ChutneyZ — Restaurant in Ipswich

2018 (5-Star): Great chicken biryani. Love it! 2021 (3-Star): Biryani was ok. However, they don’t accept card payments. They ask for cash. At first, I thought it could be a problem with their machine but I ordered about 10 times in the last couple of months and they never accepted a card.

26/2/23 (2-Star): They still ask for cash most of the times and they don’t take card payments. Sometimes they say that the machine doesn’t work and sometimes they say it’s a server issue. I guess I know why this happens. So I chose not to order today and ordered from elsewhere who accept card payments.

27/2/23 (1-Star): Thanks for the reply. I ordered/dined-in at Chutneyz, at least 80 times in the last 5 years. So I am sure, I am entitled to post my experience here. I started by giving a 5-star review, in 2018.

My comment that I visited at least 10 times in the last 2 months was from 2021 (Google doesn't show the timeline of the comments. So I added it now) I meant to say that, two years later, you are still the same - asking for cash payments frequently. We usually order chicken biryani as we like it here. I also advised my friends to try the biryani.

However, in the past couple of years, I noticed that the quality of food and the customer service/experience worsened. I thought, it was just me feeling so, but I see there are many other reviews which reflect the same. Here are my personal experiences which I never cared to share here till this point. But looking at your reply, it felt like you are desperately asking for it. So here you go:

A few months ago, I was given super-chilled chicken covered with hot biryani rice when I ordered chicken biryani for collection. After I went home, I called Chutneyz and complained about it. The chef apologised for the mess-up and offered that they are happy to deliver another chicken biryani at my door step to compensate for it, but I refused the offer. I did not add this in my review earlier because, at least the cook acknowledged the mess-up and was being polite. I once ordered a chicken biryani and was told to collect in 20 minutes. I went there after 20 minutes and then I had to wait at the restaurant for 30 minutes to collect it. Sure, I understand that you can be busy at times. But if you had told me that it would take 50 minutes for a biryani, I would have ordered elsewhere. I ordered chicken biryani and went 20 minutes later to collect it, only to be told that it was sold out. They offered to give me lamb biryani instead. Yesterday (26/2/2023), when I called to order biryani, the staff member who spoke to me sounded careless and impolite when I mentioned that they asked for cash, 3 weeks ago too. I think, the staff needs training (This is not just me. Look at the other recent reviews)

This reason you gave, for asking cash payments, was super cute and believable - "we are based on groundfloor building surounded by tall building due to which the internet connection keeps dropping." Yes, that's cute, especially when Aqua Pharmacy and the Marina Store located on either side of Chutneyz never had these issues.

Here are the reasons I was told by the staff - The card machine stopped working. We spilt beer on the card machine by mistake as the beer tap is right next to the card machine. Internet is not working. Server is down. The staff are quite creative with the reasons. 5-star for the creativity (beer tap reason was the best one) Great team work!

The funniest part - When I wrote about you asking for cash very frequently, you justified it by quoting inflation, bank/ card charges etc. Mate, what advantage does cash payment give you to counter inflation and card charges? Until today, I was only speculating that it may be to avoid paying tax, but your mention of bank charges, inflation etc made things clear. Thanks for confirming. With this confirmation, going forward, I think I should choose to order from businesses who pay taxes just like I do.

Thanks for trying to add to my wisdom, but I think your reasons for asking for cash payments were cute...

I visited Chutneyz on Wednesday, 17th July at 8:30 pm.

We ordered Chicken 65, Fish Tikka, and Palak Paneer with Naan. When our order arrived, all the dishes came together, and we noticed that the Fish Tikka was actually Amritsar Fish, according to their menu. I brought this to the waitress's attention, who then went to the kitchen and returned, insisting that despite the menu description, this was supposed to be Fish Tikka.

This is unacceptable and confusing. Changing the dish without updating the menu is misleading and dangerous, especially for those with allergies. Such negligence puts customers at risk.

Overall, our experience was disappointing and concerning. We will not be returning.

@Response to Chutneyz reply:

Thanks for your reply. We've had Fish Tikka multiple times, always cooked in the tandoor. If you’ve changed the cooking method, it should be updated in the menu. All we're asking is for the menu to reflect what’s actually served.

We ordered the dish for our daughter, who is not good with to battered deep-fried food, and Tandoor fish seemed like the safest option. She couldn’t eat anything due to this mistake, and she was hungry waiting for us to finish. Please check your cameras before making any assumptions. We could have argued to cancel the fish dish at the time, but we didn’t want to waste food, so we continued with our meal.

We didn’t even know the bill would be adjusted and weren't informed until the end. My husband insisted on paying regardless.

Without us asking or complaining, why did you take it off the bill? It seems you knew it was your mistake.

Of course, we worry about allergies. It’s my responsibility to raise this issue since it caused confusion and discomfort for us.

We wrote the review based on our experience to get your attention and prompt changes. Your waitress mentioned that the menu hasn’t changed but will soon.

This review was meant to make you aware. For your reference, I've attached photos and checked your menu. It clearly says TANDOOR, not deep-fried.

No one comes to a restaurant for free food or to have their...

Was looking forward to dining here as the reviews looked so good, but we had an awful experience. Wednesday night so we expected it would be busy because of the 'Eat out to help out scheme', but it was ram packed, and that's by pre-covid standards. I wish we had left at this point but as we had booked we did not want to cancel at short notice. Our table was so sticky, my mobile phone was literally stuck to it and it took force to remove it, no exageration. I expect it's because of the antibac products they are using, but it was pretty gross. The waiting staff were not wearing masks, and because it was so loud in there, they were having to lean right in to communicate with us. To cut a long story short, after ordering and waiting 45 minutes, seeing others who arrived after us receiving their food, we were brought some complimentary popadoms as it seems our order must have been overlooked somehow. Then our mains and starters were brought out at the same time. We said we just wanted the starter first, which we started eating, only to realise it was missing the scallops as shown on the menu. Also the squid rings were rock hard rubbery rings. Eventually we were offered a couple of pounds off the price, but it didn't really make up for the long wait, the missing item and the poor quality. The fish pieces in the fish platter were delicious, however both of us suffered very sore mouths into the next day that I can only put down to something that must have been in the batter. And it most certainly wasn't because of chilli or spices. It was like very strong baking powder or something like that. By this point we were put off the rest of our meal and opted to pay up for the drinks and starter and leave. A very disappointing experience. Maybe it's better on a quiet day, but their social distancing is non-existent so I can't recommend on that basis alone, let alone the poor service and issue with whatever was in the food causing a very unpleasant sore mouth for both of us. In fact, it would be good to know what ingredients they are using that could have that...