Namaste Indian Street Food — Restaurant in Evans

I LOVE the food here. It's always well seasoned, fresh, beautifully presented, and really tasty. We have been going here for over two years and it's been hard to know how to review this place because as much as I love the food, the service is just abysmal.

I always get the impression that all the staff besides the cooks are working their very first job. They mumble, seem a bit confused and just stand around while dirty tables and dishes pile up. Sometimes they have been outright rude to me, but mostly they just seem consumed by a deep sense of ennui that renders them incapable of performing basic functions. Initially, I believed this might have been a bad batch of workers, but because they keep getting replicated over and over (and the turnover does seem high), I have to think instead that its a more systemic dysfunction. Maybe they aren't being trained well or called out when they neglect cleanliness and customers and don't restock or communicate or deliver orders? Maybe it's an unpleasant work environment?

More than once we have had to get refunds for portions of our food that never arrived. Usually asking about food that hasn’t arrived elicits a bit of attitude and annoyance. Reminds me of when I ask my kids to clean their room for the 10th time. They are often out of clean plates -- the other day we asked for more and were told to sit down and they would be brought to us… but as the food got cold, we just decided to make do with the serving bowls and the serving spoons (there were no regular-sized spoons) rather than tussle with the unfriendly employees again. The plates never arrived. The ice machine is always out. The drink machine is dirty. We have long avoided that because we just get the mango lassis which are wonderful -- except for that time we got to the bottom and found something unidentifiable that had gone rancid (a piece of mango? A piece of paper towel? Who knows.). It didn’t make us sick (thankfully) and in fact the food has never given us problems that way. We haven’t had a lassi since, however, and just stick to the hot dishes now and don’t bother with the drinks.

What this restaurant does well, it does REALLY well. That is the great food. We will keep coming back for that. It’s reasonably priced, the portions are generous, I even rather like the atmosphere of the restaurant itself for a little place tucked into a strip mall. The decorations are nice and I love the touches like fresh flowers on the table and the sprouts and garnishes they often add to the dishes. I love that allergens are clearly labelled on the online menu, that some dishes are vegan, and that they clearly say no peanuts. This makes things super easy for my allergic teens. There really is a lot to love at Namaste, and I’m always recommending it to friends (with caveats/warnings about service and not to go at a busy time). I hope someday they get it together in regards to the service -- that would make this place truly excellent. But even if they don’t, we will keep coming back. We just might start bringing our own utensils, plates, drinks and wipes...

The food was great but The service was HORRIBLE. My husband and i walked in and ordered our food. Every table inside the entire restaurant was left unwiped, dirty and unsanitary from the previous customers. We patiently waited for a table to open up after ordering our food. When our food was ready the restaurant staff put our food onto one of the dirty tables that was obviously uncleaned. My husband intervened stating “please do not put our food onto the Dirty table”. We stood and continued to wait for a table to simply be wiped down and cleaned as our food became cold. Thr staff finally wiped down our table after waiting while standing for roughly 20 - 25 minutes. The staff repeatedly stated that the table will be cleaned and to give them time. The time it takes them to walk my food over to the unwiped dirty table is roughly the same amount of time it would take to simply spray and and wipe a table down for us. There was not one table available and the had the audacity to serve my food onto a filthy table that takes 15 seconds to wipe clean. As we waited, apparently a behind us was a huge table with a large family. The father of the family became increasingly upset due to their inability to serve them their correct order to the point where the customer stated “I’m done, I want the order that i never received comped on my receipt and we’re leaving”. I noticed the short skinny girl was really rude smerking at us when we asked for service. The food was pretty delicious but the service was terrible. Their excuse was that they were under staffed with only 3 staff members available for service plus a bus boy not including the cooks. This restaurant is fairly small and 3 staff members is far more than enough to handle the few tables they had in the restaurant. I worked as a waitress for many years when i was younger, we covered over 30 tables plus a 40 person party room with only 3 staff members and we were still able to provide excellence service. In all my time as a waitress, I never made a customer stand for extended amounts of time waiting on a dirty table to be cleaned or placed their food on a dirty unsanitary table. The staff here are rude, disrespectful, unprofessional and oblivious on how to treat and serve customers. There was a female wearing a teal greenish shirt who appeared to have just started her shift. She was super respectful, professional and kind and always kept her composure while consistently displaying a positive attitude. We grew tired of waiting for a table as our food became cold and decided that we would demand a refund and leave. A new staff member had just walked in and appeared to have just started her shift immediately took care of us to the point where we changed our mind and decided to...

The food is great, however the service and the cleanliness of the place are TERRIBLE. This place is not well organized, the tables are always dirty even if there’s a bunch of people in the shop ( I worked in the industry, it just needs a bit of proactivity and to be a bit less lazy). Last time we ate in, my dishes came out 10 mins before the ones of my partner. And the rice came out before anything else, even before the appetizers. The food was literally thrown on the table without any care.

Other point. The menu says some stuff is “dairy free” but does not specify what is “vegan”.

I am not American myself, but at least have someone who speaks or understands English and has a little willingness to work to take orders. There’s a girl who speaks English who’s very nice, and there’s an Indian girl who is so RUDE and careless that it is not even funny. First time I called asking for one appetizer, she couldn’t understand one word, and I ended up not ordering. Second time, we go in, I asked what on the menu is vegan because I wanted to get something else other than the kale potato salad, she proceeded to tell me that everything on the menu is Vegan (even meat). I told her I have a dairy allergy and specified no milk/no butter/ no yogurt, and she replied I could have anything on the menu….even cheese. That girl should be sued. Do you realize this kind of carelessness in the food industry can literally get someone into the hospital or killed out of anaphylactic shock? Then she proceeded to raise her shoulders and just walk away, until someone else came to us. Today, my partner ordered over the phone, he specified “vegan”, “dairy free” ecc ecc. he got back home and my food was full of cheese on top. He had to drive back 15 min to pick up a new order before closing time. This is so inconsiderate. She should not be taking orders. And this store should train their employees because you’re dealing with people’s health here.

Update to the owner’s response: telling people to give you a call doesn’t fix anything if the problem persists. My partner came in last night and spoke with someone. Start with being proactive, training your employees on food safety, and having people who know what’s in the food and how to speak English who take orders. Or at least, people who have the humility to say “I don’t know, let me ask/check”. You are putting people’s lives at risk and there’s no “call this number” that...