Southern Spice — Restaurant in Westpark

STAY AWAY! As an Indian food lover (vegetarian diet) I can’t believe such space exists.

Everything went wrong from start to finish.

As we entered, no one came to offer water. It’s a restaurant, you should provide a water service at least. No, it was self serve for water and no one told us that.

Menu was from a barcode and ordering was also from toast service — basically self ordering that many other restaurants have taken up. Fine. No problem, we can order on our terms. Great. But when our toast service was giving us trouble placing order to dine in, we tried using kiosk to place order but was told not to since it’s take out only and we failed to order correctly online. We were put at fault directly rather than offering help. One of the worker finally said we can order with him at a different kiosk and as we were ordering, I was once confirming the order and have discussion making sure it’ll be enough food, but the worker got annoyed and made a rude comment about how slow we are ordering and demanded looking at our phone to copy the order we tired placing online. Rushed us through the ordering process and payments.

We got our food one after another dish. I remember having my first bite of the paneer butter masala (or butter paneer masala, rather some paneer based dish) and I instantly knew something was off. After doing little texture test, smell test (hard to identify with all spices but doable), and paneer break test, I realized the paneer was not authentic. Meaning it wasn’t made with milk and citric acid, it was made with additives and vegetable oil which has lots of trans fat and bad for your health.

Meanwhile I was testing for this, I still had not received my Garlic Naan which I asked the worker to confirm if they made it or not.

We were waiting for a bit and then one of other worker came to our table and said we need to stop laughing or having fun because there was 3 other parties in the restaurant who would be annoyed in a restaurant that was practically empty at dinner time.

I asked again for update on my garlic Naan and the same worker that shushed our table, came back with room temperature garlic naan that wasn’t even warm — i tried breaking the pieces and you can tell it was little rigid because it wasn’t fresh.

I asked another worker to help me clarify if paneer was authentic or not. All he said was, “this is all we have in the back, sir. Not sure wha you mean?” And I asked and got the same response. I asked about the garlic Naan being cold and he said, “not sure what I can do” and that’s it.

No one offered to mend the problems or offered a refund or making the food again.

I practically left there without finishing my meal, left all my paneer as is, had little bit of the gravy, and only ate one slice of naan my self and my friend had second. We left the last two slices as is.

Honestly, I am not the one to complain about service as long as the food is good. I’ve been to many Indian and Asian restaurants where the service is complete trash and long wait times BUT food is extremely worth the trouble.

I would say don’t go here expecting a good meal or service. If you’re any other race but Indian than you might get better luck than what I faced. And for those who can’t handle spices, this is perfect place for you to try bland over priced Indian food.

Oh yeah, if you’re not going to provide a restaurant service experience and actually have workers provide service to table besides bringing food to table, don’t overprice your food items. Also, allow the guest to keep their tabs open until end of their meal so they can appropriately give tips to workers based on their service and food. Don’t expect a tip in the beginning when no service have been provided. You’re in restaurant business for a reason, and not...

One of our family friend recommended this restaurant. When we went there we were scared as it was empty. The moment we opened the door one server guided us a table. Gave us water and asked us to Scan qr code for menu & order. We scanned and tried to order but it was not letting us order before we register and put email , phone and etc etc. So we called the server and he really helped by taking order on paper. We ordered starter Chinese bhel, dumplings, soup & noodles. The bhel was very fresh crisp and well garnished. We liked it coz it was very different from other places. The spices were just perfect. Next came the soup which was hot, prepared fresh coz the veggies added still had crunch. We loved every drop of it. So this Soup was served by a different server, who was slow in putting the soup from serving tray to our table. He himself realized it and told us that he is new and works at the restaurant next door. His name was UDAY. He was very good as he filled my water twice and also asked us if the starter was okay and if we need anything spices for soup to which we said no as the soup was perfect. So finally he served Dumplings & Noodles. I was blown away with the garnishing and aromas. The dumplings were spot on and the schezwan sauce was very flavorful. The Noodles were also very fresh and just enough hot to please the palate. We requested UDAY to get some Cold water as the water first served was at room temp. He not only gave me cold water but also was courteous to ask me to try and let him know if we needed any ice. He was very attentive towards the three tables he was serving not like the other server who was on his phone at the bar. We enjoyed our food, the ambiance was also very very good with high ceilings, painting and beautiful interiors. In fact everything was likeable. UDAY even told us that we can buy these addon sauces if we like. He told us little bit about the restaurant next door which we are going to try soon. In fact besides the food this Server was the reason of making our visit a pleasure as I remember that I dropped a fork and the moment it happened UDAY not only gave me a new fork but also picked the dropped one for me. What more can you expect from a restaurant. I was happy and left the restaurant with smile and waving to the hero UDAY. So 5 star interiors, 6 star food, 7 star service & of course 8 stars for the Chef. I also want to appreciate the owners and managers who are managing this place so well. It's a Gem and need to be replicated or chained so this good food and excellent service is all over socal. I am ordering my event catering soon and highly recommend this place. Request people to try them out and support them because we want more eating places like these. One most important thing is the prices - prices are very reasonable and compared to the quality and freshness of the food. It's NOTHING. There is one thing which I will suggest- the quantity of the Dumplings is weird. I will say I don't mind if you charge more but all other places serve 8 to 10 dumplings at the same price but this place serves 3. Don't get me wrong it's not a complaint but just a suggestion from a guy who owned a chain of restaurants and is a excellent chef himself. Thanks Southern Spice & special thanks to UDAY for the excellent service. Here are some pic of...

