Serena Restaurant

On a good day, parking is hard to find on Devon Ave., but due to the rain and a lucky spot right in front, the choice was easy. Eat at Serena's since it looks like a decent place amongst the hundreds of options for Pakistani/Indian food, right?

Greeting and seating were quick, and the menu showed Indian food in the front, and Chinese food in the back.
Meanwhile, I noticed there wasn't any alcohol served, so I asked the server if it was a BYOB, since I had a bottle sitting in the truck. He wasn't sure, needed to check. Turns out the answer from the manager was, "No, he doesn't think it's a good idea."

Ordered the Serena platter of mixed meat, the saag paneer, and Aloo Palak. Not being well-versed in all the words, I didn't realize I was ordering the same spinach dish, one with potatoes and one with cheese. A good server would have thrown caution to the wind, possibly suggesting I order an alternative dish.

The meat platter was generous, but the tandoori meats were overcooked, over-salted and obviously not recently cooked. The lamb included was 2 small pieces of bone with an ounce of meat on each piece.
The spinach dishes were also large portions, but there was no difference between the two dishes other than one had potatoes and one had cheese.
After that much salt, I didn't have to pee for a day!

I asked for some basmati rice and the waiter brought out regular long grain rice...I'm assuming for the Chinese food on their menu. He kept assuring me it was basmati rice. I wasn't going to argue at this point because he wasn't understanding my point. Later, I saw another waiter bring out a large plate of saffron basmati rice to another table, but I must not have called it what he expected me to reference it by.

Overall, it was a goat rope. There are some serious things lost in translations, assumptions, etc, that led to a poor experience here, but there are way too many options for better service and food than to return to Serena.

sign is still up for the brunch but door locked. hmm. also got chinese once, food not terrible but they were quite disorganized. sensing a theme?

On a night out with friends we decided to try a new restaurant in the Devon area and this was it. Pretty sure it's a new restaurant that has been out for a few months now. The decor and the restaurant, itself, is very clean and spacious with a good decor. Being new in the area I'm sure that was the reason.

The menu is quite large and so it was a bit difficult to decide on what to get. After a few minutes deciding we ordered our food. The service and staff are quite friendly. Whatever we asked for, we received with a smile and prompt service. No complaints there. The food came out and we began to devour it. The food was OK. I'm not going to say that it was great tasting or delicious. We all felt like it was lacking some flavor and some of the bbq meats were dry lacking the thorough marination that great bbq food is supposed to have. The spices were good and in the right amount but the overall food taste was not the best.

The children of the owner or cashier were running around in the restaurant playing catch or something and then at times crying for some reason...that's not professional and does not really help the ambiance or the feeling for the patrons. Not good. Not at all.