Mehak-E-Punjab — Restaurant in Winnipeg

We stopped by this place for the first time for a small late dinner and had some Golgappa and Karahi Paneer with the special Naan Bread, which is basically like the Indian food version of a pizza with your curry, and of course some chai.

The Golgappa came with 6 pieces, pre-pierced and filled with the dry fillings, and the liquid in shot glasses measured to easily fill them as you eat them. This thoughtful presentation kept any mess of the broth under control.

The Karahi Paneer in medium spice was not particularly "hot" compared to the nearby India Food Corner's medium, it seems balanced to both not overwhelm the more delicate mix of spices and perhaps was adjusted out of fear of overwhelming my western pallet. I would describe the medium as "mild" and suspect that their "mild" contains no spicy peppers at all. For those of you who may be seeking painful curry I would advise ordering hot or asking for extra hot. I will be requesting hot next time. The seasoning was diverse, flavorful and fresh. Fresh cilantro and garlic was clearly present in the dish, and I was told by the workers that everything is made from fresh ingredients in house and never frozen. This very clearly showed in the fresh green leaf herbs, but the flavor of fresh, unfrozen food was most present in the Naan and Roti, which were tender, arrived searing hot, and lacked any of the toughness of reheated bread.

Bread is a good benchmark for any restaurant, and if you are eating roti as the feature starch of your meal, you will be pleased by the tender, flaky and fresh roti from Mehak-E-Punjab. A staple, but done well.

The menu includes a cheaper lunch menu and also a low cost basic tiffin service for takeout with a vegetarian option paired with roti. The dinner menu includes a page of appetizers and a page of curries, plus a page with beverages. It is relatively restrained. A popular lunch item appears to be the paneer sandwich, which I look forward to trying. I ordered vegetarian food and wasn't really paying attention to if there were meat options. The options were very vegetarian friendly and I don't remember seeing any meat entrees. It was a smaller menu than some other nearby places, but I feel reasonably confident they put heart and soul into everything they do serve.

We were there late in the day and it was not busy, food arrived fast and hot.

Normally I'd wait to write a review until I'd visited a restaurant a few times to get a sense of the repeated standard of service and had the opportunity to take some pictures, so I may edit this in the future with more content. I was asked if I could leave a review on Google. No compensation was given in exchange for this review and the restaurant did not know what I would or wouldn't write.

(I told you I would even though I didn't have my phone. I wouldn't lie.

This is probably as honest of a review as someone can possibly do. We went in the restaurant and was asked to wait outside as they are cleaning the table, our group of 8 went outside waited less than 30 seconds and was called in. There is a little area, I would have appreciated if there was a little seating area or anything for people to wait, just a little awkward walking all the way inside and to be told to wait outside.

No one offered water, we had to ask for water after waiting for so long. We were celebrating an event and asked the server to take a picture of the group as we were all happy and wanted to capture the moment, we were told to order first and there was a weird silence. We ordered three appetizers and asked for a drink Menu which no one bothered to give us for another 10 minutes, had to ask three times. Appetizers started to come one at a time, which I did not appreciate at all, there is a reason you order appetizers, no serving spoons were given with any of the appetizers. Instead of giving Chicken Malai Tikka, we were given Malai Chaap, after complaining about the wrong order, they were kind enough to get the right order for us. We ordered everything to be very mild, but everything came out to be super spicy, keep in mind the chicken tikka came in after the main course was served, once again no serving spoons. We complained about not getting serving spoons, the server said sorry and once again didnt bother to provide serving spoons. So finally chicken tikka arrived and the chicken was raw, when we complained about it being raw, the server stared giving explanation to how to they and they follow certain temperature before they serve instead of simply saying sorry and replacing it. We ordered three dishes for the main course and Daal came almost when we finished eating and the replacement Chicken Tikka came in after we were done eating. For 8 of us eating we were given 8 tissue papers thats all. I can keep going on and on but the service industry seems to have gone down the drain, you have one non...

Awful Experience – Don’t Waste Your Time!

I rarely write reviews, but I had such a frustrating experience at this place that I feel compelled to warn others. I placed an order for pickup, and from the moment I arrived, everything went wrong.

I got there right on time, expecting to pick up my food quickly, but I was greeted with a complete lack of urgency. I stood at the counter for over 25 minutes with no one acknowledging me. There were a few staff members standing around chatting, and not one of them bothered to ask if I needed help or if I was waiting for an order. I tried to make eye contact, but it was like I wasn’t even there.

Finally, when someone did notice me, they told me my order was still being prepared and to wait just a "few more minutes." So, I stood there… and waited. And waited. 15 more minutes passed. In total, I waited for more than an hour to pickup my order. At this point, I was beyond frustrated. There was no communication, no apology, just complete indifference.

When my order finally came out, it was cold, sloppy, and looked nothing like what I had imagined from the menu description. Clearly, no effort had been put into packaging or quality control. I asked for the owner of the place and he didn't come out of the kitchen. I pointed this out, and the staff acted like I was the one being unreasonable.

I understand delays can happen, but this was ridiculous. I could have ordered from anywhere else, and it would’ve been a faster, more pleasant experience. Customer service was non-existent, and it’s clear they don’t care about the quality or timeliness of their service.

Do yourself a favor and avoid this place for pickup. It’s a waste of...