Ginger Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Richmond

I had ordered takeout from this restaurant in Richmond (BC) couple times before and since I found the food okay, I offered to take some friends for dinner here last night. So it was my first time experiencing how they were as a restaurant. I realized I had been overrating them in my mind and speaking good about them to my friends, colleagues and family for no real reason. To my surprise, the servers were so unpleasant and rough it appeared to me that someone had forcefully asked them to do this job. Let's start with the beginning: They left the pile of plates and cutlery at one corner of the table and we had to pass it across to everyone ourselves. My understanding of restaurants is that it is the server's job to set the plates and that is why they are called 'servers'. Next, when the food was being delivered at the table, sometimes they just stood behind us holding the tray waiting for someone to get up and take it from them. Since I was the host for my group, I was acting server for my group taking the plates and trays from their hands and serving to my group. Next, the food was far below our expectations. The previous take out orders were not as bad and that was the reason for me coming here for the dinner. The garlic naan was half uncooked, the chicken dish was awful. I had ordered out the same dish from them before but this time it was a complete different preparation. As a restaurant there should be some consistency in the way they prepare their dishes. So for me, it was a complete disaster and a waste of money ordering those dish. The water glasses were empty all the time and not even once were refilled. We had kids in the group and they generally need to change the plates after starters but the servers didn't offer to change the plates. I got up, picked up the plates from the other table and changed it for my guests. There were left over bones from the chicken wings that I collected from the other plates and cleaned myself before the main course arrived. The server was in such a hurry that she announced at the table that she would be taking the last order in 15 minutes. She did that immediately after the starters were given. And that too when when it was just 7:30 pm. They say they are open for dine in till 9:30 pm so taking the last order at 7:45 pm doesn't make any sense. It looked like they really wanted us to wind up as soon as possible; or maybe they did not like to have people come for in-restaurant dining at all and just happy giving take outs and deliveries. 2 of my guests were served hair in their food. They didn't say anything at the restaurant but they told that to us later after it was over. I had started questioning myself as to why I chose to come here for my son's birthday dinner. Once the dinner was over, the server was super quick in getting the bill. She stood at the table waving the printout of the bill (as if) asking who wants to pay. She knew the table was booked in my name and I was the host, so should have given the check to me without embarrassing my guests. After all this, they had the audacity to add 18% gratuity in the bill. Obviously, I was not very excited about paying them anything extra, I shamelessly enquired about my options to either refuse paying the gratuity or reduce the amount. I didn't know they were more shameless than me. They then told me that they mandatorily add 18% to the bill if the number of people is more than 6 and there was no way I can refuse paying it or request them to reduce it. Okay, but they should have either mentioned it in their printed menu, told us while booking the table or displayed it promptly somewhere in their restaurant. They did not do any of these but just surprised me with an extra 18% that I wasn't expecting myself to pay at their behest. Obviously, not very happy, but I paid the bill. By now, they knew it was my son's birthday and we had a cake with us. But once the bill was paid, it was really hard to get them to give us the knife (for cutting the cake) and dessert plates and spoons as the server kept hiding. Absolutely...

This is regarding my visit on 12th April 2023.

Prior to going, I checked their online menu which had a "Daily Dinner Special" for $18.50 comprising of "1 Appy + 2 Veggie dishes + Rice + Naan + Raita/Salad + Dessert".

When we got their at 4pm, the place was completely EMPTY. The 2 of us were the ONLY customers there. The waitress took us to the table. When I checked the menu, it stated that the Dinner Special dishes were not changeable. The 2 Veg dishes that came with the 'Special' were the cheapest dishes u can get which Noone orders at an Indian Restaurant. So we were gonna walk out, as there was NO mention of that in their Online menu! I felt cheated and ripped off!

Nevertheless, since we drove here we decided to stay and ordered a couple of Veg dishes with Naan. After ordering, the Waitress came back to confirm our dishes as she forgot what we ordered ... WOW! We are the only 2 customers here, and she can't even remember what we ordered, WOW!

Then, we actually had to ASK for water! When the lady bought the water, she just dumped it on the table (2 empty glasses and a bottle). She cud not be troubled to pour the water! Then she bought 2 empty plates and again just dumped it on the table with the plates on top of each other. She cud not be troubled to separate them and put single plates in front of us.

When the food arrived, the Naan were nice but the Veg dished were NOT FRESH and just reheated.

The waitress NEVER (not even once) came back to check on us, and we were the ONLY 2 customers in this place!

Suffice to say, a VERY BAD overall experience:- (1) they need to be transparent in their online menu (2) service is garbage, BIG Time. It's as if the waitress was just their just for her pay chq. (3) food is not fresh. Of course, when owner reads this review, ur gonna get the typical repl. But I know my food and this was NOT made fresh. No idea how long it's been sitting in...

FALSE ADVERTISING. The restaurant put a coupon in the newspaper for a “Diwali Family Feast” that was supposed to feed a family of 10 for $100. The ad said to call the restaurant for details, so one of our party did, and was told that each person in our group could choose a bunch of food items, which sounded great.

Then, at the restaurant, the server told us that the coupon was for takeout only. This was NOT communicated to us over the phone. The server did not apologize about this. She did, however, tell us that we could use the 15% off coupon that was also in the newspaper. Since we were there for a birthday and didn’t want to spoil the mood, we decided not to make a fuss.

The meal itself was fine. The food was good, though nothing special. The server asked people if they wanted to add naan or rice to their meals without saying there was an extra charge, didn’t give us a drink menu until we asked, and forgot to take away our menus after we ordered, but those were minor things. Our secondary server (busser or host?) was good.

HOWEVER, we never ended up getting our 15% off. The discount was apparently there when our server brought the initial total bill (one of our party saw it), but then we asked her to split the bill. The split bills did not have the 15% off. We were enjoying ourselves and didn’t notice the missing discounts. Maybe one person got the discount—not sure at this point since we didn’t all take our receipts home.

Anyway, this is my second time at the restaurant and both times it was a so-so experience. I don’t think I’ll be giving it another chance, even if they try to lure us back...