Ashoka Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Penticton

Would give ZERO stars if it would let me. Let me start by saying please, do yourself a favor and go to lachi. This place was terrible in every way and really embarrassed the guests I was with okay here it is: First thing I noticed when I walked in was the dirty greasy windows with fingerprint smudges and the dirty greasy front door.

The staff looking at you as you walk in not saying much just kind of sitting behind the till. There was three of them just staring at you in fact, they pretty much just made weird eye contact with you the whole time we were there for lunch.

We were served warm water and a warm pop. We asked for a small glass of Pop for the five-year-old child we were with it came in a large stemmed glass.

Ask for a booster seat for the five-year-old, had to ask for the booster seat again, next time she came around, we had to ask for the booster seat yet again. The booster seat was not for a five-year-old child it was a high chair for a baby and anybody who would put a baby in that disgusting filthy high chair is out of their minds. The highchair has never been cleaned it is greasy and full of creamy sauces and red sauces and crumbs and dirt from top to bottom.

Ask for non spicy food for the five-year-old she kept on saying yes we will make it mild, I said please not mild please, not spicy she said okay we can make it mild I said please don't make it just mild, please make it without spice and she said no problem no spicy. Surprise! Chicken was spicy...

The rice was not basmati rice it was old rice and you can tell by the way it was a little hard on the inside and dry on the outside of course you got to choke that down with a glass of warm water, so delicious.....

Let's talk about cleanliness. We had to return all of our cutlery because it was full of specks of food. All of our napkins had sauce on them and I mean every set of cutlery and napkins on the table had mystery sauce on each and every one of them. The menus were greasy and dirty the tables were greasy and dirty the walls have sauce, well what I hope is just sauce and not some other brown liquids, everywhere.

To top it off after being ignored by the staff and just stared at by three of them the whole time and asking for my bill three times, I end up getting the machine so I can pay with my Visa and it's already at the tip option like come on guys.... I asked her to reset it and never left a tip.

I left that place feeling ripped off and disgusted. Never again....

Not a great experience and it had been a long time since I did not tip. It felt ok and no guilt of this as I have been tipping 18-20% this year. From the start the no-tip was well deserved. SO this is how it went...

We walked in and were told to wait - which is actually not bad. It was nice and cool and waiting meant the restaurant is busy and is most likely good. But this was the highlight from where it went downhill pretty fast.

We were served iced water and we requested no ice. The girl basically took some of the ice out from some of the glasses and came back with ice still in some. I wont be surprised if the ice was just taken by hand. All 7 glasses was a table of 7 was dumped on the edge to be distributed by us. That was all. We had to ask twice to get the water refills to get a pitcher. No one seemed to care. Once the pitcher and the glasses were empty, no refills.... We didn't bother to ask.

Now comes the china. 7 plates were just stacked with 7 large table spoons on the plate and given to us to distribute. No napkins. We had to ask twice to get 4 napkins for 7 people om the table. We had also had to ask tea spoons for the kids since the table spoons were too big. No forks or knives were given.

The food was mediocre. We asked for mild butter chicken for the kids, butter chicken being their staple in Indian restaurants. They just had a bite each and did not touch it. It was too spicy. We had to ask for plain yogurt for them to eat something. The other dishes were medium in spicy but we could not tell the difference. The kids basically just reluctantly ate some rice and nibbled on some naan breads. The adults wanted to get out fast as it became muggy and the food wasn't good. I think the AC turned off towards the end. We just needed to get out fast.

Note for the owner: Do something else. Clearly you don't enjoy this and you cannot serve. And hire some staff. Maybe hire someone to train them.

It takes a lot of effort for me to do a negative review. Our experience...

A mistake that put a dent in Christmas day, and a cheap attempt at a cover up: I called around in the hope of finding an Indian restaurant open on Christmas day and thought I had come up trumps when Ashoka said they would be. The nice woman who took our table booking over the phone even asked her colleague to double check. Yes, she said, they were definitely open and they would see me and my family then. On the day we walked into Penticton and found the door closed and a scribbled sign saying they were closed on Christmas day, hmmm. My family had to walk a long way home with empty tummies and the festive feeling temporarily lost. We had a cheery beans on toast at home and made the best of it. Oh well. Boxing day I receive a call from Ashoka (i'd forgotten all about it by this stage) telling me they'd been trying to contact me on Christmas morning but my phone was out of signal? Good one! Funny that it worked perfectly for everyone else on Christmas day and the day after it suddenly works again for them? I had no missed calls, full service. Come on... I'd have much rather they called to own up to the mistake - they happen, I get that - I would have understood. But an apology AT LEAST. Instead of being fed curry I was fed a flimsy lie and nothing more. Not good enough, sorry. They'll have to go a long way to get my friends and family's custom...