The Shack — Restaurant in Worcester

I was hesitant to order from this place when it first opened in what seems to be a cursed spot on a corner on Park Avenue (since 2014 I have known it to be a closed hot dog stand, the short-lived Wingman and the The Sandwich Hut, which went through many menu reductions and revisions before closing in I believe less than two years). The menu seemed overly ambitious for such a small setup, to the point that I could not believe the whole menu could be offered with fresh ingredients and on a consistent basis. I decided to wait a few months and let the beta testing period pass before placing a dinner order. I got delivery of two different Kati rolls and the paneer Tikka masala poutine. To my surprise, the food was absolutely delicious and full of authentic flavors. The issue I have is with the price versus the portion. When my order arrived, the bag was so small and light that I assumed I had gotten the wrong order. When I opened it, I found that the kati rolls were made on 6" flatbreads, so no bigger than the average soft taco. The poutine was in a 6" aluminum dome container. The portions were what I would consider snack sized, not even lunch sized, and after having saved room for this dinner, my spouse and I ended up preparing more to eat since this was not filling. There was an elevated price due to Uber Eats, which is understandable, and that resulted in one wrap being $10, another $11.25, and the poutine $16.25. I see that the standard menu price of each item is about $2 less, but that still is very expensive for a snack-sized item. We felt that the price/portions were similar to theme park or stadium concessions pricing, like Disney or Fenway. To have spent almost $38 (before fees, tip, etc.) on what amounted to a snack from a small take-out operation seemed absurd. Even the total of roughly $32 that we would have paid had we done a walk-up order would be, in my opinion, unreasonable for what we received. I am not sure if these portions always were the standard, or perhaps if they needed to be reduced to this state after opening to cut costs and maximize profit, which given the issues the location has had over the years and the current surge in product costs would seem to be an operational possibility. Ultimately, I would have given a 2.5 star review if possible, but I am rounding up since that is not an option and because the food was very good. I know I will not repeat because the price per portion value absolutely does not align with the market in Worcester or anywhere in the area outside of arenas/stadiums or...

I really, really wanted this place to be good because it's so close and the people there are so nice. If I were judging them by their garlic naan, paneer, and mango lassi alone they'd get 5 stars. But we also got saag paneer and chicken korma with rice, and both were extremely disappointing.

For starters, both were extremely soupy - almost watery. The saag was more brown than green and you couldn't taste any spinach or garam masala. Sopped up with some garlic naan, it was still mostly serviceable because the paneer was so good and it was much thicker than the korma.

The korma was more egregiously bad in my opinion. Korma is supposed to be an onion-heavy gravy thickened with yogurt and almond flour (or even peanuts if the place is on the cheaper side). There should be pieces of cashew and golden raisins throughout in higher quality places, but sometimes you just get regular old raisins in cheaper places. The chicken should be braised with ghee and spices. But this stuff was clearly tomato-based with no yogurt and no nuts whatever. The chicken was stewed rather than braised, too. The whole effect made it seem like I was eating soggy chicken with a very thin, watery tomato puree. And if they accidentally gave me their butter chicken or tikka masala instead of korma, which I sort of suspect happened, it's still not good and still very wrong.

The wetness and soupiness of everything killed me. Even the rice was very wet. It was more flavorful than the main dishes. The problem is that it was all cumin and garlic. I love cumin and garlic, don't get me wrong, I just also enjoy other aromatics as well. I couldn't taste anything but cumin and salt and wet. Not even a hint of cardamom or clove. That was disappointing, because really good basmati rice is tender but dry and fragrant - not wet and salty and garlicky.

Redeeming qualities to the saag paneer and chicken korma? There was decent heat to both. I'd still call the medium more of a mild, but I understand that you have to soften the spicy for Americans.

I wish it was better. I really, really do. I could walk here from my place and the people who work here are incredibly nice. Maybe they have other stuff that tastes better? The naan gives me hope that maybe there's something on the menu they're...

They operate under different names on different platforms. Like “Gunpower Cafe” on Doordash, “The Shack”, “Mad Over Curry” and “Gunpower Cafe” on GrubHub and “The Shack” and “Gunpower Cafe” on Uber Eats. Basically, you are ordering from the same place again and again, thinking that you are trying new places. On tope of the, the food is never good. I have ordered through all the three platforms, and everytime the food is disappointing. In a paneer curry, they countably add only 8 to 10 small size paneer pieces and the rest whole container is simple watery gravey. Once I ordered, and post prepared the curry myself and was left with only half the initial portion, which wasn’t enough for even a single meal, for which they charged hefty price. And when I complained on Uber Eats, I didn’t receive any response or compensation, it has been 4 months now. Since then, I stopped ordering...