Namaste Authentic Indian Cuisine Salmon Arm — Restaurant in Salmon Arm

Went to Namaste tonight. Service was terrible. Went for the Buffet that they do one evening a week. Stood waiting for food for 10 minutes when we arrived. There was no food in about 80% of the dishes. No salad to get started. They brought out some food for certain dishes in the buffet but enough for about 3 people. The place had several people seated. There was a mad dash of about 6 people going up to the buffet when some food arrived and cleared it out again. They filled the salad but never filled the salad dressing. I had one plate full of food and went back up again it was empty of everything. Stood around asked the manager/cook what the issue was and he said "we only bring out small amount to keep it fresh". How about bring out enough food so people can eat. We spent over an hour and 25 minutes there and my guest and I only had one plate of food. I told them I was not paying full price for the buffet service. He gave me a discount but was not going to give my guest a discount. I asked him why she should have to pay full price for hers, the poor experience was had by everyone. He said "well I only saw you standing there waiting for food I never saw her." Well my guest is 30 weeks pregnant so standing there waiting for food was not what she planned for a night out I would report back to her that there was still NO food. He went on to say when people attend buffets they have to understand it is a waiting thing.... Ahhh no it shouldn't be. I told him if they cannot handle one buffet night a week they should probably shut it down. He said that February and March so far has been very slow. That last Wednesday the made a full buffet and no one came really so they were adjusting to that. It appeared that less than half of the people in the restaurant were having the buffet. They would not of had a hope of feeding 10+ people with there buffet the way it was being run. I have been here twice, first experience was sub par. Tried again because my guest was interested in trying... Will not ever go back again. Our waitress was great and was doing everything she could to keep up and was very understanding of our frustrations. This place seems extremely under staffed. Only 2 waitresses, no bartender and about 15 tables with...

Though the food was "Okay", giving it a one star for reasons explained below:

Their menu says Vegan as a category, but it defeats the purpose as the items aren't listed as Vegan or vegan optional. No biggie! We were staying about 25-30Km away from this restaurant and ordered in person for 8 people (To go). The server was told how many people this order was for and asked for recommendation of number of dishes to order based on quantity/serving size. We were all set to have a great time that evening and when we opened the huge packaging, discovered that the total quantity for 2x/4x orders was even less than 1x order that you usually get from Indian places. Imagine sharing that between 8 people. It was too late in the evening and almost a 1 hour affair to go back to this restaurant, plus no delivery service in the area we were in. Such a shame that we didn't eat stomach full.

I'll probably not order next time I'm in the area. They ruined our evening, an evening of our anticipated annual...

I remember coming through here a couple years ago, and distinctly recall this restaurant. Today I was able to visit it again, and it did not disappoint. I went with two others, and between the three of us we feasted on vegetable samosas, vegetable pakora, two orders of garlic naan, baingan bharta, butter chicken and lamb rogan josh. There is nothing here that I would not get again, as it was all absolutely flavourful and delicious. I would highly recommend sharing dishes so as to indulge to the wonderful array of flavours. The degree of spicyness was perfectly suited to our liking—on a scale of five, we ordered a three, which left it to feel authenticly indian and yet something we could all easily handle and enjoy. The restaurant itself was dimly lit, which created a nice calm ambience and resulted in quite a pleasant atmosphere. The waitress that helped us was very friendly and kind. I can definitely see making a point to treat myself to this food next time I am...