Celebration By Rupa Vira Modern Indian Cuisine

Got food poisoning from dinner here last night chills, headache, bloating, nausea, and diarrhea. I had the mango lassi, masala chai, fried lotus appetizer, the black currant balls appetizer, the tandoori chicken, butter chicken, lamb chops, and the house signature dessert. Very unfortunate, and I hope the restaurant addresses food safety more carefully because the food and service and atmosphere were good.

Went here for restaurant week! The main courses were

Probably one of the top 5 pricey Indian restaurants in northern VA.Excellent food. Tasty. However same creamy red/ orange makhni style sauce with slight variations used extensively though tasty in a variety of dishes. Like that menu is limited and the execution is good. Some of it is gimmicky in the name of presentation and very repetitive such as the lotus root and kale appetizers were almost the same style with the difference of diced mango. Yet each one is tatsy in its own way.The cocktails were awesome.The service is where this jewel of a restaurant is lacking. Either the front waiters were stretched not busy on a Saturday night but then it’s summer or why our food came in staggered stages. Ideal example ALL the breads came and sat at the table waiting for the main dishes to show up.After apps the lead waiter asked us to keep our forks and knives. No decent eatery worth its mettle does that!When asking for packing left overs, they brought the containers and pieces of foil to the table with plastic “ thank you “ bags. This is cheesy for a place that charges $17 $18 for a deserving cocktail and serves Microgreens and edible flowers!We were a party of 13 and after dinner the staff gets a big tub LARGE kitchen storage tub and cleared our china and silver. That was the final straw that led to this review.No one to attend actively to water I think this is a segregation of job responsibilities but… they had a lot of bussers and back waiters walking around Insufficient eye contact and follow through there was once mid meal but we were a big party and we lost the Waiteress I had to get up and take a fork from a vacant table.Go there for a drink, get the cheese naan, maybe lotus OR kale chaat not both And hit a curry house for the rest of your mealDon’t go there for. 50 75$ average per person meal. Not until they get some finesse. This is an upscale DC suburb not Oak tree road in Jersey.

We dined at Celebration by Rupa Vira this week, for the 5th time in a few years. We keep coming back because of the tasty and creative food, cool ambience, and friendly staff. I started with the Anarkali a pomegranate martini, which I really love and they have now added some sparkly purple dust on top which was facinating. We tried some new things, and repeated some of our favorites. We enjoyed the Lotus Stem Chaat, the Butternut Squash Kofta, the Malwani Pulav, the Dabbawala Murgh, Palak Bhutani and basmati rice. For dessert we tried two: Some Coco Kulfi, which was delicious but incredibly sweet (too sweet), and a very light and fluffy Makhan Malai (essentially an expensive large dish of whipped cream basically, but fancied up with rose petals, gold leaf and continuously flowing dramatic smoke from dry ice underneath). The two dessert items paired together made them balance each other out sweetness wise. We keep coming back because we enjoy the modern, creative twists on traditional Indian dishes. I would love to see some new ones sprout up for us to try.

We visited this restaurant to celebrate our anniversary. The appetizers, unfortunately, were disappointing. We ordered dahi puri and scallops for appetizers. The main courses, however, were great. We ordered lamb biryani and lobster curry. The representation was great, too. The service was amazing. Shaheenu did a great job. She was constantly checking on us and refilling our drinks. She is very kind and welcoming.