New Zealand Herald

Reviews for Masala Indian Restaurant

by John W.
26th April 2013

I was sceptical about the claims of overcharging as we had previously visited four times this year and never had this experience. Sadly this week our experience changed. My son ordered an L&P and our menu seemed to indicate that this was included in the lunch price. However when I came to pay the bill the L&P was on the account. I enquired about this and the waiter said L&P was an upgrade. I didn’t have the menu with me so I accepted his statement. However the waiter’s reply didn’t tally with the advertising board outside the restaurant or the advertising for the lunch menu on this site.
After all the adverse comments on this site management should have fixed this problem. That they haven’t causes my poor rating.
Despite my rating the food is good, value for money and the service generally good. It shouldn’t be so hard to ask people to pay what you say you will charge them!

by Sarah H.
17th January 2013

We have eaten at Masala a few times and had takeaways from there too. I really like their food but I feel compelled to write about their sneaky staff who are constantly trying to dupe you. Just read all the other reviews and discovered I am not alone.
Last time our bill on the cheap $10 meal night was a horrible shock. We got tricked into 4 entrees when we asked for entrees to share and $12 beers. Last night we were more cautious but still got tricked into the expensive poppadoms.
WATCH OUT for the lady waitress – she is the most devious.
Usually poppadoms are free at restaurants so we said yes when she asked us. We had no idea they were $15.
It just annoys me. So much in fact that we will be returning to Raviz instead.
They do seem annoyed that you don’t want extras. Once they realise they can’t get anything out of you, they leave you alone.
Also they never write a bill. We’ve had them try to charge us full price for the $10 meals before “accidentally”.
It seems that they begrudge having the $10 meal nights.

by Serena L.
30th December 2012

We have been to Masala a number of times and are generally happy with their lunch specials, the ambience of the place, the quality of food and the service.

by Michael P.
25th November 2012

I have been there 3 times for lunch. I found many negative reviews of Masala, but for me, I like there. Staffs always very kind and food was very tasty.
I had butter chicken and tikka masala, both were good. Also there is luch special and chance to have them with cheap price.

by Sarah
8th November 2012

We were visiting Takapuna and thought we would try an Indian meal and unfortunately we chose this establishment.
One of the mains we ordered was lamb kofta which arrived with only 3 tiny “meatballs” in a bowl of gravy. There was no way this was lamb. Also the rice portion that accompanied the meal was small.
The customer service was poor and very pushy with trying to make us order other things. This is the only Indian restaurant that we have left where we could have eaten more.
Disappointing and would not visit this place again.

by Lozza
13th October 2012

Being a curry loving Pom, I’m always on the lookout for a good Indian an having walked past Masala a while back on the way to Raviz, I was well impressed with the view from outside, it looked very smart so I made a mental note to put this on the ‘must do’ list.

How I wish I had the sense to read some of these reviews, rather than being drawn in by the flash look of the place. What a HUGE Disappointment with a capital D.

I booked a table online via their website but never got any reply or confirmation – sadly I never let that put me off.

How I wish I had heeded the fact that at 7pm on a Saturday night there was only one other table of diners. Lambs to the slaughter, is what we were.

On the inside this place looks nice but seems to be a glorified pub, definitely more of a bar than an Indian restaurant. Albeit a very nice looking bar it is not what I was expecting.

The temperature in the place was freezing and barely had we put our bums on seats and the parade of overbearing sales staff began. Like a military operation, the first guy arrives to open the bottle of sparkling water that was already placed on the table. Erm no thank you, we’ll just have some tap water, thanks! He looks majorly peeved that he failed to make a sale.

Then a guy arrives to take the drinks order and another appears immediately behind him to up-sell us the $12 special bottle of extra strong stuff. No thank you, we’ll have what we ordered.

We’re asked if we want poppadums and yes, of course we do.

The drinks arrive, one wrong beer but never mind a beer’s a beer and we’ll take what we’re given. The poppadums arrive, with two of the tiniest little pots mango chutmey and yoghurt raita.

Someone else arrives to take the dinner order, we ask for a sizzling platter for two, a curry each, two naans and some rice of course.

Up-sell time again – there’s palpable disappointed that we don’t want any extras, no salads, no vegetable side dishes, no we think that we’ve ordered quite enough, thank you.

The entree platter was fine, but an exact replica of what they serve two doors along at Raviz. Seconds later a guy arrives to check on us and gives us a big thumbs up, good , yes? Yes, all good!

Yay, some more diners arrived and were seated nearby, so we felt slight less sad and lonely. This at least provided us with an entertaining interlude as the diners clearly from out of town did not understand the ‘Kiwi’ way of having to choose mild, medium or hot Korma. The waitress was really quite rude to them for not understanding, which left an air of obvious tension around us.

