10/12/09

Poor customer service especially for average food

by DD1

I would have to say the food is decent, but the service was absolutely horrid. For that reason, I will never return to India Grill. Its not the only game in town, and it definitely wont be a consideration of mine from now on.

To start, when calling in my order, the person at the restaurant barely spoke english (not too much of an issue, but definitely annoying). I arrived when they told me to and actually had to wait for 45 minutes to get my food due to a broken credit card machine. I can understand the predicament of the machine being broken, but the way they treated me in regards to the situation and not being able to articulate (in english) any of the issues they were having was ridiculous. After 40 of the 45 minutes the owner finally showed up. He was very rude, especially considering how long I had waited for their issues. He basically gave me the "what do you want me to do" attitude and later followed up with "you can't please everyone" statement. That sealed the deal on me ever going back there. In the time I was waiting, two tables actually got up and came to counter to ask if they could get some service. Apparently "eating in" is just as poor in terms of quality services. In addition, they ended up billing me twice for my takeout and I am still waiting for the credit to come back to my account. Finally, when I called to inquire about being billed twice and not credited, I got the same matter of fact "cant please everyone" attitude from the owner as he yelled at me when trying to explain his "good customer service".

In this recession, the one thing of value that companies, restaurants, etc. can provide free of charge is good customer services. And for mediocre food, service can actually make the experience worthwhile. This was easily one of the worst cases of customer service I have ever experienced at a restaurant. I will choose to vote with my dollars and hope others do as well when they think of India Grill.

• Pros: Average Indian Cuisine
• Cons: Apathetic Customer Service

05/24/09

worst Indian food in 15 years

by VMARTINS

We were misled by the pictures in the website and this was an absolute disappointment. In our order of 4 entrees, not a single dish was acceptable.

Clumpy rice, sour/orange palak paneer (worse then those you get in a can), undercooked naan, raw tandoori chicken.... enough said - If you are really hungry and find yourself at their door walk away, there is a SUBWAY restaurant right around their corner teh food will be much better value there

• Pros: gorgeous website (doesn't match reality though)
• Cons: oily samosas, raw tandoori chicken, smelly dining hall

04/13/09

Good food, but the building has weird acoustics

by wmf1988

I've eaten at the India Grill quite a few times and I'm always struck by how delicious their chicken tikka masala and lamb saag is. I always love their samosas. I've never been disappointed in the cleanliness and the service is acceptable. That said, their food is a little pricey and the acoustics in the building are terrible.

• Pros: delicious food
• Cons: the price

02/07/09

Worst Indian Food in Portland

by snchry

Ordered take out at India Grill. Worst "Indian" food I have ever had. They should call it fd&c yellow and red since that is pretty much what they flavor everything with. I am Indian. I have eaten a lot of food in many places but this is absolutely the worst. Even McDonalds tastes better than this. But when I go to McDonalds I know what to expect. This place is even worse than that little Indian food place in Lloyd Center (which thankfully closed down).

White rice in red sauce = biryani

Hunks of meat painted red = kabab

samosa filled with mashed potatoes?

chutney that tastes like green lemon juice?

And fifty buck for two appetizers and two meals. Needless to say, won't be going back there, and since all my non-Indian friends are always asking for Indian food recs I'll tell them to avoid this place like the plague. I'll email them all this review in case I miss anyone.

• Cons: food

02/01/09

hair in the food!

by aarin

the food is always decent at india grill but in my recent take out order we found 3 (!) black hairs in the food. so disgusting! i am definitely turned off to this place forever.

• Pros: decent food at a decent price
• Cons: hair in the food calls into question overall sanitary practices

09/22/08

Good stuff for not very much money.

by sneeches

True the service isn't spectacular, but the food was really good and is is a realtively cheap place to eat. We had the vegetable samosa and they were super yummy. The palak paneer was as good as any I've had in other states. The mutton special had very tender meat with a good-not-overpowering-spicy sauce. The mango lassi left a little to be desired. Overall, our experience was pleasant despite the staff not being overly attentive. I liked this place and I'll definitley go back.

• Pros: Great food.
• Cons: Service was not great.

06/28/08

Horrible-everything....:(

by foodlee

This is the worst place I have ever been to- it would not be improper to call it hell. Two wierd looking staff, not at all welcoming, hardly care about the customers. The customers are treated as if the staff are doing them a favour...we went there on an extremely hot day and the staff did not even bother to turn on the AC. Next, he served us some stone like parathas ( if at all they can be called parathas) and there was no variety in the food. The food quality was like eating at a road side restaurant with no hygeine. We felt as if we were eating in a haunted house with two horribly dressed men who called themselves staff. I would have been better off eating days old food in some other restaurant. The ambience was probably the worst of all....it was housed in a very small place with no one looking after the customers. I felt really bad shelling out $9 for food which was at best, very very ordinary. One thing which was really ackward was that one of the staff started having his lunch even before the restaurant could close and all customers left.....We still had to pay our bill and this guy, who was the only person in the restaurant, already starts having his food......Now that's what I call the " Customers go to hell" attitude.....

Would never ever recommend anyone going to this place...and I would highly vouch for the closing of this restaurant.....

06/25/08

not handicap nor accomodating

by deanna

I have no complaints about the food. However, my friend has a broken leg with crutches, plates, pins screws. There is no handicap accessibility to the upstairs. When I approached the owners about sitting downstairs where there was not only tables outside and set tables inside that would have accomodated my friend with her severly broken leg, they said "no". I don't know the requirements for small businesses to handicap accessibility, but to have downstairs seating that would have accomodated the situation and to be turned us down for it based on a person's health is horrible. I consider PDX a very liberal, friendly and accomodating city. I would hope any establishment would accomodate those that are disabled.

• Cons: not handicapped accessible

06/04/08

Good Food

by pixie29

I tried this place out for lunch the other day, it was pretty good. The "buffet" was not too big, 2 chicken dishes and a few other vegetarian options, as well as salad. (When I think of buffet, I think of something larger.) But, the lunch special was great, the naan was HORRIBLE but the food was good. I would go back again.

CORRECTION - Citysearch says lunch buffet is 7.95 but we paid close to 9.00, they need to update that on the website.

05/30/08

Condescending waitstaff

by eatsoutalotpdx

I went to this restaurant to appease a friend of mine who has no one who eat will Indian food with her. I have never had Indian Food before and if this was any indication of quality, I completely understand why no one will go eat it with her. I was nervous but open to the experience. We went here for lunch. The place was not crowded, only a few tables were being used. They had some sort of makeshift buffet out for lunch. As I passed by, I didn't see anything particularly appealing.

We were seated and water was brought to our table. After about 5 minutes of waiting for a menu, we called the waiter over to our table and requested one. "What do you want?" was his response after asking for a menu. Well, I would guess, if I knew what I wanted, I wouldn't have asked for a menu now would I? My friend explained to him this was my first time eating Indian food and he looked at me and smirked like I was some kind of fool. Tip here guy - smirking at someone is not the way to win their heart!!! He came back with a menu. After perusing the menu I decided on the chicken curry. It turns out this was on the buffet line so I went with the buffet. The buffet was small and pitiful and half the stuff looked like it had been sitting there since 9AM. I did get chicken curry and rice. I ate it because I was hungry. My friend had a variety of items and most of them to her were not up to par - not spicy enough, the nan bread was out of a package, not very fresh. She like Indian food so I would take this to mean it's not the best place to eat.

I will not eat here again ever and I will be sure to tell everyone I know about the condescending wait staff and somewhat dirty restaurant. I am sure there are other much better places to try this food.

• Pros: Nice view
• Cons: Waitstaff, food quality, cleanliness