Spice Garden Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Marana

My experience at Spring Spice Gardens, Tucson, AZ on March 11, 2025

On the evening of March 11, four friends of mine anticipated getting together for a delicious Indian meal. These four friends had previously eaten here, so I was looking forward to feasting there. I was visiting Tucson.

And…they were right. For the most part, I was not disappointed in my entree (although the mango lassi dessert was overly spiced with cardamon instead of letting the mango sing out).

When it came time to signing the bill, I got distracted, thus leaving my Amex card at the restaurant. Shortly after leaving, I started receiving alarming texts from Amex, asking me if I recognized a number of transactions. I did not. The transactions added up to several hundreds of dollars.

After nearly two hrs. on the phone with Amex, I finally went to bed, anxious & angry. The timing was too close to having just dined at Spring spices to be a mere coincidence. I left a vm with the restaurant that night, urgently requesting a call back.

The next morning, I again left two messages close to their opening time of 11:00 am. Still no response.

My gracious friends drove me to the restaurant. No, they had not answered their phone & yes, they had my cc. I explained what had happened. Their expressions were just that of surprise. I asked to speak with their manager but that never happened. Their only response was a weak apology.

I followed this up with a phone call to the restaurant. I finally got hold of the manager. He was less than accommodating. He did not apologize; in fact, he denied the remote possibility that an employee would ever do this. When I asked him what he could do to amend the situation, he was abrupt & said “nothing, that’s your problem”. It would have been a great moment to apologize for all the hassle I had to go through & to provide me with some sort of compensation. We had spent a lot of money at his restaurant only the night before. An offer would have gone a long way to rectify my now crumbling opinion of this establishment.

As a result of this encounter, I needed to go on record to warn my friends & folks like you who are either Tucson residents or visitors.

My 4 friends have decided not to ever eat there again.

I do NOT recommend frequenting...

This restaurant did not open until 5PM. I was the first customer. The first table I sat at was dirty along with the seat. When I asked for the table to be wiped, the man who greeted me looked at the table as if he could not see anything on it. The lady who was assisting him pointed out the multiple crumbs. I then asked to sit at the table behind me. Fortunately, that table was clean. I decided to just brush the crumbs off the seat since my request for a clean table seemed to be an inconvenience to the man. It took a considerable amount of time for me to receive my food. The masala had a borderline burned taste. The chicken was unseasoned and dry. The shrimp was cooked nicely. The rice was lukewarm. It did not taste as if they had cooked it that day… unless they cooked it in the morning and left it sitting out. The garlic cheese naan was good. My suggestion for the garlic cheese naan is to finish it while it is hot. I wanted to find a highlight out of the whole experience, but the only thing I can think of is the water. It was filtered and cold with not too much ice. I am not a picky eater by far, but I do like to enjoy my meals. I do not like wasting food. So I always take the leftovers home for myself or to give to someone else. This was NOT a meal I would take with me. I took the naan so I wouldn’t feel as wasteful, but if I’m honest with myself.. it will probably go straight in the trash when I get home. Based off of service, food, and cleanliness.. I could never return here. I spent a little over $30 on their food when I could’ve spent $5 on an Indian tv dinner for better tasting food with less hassle. If you are looking to try Indian food for the first time, DO NOT go to this restaurant. Indian food is an amazing cuisine, and your experience at this restaurant would ruin your...

Dosa is supposed to be a giant, crispy Indian-style crepe, often filled with something really tasty like masala or paneer (cheese). The last time we had it was at Indian Street Food in Gainesville, Florida, and it was very good. So when we noticed Spice Garden in Marana has dosa, we were excited to try it.

Unfortunately, Spice Garden has re-invented this great south Indian dish as a large, greasy slab with a schmeer of of poorly seasoned onion and potato filling for $13.99.

Our dosa came with a tiny plastic cup of dip - it might have been coconut based but there wasn't enough flavor to be sure -- and a bowl of sambar (at Spice Garden, rendered as a thin soupy (but not badly spiced) concoction with a few lentils and vegetable chunks floating in it).

We also foolishly ordered another portion of sambar for $12.99 for dipping because it wasn't clear from the menu that we were getting sambar with the dosa. And the server didn't bother to mention we were doubling up and suggest something else instead. So on top of it not being very good, our meal was really boring.

On the upside the $2.99 half portion of steamed rice was plenty to share. And we didn't get sick after eating here,...