Taste of Malabar — Restaurant in Norwich

I was hoping to give this place 5 stars, but I will provide a detailed review of my experience. Opening time: It is advertised the opening is 17:00 on Saturdays. I entered at 17:13 on Saturday 2nd Jul 22. I was welcomed in, only to be told the kitchen was not open. I do appreciate being told, it was a kind gesture indeed, but it shows poor planning. When you'll advertise the opening time as 17:00, the restaurant must be fully open. Or if there is an inconvenience, change the opening time or put a sign board stating the restaurant will open late due to the circumstance. I returned back at 19:23. The Menu: I ordered the Dosa, but the waitress told me it was not available as it's a breakfast item, then I asked for the Vada and was told the same. A lot of item on the menu were unavailable. Now I been to many South Indian restaurant and the Dosa is usually the star item on the menu and I have never seen it serve as an exclusive breakfast item only. Hence, don't give us that excuse. Also, the question is, if your restaurant operates from 17:00 to 22:00/22:30, during what time do you'll serve breakfast? I don't know. Do you'll serve breakfast at a time which you'll have not advertised? That's okay, but I suggest you'll split the menu. Have a separate menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner. In that way your customer does not have to decide on something, only to be told that item is unavailable. Therefore, I asked the waitress what was available, and I was told the onion bhaji was available. I also asked if the samosa was available and I was told it was available. The Food: The samosa was burnt and seems it was frozen and bought from the supermarket and refried but I was not charged for the samosa because I was provided only 1 instead of 2. The onion bhaji didn't look like onion bhaji at all. Onion bhaji must be firm solid onion fritters. That's what the menu stated, but this was just some crumbs of onion coated in gram flour. That's not onion bhaji. It look like Chivda. However, that's fine if that's your variation. The Service: As per the menu, the Onion Bhaji was meant to be served with tomato chutney. The tomato chutney was missing. I thought the waitress would bring it and she never did. She was busy, and I tried to draw her attention but she did not respond. Later I complained and she deducted something from my payment. Value for money: Too expensive. A glass of lemonade costs £2.95, £1.95 for a glass of sparkling water. Cleanliness and Décor: The tables were dirty, with food stains on the table cloth, dust on the side plates and stains on the cutlery. The toilets were dusty with cobwebs. Décor, very gloomy atmosphere. Didn't feel the place was very inviting. Overall experience: Terrible! Most of the items on the menu were unavailable. Food was lousy and not worth visiting again. If the items I wanted were available, I would have made a purchase of at least £20, but because a lot of items were unavailable, I made a purchase of less than £10. But I will tell you that you have a chance to improve. Normally, when I review a store and I have a bad experience, I tell my readers to avoid visiting. However, in your case, I will not tell my readers to not visit your store. If you improve, and take heed to my recommendation, and if I see improvement, I will edit my review and possibly give you a good...

My partner and I wanted to try a thali and arrived just after opening at 17:15 and the sign says open but the doors were still locked. After the waitress noticed this, they quickly opened the door. The interior was pleasant and we got to choose where we sat however the issues started after that. The waitress gave us paper takeaway menus, when the restaurant hands out the laminated menus with a fuller list of options.

The paper menu didn't have the thali despite it being advertised on the menu at the front of the restaurant and images plastered at the front of the restaurant of the thali as well as lots of reviews and pictures of the dish. So we asked the waitress if we could order the thali, they weren't sure because it wasn't on the paper menu so they went to ask the chef. They came back saying that they "don't do it". So we believed them and ordered some dosas from the menu.

After our meal, another member of staff who was an older man walks into the restaurant gets ready and seats another couple. The waitress comes over and they ask for a thali, she says no they dont do the thali, the couple manage to stop the waiter that seated them and asked about the thali and he said that they did do the thali and they ordered 2. That really ruined the entire experience knowing that we didn't get the dish we wanted because of someone's incompetence.

The food was just average, nothing to write home about and If you want a dish and they say they dont have it, get a second opinion and ask another staff member...

Edit:

I forgot to mention the poppadom problem. We ordered a portion of poppadoms and for £1 we expected 3 but, they came out with 1... that was odd, I've never experienced...

Wonderfull Excellent Amazing”

5 of 5 stars

I went to this wonderfull restaurant last week with my friends. My friend arrange big birthday party for 25 people in spice paradise restaurant. Oh dear, it's a wonderfull memories. When we enter inside we all shock. It's so clean and nice atmosphere and very peaceful and smiling staffs. We had warm welcome by management and staffs.(thanks) The food is so... Nice and very delicious.we never had that tasty food anywhere. They gave very mild curries and medium hot curries and tasty starters. We had masala dosa also. Ah... It's big...biger. I never see that in any other restaurants. It's so delicious food in whole world. The service is wonderfull. All staffs are smiling and they are happy to give good service to us.And I like to tell about the management also. Because they are keeping very reasonable and good prices for drinks and food and take away also. So we all are very happy and we all are like to go back with our families very soon. Thanks for the spicy paradise restaurant management and staffs and good chefs for gave a nice...