This has never been an amazing place to eat; the tandoori chicken was ok, and the coconut soup was consistently good, but everything else I've ever had here has been a distant second to the amateurish Indian food I can throw together at home. And the service has never been good. Never. I've been served by eight year old's in family run restaurants who were more professional, prompt and on the ball. In the past, I've just shrugged off the bad service because I knew to expect it, but lately, it's gone from laughable to outright rage inducing. It's gotten so my family has only been getting take out from them, because we didn't want to deal with whatever the hell is wrong with the staff/management there. But I'm done. I'll eat at Taco Bell before I eat at India Palace again.
The straw that broke the camel's back was a small, simple take out order. We were there on a weekend night, about seven thirty, not rush hour, but not anywhere near the time the kitchen starts to shut down. An incredibly hostile hostess told us she'd take our order, and then disappeared (she was so overtly rude that my kids asked me if I knew her, like we were mortal enemies or something...ya, sure, I've got a list, just like Sheldon). We waited for fifteen minutes, never saw the hostess again. A server walked by, asked if we'd been helped, we said no, they said whoops sorry about that, took our teeny tiny order, and then they, too, disappeared for thirty minutes.
We finally got our food. The order was coconut soup, two bowls, and it took close to an hour. I'm pretty sure if you stuck a ladle between my two toes, a la My Left Foot style, that I'd get it done in less time. When we were in the car, trying to eat after a long day, we discovered one small container of soup, no spoons. I went back in to get the missing second serving, and the server (mysteriously present; they must not have seen me coming or they'd have had time to hide) said that they always put take away soup into one container. Ok, irritating as hell, since we wanted to start eating in the car and had a big drive ahead of us, but not the worst thing a restaurant's ever done. Once back in the car, we started passing the soup around, and here's where, if you listen closely, you can hear the sad, broken-celery-like sound of the camel's back breaking: they forgot the spice.
We'd essentially stopped going to India Palace except for coconut soup; I've had it at least ten times, I know what it tastes like, and these pros forgot to put any, and I mean ANY spice in it. So it took them the better part of an hour to warm up a one measuring cup size of coconut milk and shredded coconut.
I don't know if they have the most amazing high stakes poker game going on in the back that requires most of the time and all of the emotional energy from the employees, I don't know if there's a crooked businessperson running India Palace who, for some convoluted reasoning unbeknownst to me, needs this business to go under (maybe they're getting the same deal the Wall Street bankers got; it seems to be lucrative to go bankrupt if you've got the right politician in your pocket), or maybe there's a Tardis in the back, and the employees aren't uncaring, unprofessional jerks but secret Time Lords running about and saving the world while still trying to work their 'cover' jobs. I just don't know. They seem to have really, REALLY pressing business elsewhere, and when they do make a rare appearance, they resent the customers for taking them away from it.
Here's what I do know. Even in Lawrence, Kansas, where people are so nice, so forgiving, and amazingly accepting, the India Palace is not going to last much longer. I usually feel terrible when I see business going under, but this place deserves it. There's just no excuse for such bad food and service. There are so many students here who work incredibly hard for terrible pay, and they do it well and with a smile on their faces. So the service thing? Not acceptable. It's not like there's a shortage of willing workers. The food problem is equally unacceptable. Eating out in this economy is a luxury. I'm not wasting the little money I have on terrible restaurant food.
I can't warn you strongly enough to stay away from this place. Don't waste your time and money. You'd be better off buying frozen Indian food from that Shop N Go on 23rd. The pre-made, microwavable stuff isn't good, but it's about the same level as India Palace, and a hell of a lot cheaper, and no angry/invisible servers. read more