Sizzling Tandoor

Food was okay. Service was terrible! Asked 3 times for our drinks then 3 more times for our water, both of which we ordered at the start. Both servers would say yes, then they would go stand at the bar and not bring anything. Also had to ask for our bill 2 times. Not sure how this place gets good reviews unless you’re ordering takeout & can bypass the service. Definitely will not be back!

I never had a chance to visit this but as per the experience i heard from my friends its not that good. We usually visits the one at uptown and one of the best Indian restaurant i have experienced so far as the food is delicious as always, staff is polite with the brilliant customer skills.

Finding an Indian place wasn’t too big of an issue, there are plenty of them in downtown Victoria. The Sizzling Tandoor had some so-​so reviews on Unilocal,so we took a gamble in giving it a try. The parking around this place is really limited, especially after the meters are shutdown. The inside dining area has a small number of tables and the place appeared very clean. They have a large selection of items to choose from here, a very diverse menu. They have various different Indian dishes, Italian dishes and some Mediterranean ones. We started off the meal with some naan bread (
) and some of their hummus (
). The hummus didn’t have much of any flavor to it and the texture was very crumbly almost like paste. When you get hummus you expect smooth silky type of texture, not this. The naan bread was a pretty big portion but it shared the same issue as the hummus, no flavor. Although it had no flavor, it was cooked decent and was soft inside. They also seemed to use a large portion of oil on it, even though you couldn’t taste it. The rosemary naan was the same way except you could taste a bit of the rosemary seeds in it. Very disappointing naan here, I would not recommend it.
I know it’s not the best idea to get some pasta from a Indian place, but it was suppose to come with tandoori flavors which isn’t something you see anywhere back in the states. The tandoori chicken tikka pasta (
) was basically fettuccine alfredo with creamy sauce and a mix of Indian flavors. While the portion you get for $ 14 is pretty good, the dish lacked lots of flavor to it. I asked them for Extra/​Hot spiciness (
) except it was rather mild and didn’t have much heat. The pasta its self was cooked really good and tasted fresh at least. Unfortunately they didn’t really add too much chicken to it, kind of lousy for how much I paid. My friend ordered the dal (
) with an emphasis on double extra hot for spicy. While the lentils tasted really good and the flavors went together great, it had barely any spiciness to it.
Pretty much after the bill came, we felt like dinner was a wash. The food really didn’t have much flavor to it and they must not know how to add spiciness to the food. Most entrees here will run you about 15 – 20 bucks, which is pretty high priced in my opinion. If you’re looking for some serious Indian food, I’d check out some other places.

We went to Sizzling Tandoor for dinner on Saturnday night and ordered a la carte and the food was pretty decent. We went back on Monday for buffet and the food was so horrible that I could not eat any of the vegetarian dishes. The Naan when ordered A la carte was really good, but the naan served with buffet was cardboard. I’d highly recommend against buffet in this restaurant. Not great service either.

My girlfriend and I ended up here by chance and am happy we did. The only problem we had was when we asked that be cooked mild. It ended up being hot enough that my girlfriend couldn’t eat it.
They were nice enough to give her a full new meal so it all ended well in the end.

I really liked the food at this place. I do think the plates could be a little bigger. The naan bread is great! The tikka masala was fantastic. The white rice that comes with the food is okay. The service was nice but they were slow and kept forgetting things for both my table and other Tables. They forgot the rice, it came out almost at the end of my meal. They forgot refills and water. I think just bring the service up to meet the food and this place would be five star!

Very good place. Highly recomended. my favoure plc to come back again and again… downtown victoria.

