Daana

Very good Indian food on offer here. We prebooked the thali for around $60 each. Unlimited refills are available for the curries and rice. While everything was quite nice, it still felt expensive for what it was.

For the restaurant itself, the interior is lovely, but some abient music is needed. Service is nice but also quite awkward.

I would like to return and try their dosa.

The service was good. The food was far too spicy to the point where I couldn't eat it. The manager knew it was too spicy for me but didn't offer to take it back to alter the spice. It also had more bones then meat and for the price point of $30-$35 for a main meal, you expect a lot more. Generous sizing. The saag was very nice.

Loved the restaurant from the moment I walked in. Greeted at the entrance by the owner himself and showed us to the table.
Excited to try their next menu when it comes out

Wonderful independent Indian restaurant in Curtain. Seasonal menu curated by family of chefs. Veg and non-veg options.

For some reason the landlord is crazy enough to close the lease so go before they have to move to new location at Gold Creek village.

Have been here twice now and it has already become one of my favourites of the 20+ Indian restaurants I have been to in Canberra.

Either the staff is racially inclined or they are just ignorant.
When they saw that I am indian and I am with Indian people they just told me that they didn’t have any tables…
I waited with my Friends there for an hour
The tables were not taken.

To The management
Either you say that you won’t accept people without reservations Or u just yu just don’t show people that you are OPEN.

Or u can say INDIANS ARE NOT WELCOME.
As I saw 10 tables there and only 2 occupied for an hour and half.
Not at all nice

Food was good but not the best. Ordered malabar porotta with high expectations and got something completely different to the authentic porotta. Curries tasted good.

This restaurant had the worst service I have ever experienced in my 24 years living upon this planet.

I arrived with my mother at around 6: 20 PM, we didn't make a booking. The restaurant was empty at this time, save for one other table of two (that soon became a large, boisterous table of six). While asking for a table, while being brought to our table, while ordering drinks, the sole waiter did not offer a smile. He also had an extremely obvious sweaty body odour. I know how judgemental this sounds, I know. But: the smell was so strong that it made me lose my appetite. I also don't expect "fine dining" service at every restaurant. Sometimes you just want a nice meal, and that's it, without all the frills. That's what my mother and I were looking for tonight. But I would at least like to be treated like.a paying customer, especially in a restaurant where all the mains (except one) are at least $30. If this was some chain fast food store, I couldn't care less about service.

Anyway, it's difficult to articulate just how bad the service was, but the waiter just wasn't doing his job as a "waiter". When asked for recommendations or information about some of the dishes, he answered as if to expend as few words as possible. I'm not a fan of really sweet dishes, so I asked how sweet the mango and lentil curry was. "It's sweet. " I know "sweet" means "sweet", but there's so many different levels of sweetness it could be.especially with mango! (Interestingly enough, that dish ended up being not sweet at all, and almost overly salty; go figure). As the restaurant filled up, I'm pretty sure I heard someone at another table of two ask the same waiter for recommendations, only to then say "looks like it's all a gamble" to their companion, after not receiving any helpful advice from the waiter.

Once the food arrived, we did enjoy it quite a lot. That's what the 2 stars are for. You can taste the quality of the ingredients and the care in the food. For example, the chicken biryani was delicious (and not really oily), and the raita it was served with was the best raita I have ever had. The roti also tasted really fresh, and the mango kulfi dessert had very well balanced flavours. I will give credit where it is due, the food here is impressive. The only dish my mother and I didn't like much was the steamed dumplings. In all honesty, I could summarise them as "spicy coconut falafel served with a jam sauce". I'm not at all well versed in Southern Indian cuisine, so I probably just didn't understand the flavours, fair enough.

We were never once asked how the food was. When we went to the counter to pay the bill, less than six words were uttered by the waiter. I quote: "That will be $120" (or around that amount). "$22.50 change". I thought they would finally ask something, anything, at all, about the food, or our experience.

I don't often write reviews, and I certainly don't write very long reviews like this one. But I have never felt as bad walking out of a restaurant as I did tonight. My mother and I both said "never again".

Summary: great food, abysmal service.

I loved the restaurant the moment I walked it. The menu was so unique as it's updated every month or so. Had the biryani and a lamb curry, was absolutely amazing! I'd say it's worth the money, would 100% visit again. Also, Loved the hospitality and the chef.

