Maya Da Dhaba

Finally caught up with a couple of uni friends on Friday night after it being cancelled a couple of times due to other commitments. Leonie suggested that we go to Surry Hills, so I decided on Maya Da Dhaba, as I have been wanting to go there for a while. This end of cleveland street is the Indian end, where as the other end is the Lebanese end. I think it's strange how they are all clumped together.

The restaurant itself is very nice inside and was quite empty when we go there at 7pm. It soon filled up though, which is when we realised how bad the acoustics were in the restaurant. We were practically shouting at each other to be heard. The restaurant was also very cramped, which meant that with me being in the aisle, every time someone would walk up and down my chair would get knocked. We were close to the entrance too, so there were a LOT of people walking up and down...

As we sat down we were given the menu and some pappadums and minty sauce to go with them. We decided on a couple of entrees to share.

Vegetable Samosas - $4.90


This was spiced potatoes and peas in homemade pastry. They were very nice, but very spicy too. They were quite big, so half a one each was enough.

Onion Bhajia

These were really spicy too, but still very good.

The next 3 mains we ordered, in my opinion (and my friends) didn't have too much flavour. The spicyness was so strong that it overpowered any type of flavour there was. I couldn't tell too much difference between the goat and the chicken dish. The pieces of goat that I got were mainly bone as well and the goat was tough. The Saag Paneer needed lots of the condiments on it to give it any flavour.

Saag Paneer - $9.90

This was the first time I have tried this dish and I was quite disappointed. I will try it again though in the hope that it will be better..

Goat Masala - $16.90

I have had a goat curry before and thought it was great. This i did not.

Chicken Chettinad - 13.90

Plain Naan

As well as the food not being too good and the acoustics and seating being terrible, the service was not that great either. They were rushing us through our meals and then at the end they took forever to pick up our bill. I swear i was holding it up in the air for about five minutes after failing to attract anyone's attention.

Although I had a bad experience, I don't want to deter people from going there, although I definitely won't be going back. There are too many other good Indian restaurants to try!

Maya Da Dhaba
431 Cleveland Street
Surry Hills
Ph: 8399 3785