Masakali Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Ottawa

Some of the best Indian food I've had in Ottawa AND terrific service from Priya who knew the menu very well and was able to answer our questions. Priya is very skilled at her job!

We really appreciated having a vegan menu to order from (there are also veg menus for each category as is common in many Indian establishments) so eating here as either V or VG is a breeze! For three hungry people we ordered three mains, one rice, one appetizer, and two sodas and walked out with leftovers! The servings are generous.

The onion bhaji appetizer is delicious and somehow tasted fresh even though it is deep fried! We decided to order the okra main since it was recommended - for good reason, it was delicious. We commented that the chana masala was the best any of us had ever tasted. The aloo gobi was our least favourite though still tasty. The mains were packed with complex flavour and the jeera (cumin) rice added a great layer of taste. The sodas were super tasty and complementary to the food.

This is a real gem in Ottawa. The interior is beautiful with comfortable plush chartreuse benches throughout, the booths are perfectly sized and have tall backs. Even the walls are pretty! I'd definitely go here for a special occasion as well as an everyday meal. From the outside, you don't really get the sense this place is so gorgeous inside. We commented that the signage outside makes it look more like a quick takeaway shop, much less classy than the interior actually is.

Overall terrific meal and we'll definitely...

I visited Masakali recently, and while the food was undeniably delicious, it’s hard to recommend a place when the human cost of that experience is so painfully visible.

Throughout my visit, I couldn’t help but notice how exhausted and anxious the staff seemed. At first, I chalked it up to a busy night. But after the sting from a former employee online a much darker picture emerged.

The staff here are overworked, underpaid, and according to multiple accounts, verbally abused by the ownership. Tips, it turns out, are not at all distributed , and there’s little to no support when employees are overwhelmed or sick. Some of them work 10–12 hour shifts with barely a break, and morale is understandably low.

It’s disheartening to know that behind each beautiful dish is a team of talented individuals who are not being respected or compensated fairly for their work. No matter how good the food is, no one should have to endure mistreatment to bring it to the table.

Restaurants succeed not just because of great recipes, but because of the people who bring them to life. Until the owners of Masakali show that same care for their team as they do for their menu, I won’t be returning—and I encourage others to think twice, too.

Good food should never come at the cost of someone...

Had a great meal here last night with my partner, the female server was highly skilled and it appeared she was training the other female employees and she was very thorough, explaining our food would take 30 mins or so and recommended a quick starter for us. It was reasonably priced, full of flavour and well presented.my only concern was after we had paid and the gentleman taking the payment asked us to leave a review online which we were going to anyways but then he proceeded to pull out a NFC card and aggressively was tapping it on my phone which I hadn't consented too nor did he explain what his little card was supposed to do. For all I know that could have been stealing Information from my phone. Maybe put the card near the door and explain what it does and give customers the option to tap it to leave a review. Also your music being down by the kitchen playing music down the long seating area was giving me an aneurysm because of the way it was echoing, you could really use a sound system with a speaker on each end of the restaurant to balance this out. Still overal the evening was a success and...