Jaalsa — Restaurant in Springfield

When we arrived, we waited to be seated. Although the waitress saw us, she walked past us several times. When we finally were seated, the table was dirty. I asked her to wipe it down, and she sprayed it while we were sitting there. This was definitely not the start we wanted, but wanted to give the food a try. My husband and I ordered aloo tikki, chicken dum biryani, masala dosa, paneer bhurji, garlic Naan, and chai. To start off, the aloo tikki was not aloo tikki in any traditional sense. It definitely did not look like the photos from previous reviews. It was served with 2 chutneys. I enjoyed the tamarind one but the other was artificially colored, so I didn't try. The chicken biryani had only 2 pieces of chicken, rice undercooked, and the quantity did not match the price. The flavor was good though. The masala dosa was okay and the chutneys were good. The paneer bhurji (Punjabi style) was probably the best thing we ordered. The Naan was just okay. I can't rate the chai as I never received it. The spice level on all food was very mild. I would have preferred more spice.

As far as service goes, there wasn't many people in the restaurant and it was still subpar. As we were leaving, some of the staff were screaming from the back. When we asked what the situation was, we were told they were being scared by a "toy lizard." I was happy to be leaving at that point. Not quite sure I buy that story as the restaurant's cleanliness desperately needed help.

Also of note, they are doing construction it seems as plastic was up as a wall separator.

I'm hoping our experience is not typical as others in reviews have been positive. The food in the reviews even looks better than what we received last night. Unfortunately though, our experience will prevent us from...

My previous review was a 5 star.

Today I am changing it to 2 star only for food.

This week I celebrated my birthday and was very eagerly waiting for the weekend to enjoy the lunch buffet at Jaalsa.

Vegetarian options are less compared to the previous times I ate there, previously they had roti pachadi, podi, Andhra pickle, good flavoured rice, Andhra style daal.

Today they had junnu as one of the desserts, but it felt more like the dessert made with milk and agar agar.

Aloo masala was just ok, dondakaya fry was salty, daal makhani was bland and paneer curry tasted weird and the paneer was dry.

I did not understand why the flavoured rice was sambar rice (which did not have any flavour by the way) when they provided sambar and white rice separately.

I generally don't eat out because food at Indian restaurants is generally not so good, but after coming to Springfield and tasting food at jaalsa, I felt so happy that there is at least one Indian restaurant where I can get good tasty food.

I don't know what changed, I am so disappointed that I am sitting down to write this review with a sad heart.

Hope they improve.

I give 5 stars to the service and atmosphere.

My previous review: Best Andhra style food I have had in recent years!! Which I...

EDIT: Went back and tried a spice level 0 and it was just the right spice level for me. Definitely not "no spice," still expect some heat if you get this, but it is the perfect amount for me. Absolutely delicious and my order was completed so quickly (take-out this time.) Highly recommend!

To the guy claiming these are fake reviews, what??? Just because you didn't like it you claim all the reviews are from people who live elsewhere? Do you just assume that because they don't have a white Anglo-Saxon name like yourself? Get over yourself Gilbert or whatever your name was.

Absolutely delicious and wonderful service. Spice level 1 on the butter chicken was really hot in my opinion, my family eats Indian food much more often than I do and they agreed. Not docking any stars at all for that, as it was still absolutely delicious, and they asked me during and at the end of the meal if the spice level was okay, and our waiter was very prompt in refilling my drinks! My nose was running and my mouth was on fire, but I loved it so much I ate it all the next day & plan to go back soon and communicate my spice levels. My grandma is veryyyyy sensitive to spice and they did wonderful at accommodating her but still delivering a delicious and...