If you are looking for an Indian restaurant in Byron Bay I strongly suggest you avoid Byron Orion Curry House.
Previously known as “South Indian Curry House” this Byron Bay icon has been allowed to slip to standards that are well below its previous splendor.
Byron Orion’s menu currently features a variety of curries and traditional Indian foods, pretty much standard Indian restaurant fare, however that is really where the comparisons stop.
Tonight we ordered the mixed entree ($27) which was a mix tandor chicken, vegetarian samosa, and what we thought was an onion baji however it was deep fried a little too long so it is hard to tell. This was a very expensive entree given the serving size.
After this we tried two curries from their menu, butter chicken and lamb korma, both were rather bland, one dimensional, and sadly watered down. Perhaps I am being too picky however the butter chicken sauce was thin, heavy on the tomato with a poorly balanced flavor. Making matters worse was the paltry serving of only three pieces of chicken! Thankfully the Lamb was a little better, however again the curry sauce was watery, thin and rather bland.
Needless to say we did not stay for dessert.
Sadly the staff @ Byron Orion Curry House were not too interested when I explained my dismay at the poor quality, and high price. My interaction was quickly ended with a shrug of the shoulders and then politely ignored until they had my money in their hands.
If you are looking for a good quality indian curry when in Byron Bay, I would suggest avoiding the Byron Orion Curry House.
G
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Regretfully I have to agree. This Indian restaurant in Byron Bay used to be an icon. Now it has just dropped in standard.
Curry House – Byron bay is trash! the food aweful. the chef is real aussie bloke who doesn’t the real curry taste is. also the price is amazing rip off. 100$ for curry fish and lamb and nan bread !!! if the taste awesome it’s doesnt matter but the taste like shit! we was very dissapointed
I agree that the Byron Bay Orion Indian Restaurant is a real disappointment.
Byron Bay does however, have some great places to eat.
Check them all out on lupaula.com
Couldn’t agree more… very disappointed in the service, quality and price. Avoid at all costs.
Feel the same as others. As a visitor to Byron I went to this restaurant last week. Had the chicken Korma and the Butter Chicken. I complained to the waiter that they had served me lamb instead of the chicken, only to find out that it was the darkest, driest, most stringy chicken I had the misfortune to order. Menu said the chicken was marinated… Impossible, unless it had been done months before… VERY disappointed as the location was great, and enjoyed the background music.
No self respecting Indian would lay claim to such lousy food, and indeed they don’t have to, as the restaurant seems to be locally run, and the word ‘Indian’ isn’t used to describe the curries. I was finally disgusted to see 4 or more small cockroaches running around the counter when I went up to pay. The waitress tried to discreetly wipe them off the counter with what looked like a teatowel…. goodness knows where that was to be used after! This restaurant can only hope to survive because of passing tourist trade that foolishly (like me) stumble upon it.
They wiped away cockroaches with a teatowel? Wendy, that is just gross.
I am a long term Byron Local who loves Indian cuisine, which unfortunately, due to the fact the Orion is the only curry house in town, has lead me to its door now for the third and final time.
I put my first bad experience down to a bad night, but I now realise this place is just plain bad. I have traveled the world and would go as far as to say this is the most disgusting restaurant, nay food I have ever eaten (actually I couldn’t finish the last pile of shit), let alone paid for. The staff are rude, the owner doesn’t seem to give a sh*#t, can someone please open a real Indian restaurant in Byron before this guy kills someone with salmonella.
Yes we remember This bunch of arogant customers who came into the restaurant and demanded to be seated when we were full. Once we got around to serving them they ordered us around like they were some autority in the food business. They complained when we could not dance and sing for them. They are a discrace. A warning to any propiotor to reject them upon entry.
This restaurant is busy all the time!!! It was a finalist in the Restaurant and Caterers Awards 2008… I think that the hidden agendas of some frustrated competitors surface on blogs like this…
Max, I can assure you that we are not competitors, just everyday people who like to dine out. The fact that the restaurant is busy all the time is true – snaring tourists in its location is very easy. How the hell it made it to the finals of the Restaurant and Caterers Awards is beyond me. I must remember not to take that award too seriously.
As for the waiter’s comment on July 25 – it pretty much sums up the whole attitude…the restaurant is doing YOU, the customer, such a big favour…
Nick, Sorry to hear that you had a bad experience… We did not!
crap restaurant..the one in the lane next to cyprus used to be good. byron needs a good indian. but yeah the owner there is a total knob and the food is average at best.
