or more specifically, GARLIC NAAN. Mmmmm, so fragrant and scrumptious, this is one guilty pleasure you’ll have to watch out to avoid overloading your carb intake.
My favourite dish to go with naan is Palak Kofta, although any curry in general would not disappoint. This is on top of my Westernized go-​to of butter chicken. I have been content with most of the dishes in the few times I’ve been here — you can’t really go wrong whatever you end up choosing. Prices were quite reasonable for portion and taste.
Verdict: YUM. Will definitely be back and bring some friends along (to get my naan fix and since the curries get filling!)

Great place to dine in.
Pros: Good food, Great ambience, reasonable pricing.
Cons: long wait times over the weekends. Better book a table in advance. Food takes a forever to be delivered, but is worth the wait.
Food: paneer chili didn’t have any spice in it, was good but not spicy.
Staff: very understaffed for the amount of crowd they get.
Hakka noodles is the best I have had in Northern America.

Came with moderate expectations… after all it’s in the middle of suburbia and a strip mall, no less. Left pleasantly surprised.
The food was better than thought. The standout was… wait for it… the chicken biryani. Wait though, it was served in a little pot with some sort of roti-​like covering on top which looked like it had all been baked in the oven, a presentation I’ve never seen before. Also, the flavours in the rice were actually quite subtle, with hints of spices I’ve never tasted so forthright in biryani before; we all agreed.
The service was a touch on the slow side, but hard to complain given that every table was full on a Thursday night. And we certainly did get our drinks refilled a number of times. The staff was painfully conscious that we (all) were waiting, and did their best to placate us.
Would definitely go back — it’s always pleasant when you can taste the individual flavours in the food instead of a mishmash of that ends up tasting like just one thing.

My girlfriend and I ordered takeout a couple of days ago and didn’t have a great experience. We ordered butter chicken, chicken tikka masala (so vanilla, I know), and a side of saffron rice and garlic naan. The total came out to $ 40 (pricey!). On our way home, my girlfriend notices that something smells burnt. When we were able to check the food at home, we realize that the naan was the culprit — one side of it was completely charred. I should mention here that on the bill was a random «Manager’s Discount»; maybe it was to recompense us for ruining our food. Not off to a great start.
Moving on to the entrees. We asked for both of them to be made mild because neither of us can handle spiciness well at all. Unfortunately, their version of mild was still too much for us. The food was tasty to be sure, but between chugging cold drinks and gasping for air, we couldn’t really enjoy it. We couldn’t even finish it; half the food is still sitting in the fridge waiting for me to decide when I’d like to try and breathe fire again. Not too sure I’ll be back.

Part of our Indian restaurant ventures, my family and I decided to try out Avani on a Friday night. One word of advice — make sure you make a reservation, as they get pretty busy on Friday nights from our observation.
Here’s my breakdown of the review:
1) Ambiance, seating area, service (minus one instance) — excellent.
2) I am taking one star off because the host at the front of the house was very rude. I had made reservations for 7:15PM, but however due to traffic and the weather, we were 15 minutes late. I had called on my way there, and I informed them that we will be late, and is it okay. The person whom I spoke to on the phone said its fine, and it shouldn’t be a problem.
However when we arrived there, the host at the front said that he canceled our reservation because we were 15 minutes late. I told him that I spoke to someone on the phone and they said its fine. I even mentioned my name and telephone #. He just simply ignored it. He then told us we’d have to wait another 20 minutes for a table to be ready, and told us to sit at the bar. This was very unacceptable.
3) Here comes the fun part, the food. Just a heads up, my family and I are vegetarians, and once again we do not know how the meat dishes are. Here’s what we ordered:
Manchurian vegetables, Dal Masar Ki, Baingan Patlala (a great dish by the way), Saffron rice, Tandoor rotis, Methi naan.
The food was excellent and it was mouth watering. The spices were just correct, and it suited our pallet pretty well. The food tasted better than the over hyped Chef Sanjeev Kapoor’s Khazana in Brampton. My favourite dish was the Baingan Patiala. The Chinese eggplant was cooked perfectly fine in the gravy, and I even liked the raisins in it too. Normally I don’t like raisins in food, but this was an exception. The Dal Masar Ki was tasty as well. I liked how they used the red chili as compared to the green chili. The red chili is not as spicy as the green one. The texture was perfect and the portions were great.
Overall, we would definitely come back here, and shall recommend this restaurant to others.

Pretty impressed with Avani — it’s certainly one of the best places I’ve eaten in the area, especially for Indian.
Don’t be put off by the boring strip mall location and somewhat bland interior, because the interior is really nice. The walls are painted in warm neutrals, and there’s just enough (but not too much) Indian-​themed décor. It’s really very nice.
If you’re drinking, they have a full wine and beer list (not entirely sure if there is a bar/​liquor). Prices on wine — at least bottle prices — looked fairly high to me. Appetizers definitely tend toward the «fusion» end of the spectrum — no pakoras or samosas — think chili fried calamari. There’s a good listing of Asian/​Indian/​fusion specialties but we all ordered traditional Indian curries.
One person went with the Mangalori Curry which is a spicy sauce/​coconut milk combo. He asked for it to be made mild, which was accommodated. It was really tasty but I think would have been much better if prepared at the intended heat level (just FYI). Another person got Tikka Masala which had one of the most flavorful Masala sauces I’ve encountered. I went with Chana Masala which was a tad spicy and full of delicious flavors. Portions are more than generous, but be aware that you have to order rice separately which adds about $ 4 to the price of a dish. Of course, we went with some naan which was the perfect combination of fluffy top and crispy bottom.
Service was «ok». Our orders were taken promptly and food arrived quickly but we never received refills on drinks. Also, when I sat down the napkin at my place (rolled around the silverware) was noticeably dirty, as in, someone had used it. Gross! Fortunately, I noticed before I used it.
Overall — great authentic food, classy décor and so/​so service. I’d absolutely come back.

Took my family out to dinner. High Unilocal reviews drew me to the place. Décor is so so, service was rather poor. However, the food was quite excellent.
Ordered the mixed grill as an app. Perfect for 4 people. For our mains we ordered the seafood mixed grill (tandoori lobster tails … yummmm), mangalore coconut chicken curry (family favorite) and stir fried veggies to feign some level of healthiness! The butter naan and basmati rice were as expected.
Finished off our dining experience with rasmalai and fried coconut ice cream (highly recommended).
Wine selection was decent and they have a great mint iced tea.
Overall would recommend and will be back but hope to get a more attentive server next time around.