The Spice Garden - Indian Vegetarian Restaurant — Restaurant in Charlotte

Latest review - Service is going down. Also the food quality- whole wheat tandoori roti had maida (refined flour) mixed. Made it chewy. Prices for appetizers are too high compared to the portion size, interior and ambience. We now visit less often and come only for awesome taste since other Indian restaurants have new thali dishes on all 3 weekend days. It’s disappointing to see such a wonderful chef Indian vegetarian restaurant going down hill.

Previous review - Must go place for Vegetarian folks who are from India. You will feel you are sitting in India and relishing the food. Best Indian restaurant in US.

Dish ordered. Veg Manchow soup - Veggie cut was thin which is important and they have got it right. Indo Chinese flavor was present. Decent pricing and quantity. Only minor correction - Pepper powder was not cooked and had raw taste plus pepper taste was dominant unlike Manchow soup which is more ginger soy taste Rava dosa - Star of the evening. Crisp on the outside throughout the surface and soft cooked from inside. Holes on the rava dosa says it all. Sooji taste was evident. Coconut chutney was fresh and looks like they don't use frozen shredded coconut. Sambar did not have a very subtle flavor like a typical Chennai restaurant but still had balance of flavor. Size of dosa was also huge and much bigger than other place. Hariyali Paneer Tikka - Marination was less and inadequate flavor. I was expecting a minty garlic coat on it. Marination volume was too less compared to paneer size and hence it was raw paneer inside with no flavor infused in. They should improve this dish significantly. Punjabi lovers would be highly disappointed. Kids loved it cuz it had no spice. Friday special Kathiyawadi thali - a. Palak gota - Crispy and well cooked coarse inside - exactly how it should be. Went very well with burnt garlic chutney. b. Tindora sabzi - Had good peanut flavor n right cooked (sometimes it's over cooked or big cuts). c. Potato Sabzi - Every bite had flavor n didn't have just plain raw taste. d. Tuvar ringda dana - No taste n it seems to be made from frozen veg. e. Gujarati dal n rice - Sweet n tangy as expected. f. Buttermilk - Chilled with right sourness and spicy tones. Very nice of restaurant to provide us with complementary additional portion. Appreciate it. g. Shrikhand - Kids loved it but the hung curd had slight sourness which is not typically expected. Can't complain though - Puri shrikhand is everyone's favorite. h. Puri - Not oily, proper brown and was not thin on either side. i. Masala thepla - Right thickness and flavor. j. Raitha - Not expected in Kathiyawad thali but had nice flavor of black salt slight sour curd. Missed one more farsan and more bread items like Bajra rotla which is typical of Kathiyawad.

Also the price of thali and ala carte is value for money.

Highly...

Not well-equipped for events or for a slightly larger party

So, I love to support local businesses, and I was trying to give this place the benefit of the doubt throughout our evening. I have never written a poor review before now, but I was disappointed with my experience here to the point where I felt that I need to write this.

We reserved a 15 person party for my mom's surprise birthday dinner. However, I wish they had just told us they weren't equipped for larger groups of people.

At the dinner, we were told we were charged $1.99 + tax per person for water bottles (about $37 for us) because they said they won't serve us water in glasses for an event. There was still an 18% auto-gratuity that was charged on the full bill, so it's like we were charged $43 just to drink water at the restaurant.

Our families have patronized many Indian and non-Indian restaurants in Charlotte over the years, and not only have we never gotten an extra water charge, but the owner claimed that other places would have charged by the hour. This would be understandable if we were reserving a private area, but we just had 3 tables to the side and we brought in and took down all our own decorations. We had to get our own silverware, were not served water, and we waited for food for about 2 hours to be served after we ordered, so a per hour charge would have been unreasonable. For comparison, we had another surprise birthday a few months ago at a different, higher-end restaurant in Charlotte, and none of this was the case there.

Finally, at the end of the visit when we got our receipt, we found out that there were menu price items charged 30-40% higher than the price that was written on the menu, because they said they didn't have enough updated menus available for us. So, with the water and the higher menu prices, the bill ended up being over $100 total more than we would have thought.

It is the restaurant's responsibility, for professionalism's sake with these kinds of policies, to communicate to the people who are paying and at the time of the reservation, or merely tell us that they are not equipped to handle a...

I’ve been going to this restaurant since before their transition and name change to “the spice garden”. It’s been one of me and my partners go to dinner nights as the curry and naan are very good. However, my low marks has more to do with the service and really the lacking atmosphere of the establishment. It’s got bland white walls and minimal decor which leaves for an unfortunately hallow design.

My major problem focuses on the service itself. Although the gentleman who has served occasionally is wonderful and upbeat, the lady who sometimes manages taking orders is not so great. For one she has often been known to stare a little too much which can make one very uncomfortable while trying to eat. I could excuse that for being attentive but that’s not even the worst of the offenses. The other night particularly left me uncomfortable because she stuck her finger in not one, not two but three of the curry bowls served to the table. I’ve seen lipstick stains on my cups or uncleaned tables with this place before and been ok. But this was just too disgusting to me. I could’ve left it there but I also heard a loud sneeze from the kitchen which sounded open and wet which clearly tells me they even try to cover their mouth. My final straw came from a hair I discovered in my rice bowl.

It’s such a shame because I’d really love to rate this place higher and I’ve often appreciated the quality of the food itself and decent pricing for the meal. But I may not be returning anytime soon following this experience and I no longer want to recommend anyone eating here. I’m not sure how they got the sanitary rating they got but my stomach twists just recalling her thumb in my food like that…so disappointed.

Please be more mindful of how you treat your customers, especially as you are a small business. This goes for every individual, especially those who are reoccurring. I love to support small business but I cannot condone how it’s being run. Hopefully y’all can learn to take a lesson and be more careful when handling people’s food...