Guru Kitchen & Bar - Downtown

Review summary

1. E

   Eric

   Edmonton1 review

   1.0

   Dined on February 15, 2025

   1. Overall 1
   2. Food 3
   3. Service 1
   4. Ambience 1

   I went on Valentine's Day where they served their regular menu but called it a chef's tasting menu and overcharged. I think it was disingenuous to present the menu as a "chef's tasting menu" to then serve your regular menu, but at a 50% price hike. In terms of ambience, the lights were either flickering, completely turned off, or incredibly bright changing rapidly in seizure-inducing fashion. There was also a group of kids in the private space who were eating pizza and screaming all night, and all running around and leaving the restaurant and coming back repeatedly. The table next to me jokingly remarked that we were overdressed as it had the feel of a 12 year old's birthday party with the lights and the group in the private room. The Guru branding was that of luxury and fine dining, and that was not at all the experience that was presented to me. I was overcharged on a drink, and when I told the waiter about it he said he'd fix it, and then he left for 20 minutes and came back with the machine and pretended it didn't happen. When I arrived I asked my initial waitress about parking TWICE, and she said "oh yeah I'll deal with it." She never did. Then the manager came by asking about the night. I asked him about parking, and he said he would come deal with it. He didn't. We were then passed off to a second waiter. I asked him about parking twice. He finally wrote down my plate number on a piece of paper. At the end of the night, after getting overcharged and having kids screaming next to me while the lights flickered and turned off making us dine in darkness--I had a parking ticket on my car. Despite me asking staff five times, and them always telling me it was fine and they were dealing with it. They had not. When I brought the parking ticket to them they apologized and said they would pay it that night for me, but I have called the parking company and that did not happen. The food was okay, with the exception of the Guru Butter Paneer which was absolutely amazing.
   

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2. S

   Stephanie

   Edmonton9 reviews

   5.0

   Dined on January 24, 2025

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   Best butter chicken in the city! And the naan was just scrumptious!! My cocktail was delish too!
   

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3. R

   Ray

   Edmonton3 reviews

   3.0

   Dined on January 1, 2025

   1. Overall 3
   2. Food 3
   3. Service 4
   4. Ambience 3

   Didn’t have the drinks available that were on menu
   

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4. C

   Cheryl

   Toronto5 reviews

   2.0

   Dined on December 8, 2024

   1. Overall 2
   2. Food 4
   3. Service 2
   4. Ambience 3

   It was moderately busy there as it was game night for the Oilers. We had a reservation booked, but when we walked in no one greeted us/attempted to make contact. We finally had to wave someone over to acknowledge us. We waited another 10 minutes before we were sat at a table. I think they must have been very understaffed as it took 12 minutes to bring my bottle of beer and nearly 30 minutes for my friend’s cocktail. We ordered food as soon as we were seated (as we were going to the game), and it took about 45 minutes to arrive. We asked for our bill as soon as we got our food as we had noticed the table beside had been waiting forever to get theirs. The food was good, and the two waitresses were friendly, but on the whole this was definitely one of the more disappointing visits I have had at Guru.
   

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5. N

   Nat

   Edmonton5 reviews

   3.0

   Dined on December 8, 2024

   1. Overall 3
   2. Food 4
   3. Service 2
   4. Ambience 4

   The food was great as always, and our server was also good. But the restaurant was clearly understaffed that evening (it was a Saturday Oilers game night) and it took over an hour for our food to all arrive.
   

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6. J

   Jocelyn

   Edmonton2 reviews

   5.0

   Dined on December 2, 2024

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   The food had rich flavour as always. Wonderful spot for lunch.
   

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7. I

   Ian

   Edmonton5 reviews

   2.0

   Dined on November 20, 2024

   1. Overall 2
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 1
   4. Ambience 4

   The food was excellent: the palak paneer was the best I’ve ever had. The trouble is that the service was so terrible it ruined the evening. We arrived at the host station on time for our reservation. No one was there. We waited and waited, close to 10 min. Finally we just went into the dining room and searched around and found the host ourselves. At point we pointed out to him that there was nobody at the host station, and we had waited a long time. His response was unbelievable: he simply said that they were full that day and so it didn’t matter if people came and left. I pointed out that we had reservations and were still left. Anyway we finally got seated. We had to wait another five minutes to get menus. Sensing that service was going to be poor, we made sure to order our entire meal with our drinks to speed things up. It still took 45 minutes to get one drink. Our food didn’t come for a full 90 minutes after ordering. The problem was we had tickets to a concert and had set aside a full two hours for the dinner, but that’s not quite enough when you’re just getting your food 90 minutes after you sit down and you didn’t get to sit down for 10 minutes after you got there. We expressed our concerns, but the staff were not uninterested. For the first time in 15 years I left no tip. It’s too bad because the food really was excellent. But you just can’t go there.
   

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8. J

   Jeffrey

   Edmonton8 reviews

   4.0

   Dined on October 20, 2024

   1. Overall 4
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 3

   The food and service were excellent. The challenge is for Event Night (at Rogers Place) they do not validate parking and the cost to park for 1.5 hr was $23 (in the parkade that is directly beneath them). The restaurant was empty for the greater part of the night, probably because of the event. The upside is that the food and service, as usual, was above average.
   

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9. B

   Bart

   Edmonton1 review

   4.0

   Dined on October 15, 2024

   1. Overall 4
   2. Food 4
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   Good everyday Indian food. Their mango chicken at lunch time is very tasty and you don’t feel bloated after. Staff were fantastic and service was on point.
   

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10. B

    Ben

    Edmonton1 review

    5.0

    Dined on August 27, 2024

    1. Overall 5
    2. Food 5
    3. Service 5
    4. Ambience 5

    We love Guru. This was our first time to the downtown location and it was excellent. Service was attentive, the manager stopped by to say hello, and the food was amazing, as always. Highly recommend and we will be back for sure.
    

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