Indian Spice Bistro — Restaurant in Shoreline

Genuinely the worst experience I have ever had when picking up food to go. In short, I waited over an hour after their app said the food was ready, they did not provide my full order, I had to make them give me a refund for what I did not receive (They were going to let me leave without any correction), I received no more acknowledgement of the situation from them other than a single "I'm sorry", one from each of the two employees I interacted with.

I placed my order online with no issues. I received a message with the estimated pickup time and a link to track the order. I arrived on time, and the app said my food was ready. They asked my name and after several trips back and forth to the kitchen, they said it would be a few minutes. So I started waiting with several other people for our to go food. I should note, upon reviewing the packaged food ready for pickup by the front door, there was a "Future" order already packaged and ready to go at least a full hour before the actual pickup time. I let the person know this when they picked up their food and they appreciated knowing why the food was cold, and had to consider if they even wanted to eat it still.

After waiting for 25 minutes with no update, I stood up until someone finally came back over to give me an update. "5 more minutes" they said. It was nearly 40 minutes later when I received a portion of my food.

Handing my packaged food, over an hour after I arrived, over an hour and a half after I placed my order, the employee tells me "This item is not on our menu" while pointing to the receipt line item of the item I ordered off of their menu..... They offered to replace this item with another item from their menu, but they are only telling me this after I have already been there over an hour and am very ready to go. I let them know that I am ready to leave and I do not want to wait another hour for them to make a replacement meal. They say okay and wait for me to leave.

I have to initiate how they have not provided me with what I ordered, and I would like my money back for the items I have not received. They have to go get another employee who then asks if I come there a lot because they can credit my next meal there...... No, this was my first (and last) time there, and I want my money back so I can leave. After more deliberation they finally open up their cash register and refund me for the food I ordered that they could not provide me.

Fortunately for those that did receive their food, they say it did taste alright. There was live music and a singer to listen to from around the corner of the front waiting room which did not quite offset the other symphony of people going to the bathroom which is connected to the waiting area.

This entire situation could have been much better had I been told upfront that it could take an hour before the food is ready. I understand issues with apps or whatever may be going wrong in your kitchen or with management. This was made worse when I was told to expect 5 minutes.... more than half an hour before I actually received my food.. actually I never received all of my food, only a portion. It would have been great to have known there was an issue with the order an hour before I...

There is a reason this place is Chronically empty. I've driven past this place at least 100+ times. But decided to step inside without looking at the reviews directly (only that it suspiciously had 4.7-4.9 stars).

The service is non-existent, we came in, Nobody to greet us. After a few minutes of waiting, the waitress shows up and tells us to sit by the windows.

At the time of writing, there were 6 gigantic blowflies walking around all over the window. The glasses are presented down-facing most likely to prevent dust from collecting due to lack of customers.

In fact, I bet the people will know which customer I am based on this review, simply by what we ordered (lack of customers).

We are seated and ask for some recommendations. The waitress says everything is delicious. So we ask her to pick the top 5 things. And she picks 5 of the dosa.

So we ask, anything other than just dosa? "Yes, everything on the menu is good".

We settle on some safe choices just to be sure.

Chicken Tikka Masala, Garlic Naan, and the Aloo Masala Dosa.

The food came out after around 30+ minutes. Most likely a cold line (meaning nothing was set up or prepped). Portion sizes were tiny. There was five pieces of chicken in the tikka masala, and almost a whole single potato inside of the dosa. The garlic naan which came out almost 10 minutes after the masala and dosa, was a cracker. I thought that they had accidentally served us papadum (an Indian cracker).

The tikka masala was saltier and sweeter than any other tikka masala I've had in anywhere in the country, almost to the point where it overpowered the cumin, garam masala, and coriander. Essentially just sweet and salty soft chicken. The chicken itself was on the dry side, but the masala can keep it moistened for the most part, granted there is barely any sauce to begin with.

The aloo was fine. There was a distinct lack of use of chutney in it, which was a bit odd. And it was also extremely salty, the dosa itself was almost a sponge, from steam absorption.

I watched the restaurant, kitchen staff (only one was visible in the actual kitchen, but most likely two), wait staff (just one), blowflies (six), other customers (two came in for takeout -- both Caucasian) with the waitress barely putting a modicum of effort into helping them. One came in for a pickup and she just pointed from across the restaurant rather than help the customer.

When it came time to pay, the waitress just dropped the card reader on our table and went to the bathroom for a while, I can't remember if she came back by the time we left now that I think about it.

Anyways, I've gone through every single review. Non-Indian just give it a 4-5 star automatically since it can taste like any generic Indian restaurant just from the saltiness being mistaken for flavor.

Indians give it 1-2 stars, with an exception of a few.

This place is fine if you have nowhere else to go or if you live in the area, because there are no other nearby Indian restaurants. Otherwise I would...

The samosas are readymade and frozen as they are not made fresh in the restaurant, the thatta idly will be atleast a few days old as it's made in bulk and stored in a cooler then reheated as per the order. They claim their restaurant to be fine dine in but they are far away from following that as the bread comes way after the entree is served to the table and most importantly DO NOT LEAVE A TIP HERE AS THE OWNER STEALS IT. Not even a single penny will be given to the waitstaff so do not waste your money by leaving a tip here.

Response to the owners reply.

Here you go again typical desi owner getting defensive but more delusional. Have some guts and Balls to accept the fact besides when you speak about the character stealing tips from the waiter/waitress shows whose character is what. People running a business should have some ethics atleast which you are clearly lacking. I can prove that your samosas are frozen and packaged besides your sambar as well. Do you have guts to prove me wrong???? Get some shame and stop stealing the tips from customers when you don't want to give to your wait staff.I am not scared of any legal actions as I did nothing wrong you should be the one that should be scared for obvious reasons which you are scared to accept. Let's get that right. YOU COULD RATHER BEG THAN STEAL THE TIPS FROM THE CUSTOMERS. Just because you have more American clientele doesn't mean that you...