After a gap of over 5 years, upon a friend's recommendation I started coming here since the last 3 months during lunch for the 'House Thali' that's currently priced at $11.99 (as of Oct 03, 2024) - and that's splendid in this overinflated and exploitative market.

The food is consistently good: the paratha is soft and substantial in size, the curries are decent, and they give you two sweets (more than I care to eat in one sitting, so I usually take one home with my leftovers- usually rice; more on that below).

About 5 years ago, I had an unpleasant customer service experience which led me to stop coming here.

When I came back 3 months ago, I talked to the manager (owner?) in the front, who acknowledged that things used to be different but they've now changed the layout, menu, and at least part of the management and most staff since then.

It's been a good experience so far ... until today. I'm disappointed to say that I had another bad experience today.

My waiter was friendly to those around me, but cold with me for some reason. After taking my order, he asked for my menus, so I gathered them and placed them at the edge of the table - where they remained till the very end, along with the default plate (which isn't needed for Thali).

When I was done eating, I asked for a box for the leftover rice. As he was bringing it, I realized I wasn't going to finish the two sweets, so I asked for another box for the kheer (rice pudding).

The waiter told me that I'm only allowed to take the rice in the boxes he had available as it's too big for the kheer. That sounded so absurd that I blurted out wtf (the whole phrase), and he promptly scolded me to mind my language. Then he told me again that I can't get another box for my kheer as they had run out of stock of the smaller boxes, and I'd have to pay 25 cents to use the "bigger" box for kheer. Or wait 10 minutes, as they had sent a kid to get more leftover boxes of the right size for my kheer!

We had an altercation where I asked him if he thought he was doing me a favor by letting me take my leftovers home, and I also questioned him if this was the management policy of the restaurant or a decision he was making by himself? I also asked him why they didn't buy the smaller containers before running out of them, and why he thinks it's ok to make it the customer's problem/fault by asking me to wait 10 minutes or pay $0.25?

He muttered something, then pouted and said "fine" and agreed to allow me to take my leftover kheer in another precious plastic container of his without charging me.

It's never getting old, this attitude problem amongst waiters that clearly stems from an utter lack of training that could polish off these rough edges and coarse communication that accompanies an inability to handle exceptions and customer satisfaction situations.