** Note: This review is just for the food truck, not the grocery store. **
I really wanted to like this place. Pani puri in Denver? A tiny local place with quick, affordable food that I can just stop by for pick-up? Yes please! Drove here the other day for pani puri because it's one of my favorite foods in the world and this place is pretty close to where I live. I got two orders of pani puri (8 pieces) and two samosas.
The good: The pani puri tasted alright, with a decent heat level (this is gonna be too spicy if you don't like spice, be warned). The mint water was flavorful, just what I was expecting. Didn't take too long for them to get my order to me, although it took longer than it should have, considering the samosas came out STILL FROZEN, which leads me to....
The bad: Pretty much everything else, sadly. As stated, the samosas were frozen and they didn't even cook them all the way through before handing them over. It was also pretty embarrassing to give one to my friend only for her to find a HAIR in it. How a hair got mixed in with frozen samosas, I'm not sure, but - gag. Also, if you're looking for traditional Mumbai pani puri, you won't find it here - they were very tiny with super hard shells, not light and crisp the way I was expecting. Definitely nothing like what's in the picture on the truck; and they also didn't give any chutney with them.
To finish this review - I don't typically take away points for bad service because most of my favorite places are little hole-in-the-wall joints, some of which have abysmal service. I don't sweat it if the food is incredible. For those of you who care about this, I stood outside of the food truck for a very awkward five minutes or so (the women working inside definitely saw me) until someone came out from the shop and told me that I could order inside the shop - then he took my order and I paid inside. So if you want to order from the truck, I'd recommend just going into the shop and telling the cashier what you want.
But don't get the samosas. read more