On the way back from the Art Fair this month, we decided to try something really unique (we hoped) on State Street for lunch, so we went to Chautara, one of two Nepalese/Himalayan restaurants set on that pedestrian corridor (as it turns out, the other one, Himal Chuli, is owned by the same people).

Unfortunately, Chautara was a massive let-down, in almost every conceivable way.

Arriving at Chautara, we were seated in the dark, somewhat run-down, though basically clean (and mercifully dim compared with the heat of the day) restaurant, and assigned a server.

Then another. Then the first one again. Then they took our drink order. Then again.

Then, after a few minutes waiting on our drinks on a very hot day, the server came back out and told me that what I ordered was no longer available.

We ordered our food (I got the Bandipuri, however you spell that, the roomie got some chicken curry) and we ordered a pakora for an appetizer. We also selected the lentil soup (Dal) to come with our meals. Note that for later.

The pakora came out reasonably quickly; in the meantime we had to contend with a seeming army of flies. I don’t think this was entirely their fault; hot day, summer, you get flies. But man it was annoying, and I’ll disclose it here as part of my bad mood to come (though only part).

Unfortunately, the pakora was greasy and dry. Other places in town do far better pakoras; Swagat, on Mineral Point, does an amazing pakora. I had some at an offsite catered event, where the pakoras had to be carried in, in huge aluminum trays, cooked miles away, and they were ten times better than Chautara.

After the pakora was eaten, our entrees arrived (without their soups)… and our server departed. A word about this server; he was a: obviously very new, and b: clumsy. I mean, I Love Lucy grade slapstick clumsy. Stuff was spilled, stuff was dropped, it would have been entertaining if it wasn’t so sad.

Anyway, the entrees… ugggh.

(my entree)

(the roommate’s curry)

(Note, we had tasted these before I got the pictures. The presentation of Chautara’s awful food was in fact quite pretty. Lipstick on a pig)

First of all, they cost 15-16 dollars a piece. The roommate’s curry was mediocre and unexceptional. Mine was actually *bad*. Canned mushrooms, greasy, bland sauce, oily and unappealing. The chicken was tough and chewy. Both came with undercooked rice. What kind of Asian restaurant fucks up the rice? Buy a damn rice cooker! Argh!

We had to flag down the server again to get our soups, which he had forgotten. After a short time, they came out, and… they sucked too. Incredibly bland, and the lentils were undercooked as well. As the roommate said with exasperation, “How do you fuck up lentil soup?”

(awful lentil soup)

How indeed.

The meal cost, with tip, something like 55 dollars, and it was just trash, I’m sorry. I know two Indian buffets in town where you could get far better food for 9 bucks a person. There are many places on State/downtown where you can get a nice meal of a wide variety of ethnicities for half, or even a third, the money this cost. Who knows; it might even be fully cooked. The only thing we really got for our money at Chautara was our new expression: “There’s Disappointment, and Then There’s Chautara”. This is our new yardstick for terrible restaurants.

0/5 Stars. This meal was a disgrace.