Because I enjoyed it. I order the Chicken Biryani, cooked medium-​hot. This was fantastic. There was heat, but lots of aromatic spices as well, with tender chicken and al dente rice. I love biryani’s at a curry house, they are my go-​to dish if I don’t fancy anything in the vegetarian section. This was among the best I have ever had. It was served with a cucumber raita, whereas I am used to the biryani sauce being a small portion of mild vegetable curry.
The Brunette order the Prawn Saagwala. This was a thick pureed spinach sauce, spiced with ginger housing plump juicy prawns. This wouldn’t be my choice to eat again, mainly as I am not a huge fan of unadulterated spinach, the vegetal flavour not being my favourite in curry. That said, it was well cooked and well spiced. The Brunette tells me she had dreams of this dish the night after, and I’ve seen this far away, wistful look in her eyes when I mentioned I was writing about the restaurant.
We also got a couple of naan breads. The rosemary naan was a little dry, but had plenty of aromatic herb flavour and smell. The paneer naan, a bread sprinkled on the inside with crumbly curds was softer, and very savoury. Not masses of cheese that the ‘stuffed’ description would suggest, but a very good accompaniment. For two very hungry shoppers.
Full review:

Decent lunch buffet for $ 13 but service was poor. Butter chicken was excellent. Pork curry good, daal excellent, pakoras okay but very cold!, naan outstanding, rice dry and cold. Glasses of water were not refilled in the 45 or 50 minutes we were there and we were only given one small basket of naan for 4 of us, no refill offered; this despite the place being less than half full and the waitress making eye contact with our table numerous times. Another shortfall is that there was no samosas in the buffet. One of my favourite Indian items sadly not present.
Only reason I’m giving it 3 stars is for the value, butter chicken and the naan. Nowhere on the menu did it indicate that alcoholic beverages were available, nor did our server inform us that they had a full bar. On going up to pay I realized that they did in fact have a full bar hidden from view in the dining room. If I had known, I would have ordered a beer or mixed drink. Again an indication of poor service.
Unlikely to return in near future. Just didn’t feel like they were overly keen for our business given the poor service and lack of friendliness. The premises are small and relatively non-​descript verging on hole –in-​the-​wall. If they improved service and ensured all of the food was actually warm, they could improve to 4 stars.

Worst indian food I had in while. Visiting Victoria from Seattle. Got a craving for Indian food. This place was named as the best Indian food Victoria! It was really bad. Hard to imagine how the other Indian restaurants here are!!!

Very poor service. We waited almost 45 minutes for our drinks and the waitress wasn’t even sure of what they had in the bar.
Appetizers were late as the waitress forgot that we needed them first although we were very clear in our order.
Main course: chicken and lamb were undercooked, garlic naan was charred at the bottom. The other waitress got us 2 orders of rice as complimentary with the main course which we were not even told about. But when we said we will just take one she just walked the other order of rice to another table and said here is your rice.
The waitress who took our order was not even sorry about the wait we had and the other one was rude as well.
Very bad wait staff who were very generous to discount our bill which we said no too as we didn’t want to eat free dinner.
I wouldn’t recommend this to any one who is trying to enjoy a good dinner and they didn’t even attend to families that were waiting outside in line and they just walked away…
One of the worst dinner experience we have had… oh by the way the waitress forgot to get us cutlery and most important of all WATER…

I came here for the lunch buffet and was completely disappointed.
First, when I went up to the buffet, there was no fruit or green salad, and only a wee bit of the rice pudding dessert. When I mentioned this to one of the two young women there, she said it was on the way, but it was never refilled during whole 20 or so minutes I was there – and this was at about 1 p.m. right in the middle of the lunch hour.
The pakoras were the most disappointing I’ve ever had. They were heavy, dense, stiff and cold, as if made from play-​dough instead of chickpea flour. Really bad. The food was overly hot in taste, at least to me, so much so that I could not make out any distinct flavors, it was all just hot, so I can’t really say if any of the dishes tasted any good.
Wait staff: I had to ask three times to see a menu which had drink items on it. At one point, I looked up and both young women servers were checking there cell phones, which seemed way more important than serving people in the restaurant.
It seems that no one here is really paying attention to the food they are serving or how it’s being served, so why should I bother coming back?

