Monsalva Cuisine — Restaurant in Jenkintown

If I could give it a 0, I would.

Got the absolute worst case of food poisoning in my entire life within 45 minutes of paying the bill here. We ordered samosas, the special, which was peri peri chicken, chicken tikka masala, and naan.

The first set of samosas took 20 minutes and were still frozen inside when they arrived, so we sent them back. In the meantime, we noticed that one of the glasses on our table had lipstick on it - which wasn’t really the worst thing for us, as we had been given bottles of water when we walked in. (Didn’t realize until we got the bill that they charged $2 for them, by the way.)

Samosas finally came and were decent and hot. Peri peri chicken was adequate, though one of the pieces had hardly any meat on it. We decided to soldier on and see how the tikka masala was, as that’s the marker of any Indian restaurant.

In addition to the naan being burnt beyond recognition, the tikka masala sauce had clearly come out of a jar, and the chicken had both the texture and appearance of frozen chicken strips that you get from Costco. There was no flavor or seasoning, and it tasted like vodka sauce - no curry whatsoever. We eat a lot of Indian food, and this was absolutely appalling. We paid the bill and left, and now I can’t stop getting sick.

The owner, who served us, was nice - and that’s about the only nice thing we have to...

Although i knew Monsalva had opened in Jenkintown at West and OYR, i didn't know anyone who had been there. So when L&R got back from 3 months in the sun and suggested going out, i wanted to go somewhere we could talk and hear each other. So many places in the Jenkintown/Abington/Elkins Park area either too noisy for me, or the staff don't wear masks, or both. So i thought we'd try this. It was a good choice. The restaurant is small, but the room had 10-12 well socially distanced tables. It was eclectically decorated with fabric and memorabilia including a large American flag. There was soft Pakistani or other South Asian music playing in the background, and i could hear my friends easily without cupping my ears. The host-owner, Calvin, explained the menu, and helped us with the seasonings and spice (heat) levels. the chicken, lamb, and goat curries and biryani dishes were very tasty, and there were sufficient vegetable choices for variety. Cost was reasonable/moderate, and less than other South Asian restaurants in the area. I will return there. Nighttime parking in the bank parking lot is...

First of all let me tell you they dont know nothing about customer service..The person named Calvin Bashir he looked mad when i went there.The way he was talking was so rude i asked for medium spicy on the nihari and he was like it is medium you want something else i mean comeon for no reason he was talking to me like that..he went back to check if he has nihari and came back and i asked him if its available he just dont care to answer and tell me the total amount instead $30.12..After i paid i was waiting inside the restaurant and there was one lady too none of them offered me to take a seat and i was standing the whole 20mins in a corner...This kind of customer service justifies why the restaurant is empty even though the other restaurants around are so crowded.. Secondly the food was average and there were hardly any meat pieces on the nihari ,the lahori fish was decent..I will never go back again there to experience this kind of customer service..I only reason i gave 2 stars is because the did provide utensils and napkins and enough condiments...