Spicy India Indian Restaurant — Restaurant in Queensland

Tourist trap! 2. Tourist trap! And finally 3. Tourist trap!

Service: The restaurant is a hole in the wall place with 0 seating. Guests typically sit on the porch outside the restaurant with the other restaurant patrons. Since the restaurant was busy the owner / manager asked us to wait 10 minutes which is understandable. After 20 mins the waiter told us they are not accepting orders any more. After speaking to the owner/ manager they finally accepted our order.

Seating: The table that you eventually get is inexplicably filthy - picking up after guests is surprisingly lax and it took over 10 minutes for tables to be cleared.

Food: Appetizer: Aloo Tikka Chaat Expect just a frozen tikka in yoghurt for a whopping AUS $16.50. No ‘chaat’ . See pic attached. Upon asking the waiter explained that this is how they make it.

Main course 1: Methi Malai Chicken The curry was sweet after asking for medium to hot spicy. The chicken flavorless. There was little to no Methi in the curry.

Main course 2: Malai Kofta The gravy was sweet. This after requesting that the curry be not sweet and the restaurant agreeing.

Water: Water for the table had to be requested. And arrived at the table after the meal was almost over.

Hygiene: Noticed several employees picking up rolls by hand without gloves while holding beer with the other hand. Waiters clearing up tables do not wear gloves and jump to serving water without washing hands. Tables were grimy at best. Served bowls had curry all along the sides of the bowl. See pic.

Cost: For a meal for two - $110 with 1 shared appetizer and individual entrees. Just to add to the fun - A single tandoori roti cost AUS $9.50!

We had really high expectations reading the reviews - not only did the food was below average - the service and hygiene left a bad taste. All in all a really shameful extortion of hapless tourists in the name of...

We ate here during our visit to Cairns early October. Honestly, it exceeded our expectations. But what really makes this place special is the accommodating nature of the staff. I’d like to mention two instances in particular.

We had lunch in one of the afternoons and had over-ordered so had packed some curries. We came back for dinner along with the curries packed earlier and hence ordered just breads. The staff was kind enough to microwave the curries. While it was a minor help, it was a very sweet gesture nevertheless.

On the last night of our stay (7th Oct), we had dinner elsewhere but came here for dessert. It was late so they had switched off their billing systems and we were not carrying cash but had only our cards. The owner served us the dessert anyway – free of cost. They say Punjabis have big bodies – the owner had a big heart to match that! I must also mention one of the girls (short Punjabi girl with ponytail if my memory serves me right – don’t know her name unfortunately to mention here, but here’s our thanks to you as well) who mentioned they will serve us, saying it was not in Indian culture to turn away guests disappointed. That really touched us and made our day.

In an age where many restaurants forget that the people make a restaurant as much as the food, this was exceptional customer service. I would recommend all in Cairns to give this a try for once.

Lastly, in case you are wondering what was the dessert we were after, try their Gulab Jamun – you will actually feel the Elaichi (Cardamom) aftertaste as opposed to just the sugar as in other places. Trust me, they won’t disappoint you.

Thank you from the bottom...

SERVICE IS TERRIBLE. Food portion is small considering how expensive one dish is. Utensils are not properly washed. Racially discriminated. Horrible experience.

Upon arriving to the counter to order our food, the guy didn’t acknowledge me instead he looked at the white guy behind me to ask what would he like to order. The guy behind me was polite enough to say i was in line first.

After receiving my order, the guy in the counter insisted i have to pay after ordering, not after eating the food. I, thinking it was the norm, obliged. He didn’t offer the receipt, I had to ask for it. While waiting for the food, noticed the other customers who are not the same ethnicity of me, paid after eating their meal.

We were told to sit anywhere, so we sat right by the front where the fan was located. After a long period of waiting, one of the waiters came up to us to tell us we had to move to the back (where there is no fan) to allow a bigger group to sit in our table. There was another table, of the same ethnicity of the waiter, next to us with the same amount of chairs and tables with only 2 people in them. At this point, we were fed up of the treatment and decided to have our food for takeaway.

I just got our food and not even 1 minute, the waiter let another group (who are of the same ethnicity of the waiter), to sit on our table. I was still checking if the food packaged was correct.

Very horrible experience. Do...