Taste of Kerala Kitchen — Restaurant in New York

After living in the neighborhood (literally 3 blocks away) for almost 4 years, I finally decided to stop by and wish I had come here sooner. I ordered the Malabar mutton biryani, 2 porottas, and a can of soda. The biryani was great, served in a layered fashion with rice on the bottom, generous helping of meat, and more rice on top. Rice was well spiced and the grains were nice and flaky, not clumped together. The crispy onions and cashews on top were a great garnish.

Porotta was nice and flaky, made fresh to order. This was great to finish up the remaining meat pieces in the rice since they were very generous with the portions (did I say generous already). I visited Kochi in March 2019 and the biryani/porotta was great, if not better than what I had during my time there. While my family is not from Kerala, it almost feels like some Kerala home style cooking is happening in the kitchen. :)

I got a chance to speak to the owner, Sean, when I was paying after my meal and he was very nice and said to come back any time which I most definitely will be doing. Would have loved to try the Chicken 65, but it was not available today.

To all the negative reviews: Please note that they have had to pivot slightly during COVID and are primarily doing takeout/pick up orders. While I had no issues with my dine-in order, please understand they are focusing on take out orders as well to stay afloat (as ALL restaurants are during COVID). The staff was masked up and the place was clean. I completely disagree with any ratings below 4 stars and it's a shame to see over-entitled folks trying to undermine a hard working restaurant such as Taste of Kerala Kitchen. I would welcome anyone of these folks to try and operate a restaurant (COVID or not). They would fail...

Your suppose to be a South Indian Restaurant, yet when south indians celebrate Onam, which is a festival that is celebrated every year with festivities and traditional vegetarian food, you stopped doing take out and catering, until 6pm? You should be fully aware of the busyness, and you should be prepared to take on extreme ordering and have more than the usual.staff. Truly like the true south indian restaurants, you guys have no sense of understanding how this has worked yet? You keep telling people your fully booked for take out ordering, and that u till 6pm? That's awesome business strategy. I spoke to the owners son 2 days ago and he said that min you need is 3 orders and what not. Now a guy picks up and says min is 5 orders for this year and you womt get it till 6pm. Utterly Ridiculous!

::Response To The Owner:: That is totally false! I came there 2 to to 3 days prior and your son had said no order is being taken now we are still trying to see what we are making. He also said Min order is 3. You have not been taking orders 3 weeks before hand. Please dont twist and try to save yourself from lies. No restaurant that is south indian was taking orders 3 weeks prior. Thats full blown rubbish!!! So because you feel like you can change the min. Order because you think that's more profitable at the last min, then thays poor business sense. For 2 people or 3 people, they do not need 5 orders of rice and all veg dishes. Its utterly stupid and like your prior customers have said before, typical...

Dear owner of Taste of Kerala Kitchen,

I am writing in reply to the experience my family had on Sunday. You should understand that it is NOT about the food but the customer service you provide.

Yes, we did call to confirm our arrival from Connecticut and we did come at 8:15. As soon as we were seated, my family was served kerala meals and told "Do not ask for more" in a HARSH AND NOT SO POLITE TONE. Please understand that you have to show your customers respect as we pay you our hard-earned money to come and eat at your place.

Second, if 9PM is the pre-covid time of closing, why is it that you replied your closing time as 9PM in your previous comment posted as a reply to Mr Ullas who posted a month ago.

The meals are good. The quantity is also good but we DO NOT WISH TO COME BACK because of the extremely poor customer service. Please see your comment box as a testimony to this. In the time you take to respond to this or any other post, please advice your staff NOT TO BE RUDE to customers.

I honestly wanted to bring my co-workers to this place but will not do so due to the same reason. Please improve the way you treat...