Curries & Spirits — Restaurant in Gerringong

I suffered the indignity of a comically poor dinner at this place so you don't have to. Four things went wrong;

1. We had a young waiter who dropped one of our Samosas on the table while serving it - then asked us if it was an issue. We didn't kick up a fuss at this stage, he was a nice young man and it was a relatively small mistake

2. where the comedy really begins. We spotted a large white hair in our aloo Gobi. Asked the young man to take it back. Amazingly, he then came back to the table, curry in hand, and asked me where the hair was. At which point I pulled it out from the curry and handed it to him to present to whoever it was in the back that disputed this finding. Incredible scenes.

3. the Aloo Gobi which was then sent to us anew tasted like a salt shaker had been emptied on top of it. It was so comically poor, that I wondered whether this was a vindictive act by the 'chef' who had just now tried to serve me one of his white hairs. To their credit, they wrote this off our bill at the end.

4. at the end of our chicken korma, one of us choked on a bone. There was a 1-inch bone in our chicken dish. Several questions ensued, of which the most pertinent was: how is it possible to find a bone of this size in a chicken dish? This was not taken off the bill. It was only a choke hazard after all.

My group of four suffered the indignity of eating at, what I can now comfortably say was the poorest Indian establishment I've ever come across, so you don't have to. Go literally...

Let me start with the Pros of this place - Beautiful ambience, sea view. Lemon lime cordial was very good.

Now let me come to the Cons. We had ordered Chicken Vindaloo, Malai Kofta, tandoori roti, lemon lime cordial and raita for our lunch for 3 people. The first thing that all three of us noted was the quantity of the food. It was very less. There were 5 small pieces of chicken in the Vindaloo Chicken which was not vindaloo in taste. It was more tomato based curry.. nowhere close to Vindaloo. Malai Kofta was average, 4 small koftas made from potatoes and not a trace of paneer was seen in there. Raita was literally one tablespoon! And tandoori roti was not made in a tandoor.. it was a tawa roti. When we gave our feedback to the owner she didn't take it well and her prompt response was you are the first to complain. This is how we serve . Excuse me mam, we have been in Australia for more than 15 years and been to n number of restaurants.. nowhere did we have this experience. How about you take the feedback in a constructive manner. Later she did confess that with the growing costs of things she had to cut down on the quantities. Madam, first of all we are willing to pay more (although your prices are already high) for proper food, you better feel ashamed of the quantities you are serving. My advice to the visitors who are looking for reviews for this restaurant.. If at all you wish to ruin your trip, just visit...

2019 review: We tried Curries & Spirits in Gerringong as we felt like Indian on a wet cooler evening. Contrary to the other reviews we found the service fine, so there seems to have been more staff hired. We had spring rolls, seekh kebabs, chicken vindaloo, mango chicken, lamb saag and a kids butter chicken meal which was served with rice and naan bread. We also had garlic naan to share. The food was great, served hot, and not too long a wait. If I were to pick something, it would be that the spring rolls are on the small side but they included an extra, and the mains could perhaps include a little more for the price. Otherwise I’d recommend this restaurant when you’re in town. Thanks for a pleasant meal.

Edit update Jan 2024: we revisited to have a meal and enjoyed the view and flavours but for the price charged, the servings are very small, an example was an order of seekh kebabs, for $16 we received 4 pieces roughly 3cm long, felt like 2 usual size kebabs. Quite underwhelming. The dishes also were not able to be shared amongst 4 people, more just a sample of each. I’m sorry to say whilst a good taste, the value for money is really not there ( just under $40 pp) and we are...