Topic: Visit from takeaway owner

[Kashmiri Bob]

Been impressed with the vindaloo from a TA nearby recently and this Monday thought to try some more of their faire.  I ordered poppadoms, chicken vindaloo, balti chicken tikka shatkora, aloo gobi side dish, egg fried rice, and garlic naan (home delivery).  The cost (over 15 quid) meant I qualified for a complementary side dish.  Madras sauce was an option so I went for that.  On arrival my first impression was that all of the dishes were similar in both colour and consistency (very saucey, including the aloo gobi).  Did a quick tip-of-teaspoon taste test.  The vinders was spot on.  The madras sauce was obviously the same as the vinders.  The aloo gobi was extremely bland unseasoned veg and base.  Not overly bothered as the vinders was right and the free portion of sauce would not go to waste.  Very saucey veg side dishes are also common in these parts, so no surprises here. The shatkora, however, was really disappointing.  I like this dish and its on my list of things to do.  My TA was bland and I was thinking a bit of lemon zest in here, and little else.  I picked up the phone to offer some polite, constructive feedback.

After a brief explanation, the TA chap apologised and conceded they were having some issues with their chefs; apparently, they had been receiving quite a few complaints.  He asked if it would be OK for his business partner to collect my food, so they could ask the chef to account for what was being sent out to customers.  Ten minutes later the doorbell chimed and the owner (nice bloke) offered further apologies.  It was chucking it down with rain so I invited him in.  He took one look at the shatkora and confirmed it was all wrong; it was supposed to be a balti, for a start.  We had a nice chat about all things curry.  Interestingly, he let out that their chefs always put naga in both madras and vindaloo dishes (re: chef imram at the viceroy).  On leaving there were yet more apologies and thanks for letting them know.  He gave me my money back and left the popps, dips, naan and rice.  I wish he had left the vinders though!  However, he has promised me that when they get sorted I can visit their kitchen to observe the chefs.  Later on I ordered a chicken garlic achari from another local TA that was mighty fine.  So, all good really.  It was nice to see a TA acknowledging problems, and actually trying to do something about it.     

Rob 

[goncalo]

Well done. Every time I had something wrong, I'd call and ask them for new food and had it back, is this not standard policy across the uk?

Also, If it was something missing, I've often heard the guys "We will give it to you next time you order" and I'd insist I wanted it now and I've never had anyone refuse it.

Although, this reminds me my second favourite restaurant in Cambridge, which I don't include the name for the following reason: After missing a ton of requests over the period of 1year and half (it was every second delivery - I'd order 3+ times per week) had something missing from the order. One time, I called them and during my order I explicitly asked them for "fresh onion bhajis" and if that wasn't possible that I wouldn't want to order them this time.  The guy on the phone said "no problem, they are fresh" , the owner came in to deliver the order. As he was about to leave (I paid by card) I ask him to wait a minute to check everything. The first thing I do is to check the onion bhajis consistency from the outside of the bag and they were dry and crispy, so I told him "I explicitly asked for fresh onion bhajis" to which he replied "I'm sorry, we can't bring you fresh onion bhajis". That same night, about 5mins later, I notice one of the rices was plain. I call them again to ask for the pilau rice delivery ASAP and he told me "Hey, I'll bring you the rice, but this is the last time you order from us."

Granted I'd always be with a bit of a bad humour every time I ordered food and got something wrong and call them incompetents over the phone, but in fairness, they preferred to lose the customer rather than fix the underlying problem of paying attention to every delivery. Just to re-iterate: they'd miss every second delivery, I shit you not. The reason why I kept using them was because I didn't know better. My company had a curry club, every thursday and we would order from them. Their food was upper standard price st, but the flavours were very good and they were a close enough takeaway.

N.B: In hindsight, I recognize I wasn't right in getting all vocal

[Kashmiri Bob]

Well done. Every time I had something wrong, I'd call and ask them for new food and had it back, is this not standard policy across the uk?

Also, If it was something missing, I've often heard the guys "We will give it to you next time you order" and I'd insist I wanted it now and I've never had anyone refuse it.

Although, this reminds me my second favourite restaurant in Cambridge, which I don't include the name for the following reason: After missing a ton of requests over the period of 1year and half (it was every second delivery - I'd order 3+ times per week) had something missing from the order. One time, I called them and during my order I explicitly asked them for "fresh onion bhajis" and if that wasn't possible that I wouldn't want to order them this time.  The guy on the phone said "no problem, they are fresh" , the owner came in to deliver the order. As he was about to leave (I paid by card) I ask him to wait a minute to check everything. The first thing I do is to check the onion bhajis consistency from the outside of the bag and they were dry and crispy, so I told him "I explicitly asked for fresh onion bhajis" to which he replied "I'm sorry, we can't bring you fresh onion bhajis". That same night, about 5mins later, I notice one of the rices was plain. I call them again to ask for the pilau rice delivery ASAP and he told me "Hey, I'll bring you the rice, but this is the last time you order from us."

Granted I'd always be with a bit of a bad humour every time I ordered food and got something wrong and call them incompetents over the phone, but in fairness, they preferred to lose the customer rather than fix the underlying problem of paying attention to every delivery. Just to re-iterate: they'd miss every second delivery, I shit you not. The reason why I kept using them was because I didn't know better. My company had a curry club, every thursday and we would order from them. Their food was upper standard price st, but the flavours were very good and they were a close enough takeaway.

N.B: In hindsight, I recognize I wasn't right in getting all vocal

Know what you mean.  Not sure if its standard policy/practice.  I have been fobbed off with all sorts of excuses in the past, and offers of discounts the next time, etc.  Nowadays a TA gets one chance from me.  If it is no good it goes in the bin, and I dont go back.  But this time I had nice food previously from them, so it was worth a phone call.  Good TAs can be hard to find these days.

Rob