Kasturi Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Winston-Salem

It honestly pains me to write this review. You can search for my other review of Kasturi and see how glowing of a review I gave it. I have been coming here for years, probably 4 years now. I have loved every single time I have come.

However, last night was different. And I have no idea why. The manager, Srinivas, usually knows me. Maybe not my name, but he recognizes me as a great customer. I have always tipped. I have always be respectful of the restaurant and customers, and when I get pick up orders, everyone is happy when I deliver the food to my group of friends or family that I am feeding that night.

Last night, I went in with four other guests for send off and celebration dinner. We were seated at the corner table of hate, according to another review. I knew this table and never thought anything negative about it. It is the only place to seat 5 people. However, from the get go, Srinivas comes to our table to get our order and is very short and upset with us. He acts confused when some of us asked questions. He also kept saying "next" loudly and rudely to us. He sometimes does say next in general when ordering, but this was different. Like we were being a bother. We did not come in that late if you are wondering. 2 hours before close. When we left, there were still customers eating and seated. So I do not think that was the issue. The service was horrendous, rude, and unfortunate for such a staple in Winston.

On the food, decent as always, but they over spiced our medium order. And we did not feel comfortable mentioning it to Srinivas due to his rude attitude that evening. I have gotten all spice levels at kasturi and learned that I am good up until extra spicy. That is too much for me. Tonight, everyone on the table got medium, and our mouth was on fire. We ended up thinking they wanted to punish us. Again, we were being great guests, not loud, relaxed, talking and being a family. Srinivas, what is going on? What happened? Why did you want to not treat us as regular customers?

Finally we ordered food, and it all came out at weird intervals. two people at our table got their food first, and literally 10 minutes later we got the rest. While indian food can be communal, we were all expecting our own rice, but instead we got two bowls of rice. We asked for more and it seemed like an inconvenience. What? It is just rice. We finally got some extra.

I hope I made sense. Honestly, a very disappointing experience and one of my favorite restaurants. Ever. I used to love Kasturi. Honestly, I still do and will probably give them another chance, but this was horrendous.

Srinivas, you might have lost a regular customer last night. I hope things change and I never experience that again if I decide to dine at Kasturi again.

Also, something new is an 18% added gratuity to all tables of 5 or more. And we were not told this at all until the end. This bothered me, but not that much, and it would have been fine if the service would have been actually good. Terrible celebration dinner. Utterly upset and disappointed. And sad to have lost one of my favorite...

As a South Asian woman I’m so disappointed to write this review, especially after I did a TikTok video on this establishment that went viral about two years ago. I’ve been here more times than I can count and have always boasted and bragged about the food when people ask me where to get Indian food in Winston-Salem.

I stopped in today after having to fast for the last 12 hours and was looking forward to breaking it with Kasturi cuisine. When I walked in the man at the front desk (slim, petit with glasses) gave us two menus when we stated we’d be ordering to go. I asked him if there were lunch specials and what those were. From the very moment I asked the question he was disinterested and did not effectively explain what a lunch special is. He repeated chef special and proceeded to reiterate the same two options (chicken and veg) and when I asked what comes with them he said that any of the chicken items from the menu comes with the chef specials but that I can’t pick which ones. Huh??? Maybe it’s me, but couldn’t wrap my head around not knowing what food you’ll get and not having the option to choose. I also know chef specials to be dishes that aren’t in a restaurant’s normal menu but featured on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. So when I asked him to clarify what the options were he just pointed to the menu and once again said that the items that come with the chef special could be any of the chicken dishes. I’m not exactly sure how that works with individuals with allergies and I also didn’t quite understand why I’d pay for something when I have no idea what I’d actually be getting. So I defaulted to Butter Chicken-can’t go wrong with that right? After spending $50 on butter chicken, lamb biryani, paneer pakora and one order of rasmali I was extremely disappointed to find there was no cutlery in my bag when I got home. We weren’t asked if we needed it either. Additionally, when the man was taking my order another woman (who does not look South Asian) came in and he completely diverted to helping her WHILE I was speaking. In addition to no cutlery, the tamarind chutney was not properly packaged and spilled all over the bag. Now let’s get to the food- I don’t know who changed their butter chicken recipe but it is NOT what it used to be. It was incredibly watery, almost soup-like and the chicken is cut into thin strips which are chewy and dry. Seems like frozen chicken they’re throwing into the base rather than actually marinating fresh chicken. Additionally, the lamb biryani only had 5-6 small pieces of meat. I’m sad to say I will no longer we recommending this restaurant to anyone and am extremely disappointed by my...

The menu was expansive. Thorough with descriptions and plenty of pictures with names of dishes to better understand what you select. Staff is friendly but we went during a slow slow lunch period. We were one of three tables occupied at noon n a Friday. Server aproached and introduced himself and asked for drinks. Brough drinks quick and asked if we were ready to order. We asked for more time and talked about a few things. Came back in 5 min and asked again we weren’t yet ready. Came again in 2 minutes and we figured our order out. Food came quickly and we chatted and ate and a few minutes later the server checked on us and then 10 minutes later we were paused in eating and just talking and the server asked if we were ready for the check. We said we were still eating but will take the check. Dropped the check and less than a minute later tried to kick it up we hadn’t even looked yet. In between visits the server walked by and slowly looked at each table but didn’t say anything. At one point I looked at my watch and thought have we been here too long? And we had only been seated at this point for 35 minutes and had just started eating when he wanted to give us the check. As empty as the restaurant was I’d think at lunch time they would want people to stay as long as possible to maintain a full restaurant until they were full. I felt rushed. Repeatedly looked at and urged to leave. I worked in restaurants for 15 years and know the signs of how to make people want to leave. Hope they ease up a bit because the food was amazing ! We asked for hot and got it proper ! I want to feel welcome not...