I don't find it worth for the price. It was good once, but the quality of the food has degraded now. The taste is below average.
We ordered so called flaky parotta/ malabar parotta which essentially should have been name as Plain Chapati/Roti.
Anyone who wants to visit this restaurant, please rethink.

Lighting is obnoxiously bright for dinner. Food is fine. Drinks took a long time. Probably better for takeaway.

I don't recommend this place at all. They charged 45$ for biryani per person which is really expensive and that to it is like chicken rice. Will never ever go to this place, and the rates are not mentioned in the Menue. Who would expect 45$ for one single biryani? They are just ripping our Money.

Taking my food trail journey ahead.next on my list is Daana based in Curtin, Canberra. I am sure you would have seen lot of my food reviews on North Indian cusines covered recently. So this one is specially covering the Taste of South India.

This resturant have lovely colourful ambience depicting Indian culture and stories around it. Owners and staff members were super friendly. It was quite evident they are hear to bring the best to serve and with full passion

Inframe - Starters - Thathukada Kori ‘Aval Roast' (chicken dish), and for mains - Allapuzha Thengapal Manga Curry- Prawns, basically Kerala style tangy coconut milk and green mango curry with Prawns (I just loved this dish️) and Daana's signature Malabar Chicken along with Parotta n mini Uthapam and Ghee rice. Along with nimbu paani and masala chaas on sides for drinks and Papadums.

For Desserts we had Sahi Tukda, Kanoli and Payasam.payasam is a sweetened pudding made with either milk or coconut milk. It was yummmm

In one word if i have to specify A-M-A-Z-I-N-G it surely a lovely place to explore and try some cuisine! Plus during some festival seasons they do some special cuisine. They call it Daana Bhoj. Pls check their website for more details. Cant wait to one such occasion toward end of this month (Vishu Sadya), where food will be served on Banana leaf an authentic way of Kerela styling of eating.specially on some occasions with serveral delicacies

Too long between visits. Daana maintained its standard of excellence for a family banquet. Wonderful!

Lovely atmosphere, super friendly owners! Delicious food, with various fusion additions to the main south Indian core of the menu.

Beautiful food, attentive staff, pleasant decor, easy parking, BYO and licensed, caring and community minded owners.

Booked this restaurant after hearing about it on Radio, the award, the fine dining, along with their concept story. It all came across as welcoming however our experience was quite the opposite.
The booking time stated was 30mins earlier than what I said, and I got a call checking out arrival, which is okay. It wasn't booked out all evening, there were few empty tables
On arrival, we had no time to just settle in and the waiter had already come thrice to ask our order barely allowing us all time to decide.neither was the time close to their last order time. The menu was unfamiliar so we were reading through descriptions and neither was the waiter helpful.it was just so rushed and unpleasant through the evening, except for the other waitress Reshmi.she was just warm and friendly.
The food was good, and was nice to taste something different. Would have been better if bit more hot in temperature. We were already familiar with the prices before booking.
The owners attitude was varied.we found him chatty to other guests on other tables and kept checking in on them all. We weren't expecting someone to keep talking to us but seeing the difference in body language was disappointing.we were paying for the meal ofcourse
Also, when booking, we were told Dosas aren't available on certain days, but it would have been helpful if someone asked us to review the menu for any preorders needed, like the Thali which is available only on preorder
I have read responses by the owners to any negative reviews hence certain there will be an impolite response in return. We won't be returning nor would we recommend the place based on the service received

Edited to 1star - not sure what whiskey BYO is being mentioned by the owner but it's a common answer I've noted in other reviews by them

The food here was absolutely devine, amazing vegan options - best curry I've had in many years.
The service was wonderful and the venue was a beautiful open space with large tables so sharing multiple dishes was not chaotic

We will definitely be back on our next trip to Canberra!

Delicious food with great veg options. Friendly customer service, they patiently waited even though we were the only ones left and had stopped consuming (sorry daana!). Well worth a visit. Will go back.

What a wonderful meal. Kerala must be a great place to live. Chef Kumar and his team made my aged family a delicious vegetarian feast. Varied, carefully prepared, COVID safe, a very friendly, timely and professional interaction, all at a very reasonable price. We shall return it's just such a fine repast.