5th Element Indian Restaurant

Reviews 4

MY

Mylon Pruett

Suggestions: Naan, Chicken Tika Masala, Chicken Khorma Price: $12-ish per main dish Pros: Their spices are always on point, they have fantastic naans, and you get plenty of food for the price. Cons: The wait to get your food and get your check always seems to be pretty long despite not being slammed, the courtesy of the waitstaff leaves a lot to be desired, ordering to-go is an.....experience Thoughts: Ill start by saying that this is the best indian restaurant Ive found in Jacksonville. The flavors of every dish I have tried here leaves nothing to be desired, and I particularly love their curry style dishes. Their portions are also extremely generous; while typically each get our own dish and split a naan or two, we both love to eat and you could easily get away with splitting a single dish and opting for a few different naans instead. And if you are a fan of spicy food, youve hit the jackpot. They definitely have milder options but they can easily raise the spiciness bar, pretty much as high as you would ever like it to go. Whats really great about their spices though is that it has flavor along with the heat, it isnt just a bland pointless painful heat that you sometimes get with food. It contributes to other flavors of the dish rather than taking away from them. Unfortunately, along with the great things about 5th Element come a reasonable helping of poor things. First and foremost is the timing and friendliness of the waitstaff, both leave plenty to be desired. I mention this first because its bad enough that if this is something that really bothers you you may want to avoid the restaurant all together. In my opinion its still worth going, just be sure to set your expectations at a reasonable level. While you will probably get seated rather quickly (Ive never seen this place "packed out"), if you arent ready to order pretty quickly they server may take a while to come back (I had to go get someone after 10 minutes once), then once you order youll have a decent wait ahead of you, and finally when you are done Ive also had a significant wait between them clearing most of the table and bringing me my check. All in all if you are there with friends and willing to chat for a bit its not unbearable but DO NOT expect to get in and out in under and hour and a half for ANY REASON. To top if off the waitstaff doesnt really seem unfriendly, just indifferent, they honestly just dont seem to care. I tried getting around these two issues by ordering to go on a few occasions and its not really any better. It always takes them longer than they say to get the food ready, and 2 out of the 3 times they got the order wrong. Overall, I still say its the best indian food in Jax and if you want indian then go here, but be prepared to spend some time there and either go with friends, or bring something to do.

A

A Private User

I worked in Fifth Element restaurant for two months. I had Very bad experience with the owners who are managing the restaurant. I would like to share my heart with the world. So that no one should go through this pain for peanut dollars by joining Fifth element. One fine day restaurant owner asked me to get about to expire meat from Chinese market and also vegetables from the Farmers market. I thought they will cook on the same day. But it didn’t get over for 3 days , cooked the same meat for next five days and served the food to customers. Some customers even complained they got vomting after they had food. Managment responded by saying will not repeat again . But they are asking me to bring about to expire (Or) expired meat and vegetables . Management cheating customers with the same expired food items. In the kitchen I used to see very unprofessional cooking. Mexican guys are serving the food on plates without washing hands before they cook anything and serve any thing on the plates. They used to serve with the very unhygienic hands. Owners don’t bother to instruct them. One pathetic thing I saw in kitchen was Chef used same cut table, Knife for chicken and Vegetables without wash. How an Veggie customer feel about this if he knows the fact. They used to run very huge buffet session every day. But it is 3 day, 4 days old food, just heating up with oven. Worst part is some time they mix Lamb items with the beef so often. (Which Indian hates). For the employees they pay very less and ask them to work for more hours and cheat on the hours employee do. They will not run any payroll. When I ask for pay roll they say we will do we will do. But we never know when they will do. Employee will get pissed off and has to leave restaurants. Same thing happened to me. I did work here for two months without payroll. They paid me only 120 hours out of 160 hours worked. Recently Fifth element bad experience with the Bank of America employees. Food got spoiled and they are paying the medical expenses by begging them but not sue the restaurants. After listening my story I will suggest no one to join this restaurant.-:(

MP

mpmo kramer

We made a visit on a Saturday evening. The atmosphere is okay but not really sanitary and bright. This was a little better than most of the Indian restaurants I have visited overseas, but it can be much better. The staff is awesome and very attentive. If you have never had Indian food, the wait staff we encountered did not want to intrude into your menu BUT if you ask they will happily explain and answer any questions. The menus were handed to us and really need to be cleaned. There was food stuck to the cover and pages, and they were a little sticky. The menu has a wonderful selection of food. You can find food for anyone - carnivore, vegan and gluten-free. We were a party of two and 5th Element starts with their traditional fried crackers served with tamarind sauce, green sauce and pickled onions. I really like putting all three sauces together at once. The sauces can easily stand on their own. We selected one order of samosas (2 total) and they were potato and peas. The flavors were great! I buried mine in the same mixture I used on the crackers - I really like all the flavors. As I always say, try the food first without any additional toppings then add what you like (or dont). Our entrees were Chicken Korma and Chana Masala and split them. We ordered naan with one and rice with the other. The naan was huge and pretty thick; the rice was plain, fluffy and aromatic. We both drank water best for keeping the heat down. I ordered the Chicken Korma in medium heat, and it was perfect - not too hot and not too mild. The flavors were awesome! One of the best Indian meals I have had back in the United States! Our bill was less than $30, and we were stuffed, by the time we left. Great food and great service. Well be back!

A

A Private User

We decided to try a new evening dining experience to celebrate an adult birthday - 5 of us went and NONE WAS DISAPPOINTED. Service was A+; Quality of food was A+; Cleanliness of dining area was A+; Cleanliness of Bathroom was A+; Ambiance was A, and only could have been better only with Indian music in the background. Many of the guests appeared to be locals with Indian ancestry, so I knew it was probably going to be a great experience before we sat down. We ordered the following: Tarashe Kebab; Chicken Makhani; Chicken Khorma; Chicken Biryani; and Lamb Samosa. We ordered all dishes with a medium spice, and none were too hot to handle, although if one doesnt like a spicy bite then should probably order it to be mild. The prices were comparable to Olive Garden, but I place the value and food quality of this made-to-order dishes higher than OG. If you are new to Indian food, or want to try something different, you cant go wrong here.