Went here on a weeknight and nearly every table was full– a very good sign of the things to come.
I ordered the house red (a Shiraz from Australia– meh. It was ok).
I started with the vegetable samosas. The crust was buttery and flakey, the inside was warm and rich and perfectly spiced. I wasn’t a fan of the chutney served with it. A little sweet for my taste. But luckily, the samosas didn’t need it to be delicious on their own.
I ordered the tikka masala with chicken. The sauce was creamy and smokey. I asked for the sauce to be HOT (as a white girl, I have trouble convincing the servers at Indian restaurants that when I say HOT, I mean it), and it was spicy enough to be satisfying but in my opinion, the hotter, the better. It could have been hotter which is the only reason this place didn’t get the 5^th star.
I also ordered the garlic & basil naan. It was piping hot and fresh out of the oven. So. Good. VERY garlicky though. It’ll probably be seeping from my pores tomorrow. But overall, perfect.
I couldn’t eat it all. I never can when eating alone, especially starting with the samosas which I polished off.
The restaurant is not big on ambiance, which is fine. My favorite Indian places are sketchy, hole in the wall places. Probably not a great place for groups of more than 6. It’s small.
They were very busy with only 2 servers, but they were both still very attentive and friendly. The owner came by my table to make sure everything came out ok, which was a nice extra touch. I will definitely come here again on my next visit to Victoria.

Something is wrong with Victoria — you can’t trust cabbies’ food recommendations.
A cabbie told me I had to try Sizzling Tandoor, as it was not only the best Indian restaurant in the city, but the best restaurant in the city. Maybe I got the wrong things, but my food was sweet, bland, and unpleasantly between Americanized and English Indian food. Go anywhere else instead, I think. It’s just so indifferent and vague and sad.

Really enjoyed this place, the food was wonderful, well seasoned and delicious. a real nice selection as well. Everything we had was fantastic.

Generous portions, tasty tandoor breads, no ambiance to speak of.
Service was friendly but uneven — water glasses sat unfilled, but everyone was very pleasant. Spice levels were as described. Meats were juicy and well-​seasoned.

My husband and I decided to get take-​away dinner here for our Breaking Bad marathon. I wouldn’t say that this is Victoria’s best Indian food restaurant. My number one pick is still Curry Lounge. The young lady who took our order was great in helping us choose a dish. I ordered the vegetarian Vindaaloo medium spice and my husband ordered the chicken Vindaaloo with mild spice. My dish tasted grainy and the medium spice was more like hot spice turning me into a human flamethrower. I do like that rice is included with your curry dish; it is something Curry Lounge lacks.
The portions could have been a little bigger on the mains for what we paid but the Naan bread was huge, crispy and delicious.
My sense of remorse doubled this morning as the spices ripped their way out of me in a raging fiery whirlwind of poopy terror.
We won’t be back.

This was quite a disappointing restaurant. We waited almost an hour and a half to receive our food. During our stay, our water was not refilled, and our popped naan appetizer only came out about twenty minutes before our food finally arrived. The Tandoori Chicken was not the best I’ve had. The rice also seemed cheap and tasteless. The Mango Lassi was a pretty good drink, though. We were refunded $ 20 from our total bill at the end because of the terrible service, which made the visit a bit more tolerable.

I am very hard to please when it comes to Indian food. I have a very Americanized palate (obviously), and only like a handful of dishes. But when I see those dishes on a menu, I get so excited.
Sizzling Tandor has one of my favorites, mango curry. This one was a little less sweet than I was used to, but had a lot of good flavors. My medium was actually fairly spicy, which was a pleasant surprise. While it may not have been exactly what I was looking for, it was really quite good none the less. The lamb was good quality too. My friend loved her Cocnut curry, and my boyfriend thought his Tikka Masala was ok, but liked my dish a lot better. The naan was huge, and tasty.
Prices were a bit high, but I wasn’t surprised. Indian food usually is a couple dollars too expensive. The food and service were both good though.
Walking distance for people staying in the Inner Harbor, but far enough away from the tourists to encourage a lot of locals, with better food quality and lower prices.

What luck, this restaurant was just outside our hotel! The owner greeted us as we walked in, and was quick in cleaning an empty table by the window (it was pretty packed in there, which is usually a good sign!). Water and popadoms set on the table, instant thumbs up.
We ordered probably a bit too much (but still ate it all, ahem). The tandoori chicken was sizzling, the onions nice and fresh. The korma was nice and creamy — the nuts on top gave it a good texture. Plenty of rice, the plain naan was huge, and the onion and cilantro naan was smaller but packed with flavor! Oh oh and the mango lassi was kind of neon, loved it!
All in all, I wish this place was in Vancouver!