The Mint Leaf — Restaurant in Cockeysville

The floor manager here is actually a problem for this restaurant. He's rude to both customers and his staff, and absolutely incompetent. The food and serving staff, however, are excellent and I'm sorry they have to work with the floor manager.

I should have known something was off as soon as we got inside. We approached the host booth to get seated. A young man came over to greet us and seat us. Then the floor manager came over, put himself physically in front of the other gentleman and seated us instead. I didn't really think anything of this at first but it will make more sense further in this review.

We were seated and we heard the same floor manager wrapping up the table behind us. He was stressing how important it was that they leave a good review on Google. Again, I didn't really think much of that at first, but this will make more sense soon.

That same young man from before--our waiter--appraoched us, eager and polite, ready to take our orders. The floor manager immediately came over to our table and again physically placed himself in front of our waiter and began taking our order instead, interrupting the conversation. The floor manager behaved like a sleazy used car salesman, hurried us through the menu and pressured us to make a decision as fast as possible. He asks if we like lamb, and out of nowhere tried to upsell us on lamb shanks. We had already made up our minds, but it was still jarring and confusing and unprofessional. At the end of his spiel, he asks for our drink orders and just rattles off soft drinks and mango lassi at a machine gun pace. I asked for hot tea, he said they were out, which is fine--sometimes you run out of things, not a big deal (again, this will make more sense soon).

I was immediately put off by this and I think the floor manager could tell. He kept looking at our table, like he was nervous and noticed my facial expression. He came over shortly after, again profusely apologizing for the lack of hot tea. I told him again that it was fine. I then told him what he did to that waiter was rude and unfair, bullying him out of his table. I pointed out that he approached us like a sleazy used car salesman instead of actually walking us through the menu, specials, etc. I told him that he sucked at his job and was killing the mood. He instantly started panicking at this, said that he wasn't being rude and that he didn't bully the waiter out of waiting on his and they were in fact best friends. And again apologizing for the tea that was never an issue. I said, no we're done here and I don't want to deal with you anymore. I want our original waiter back. He agreed and backed away from the table, then AGAIN started apologizing over and over, so I cut him off and said, no, you're done, and waved him off. At which point her started apologizing to my partner instead.

The floor manager then started pacing around the floor watching us the whole time again. He was on the phone for a lot of that time, presumably talking to the general manager or the owner. I also noticed he kept hosting, bussing, and waiting on other tables despite there already being staff there to do those jobs.

The wait staff who continued to wait on us were extremely apologetic, and were very professional and did an excellent job, unlike the floor manager who clearly has no idea what he's doing and does not care. I asked the wait staff if the floor manager was always like that, and asked them if he was going to pocket their tips. They laughed it off and reassured us everything was fine, but I think they may have just been covering for themselves, and I don't blame them for that. I made sure our waiter got his tip in his hands before we left.

I want to stress again that the food here is excellent. The wait staff here is excellent. The atmosphere is also very relaxing and comfortable. The floor manager, however, tried to do everyone's job and is not good at any of it. He's rude to his staff and actively prevents them from doing their jobs whichthey are eager to do and perfectly capable of doing...

Update to my review again:

We decided to give the restaurant another chance and returned for dinner. After being seated, the same server from our previous visit approached us and asked if I had called in a reservation. When I said “no,” he paused briefly and then asked for my name. The interaction felt odd and left me with the impression that he recognized me from my prior review. If that was the case, I would’ve appreciated a direct and respectful conversation instead of a vague excuse to get my name.

That said, the meal itself was excellent, and none of the issues we experienced during our prior visit came up again. Unfortunately, as we were leaving, the server made a comment to me referencing my Google review. I can’t recall the exact wording, but it came off as snarky and condescending.

Had the server respectfully and directly approached me about my review and/or the focus remained solely on the improved dining experience, I would have gladly updated or even removed my previous review. However, the two passive-aggressive interactions — the awkward inquiry about my name and the unnecessary comment as we left — were enough to reinforce our decision not to return. I’ve updated the food rating.

Update to my previous review:

This has been my daughter's and my favorite Indian restaurant, and we've visited about once a month over the last few years. She loves their ice-cold water, I love that they bring new dishes and silverware after the appetizer and we both adore the paneer tikka masala. The food and service have always been exceptional. Unfortunately, tonight's experience was so disappointing that we're questioning if we'll return.

We arrived at 7:30 pm and were seated next to the only other table in the restaurant who finished up shortly after we sat down. Our usual paneer tikka masala arrived full of peppers and onions--ingredients not listed on the menu and never included in previous orders--and with only about six pieces of paneer. The sauce was a deeper red than usual, with an overpowering tomato flavor and did not taste like tikka masala. I ordered "as mild as possible" for my daughter and a 3-4 spice level for myself, as I always do, but both dishes came out extremely mild and identical in spice level. We both ended up eating mostly rice because the tikka masala just wasn't enjoyable.

Throughout the entire meal, nobody checked on us--not even to refill my daughter's water, which was completely empty. When a different person than our original server finally came over, he asked how everything was. I mentioned it wasn't as good as we were used to, and he just nodded, smiled and said something like, "ok, good," which made me feel like he hadn't actually listened or cared about my honest response to his question. I then asked for to go boxes (because I know my teenage boys will eat anything I give them!) which he quickly brought over. After that, we sat with dirty dishes at our table for at least five minutes, trying to catch the attention of staff who were chatting at the counter and ignoring us. Coats on and my daughter standing up and ready to go, we finally managed to get someone's attention - they came over and handed me the handheld POS machine without a word.

After years of fantastic experiences, tonight was truly disappointing. I will mention that the gentleman who brings the water, lassi, and warm hand towels who has worked here for as long as I can remember was amazing as always.

Previous review: Definitely the best Indian food in Baltimore County! So good and great...

Sorry, long read!! I dine in during lunch when they serve buffet, the food an atmosphere is very pleasant. When i started dining since last year until April or May of this year, the service was wonderful and inviting. They knew me and my coworkers were regulars, made more comfortableto come back food options was wonderful and taste good. Sometimes some stuff was cold, but I didn't have no issue with it. Just an overall wonderful place to go. Had to change my original rating from 5 to a 3 because a staff member not sure of his title made me abit uncomfortable dining in the establishment. Haven't been there for sometime, when I return in Jun/Jul I believe, with fiance.I didnt mind his attentiveness and his friendly service, but as we leaving he did ask for a review and a tip. I don't ever have a problem with tipping, when I know the service at this place is wonderful, so I left a tip and review. Since that day I felt something off about the gentleman that didn't sit right with me and had the same feeling when me and my coworkers revisit the place last month. The same feeling about him again became uncomfortable to me, again he was attentive, asking how everything was, but when it was time to leave there he is with the card reader in hand, but my coworkers paid at the front like always and he stood there staring at us when leaving. I haven't been there in sometime but took a chance yesterday. Never have I ever been told where I'm assigned to sit, not to mention he raise his voice a bit to get my attention to tell me where I need to sit in an empty establishment. Like I'm a child. Again the food was wonder except for the white sauce, unsure of its name but it was very loose, the spinach was wilted. The water was clear, but when it was refilled it had floaters, I barly drank the water. I write not to discouraged no one from going because you may experience something different than me, but personally I would rather carryout my food then eat there if this is going to be a concern when trying to dine in this place, I also felt this gentleman was abit more attentive to certian type of guess and it should never feel this way if your establishment has wonderful food and atmosphere, all guess should be treated the same. When I write this I'm only speaking about 1 gentleman and one gentleman only, everyone else is...