ANOTHER GREAT LUNCH ! We tried this Southern Indian restaurant a few weeks ago for the first time and came away impressed. NEXT VISIT ! On Saturday my wife and I arrived here just before 1pm to have lunch. The place was pretty packed out but we found a vacant table booth. A newish server named Alex came by to take our lunch order before our bums had even touched the seats. SLOW DOWN DUDE ! The first time we were here I noticed a couple at an adjacent table ready to dive into what looked like 2 enormous flatbread sandwiches. I asked one of the servers named Saud what's that ? Dosa was his reply. And then I checked out the menu again and there was a huge list of Dosa. My wife and I both wanted to try some Dosa. Our rushed server Alex returned to take our order....nothing more, no pleasantries, no smile, no nothing. How this dude got a job as a server is beyond me ! We ordered 1 x PANEER DOSA ( Dosa stuffed with crumbled paneer ) and 1 x MYSORE MASALA DOSA ( Dosa stuffed with potato curry and coated with a chutney made from red chillies, onions and garlic. My wife also wanted a serve of BUTTER CHICKEN ( Tandoor roasted shredded chicken cooked in butter cream and a rich tomato gravy ). SELF SERVE ! Meanwhile I grabbed a couple of iced waters in plastic cups from their dispenser. BINGO ! My wife's Butter Chicken came out fast.....it looked very good and came with a huge serve of Basmati White Rice. Within another minute out came our serves of Dosa. WOW ! My Mysore Masala Dosa must have been 2 foot long whereas my wife's Paneer Dosa was in 3 pieces. I asked Saud why the difference and he explained that's how they come. My wife had already tried the Butter Chicken and that put a huge look of satisfaction on her face.....the best ever I was told. I got stuck into my very long Mysore Masala Dosa once I had worked out how to get it into my mouth.....the break off and fold over technique seemed to work. Then I added some of the side sauces for extra flavor. Gee the potato curry had a nice kick to it...very delicious for something I had never tried before. On the other hand my wife ate only one piece of her Paneer Dosa....the menu description didn't mention spicy vegetables were in the mix with the paneer ( soft cheese ). Of course if Alex our server had attended us for more than 10 seconds we may have found that out beforehand. But my wife did enjoy the delicious Butter Chicken...I was given a sample and it tasted excellent. My wife boxed more than half of her Butter Chicken and Paneer Dosa for home. I LOVE FREEBIES ! Yelp popped up with a FREE DESSERT offer with purchase over $20. I managed to get the attention of our evasive server Alex and ordered a serve of GULAB JAMUN. I had no idea what it was. Within a few minutes my Gulab Jamun arrived in a small metal bowl....4 balls soaking in sweet syrup made from rose petals. The 4 balls was pretty hot and probably would not have had much flavor without the sweet rose syrup.THERE'S MORE ! I had the leftover Paneer Dosa 2 days later and it tasted pretty good...very spicy while my wife totally enjoyed the rest of her fabulous Butter Chicken. Hard to beat excellent food and very...