Spice Garden — Restaurant in Redding

Update: Will definitely give them another try. But please consider suggestions!

Firstly, I would love to see this restaurant succeed. Redding and it's surrounding areas are in need of a place like this, and the person who seems like either an owner or co-owner struck me as a genuinely good person. We recognize that they may be reaching levels of business they don't have structures to handle as yet.

We ordered online around 1:30pm. Got there after our pick up time for a simple order- tikka masala, samosas, raita. When we asked about it, the front desk said he'll check if it's ready- then never came back. Fifteen minutes later, we asked a 2nd time, he said there'd been a glitch and they never got our order. Likely, he didn't check the first time when he said he would. He put the order in, but said it would be another 10 mins. At that point, with the restaurant full and busy, I was nervous we'd be waiting there another 30+ mins.

I asked to cancel and he refunded us right away. I explained how long we'd been waiting, and he said he didn't know when we first came in that we were waiting on an order that hadn't went through. Maybe he forgot we'd already asked about it 15 mins prior to him catching the error, and he had said he would check on it and never did, and didn't realize that if he had checked then when we initially asked, he would have realized it never went through much sooner. Still, he was apologetic and handled it well.

As we were leaving, he even came outside with our food, on the house, saying we to keep the refund too. He seemed sincere and genuinely apologetic. When asking for it to be refunded, I was leaning toward never coming back even though I'd dined in once before, and taken out once before, and enjoyed it both times. The response was genuinely apologetic and changed my mind. It seems like they are good people trying their best.

Feedback: Efficiency will be a game-changer if you want to stay popular beyond just the local indian community. A few suggestions

Staffing. Have two front desk hosts on busy hours. Have enough people for packaging food, taking calls, managing front desk. Don't overthink on ethnicity being authentic for those roles- they just need to be friendly and efficient. Hire for personality, and train them in efficiency. Overstaff on public holidays. It's better to send people home early than risk chaos. Or if you don't have the staffing, close and enjoy the holiday. It’s ok to close sometimes and better to close and keep your reputation & lose out on the sales for that day. Temperature. The restaurant too warm in there to be convinced that food prep and storage meets safety regulations. Figure out how to keep it much cooler than it is, both for customer comfort and food safety. Seating for waiting guests. Have bar stools inside or benches outside where they can sit. Get them out of the way of incoming customers. Have a clearly marked shelf next to the desk for pick up orders. Balance dine-in and take-out. 5-6 parties were seated and began to be served before our issue was even caught, even though we asked right as we entered. My biggest recommendation: Operations. Research restaurant-specific operations and how to improve efficiency. Sometimes with the exact same people, time, and resources, things can run 10x more smoothly with the right operations plan. A consultant, a good book or two, or classes on this could transform things. Take a research trip even, to top similar places in Sacramento- see how they do things, ask good questions. Adding another- not saying this is happening; but in case it is as a lot of new businesses have on Google reviews… be sure to delete any fake 5 star reviews on here. They’re very easy to see through and dissuades a huge customer base.

As for the food- it was good, and this place is worth succeeding! Again, please seriously consider the suggestions. We wish you the best.

Original review: Ordered online & came at requested time (20 mins after ordering) and still waiting 15 mins later… Will update on...

Redding doesn’t have many Indian food options, so finding an Indian restaurant—especially when your child is unwell—felt like a blessing. This new place had a soft opening over the July 4th weekend and was open until 10 PM. We arrived around 9:30 PM, hoping for a nice dining experience.

I’ll start with the cons before getting into the pros: Cons:

It seemed like they were short-staffed—many tables weren’t cleaned, likely because the team was overwhelmed with takeout orders. We felt that in-house guests should’ve been prioritized over takeout, but that didn’t seem to be the case. They continued to accept new orders despite struggling to fulfill the existing ones. We waited about an hour for our food, and others dining in were also complaining about delays. Online and takeout orders were running behind schedule as well. Pros:

The paneer masala and naan were quite good. A family dining near us had ordered vegetable masala—they said it tasted good, though it was served cold. We suspect the delay and confusion happened because the staff was focused on giving them pulses and forgot the curry. Despite the chaos, we appreciated the positive attitude of the staff. They remained calm and friendly, even while clearly under pressure during a soft opening. We sincerely hope the new management learns and improves from this experience. There's real potential here with better planning and execution.

Compared to Priya Restaurant—which we found disappointing in terms of food, ambiance, and service—this place shows promise, and we’re rooting for...

We went to Spice Garden for the first time tonight and had a great experience! The staff were all very friendly and attentive, they even helped us take a photo :) We ordered a variety of food - Chicken Tikka Masala, Chicken Vindaloo, Chicken Coconut Kurma (each curry comes with white rice), plain and garlic naan, as well as the Rose Lassi and Mango ice cream. The rose lassi was nice - it was a little foamy at the top and tasted sweet like lychee. The mango ice cream was shaped like a volcano and was actually some of the best ice cream we'd ever had, highly recommend!! All the curries were good, the mild is definitely mild (which is great if you don't want it spicy) and the medium was a little on the milder side (so you may want to order hot if you truly want spicy). ​Half the table preferred the chicken tikka masala, other half preferred the chicken kurma. The plain naan was alright, the garlic naan was pretty good. The food was decently priced - $15/curry + white rice. The portions were decent as well - we had plenty of leftovers to take home after and we ordered 3 entrees + naan for 4 people. The menu is via QR code, which I'm personally not a huge fan of, but maybe they will get physical menus in the future. Overall, I definitely recommend giving them a visit :) I've never written a review for a restaurant before but I decided to do it for the first time because I wish Spice Garden the best and hope others will...