Holi Indian Kitchen (A Flavor Of Joy) — Restaurant in Miramar Beach

If I had the option of giving a negative rating, I would have given that. Extremely unprofessional management that eavesdropped when I was talking to my family. And publicly humiliated me. I didn’t want to create a scene and so didn’t react. Made false claims about the so-called ‘LAW’ of the state. Made a racially sensitive comment ‘How can you say so being an Indian yourself?’ Definitely not the experience you would want to. There are way better restaurants in the area. Stay away from this rude environment. Food was also not very great. We ordered naan and once it was a little cold, it had turned into rubber sheets (almost impossible to bite). There are much better restaurants in the area with even better welcoming attitude. NOT worth the money, time and highly rude attitude of the management at Miramar Beach location. Stay away folks!!

To respond to the owner’s claims, I don’t think you have a current account of all the incidents that took place (not sure why I am not able to respond to her message). I never denied to pay the gratuity. And I never asked for the manager. When I saw the check, it was surprising to see gratuity added. We are one family with visiting parents and 1 kid. Never have we been asked for gratuity as it is just 1 family. I called the server to ask about the charge and she said she is calling the manager as she also doesn’t know.

To answer your 2nd question of the manager being polite, let me be a little rude over here - She lacked any iota of humility and politeness in her tone and attitude. Being manager doesn’t mean that she is a queen and can dictate her terms on anyone. She had the audacity to stop processing the payment and told me “you HAVE to apologize “. Her exact words were “Didn’t your child sit at the table? Didn’t your child create a mess?” Is this politeness? Show me the pic that we created mess at the table. We have that basic sense of dining and she doesn’t have any right to put false allegations on anyone. I could have created a scene there and blamed her for false accusations. But my parents were too tired and I didn’t want to argue with such senseless ppl who lack the basic manners of talking to customer.

I didn’t call anyone thief. When I asked about gratuity, your manager said ‘this is the law here’. Then I said that this is open loot (in Hindi) which she misinterpreted and took personally as a thief. I didn’t say anything like that to her. I said open loot in the context of laws at Destin. She made an issue for no reason and stopped proces payment saying that “You HAVE to apologize “. My parents were too tired and I unwillingly had to say her Sorry. Thereafter she kept saying this is the law here and I told her - show me the law that Florida restaurants charge gratuity on 1 family’s dining. She kept repeating the same thing and then I said Olive Garden is just nearby in the same location. But they didn’t charge any gratuity - how can law be so different for 2 restaurants in the same region?

I had been patient in dealing with the quality of food and service. The food was way below standard, but that had been mentioned in the prior reviews also. The mango lassi had everything except the main ingredient - yogurt. The food was served all together, even though I had mentioned serving starter separately. The naan was like rubber sheets , but all that was expected given the reviews on Google and Yelp. The biggest disappointment was the attitude of the manager. When I gave her the credit card, she simply left it on the table and another person had to come to process the payment and end the discussion.

So before giving me advice of how to behave myself in restaurants, focus on hiring the right manager and training them to deal with customers. She misinterpreted my Hindi statement without knowing about the context and nothing was aimed at her at all. Her arrogance and statements about “being Indian” and “mess created by kid” are highly rude. Just because I said sorry as I had to leave early doesn’t mean she was right. STAY AWAY folks from this...

Had an awesome lunch with my husband at Holi today.

The folks here are really friendly and will explain the menu and dishes to you if you have any questions. Also - if someone in your group doesn't like Indian food, they also have some Chinese and other non-Indian dishes available to order (noodles, fried rice, spicy chicken wings, fries, cheese naan, etc).

We typically judge whether or not we're going to return to an Indian restaurant by ordering what we call the "trifecta" - dal makhani, some sort of tandoori chicken, saag or palak paneer, and then sides of paratha, garlic naan, and raita.

Based off of our experience, we will absolutely be returning here in the (near) future.

You pretty much get half of a chicken with the tandoori chicken main, and although it's beautifully presented, it was pretty dry. That being said, the crispy bits of super flavorful rub/sauce on the outside totally made up for any dryness. I couldn't stop eating it haha.

Everything else was super tasty as well. The dal was different than we've had in the past (it had more of a red color and a deeper flavor) but I would absolutely order it again. You get rice with most of the dishes, so you don't have to order it separately. We ended up with enough food for a total of 4 or 5 meals (!).

FYI, if you're sensitive to heat you can choose your heat level on a scale from 1 to 5 for each dish. We choose a 3 and it was mildly spicy.

I can't wait to come back and try a bunch of the other menu items (and order beer once the bar is open today or tomorrow!). I'm super excited these guys have...

I’m changing my initial review because things have changed over the years for this restaurant. We do like the food. For a while there hacka noodles had changed and not in a good way. We used to come a lot and we noticed the noodles changed. Not sure if it was the cook or what not. We mentioned it several times. They said they had tried a new supplier. Today the noodles tasted better like they used to. I enjoy the korma but my main complaint is that they barely give any chicken with the korma. You pay 19.00 or so and you’re lucky if you get half a chicken breast in the korma. My family used to eat here all the time. Now we barely come because the prices have gone up and I feel the portions have gotten smaller. I also do not appreciate how they charge an automatic gratuity. Especially when the service is sub par. Nothing spectacular. I don’t think they should charge an automatic gratuity. Not sure why they do that. Just confirms more reason of why we don’t come as often. And the restaurant was completely empty upon us arriving. We usually drop 110-130.00 each time we come with our family. I would go back to 5 stars if they didn’t charge such hefty prices, and reduce the serving size, and not charge automatic gratuity, and if the servers were more engaging. We sat for almost 10 minutes in an empty place before they even came to us to place the order. Server stopped by the table one time during our meal if I remember correctly. Good food but I think they are taking advantage of the situation. We used to come multiple times a month. Now we only come a few times a year. And...