Cardamom Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Auburn

I strongly advise against placing small orders over the phone with this restaurant if you don’t want to be insulted. It seems they only value large orders and consider small-value ones beneath them.

The staff, particularly one server (unfortunately, I didn’t catch his name), was incredibly rude. Here’s what happened:

It was late, and I was driving back from Vancouver, Canada, with some leftover curry from lunch. I asked my wife to call this restaurant and place an order for just one garlic naan so we could pick it up on our way home. When she called, the person who answered responded rudely. In an irritated tone, he said, "Are you serious, madam?" and added, "You should at least order a curry too." Shocked by this response, my wife asked me what to do. I told her to go ahead and place the order because I wanted to see who this rude person was. He reluctantly replied, "Okay, whatever. It’s up to you. It will take at least 20 minutes," with a sigh.

When I arrived at the restaurant, I hoped there had been a misunderstanding or perhaps a language barrier. I politely asked him why he had made those comments and whether there was a minimum order amount for pickup. In front of another staff member (likely the owner or manager, who seemed more reasonable), he denied saying those words. Then, shockingly, he began shouting at me, saying, "It’s wrong to buy curry from somewhere else and just get naan from us."

I explained to him that I had leftover curry, but he continued shouting. This behavior left me with several questions:

Why would someone care where I got my curry? Did he mean to imply that their curry is so bad that I needed to buy it elsewhere? If they don’t want people ordering just naan, why not set a clear minimum order policy? This was a simple pickup order, not dine-in. It’s not as though I was taking up a table or disrupting their ability to serve other customers. I was paying for what I ordered, and I don’t think it’s their place to decide what I can or cannot order unless they have a clearly stated policy.

This experience was truly shocking and disappointing. I don’t usually write negative reviews, but this time I felt compelled to do so because no one should have to endure the kind of insult I did.

If this is how they treat takeout customers, I can only imagine how they would react if I dined in and ordered a light dinner.

I’ve visited this restaurant a few times before, and while the food isn’t bad, their attitude and treatment of customers are unacceptable. I hope they realize that no matter how good their food might be, treating customers with respect...

I placed an online order with this restaurant for a large group, around dinnertime on a Saturday. It was my spouse's 40th birthday so it was a special event, but naturally he was like 'we don't need to order catering before, we can just order takeout' (so I'm sorry, Cardamom. I tried and failed to talk sense into him).

We ordered 30 things, and many of them had some sort of dietary need request attached (e.g., please make vegan; please note if not vegan; please no cilantro; etc). I was so anxious about making sure our guests would be able to eat something, and worried that Cardamom might not be able to accommodate.

Cardamom accommodated, and then some!! They made efforts to make as many of the items vegan as possible, and they made a note on EVERY SINGLE CONTAINER whether the item was vegan or not. No cilantro showed up anywhere. I was amazed and grateful. Not only that, they also threw in a few tasty desserts for us. Wow!

I will say that it looks like the old menu for Cardamom used to have a dedicated vegan section, which it no longer does. When I called the restaurant prior to placing the order, there were just a couple of things that they said they could make vegan. It would be nice if the vegan section could come back and even be expanded, but the efforts of the chef to make sure that we could all eat and be satisfied went above and beyond my expectations.

Thank...

This is by far the BEST INDIAN FOOD in the Pacific Northwest. Ive visited India 10+ times over the years and it is one of my favorite cuisines. Preparing Indian meals for 1 is not practical. So finding a great Indian restaurant is important. Far too often I know for a fact you are getting dishes sometimes 2 days old, and merely reheated. Indian cuisine is very labor intensive and takes time to prepare. CARDAMON has ALWAYS had the freshest meals Ive experienced. Fresh ginger, fresh veggies, etc. It is lovingly prepared by a chef who clearly cares. I LOVE the lunch special. It can change slightly from day to day but it is divine! Really yummy! The portions are generous and pricing is very reasonable for what you get. I had initially ordered using Uber Eats a few times, then realized they are close by a prices are cheaper through the website or even have a app. You get points for free food. It is worth the drive. Don't let the location deter you from giving this true gem a try. Youll be back for more. BTW... Ive enjoyed both vegetarian and non-vegetarian... both equally fantastic. Really authentic and prepared with highest standards. I hate sharing photos because Indian food can look a bit "non-appetizing" so just trust me,...