Aurum - Los Altos

The most pathetic/rude manager at the restaurant.. one cannot really say until you get into a situation how the staff really is. I ordered 200 food and went and picked it up. Came home and noticed that one curry was missing. He tells me that the kitchen confirmed that they sent all of them. He is now hinting that I am lying about it. Then he says I will make another one if I can pick it up. I told him that we are about to sit and eat and I cannot come again. He again tells me that he has confirmed that the kitchen sent out the order. This time I lost it! I told me that your tone is not at all apologetic, the least you can do is acknowledge the mistake. He yelled and said, Why should I apologize, what did we do wrong? . He said he has no reason to apologize on behalf of his restaurant and started raising his voice. I always thought highly of this restaurant but it 's in the time of crisis that you actually get to see how they handle the situation. I am deeply insulted by his behavior and it ruined my whole experience with this restaurant.

Came back here again recently, the service has always been great and the food is consistent and delicious. Drinks are good too and worth a shot especially if you want to give cocktails with some spice to it which they do a great job of. We ordered the Mr Potato spiral chaat (trick to eating is to eat it in chunks of 4 and slide them down), Chipotle Paneer Tikka, Basil and Thyme Naan and a Garlic Naan. Breads were not the strong suit to be fair but their curries are great!

I’m torn, I really wanted to like this place as it’s the only Indian place near my house. The food tasted great and they have a creative menu. But, there is a big but.. for a restaurant that is so high end, I wouldn’t expect the food to be so greasy. There was so much oil floating in all their curries. For $26 for a small bowl of curry, you’d expect them to do better. I had to scoop out the oil before I could dig in. The naan sizes are tiny, so you’ll need to order more than your regular fare.

Aurum is Latin name for Gold and they do show every attempt to be the Gold standard be it food, service or ambience. We ordered Eggplant and Yellow dal with Roti and Garlic Naan. The experience is little bit of hit and miss. Eggplant curry, presentation and taste is awesome. The whole eggplant felt a little bit under cooked. This is a small issue that mars an otherwise excellent dish. The yellow dal is how we make it in our home and there are no extra spices and tastes bland. I was actually looking for a bland dal and just liked it on the day. But I am not sure if everyone or even I will like it on other days. Both Garlic Naan and Roti were fluffy and flavorful. I like the Naan and Roti on the thinner side and hence did not relish it as much. The best Garlic Naan I have eaten is at Bhimavaram Ruhulu. Overall We liked the food and will go again. The nitpicks are mainly due to the fact we spent close of 60 for 2 people and two dishes, thus we expect the best. The staff is very welcoming and polite. The ambience is great and they have seating outside. I guess parking could be an issue on weekdays, but we were dining on Sunday and had no issue in finding a street parking nearby

I had saved this place for a special occasion meal. My expectation from this Indian restaurant was for it to have either a unique twist/interpretation of regular Indian food and/or exceptional flavor which is difficult to find in other places combined with some amazing ambiance and service. It has after all shown up on the Michelin guide. Since we went on a weekday, their office special menu seemed like a reasonable option as we could sample upto 6 dishes between the two of us. First of all the ambiance is mediocre, orange painted walls and some ceiling vents that needed cleaning. We got brassica beats and lasooni kebab for appetizers. The cauliflower bezule were these greasy little bites with a very crispy coating. The sauce it came with was fat heavy as well, it could have helped to have a lighter sauce to avoiding weighing down the combination. The chicken kebab was dangerously tethered between the fine line of being undercooked and beautifully cooked, I felt like it crossed the line into the wrong side in some places. Next came our main dishes: ghee roasted mutton and apricot kofta. The kofta was in a cream heavy curry, I could not distinguish the flavor of the apricots in the kebab, they just felt a tad bit tougher than the regular paneer/potato koftas. The mutton gravy was mild as well. Overall the appetizers and curries felt as if they were safely trying to tick off boxes rather than experimenting. Though it was difficult to find anything obviously wrong in the dishes at the same time it was difficult to fall in love with any of them. Finally we got toffee pudding and tapioca kheer for dessert. The toffee pudding was warm and not overly sweet if the brown sugar syrup was avoided, I liked it. The tapioca pudding on the other hand felt extremely sweet and had copious amount of saffron. If the expectation is to have a decent Indian meal in a relatively nice setting then this is the place for that. My expectations though were different and it failed to live upto them.