Our mains arrive, shame we didn’t get to choose cold, warm or hot, as ours were barely warm and the rice was dry and at best room temperature. We soldiered on and didn’t make a fuss – my Chicken Bhuna must have been the sweetest most sickly horrid curry I have ever had the misfortune to taste, bright red and just so wrong, I was not convinced the meat was chicken. My partner’s ‘chicken’ dopiaza whilst slightly more palatable than my own, most definitely was not chicken. We came to the conclusion that it might have been lamb and both shared this, since mine was so unbearably sweet.

We get more beers, since we were asked but to be honest we were just wanting it to be over and to leave quietly.

They clear the table and keep asking us is it okay to take this or that until we’re left with just the plates in front of us and yes despite their being no food on the table and no cutlery they still ask if it’s okay to take the plates. LOL

Oddly they didn’t ask about the bowl of uneaten curry and didn’t ask if there was a problem with it.

They offer us desserts and we decline, they insist we take a look, no thank you we don’t want anything more. To be honest we just wanted out as quickly and quietly as possible. We were long since over it, over the procession of people trying to persuade and hassle us into having more.

They offer us coffee, more beers, anything else we can get you to spend more money on?

All in all, I daresay if I had chosen another dish the food would have been mostly acceptable however it was utterly ruined by the continual feeling that we were captive victims at some Indian sales convention. At best it was an expensive comedy sketch experience but ultimately we felt violated and ripped off!

by Jimmy Y.
10th October 2012

What i like about this restaurant is the fact that its deco is very elegant indian theme. The food is good and the price is reasonable for what it is.

I find that the service is average.

What i dont like is the pushy staff trying to ‘coax’ you into entrees and desserts and rack up your bill. If i need any comments or feedback, i will ask for it. I mean come on. 6 pieces of parpadums for $15 ?

In the middle of eating you would be ‘approached’ by the usual hows the food sir ? and then followed by would you like to try our wine, etc etc…

I cannot have a peaceful meal. I will think twice for making a visit. The management needs to understand that they are shooting themselves on the foot and stop this immediately.

by Royce B.
4th September 2012

Food was exceptional, well cooked, timely and piping hot when served. Both mild and medium dishes were exactly what you would expect. I would highly recommend the food, however, as for the service…. very very disappointing, slow, rude, the waiting staff bimbled around and ignored customers and could not answer questions about menu items.

They booked our table for four when we had booked for five and were not exactly accomodating, either providing another seat or changing our table and they were not even busy – making out it was our mistake not theirs… We very nearly went elsewhere before we even sat down. They forgot about one of our orders and it did not come out until everyone else at the table had finished.. We asked at least three times and got excuses but no results.

There were almost more staff on than customers, absolutely no excuses for poor service and you can’t blame your average service on your computer… honestly!!

Unless we hear service improves we will not go back, if it does we will be more than happy to recommend to anyone as the food was truly exceptional..

For food 5 stars, for service half a star.. overall experience 2 stars.

by Anoushka B.
16th July 2012

My family of two adults and 2 kids went to Masala and we really enjoyed it. The service was attentive and friendly. We really enjoyed all the curries especially the chicken jaipuri made with cherries. The restaurant decor is really nice and we would love to eat here every week. We had the $10 mains – the food was hot, fresh and really tasty. I would easily recommend this place to anyone having a curry craving, you will be satisfied.

by James
27th May 2012

Masala $10 mains on Mon-Wed are a staple of my friends and myself. The place is nice looking and the service is usually always good.

The curries are definitely value for money the only downside being they don’t use “real” chicken for the chicken curries, but they do use normal meat for the others. The quality of the curry dishes is high and it has a good atmosphere.

by Joan
18th March 2012

I went to Masala in Takapuna for a birthday lunch and we ordered the $10 lunch specials which included a curry meal and a soft drink of your choice. I asked the waiter if I could sub the soft drink for a mango lassi instead, and he said I would need to pay $4 on top of the $10 (usual price of mango lassi was $5.50). I agreed but upon paying, he charged me $15.50 and said that he told me the wrong price by mistake. I thought this was very misleading because if I had known that I would be paying the full price, I wouldn’t have gotten the mango lassi. Furthermore I think I should be entitled to a free soft drink if that was the case.

After everyone had paid and when we were about to leave, they told us that there was still 1 unpaid curry. I asked if they could let us know the name of the curry that was unpaid for and I quote “It is impossible for us to know.” Seriously? With your sophisticated computer? After arguing for a while, they decided that they had miscounted the number of people at the dinner… and didn’t even apologize!

Food was average, would not return. I would pop by Raviz just next door in Takapuna. The food and service is so much better.

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