Cardamom Restaurant
| Address: | 1739 Plymouth Rd, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, USA |
| Phone: | +1 734-662-2877 |
| Site: | cardamoma2.com |
| Rating: | 4.3 |
| Working: | Closed 11AM–3PM 11AM–3PM 11AM–3PM 11AM–3PM 11AM–3PM 11AM–3PM |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 5
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Ryan Reusche
I stopped in to get a gift card for $40. The employee seemed very confused at how to get a gift card activated. After 10 minutes of waiting the employee went and got a second employee. This employee now worked on activating a gift card and took my credit card to pay for it. After another 15 minutes of waiting (verified by receipt showing gift card was swiped at 5:54 and I didnt leave till after 6:15) The employee had said they finally figure things out, handed me my receipts and had me go on my way. When I got home I noticed I could check my gift card balance inline, and decided to verify the gift card had a proper balance, as I knew there were many problems between these two employees "attempting" to activate a gift card for me. This is important as it is a gift to a college student who would not have necessarily had $40 cash on hand to pay for the meal, and if they showed up and the gift card didnt work they would be in trouble after eating to discover the gift card they received had NO balance on it. As I anticipated (after the mess of dealing with two undertrained employees) a gift card had a zero dollar balance. After calling they told me they would call back and a manager called me about 10 minutes later. The manager informed me that the Second employee did not charge my credit card because the line that they used to do gift cards shares one with the phone and the phone was busy taking orders. Therefore they never activated the gift card because they didnt charge my credit card and they sent me on the way. How horrible is this I would have felt like a fool giving a $40 gift to someone only to have them later tell me that there was no money on the card. Cardamom did not apologize to me for the thought of this being a "gift" to someone. The manager simply said Im sorry that there wasnt money on you card card and I can take your credit card number over the phone and activate the gift card (greedy for money). Needless to say I did not buy the gift card. Why, after over a half hour in-store, followed by having to make a phone call from my home would I trust that the employees who could not even activate a gift card are trained well enough to operate a kitchen in a sanitary fashion and treat someone to a meal with good customer service (clearly I didnt get any customer service for trying to buy a gift card)? Very disappointed.
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Blayache Burnside
Originally (over a year ago) I had given Cardamom a 5 star rating. Over the last 6 months or so we have noticed their service has diminished. We go right at 5 when they open for dinner to avoid a wait time. We were seared right away, but without menus. Apparently they have a shortage of menus? We ordered drinks from the bar, a couple apps and our meals right away so we could give up our menus. Apps came before drinks, and we asked for plates and didnt get any, which wasnt a big deal to eat from the app plates but we were sharing apps. Drinks came. My dates drinks were fine, but I had ordered their "ultimate gin and tonic" that was suppose to have fancy additions of mango stuff, but it was a regular gin and tonic. We were charged the full $11 amount for the regular gin and tonic which is how much their ultimate is. Overall food is great, but drinks were subpar. Service is their worst quality. They have lots of employees (servers, food runners, "water persons," and bus people) but service so so slow and always has been. They have so many people waiting for a seat and they take 15 minutes to cash you out. Its bad. We were there for 1 hr 45 minutes, which should have been a 1 hr visit. When you let the staff know of your unsatisfaction, they never seem to care. There have been times in the past and now when weve expressed our thoughts and they seem to be "so far up their own butts" to care. If Im spending $80-$110 on dinner and drinks I think my thoughts and concerns should be addressed.
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Nancy Quay
UPDATE on 6/1/2017: The restaurant owner contacted me today. My concerns were addressed, and I feel confident that our next visit will be much better. Kudos to Mr. Dhakal for responding to my communication in a validating, positive way. Mistakes can always happen--what matters most is how they are rectified. Mr. Dhakal did a very good job of service recovery. Thank you. Weve been frequent diners at Cardamom but will be no more...at least until they clean up their act. We tried twice to contact the restaurant with feedback and they did not respond. Our experience has been good until recently. We waited 90 minutes for our entrees last week...people who had been seated long after us ate and left before we received our food. The explanation for the late service was that it took a long time to bake the salmon. Strangely, the salmon was raw in the middle when it arrived. And the bar...once they had a good bartender, who knew the specialty drinks on the menu. They now have a bartender who makes mistakes, and then blames the customer for his mistakes. He is surly, seems overwhelmed by the pace, and doesnt have a good sense of customer service. This was once a great restaurant, and we have introduced countless family and friends to it. Now...its just another overpriced restaurant looking for the tourist trade, i.e. one-time diners. It wouldnt be that hard to fix things, but the lack of response leads one to believe they dont care enough to do so.
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Jessica Rosenberg
I was expecting a 5-star meal based on the other Yelp reviews, and while it wasnt that, a 4-star review aint too bad! We went to Cardamom around 7pm on a Saturday night and the place was BUSY. Every single table was taken, and there was a 30-minute wait. We waited it out, hanging out at the bookstore right next door. The service here was okay. LOTS of water filling, but little of anything else. The food was quite tasty. We had some lamb, chicken, and vegetable biryani. Plus lots of naan. Each dish packed in a lot of flavor, and the serving sizes were fine. Some pieces felt a bit off (the raita was too sweet, the sweet specialty naan was a little underwhelming), but overall the meal was reliable and enjoyable. Suffice it to say that we scraped the plates. I will happily come back to Cardamom, though would avoid a busy time. The restaurant has a small bench inside where guests can wait, but otherwise its a tight space. It was cold and snowing outside, so everyone waiting packed inside... we were standing over people who were eating, and everyone within eyeshot of the door had their coats on because too much cold air was coming in. I hope this place adds in a second door or a waiting area in their outdoor seating (just pop in some heaters!)--that would solve a lot of their problems.
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Peter Nagourney
Cardamon: the art of creating an appetizing menu. Promise “Fresh Indian” and “cooking your food to order – really!” I’ve been enjoying Indian food for over 45 years – in London, in India, in New York, and in Ann Arbor. Tonight was a real surprise. Party of four, but table set for three, silverware comes only on request, the forth starter plate never arrives. The Momos were fine, although served warm on a cold plate. The prantha bread tasted like cardboard, and might have been days or weeks old. It never should have left the kitchen. We had four curries: the Goat Dhansak had little taste; the Rogan Josh was good; the Seafood Korma had a nice sauce, although skimpy on the seafood; the Bindi Masala came out obviously burnt. All curries served on cold dishes. The rice had been sitting for a while, and was clumped on the plate. The “Fever-Tree brand award-winning ginger beer” was never served from a bottle, and instead was a weak bar drink. This restaurant can’t rest on past reviews without paying attention to service and food quality. Or else reprint the menu to reflect its current status as just another curry joint. Expensive and disappointing.
