Mannu's Kitchen Indian Cuisine Maitland — Restaurant in Newcastle-Maitland

If you happen to be driving around High street, Maitland Mannu’s kitchen Indian cuisine is hard to ignore. It is hard to imagine what Mannu’s Kitchen Indian cuisine was before it was an Indian restaurant. All I can imagine is the building housed a salesroom/showroom operated by someone who had too much grease in their hair and ultimately went bankrupt.

In its present form the exterior of Mannu’s kitchen Indian cuisine really does evoke the senses. The fluorescent lights which direct one’s attention towards Mannu’s kitchen Indian cuisine are unique. Some lights are way too bright. Some lights are way too dull. Some lights are broken. Some lights flash too rapidly. Some lights don’t flash rapidly enough. There’s also a fluorescent ‘open’ sign, which flashes on and off. The curtains have a sequential pattern “gold, pink, gold, gold, pink, gold, gold, pink, gold”. The pink curtains are tied. The gold curtains are not tied. The flashing fluorescent lights, the faded curtains, the 4 or 5 air conditioning units (which are all different makes and models) protruding from the wall really gives Mannu’s Kitchen Indian cuisine the vibe of opulence below the gutter.

I have a great deal of anticipation stepping into Mannu’s Kitchen Indian cuisine. What will the interior be like? What will the proprietors be like? Will I be the only customer? I briefly think about the concept of destiny. How someone born somewhere in South Asia would end-up running a curry shop in Maitland, with flashing fluorescent lights, faded pink curtains and faded gold curtains.

The interior of Mannu’s kitchen Indian cuisine does not disappoint. The tables are set-out with tablecloths, which have a similar conceptual feel to the curtains. So the tablecloths don’t get soiled they’re covered with a plastic protecting. Every table has an empty bottle of Bundaberg ginger beer on it, with one fake red rose in the empty bottle of Bundaberg ginger beer. On the counter there’s a framed award which proudly proclaims Mannu’s kitchen Indian cuisine was voted #1 Indian restaurant in the entire hunter valley. There’s a flatscreen tv, which plays Bollywood music videos at a very loud volume.

The proprietors of Mannu’s kitchen Indian cuisine seem to be a husband and wife team. They’re busy preparing curries and serving customers, so their young children seem to hangout in the restaurant foyer with tablets playing children’s cartoons/ nursery rhymes at full volume.

The Bollywood music, the children’s cartoons and proprietors who communicate with each other by shouting means Mannu’s kitchen Indian cuisine does not have a great deal of ambience. You know when a new customer is about to visit Mannu’s kitchen Indian cuisine because the allocated car spots are right outside the windows. The gold and pink curtains do nothing to prevent the unbearable brightness of car headlights from shining through the dining area of Mannu’s kitchen Indian cuisine.

As you wait for your curry amidst the 5 or so defunct air-conditioners, the fake red roses, the Bollywood music blaring, the car headlights intermittently penetrating through the whole restaurant and children’s nursery rhymes blaring you can hear the people order and pick-up their take-away orders. “Extra Mild Butter chicken” seems to be the most popular dish at Mannu’s kitchen Indian cuisine.

Finally, when your order arrives the staff at Mannu’s kitchen Indian cuisine constantly check on you. “Is everything all right?” “are you sure everything is all right?” “are you sure you don’t want soft drink?” “Are you sure you don’t want more naan bread?” “Are you sure you don’t want more to eat?” It takes a bit of restraint not to say “I am just one person eating alone. I have 1 curry, two naan breads and a full serving of rice. How could I eat anymore?” When I have finished my meal and the staff say “was everything okay?” I say “It was fine. Thank-you”. I don’t tell them that I think their curries are bland and over-priced. I don't tell them there’s no need to ask me 4 times if I...

We had dinner in the restaurant last night (Tuesday), we were the only ones dining and our experience was unfortunately extremely disappointing.

NEGATIVES The customer service was appalling!! We were greeted on arrival with a lack of professionalism, lacking of friendly, warmth and welcoming mannerisms. I understand that we were the only ones dining, we don’t expect to be waited hand and foot, however it was disappointing. They need to really improve there hygiene practices and standards, our table had cutlery that hadn’t been washed properly let alone polished, the water glasses on the table had greasy fingerprints all over them and scaling from not being washed properly and again, not polished. As I looked around, the table next to us had unclean and unpolished cutlery. Attention to details is evidently not on the top of priorities. You don’t need anything fancy to polish cutlery once it’s been washed, boiling hot water in a clean bucket with a dash of vinegar, rub with clean cloth works a charm! Polishing glassware immediately after going through the wash will achieve that sparkling finish. They clearly do not have a process in place to ensure meals come out together, everything came in dribs and drabs, we had to remind the waitress for the raita when everything was almost finished. The lighting felt a little too dim, a little brighter so you can see the food your eating, felt like we were eating under candlelight. Closing the door on the kitchen would be a bonus, no one wants to hear what is going on in the kitchen. It was a little more on the expensive side compared to other Indian restaurants. $90+ for 3 x curries, large rice, 4 x garlic naan, raita, mango lassi and can coke. Better off travelling into Newcastle for a better experience and a little better on the pocket and bigger servings.

POSITIVES the food was full of flavour

OVERALL We wouldn’t dine in again, unless they were to improve their hygiene practices and standards and of course their customer service standards. Probably wouldn’t be enticed enough for takeaway...

It's holiday time and although only 2 tables filled in we waited 1.5 hours until our first dish arrived, honestly we were absolutely hungry and kids and me inc wife smashed it before our NAAN Bread arrived finally after 30 mins later, although we requested all food at same time. One mistake.

Second food arrived LAMB Briyani , and PANEER tikka masala, at least this time NAAN came with PANEER so that we could have something to scrape off PANEER, which didn't taste as we expected, we tried lot's of Indain cusines and me myself being Chef for 7 Yrs, I Could not find it authentic and Tasteless, could have been better,

Finally came to LAMB Briyani, which we left in the table as it came to us. With fraustrated face waiting for 1.5 hours for our food to arrive and as soon as I put my LAMB in mouth I couldn't chew and swallow it as it taste nothing close to LAMB, I have never tasted beef except once as i has to because of my ptoffessional career, but this wasn't lamb at all, when I made my face when I put this piece in mouth, my wife didn't even pick-up the spoon to taste it.

Waitress was kind to as if we wanted to take home as we 2 people with 2 kids had been charged $68.31 . Just be careful while ordering here as well as they have 2 different prices here. We saw price given in table menu came out to be $57 but while payment was deducted we were charged 68.31.

With empty stomach and fraustrated faces we returns back to check out price as it came out to be more than $10 difference, then different lady came out with new paper menu price which was updated price, I didn't say a word and came out even more fraustrated from there.

So guys Moral of the story is , DO NOT GO THERE NOT EVEN BY MISTAKE LIKE US.

THERE'S STILL LOT TO MENTION, CLEANLINESS, HYGIENE, AND TOILET, FULL OF DEAD FLIES AND SPIDER WEBS, DIRTY...