Curry Up Now — Restaurant in Durham

Hour wait for fast casual. Chaotic af. Salty, bland food. Spent $50 for two people.

It’s their first few days open and they would benefit from closing for at least another week and work out the kinks, train their staff. I would expect a chain concept to be better prepared and set up for their opening.

This was the most stressful restaurant experience I’ve ever had on this side of the counter, and all I could do was stand and watch the entire staff struggle hard for FIFTY MINUTES while we waited for our takeout order, crammed to one side with a dozen other patrons in the same boat.

I was grossed out watching the owner in the blue hat bare-hand the food into dishes and takeout containers while he attempted to expo; touch all the equipment, bar rags, his face, glasses, and hat. None of the staff washed their hands once in the almost-hour we waited watching them.

Literally every dish the runner took out, she brought back to the line because it was the wrong item or a duplicate. So much chaos in the kitchen - guys in button down shirts who looked like they had not planned on working the line tonight were dropping and pulling and re-firing.

All the dishes were cold by the time we got them, of course. Overall, each dish tasted a day old, was over-salted and under spiced, and greasy (like the fryer oil temp had dropped too low). We got:

Peri peri fries - they were fine after we reheated them. Fried ravioli - we both liked these but nothing especially Indian about them. The chutney or curry dipping sauce was good. Vada pav - could have been good but was just bland. Needed something fresh or acidic to cut all the butter and grease. Naan (burnt chili) - I didn’t try this but it looked very dry. Burrito - we ordered the vegan chicken but got a Hella Vegan. It was 99% rice with like 10 chickpeas and some crusty old samosa chunks. Didn’t have anything fresh in it, we pitched half of it.

Curry burritos has always been my dream restaurant concept and chaat is my favorite kind of Indian food. Hopefully they...

First few reviews are family/friends so don’t trust them.

Went on grand opening day with a couple others. Ordered 3 burritos all together: the Chicken Tikka, Makhni Butter (which is an oxymoron because Makhni means butter), and the vegan.

For the chicken, they were filled with maybe 15% chicken and the rest was Indian-seasoned rice and chick peas and veggies. Not worth $13 that’s for sure and the taste is sooo Americanized. The chicken tikka and Makhni butter burritos tasted exactly the same lol. This place is a joke. I’m laughing as I’m writing this.

They were passing out little samples of mango lassi (sweetened mango yogurt-based drink) that didn’t taste like it should. It was fine because it’s so easy to make but didn’t taste like mangos nor was it sweetened enough.

Even the worst Indian places would have better taste. Clearly, it’s catering to non-Indians which is fine, so take my review with a grain of salt if you don’t appreciate Indian flavor or want to eat a rice burrito even though you order one with chicken

Updated review:

Returned twice now since my 1 star review (now 4 stars)

I'll keep this short for once. The actual "street food" items were amazing.

The tandoori chicken sandwich is my favorite hands down. Never had anything like it cuz no one makes such a sandwich. The seasoned fries it comes with are amazing too.

Tried some different "chaats" and they were really tasty too. Tried their guac out of curiosity and it was fresher than most Mexican places.

Glad I gave this spot another chance. I didn't try the burritos again because that's too much risk to pay for it and be disappointed so I suggest the items...

I never post reviews but seeing that this place has 4.1 stars is upsetting. I recommend this place to friends all the time.

This place does not claim to be 100% authentic Indian which I think is obvious with the amount of guac and cheese in their dishes. It’s like going to Moe’s and getting mad that their tortillas aren’t being hand made in the back. I’ve come here around 7x and the service has never been bad. In fact, one time a woman passed me to order and the person taking my order was so apologetic once it was my turn. You could tell she felt bad. Any other time we have been met with smiles and enthusiasm about the food. Maybe going at a time other than Saturday night at 7pm may help? We just went today on a Wednesday at 7pm and there was no line and the food was fast. It is a small place, so expecting it to be smooth sailing all of the time is unrealistic in my opinion. Last but not least, their food is amazing! We’ve had quite a few burritos, bowls and street snacks. The mango lassi is great! My only suggestion with it would be to add some spices. As for desserts, the ice cream is SO good. So if you’re really skeptical about the food, I would 100% recommend going just to get the “Hot Balls on Ice,” or just the ice cream on its own.

All in all, this place is great and I hope the silly reviews won’t stop you from at least going to try their ice cream (+Hella Vegan Bowl or Tikka Masala Burrito). We...