I had the worst meal ever at this dump! And I’ve eaten some crap in my time!
Firstly I ordered 3 poppadums at a whopping $4.5 only to discover that I had to pay another $4 for some mango chutney. The poppadums were soft, cold and drenched in oil and the mango chutney was so old that it had turned into a jelly and was so hard that I couldn’t dip the poppadums into the mango chutney.
The main course was pure filth! The Tandoori chicken (@ $27) I ordered was dry and tasteless. According to the menu it was suppose to be marinated chicken breast, instead I was served processed chicken meat with Tandoori flavouring! The Buttered Chicken (@ $25) that my girlfriend ordered was revolting, words cannot describe the taste. The Buttered chicken had been precook sometime ago and reheated that night.
And again processed chicken meat was used instead of chicken breast. The two Nan breads we ordered (@ $8.5each) were burnt to hell! My girlfriend also discovered three hairs inside her Nan bread! The house wine was also disgusting. I suspect that it had been watered down or had been open for sometime!
Five minutes into the meal the waitress asked us if we wanted to see the dessert menu, I asked her if I could finish my meal first. During the meal I went to the toilet and that’s when I became alarmed. There was no soap and the toilet was absolutely filthy. I rushed back out and told my girlfriend to stop eating her dinner!
Five minutes later the waitress came over again and asked us if we would like to see the dessert menu, which we declined. She then told us that we had to pay the bill and leave, even though we hadn’t finished our meal (not that we wanted to finish it)! The waitress told us that we were rude for not finishing our meal!!
The bill came to $90 plus 20% surcharge as it was a Sunday!!!!! What a rip of! What a joke! And what an F-ing dump!
Sorry it wasn’t Tandoori chicken I ordered it was Chicken Tikka and it was served with sweet chilli sauce!!! WTF!!!!
Ted, your description is EXACTLY what we experienced. Staff have supposedly read this, and yet there is still no improvement in quality. It is a farce.
Have been in this easter weekend, remembering the food years ago when Mark owned and cooked at the south indian coffee shop I was rudely awakend by their chicken korma and tikka massala. What a rotten joke that was starting with a 2″ thick naan that was more turkish bread through to the watered tasteless curries (?) with dry stringy meat. needless to say we were quickly out of there.
as for the chef, ok if you’re into the fresh out of jail look but mate, I WOULDN’T GIVE YOU A JOB BEHIND THE BAIN’MARRY AT THE TOONGABBIE RSL
Unfortuantely i also have to agree with Nick and Ted. The food is absolutely disgusting for the price they are asking for!!
I was here in Byron about 2 and half years ago and I stopped at this little cafe and absolutely loved it but now I wouldn’t let my dog eat in there (sorry for being rude – but its just the plain truth!)
I then happened to wonder up the street and found Tandoor Palace and having never seen it before I decided to try it that night. And was in for a shock! Cheaper prices, much much TASTIER curries and even had that flavour from India (I’ve been to India many a times). Service was great, food was tastey and was worth every cent. Definately my new hot spot for Indian food!
DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT go to Byron Orion Curry House (opposite Beach Hotel, beach side of Jonson Street) for meal. Bad service, terrible food, over-extracted coffee. Made us wait for 1 hour only then told us they ran out of ingredients and was buying it, after another 15 minutes the wrong meals came out anyway. Turkish sandwiches got bits of plastic wrapping in it, cold, was not hot. Waiting staff full of excuses for meals being late. Latte full of froth no body, over extracted expresso of 50ml, overheated scalded milk, for $3.90 per regular 200ml size, expensive. Ordered a mango lassi that did not arrive, just as well it didn’t because I saw them using Home Brand can mangoes for it, for $6.50. This is the worst restaurant I have ever come across and I am usually quite tolerant of bad food, but this is just worse than ridiculous.
By the way if you are looking for good Indian Restaurant, go to Tandoor Mahal at Bangalow, very authentic Indian cuisine and not expensive either. Real Indians chefs. Being an Asian born and bred in Malaysia I know what is good Indian what is not.
LOOKING FOR FOOD POISONING? then definetely eat at this restaurant. My husband and I were visiting from overseas and became so sick after eating here it ruined our holiday stay and we had to come home!! We reported this restaurant to the health department…. STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE.
Time has change and moved on since I was last here . Now with a new chef from culture tonic the transformation is great. I love the Tika Masala . Yes time has moved on