Aunty's Kitchen — Restaurant in Alpharetta

A lovely mom n pop all vegetarian Indian family restaurant serving excellent Indian cuisine, specifically Kerala cuisine. The husband is the cashier and the waiter while the son and wife prepare the food. There are daily specials usually written on a chalkboard at the payment counter. Menus are there right next to it, as well as other small boxes of take along boxes for your home like pickles. Once you place your order and pay for it, you can find a table for yourself or sit at the bar against the wall. There are a couple of tables on the outside, but the majority of the seats are on the inside. Once your order is ready, your name will be called out to come and pick it up. Weekdays are usually less crowded, but the weekends are just plain crazy crowded, which should show the popularity of the restaurant. But the people serving are lovely and very friendly. If you are new to the Kerala cuisine and are unsure of what dish to order or how best to eat it, just ask. They'll tell you the correct way to eat it so that you can enjoy it best. There are your usual street dishes or South Indian dishes, but the truly good ones are the dishes that are from Kerala. So would recommend opting for them if you are feeling adventurous and don't forget to ask how to ask how best to enjoy the dish. If you are planning to take your dish togo, place your order over a call (during which you can ask for the daily specials) and come down to the restaurant to pick it up. I'm not sure if they doordash or Uber eats since I've not checked it out. A friend of mine who is from the same area in Kerala as the restaurant owners said these dishes are as original as they can come. I've been here many times before, as usual, very hungry, but this is the first time I've remembered to take pics to post a review. Food's too yummy to remember to take pics for posting...

If you don't value your time, this restaurant is for you. Never seen such a clumsy service in other 1000 restaurants I may have dine in.

The owner is very unprofessional, no helpers, no cleaners, her own wife alone cooks for everybody and that gets them so busy that you have to wait for 1.5 - 2 hours in peak hours. I visited with my family with one year old child for 4 times in 2 weeks and had to go back without dining in because the person seating at the counter always indirectly suggested us to leave because it would take more than an hour of waiting (which usually turns in 2 hrs). Today I finally placed an order because he told me that we can run errands (if any) and come back. He said he will call us back when order is almost ready. He told us it will take approx an hour. I kept calling the restaurant after an hour long wait but they never answer, finally we went there at 9.15 pm and it was not busy at that time but our order was still not ready and he told us it is 30 minutes more wait. So frustrating!! And he lied that the people eating right now have ordered ahead on phone and then come back to eat. But he always denied phone orders in the past for me and my couple friends saying you have to be here to order (phone orders are not accepted anymor). Also people ordered after us were eating there already, but he didn't care about our order and calling us, just because they were very busy with customers in front of them.

Another thing is they open and close very much unexpectedly as per their wish and convenience without any advance notice.

Don't waste your time. There are many more south Indian...

Worst service and below average food is what comes to mind when I think about this place. We visited recently and was lied to over and over again about wait times. The owner is extremely rude, condescending and dismissive of concerns. He goes as far as intimidating customers when they ask him about their orders. We spent our hard earned money dining at this place and have been extremely disappointed with the quality of the food and disgusted by the service. Making someone wait for over an hour for their order is simply unacceptable. If the kitchen staff is so overwhelmed then they should let the customers know about the real wait times. But no, the owner lied to us and satisfied his greed and caused huge inconvenience to us. I think he also shows favoritism by serving select few who arrived after us.

Coming to the food, it is really a stretch to call the food decent, it is below average and served on cheap buns (pav bhaji for example). The owner has the audacity to charge $15 for payasam, which is exorbitant and unjustified given that it tasted like frozen payasam that you can buy in any grocery store. We also got a so called "pickle" which was $5.99 it was like tamarind paste with sugar.

Please do not give this place your hard earned money. The prices do not justify the quality nor the treatment. The owner should be ashamed of himself for lying to customers and...