Swaad

Ate here 3 times during our stay in Istanbul. So so good!
The dal, naan, chole, chicken tikka masala and paneer were absolutely delicious. We ordered 2 or 3 servings of each at least. Hindi music playing, clean restaurant, friendly and prompt service. Easily accessible via tram.
Definitely a very nice change from the kebab and meats you get in Turkey and truly tasted like home.

I was walking by and saw the menu and thought, some Indian food sounds great right now. Since it’s Ramadan and the middle of the day, the place was empty so I got their full attention. They were out of cold coffee but whatever, so I got the apple tea which was delicious! I ordered the Chicken Tikka Masala, which was literally the best Chicken Tikka Masala I have ever had, and I have had quite a bit of it! The roti bread was average (get the naan instead) as was the rice but it didn’t matter cause that Chicken Tikka Masala was Amaze-​balls!!!
The décor is very nice and the place is very clean! The staff was very nice and spoke decent enough English to have a conversation about how I reminded the server of his brother.,. Anyways, if you want some good Indian food come here, and listen to me, not the other reviewer, cause I’m way cooler…

Simply a terrible restaurant that is not up to acceptable standards; I went there on the basis of strong, even raving tripadvisor ratings, and this is again a case of that website providing very questionable information.
The service, for a start, was completely unprofessional, with a veritable ballet of waiters coming to see us every so often, but not communicating with each other, resulting in mixed up and double orders. Furthermore, it was very hard to comprehend what any of them were saying. In a truly Fawlty Towers moment, one of the waiters confessed to us that he had no clue what Indian food was, he’d just started working there and got everything mixed up in his mind…
Then, the drinks and food: the beers I got tasted stale, almost like old beer that had been recovered from half empty glasses (I never saw a bottle nor a tap), and they were 10 lira a pop. The food was extremely bland, and wasn’t even what I ordered (I got chicken instead of mutton… you’d think they’d be hard to confuse, right?). All my other dining companions agreed that the food was really very dull.
Lastly, the atmosphere in this place sucks: the wait staff were openly smoking indoors, and having a party upstairs; the toilets were filthy, with no hand towels left.
And this place is very, very expensive.
In summary: avoid!