Spice Junction — Restaurant in Bay of Plenty

I had takeout. A lamb curry. I strike this issue from time to time at other Indian joints that don’t prepare their meats properly.

So, what was it with my Lamb Madras curry? The lamb itself. It was not cooked with the curry sauce. If it was pre-cooked, it wasn’t done correctly. Was it even prepared in a pre-cooked infusion?

After the diced lamb was tossed in the Madras curry, the result was still that distinct mutton taste -fatty, partially cooked, tough meat that failed to absorb any spice flavour that would render it to become fall apart tender. Instead, this meat remained a separated taste, divorced from the gravy it sat in.

If not done correctly, an annoying time saving shortcut that some Indian restaurants indulge in, maybe when they also want to lessen their wastage if certain dishes remain unsold or they don't have enough demand for that offering.

I had to resort to cooking the entire curry again at home for another 45 mins to get the meat palatable. But there still remained another problem...

That was how the meat was prepared. The chef/cook when trimming the meat wasn’t overly concerned about removing the inedible silver skin/connective tissue or excess fat off the meat. For me, a horrible experience when I...

We had a group of 18 people come in with a booking for 6pm, we did not get our mains until 8pm with no explanation or forewarning of the time it would take. It is understandable that a large group can take some time to serve but 2 hours is absolutely ridiculous.

The service was appalling, we sat with our empty glasses, water bottles and dirty dishes from our appetisers until our mains came (an hour later) we had to go up numerous times to ask for more water.

Upon approaching the manager of the restaurant after an hour and 40 minutes to ask when our food was going to arrive, and why tables who arrived more than half an hour after us had already been served their mains he was full of excuses putting blame on us for being a large group and booking at 6pm, I had to interrupt him and ask him for a time estimate and an apology.

It appeared that small tables were well looked after, but I would not recommend going with a large groups. The food was pretty good but the bad experience...

We were a party of 8. We chose spice junction for our preshow dinner. The waitress skills were lousy. The chef's mediocre. The waitress had no system. She didnt know who to deliver each dish to. She interrupted conversation with each delivery and stood on one spot and called out the names of the dishes she was holding. We took the plates from her and passed them around the table. It was shambolic. She omitted to order several dishes. We specified 3 spicy meals. They each arrived terribly bland. Another staff member brought chili powder to spice up my meal. Instead, I returned the meal and offered to speak to the chef. The waitress said she would convey my comments. After all of that the bloke at the cash register asked for payment of the returned dish. I dine out regularly. I have never returned a meal before. I do comment on exceptional or lousy service. The consumers have a right to get...