Masala Spice Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Goleta

We’ve always ordered from this restaurant even though it’s not a convenient location being that it’s in Goleta and we live in SB, but the food is usually very good so it’s worth the drive. Today I ordered through the website for the first time - 2 curries, 2 naans for $50. The website suggested a 25% tip for a take out order, which is incredibly offensive. Additionally, the website suggested a couple of additional items to add to the order like dessert and/ or apps. It did not suggest rice, nor was there any indication when I ordered the curries that rice was not included. Upon returning home and finding that I didn’t have rice, I called the restaurant to ask why rice wasn’t included. I really do not feel that I was being rude in anyway and I asked my husband if he felt that I had been rude because the response I received from the woman on the phone was so condescending and sarcastic, that I was stunned. She said “well did you order rice?” “No I thought it was included… I didn’t know that people eat curry without rice, is that a thing?” “Yes. They eat it with naan and you need to order it. It costs money” Wow! Such insight. Things cost money. Thank you for the stellar service. Money, what a concept… I did not know the rice wasn’t included. It was not indicated anywhere that I would need to order it separately. I normally order on the phone and they add rice. When I order chicken teriyaki from a Japanese restaurant, I always get rice. I don’t think I am a complete lunatic for wondering where the rice is with my curry. Why not just bake the cost of the rice into the cost of the meal and give everyone rice? Why the attitude from the woman on the phone when I was just checking if the missing rice was a mistake or not? Why not “oh I’m sorry, we don’t include rice with curry, it’s a la carte and must be ordered separately. I apologize that it isn’t clearer on our website” Why the sarcastic economics lesson? Who do they hire for these jobs and why don’t they pay them better so that they don’t bite off the customer’s head for asking a...

We went in for the overpriced $13.45 lunch buffet and were disappointed in some illogical policies and the heaviness of the offerings which included: spiced French fries, basmati rice, daal (lentil stew), eggplant curry, two chicken curries, and chicken tandoori and gulab jamun dessert.

One masked person at a time may enter the buffet area where a server will spoon your selections from the covered buffet dishes onto a plate. This made sense from a hygiene perspective.

What didn’t make sense were their positions on salad and water, believe it or not!

When I asked if salad was available the server explained that, due to Covid (??) salad is no longer offered in the buffet. When I said I don’t understand he said it is because they can only put out small amounts of salad and would have to repeatedly cut up more salad as it got depleted in the buffet.

That made absolutely no sense, as every buffet item would have to be replenished as it got eaten up by diners. Maybe they’re too lazy to take five minutes to chop up salad ingredients? We were literally two diners of the approximately five people eating there during the hour we spent at Masala Spice. Probably the five of us could have eaten no more than a head of romaine, one cucumber and one tomato. They wouldn’t have had to replenish at all in the hour we were there.

Naan bread is included with buffet but took forever to come out.

Ice water is NOT provided (again the server mumbled some Covid nonsense as an excuse) so if you become thirsty, you must buy a beverage. No other business that I’ve eaten at during Covid has had such inane policies regarding water and salad, whether sit down table service, or fast food.

We ended up paying $40 before tip for two lunches that left much to be desired. I will not return because the value was poor and their rationale for lack of iced water and salad is...

I want to give a detailed review of this place. We ( my husband and 4yrs old daughter ) thought to have a dinner out here on V day and they made sure everything they could do to screw my entire evening including my dinner. First of all, we walk in to the place at 8PM, they informed us wait time is 5-10 min. They asked us to wait outside ( in that real cold ), without offering anything (heater) while we were waiting ( even after noticing that we are accompanied with a small kid, they did not care ). On top of that, every 5 min someone came and informed us "table will be ready in 2 min"!! Things were going on likewise for next 30 odd min! When I asked finally if table will be ready ever, one of the employee started argument ( instead of being little polite ) and justifying that, all are waiting ( but in actual I did not see anyone waiting outside except us ) and just because we did not book table in advance, we are supposed to be in their mercy to get a table! Finally at around 8.40PM we got our table and by that time , my daughter became exhausted. Gobi Manchurian we ordered is of sour and fully covered with sauce. That was one of the worst dish I had in my lifetime! We ordered kids drink, but they gave it in a big glass with out straw and full of ice!! It shows they DO NOT KNOW how to serve guest. Other food ordered were also something ( lamb biriyani - they just mixed overcooked rice with few lamb pieces , better not to talk much. All were average. I can write a big paragraph, but long story short, they just completely let us down!!! Note: We visited this place before, and even we had a big 25 members party here, so nothing personal, its all about my pathetic experience here today, which ruined my V...