Coriander — Restaurant in Voorhees Township

I will try to be honest and objective as I write this review. I apologize for any spelling errors as English is not my first language. I was hesitant to write this review since my wife might want to go back in the distant future hoping that things change. But I don't have high hopes for this one.

We have been loyal customers of this restaurant for more than 20 years!!! We have always been polite and gave appropriate tips (20% for dinner; 10% for buffet).

Here is our story:

We now have four children (6 years old, 4 years old, 2 years old and 4 months old). We like to eat here when they have special holiday buffet's. The restaurants policy is that children 4 years and older pay half of the buffet price, which is appropriate. But what if a child doesn't eat anything at all!? You would assume if a child doesn't eat you wouldn't have to pay for that child. But not so in this restaurant. Our 4 year old son is suspected autistic (evaluation is ongoing) and as a result he is an extremely picky eater. All he ever eats in Coriander is dry rice and Naan bread. And not much of it. He usually eats only 1 - 2 quarters of a Naan bread and a couple of tee spoons of dry rice. He doesn't even want to try their desserts. Most of the time we ordered a side of rice for him realizing that it wouldn't be fair if he ate the rice of the buffet if we don't pay. The staff was always understanding of our situation and didn't make us pay for him since they also saw that he doesn't eat. But that changed since the owners wife got involved.

When we went there in December 2023 she insistent that we pay the child price for him even though he didn't eat anything. When we told her that she simply said that we should just see this as the charge of our two year old son who eats normal (as much as a 2 year old eats). When my wife pointed out their policy that children older then 4 pay half price the owners wife replied that they are a business and can change rules whenever they want.

Not agreeing to this kind of mistreatment I payed the check but did not pay a tip. I knew that this punishes the server. But after all the server represents the restaurant and he should make it out with his employer in my opinion.

Of course did we not go back to this restaurant for a few months. But now for the mothers day buffet my wife and her mother wanted to try it again. So we did. We were ready to put up with their mistreatment that we have to pay for our son who doesn't eat anything of their buffet. And what a disappointment!

Knowing that this will be an issue again we told the server at the beginning of the meal that we will order an entrée for our son who doesn't eat anything here. We were hoping he would eat some rice and Naan that comes with the meal. But after the server talked to the owners wife we were told that no entrees can be ordered due to how busy it is. We accepted this without discussion and were hoping he would eat something. He ate 2 quarters of a Naan bread three teas spoon of rice. As expected.

During the meal he had a temper tantrum and was crying for about one minute until I was able to calm him down. No other patrons were even looking at him. But when the owners walked by our table at the same moment she gave my son an "Excuse me" about his tantrum with a terrible hostile tone of voice! How rude!

This time she didn't only want to make us pay for our not eating son but also for our two year old son (which violates their own policy). After my wife explained to her calmly that this is not fair she removed the charge for our two year old. But in exchange she added a 20% tip. When asked about it she referred to their policy that parties of more than 6 will be charged a 20% tip (for dinner). 10% tip is usual for buffet and not 20%.

I was going to pay more tip anyway to make up for the missed tip in Dec. But being mistreated like this again spoiled our experience once again.

Lesson learned: What a mistake to go back here!

Don't go here if you have children and don't want to...

I came here sometime ago with my older daughter and her friend. I didn’t really know what to choose from the menu back then, and so something was recommended for me and it was surely delicious. I came back after all these years, because I was in the area and it came up on the map. I had my toddlers and their dad with me this time and so I thought it would be a nice place to stop and get some authentic Indian cuisine. Again, this place did not disappoint. It has a beautiful aesthetic indoor theme, and now offers beautiful outdoor seating. We sat inside and really enjoyed the variety of food that we ordered. We were even offered some thing to keep the toddlers busy, some crayons and a coloring placemat. I didn’t get to stay that long or finish my meal fully only because the children were getting tired and were not eating. We had just come from a cinema and they had a small bite to eat there before we came to the restaurant. With the kids tired and not really interested in eating at the time, I thought it would be best to get them home. I sure was excited to eat my food though! I took all of my yummy food with me, and enjoyed it when I got home. I have to say that this is a very beautiful place and I really felt like the staff treats everybody attentively and very kindly. There were so many varieties of dishes on their menu, more than I’ve seen at many other Indian restaurants. It’s a family place, but I would recommend just going out to dinner there, on a date we’re having an intimate meal with some friends. No matter what though, you’ll really enjoy what Coriander has to offer. I had the Vegetable Thali and paneer, with Mango Lassi… and my partner had the Chicken Biryani.

All...

I've been here a few times with small parties of 4. Food and service has always been good. However two Saturdays ago we had a 7pm reservation for a party of 9 to celebrate my husband's birthday. It was by far the worst service I've ever experienced at a restaurant. There was a large party in the back room so our server COMPLETELY forgot about us. At 8:30 one of our guests walked over to the owner to let her know we still didn't have our food and were starving. Food finally arrived at 8:45, an hour and 45 minutes after being seated! Once again we were forgotten. Had to flag them down for the check. Check came and we were forgotten again. They never came back to scan our credit cards. At 9:50pm we hand delivered our cards to be rung. You would think they would have provided us with a free appetizer to hold us over for the slow food service or would have taken something off our bill, especially since we told the waiter and owner that we were celebrating my husband's birthday. Nothing. My husband was particularly saddened by this experience because we had planned on having our friends over our house after dinner for birthday cake and games. However since it took 3 hours to eat, no one could celebrate his birthday with us afterwards. Totally bummed. The poor service at Coriander ruined his birthdays plans. They shouldn't book large parties of they don't have the wait staff to accommodate the crowds. Hesitant to return after...