Dales Indian Cuisine

Reviews 5

DE

Delia D.

Ive been a regular customer at Dales for years because I like some of their dishes very much and am willing to put up with a lot (mainly in the form of inferior service) because imo the value of the buffet is good for the money. But yesterday I gave up. 1) The service is terrible. Even when I was the only customer there (which was often) I would have to ask for refills on my water. Usually there is no visible management presence and the wait staff doesnt ever speak English well enough to answer even the most simple questions. Of the dozens and dozens of times Ive eaten there, I can recall very few when I was seated immediately--even when there were empty tables. Usually I would stand around the front, sometimes for several minutes, until somebody bothered to notice me. As I said, Im willing to put up with a lot. 2) The buffet quality is highly undependable (I would always check it out before sitting down). Sometimes the food is so salty that all other flavors are overpowered; its obvious that the mixed-vegetable dishes are based on frozen vegetables; food is often mislabeled (Ive seen them try to pass off white rice for basmati rice); sometimes nearly all of the veggie dishes contain potatoes (a sure sign of cheapness on somebodys part); and the items are not kept stocked. If you show up less than an hour before the end of lunch service, you will pay the same price for notably fewer choices. 3) The owner and/or manager are not in any way receptive to comments or criticisms. Even when they seem to be friendly, they make it clear that they are doing YOU a favor by taking your money. And I have seen the owner be inexcusably rude to gay customers. 4) The last straw was finding human hair in my food. Once was bad but I overlooked it; twice was getting sickening; but yesterday I pulled a VERY LONG hair out of my plate. I walked to the back of the restaurant and had to knock on the kitchen door to get the managers attention (there was no wait staff or other employee in the dining room). I handed him the hair and all he could say was "Im sorry, I dont know how this happened." I told him I was sorry too and after I had paid for my lunch got him out of the kitchen AGAIN (the cashier didnt understand any of my requests for her to please go get him) and told him that from now on Ill be spending my money somewhere else. He had no response other than that he was sorry.

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KI

Kim Heartifilia

So I went in the other day for their lunch buffet. I made it just before they closed it down and I assured them I would be quick, which I was. The manager(?) who helped me was really nice and didnt make me feel bad for being late or anything. However, once he left for the day I received some of the worst service I have ever had. I was being served by a small Hispanic woman (didnt catch her name). When she brought my water, I asked politely if I could have flatbread. She walked away and said nothing. Assuming she didnt hear me, I tried again the next time she passed through. "Its coming," she said, interrupting me mid-sentence. So I waited, ate, and started to run low on cucumber sauce. She walked by again and I started to ask if I could have cucumber sauce brought from the kitchen when she interrupted me, "The buffet is CLOSED" and she walked away. I waited for her to come by again, and I said, "Well I was hoping that maybe I could have some brought out from the kitchen back there...?" She glared at me, rolled her eyes and said, "You want EXTRA sauce?" as if I had just asked her to commit some arduous task. She finally brought it out, I thanked her and she ignored me. Im a pretty nice person and Im not sure what I could have done to make her so unbelievably rude, but this sort of behavior is unacceptable. Ive worked in plenty of customer service driven jobs and this is NOT how you treat paying customers. The food is fine for what you pay but the service is atrocious. I dont even know how people like this get hired in the first place.

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JI

Jimmy Lowery

So I have always enjoyed the food at Dales when I have done takeout several times without issue. Tonight, I noticed that they offered delivery and I really felt like staying in so I thought I would give it a try... BIG MISTAKE!!! Apparently, the delivery map on the website is completely wrong. My address was well within the delivery area according to the map online so I placed my order. The estimated delivery time was 1 hour... a bit long but not a big deal. At 1 hour 15 minutes, I called just to check on the status. I was informed that the driver was on his way and it would be "5-10 minutes" 20 minutes later, the delivery driver called and told me that his GPS said it would take 30 minutes to get to my place (as I said, i get takeout there quite a bit and its 15 minutes TOPS) so, even though the food was already packed up and in the car... and it had been an hour and a half since I ordered, he would not be able to deliver. No explanation as to why they couldnt let me know sooner after the order was placed. So now, I still have to get dinner and its nearly two hours later. I do recommend the food but NOT the delivery or the service. Its like they just dont care whether people eat there or not. I did enjoy the food, but I will NEVER be going back to Dales after tonight.

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GR

Greg Byrne

I got take out and while the curry was good the rest of my experience was bad. First of all the person on the phone to take my order was pretty rude in general and after i said "and thats it" he just hung up. I called back just to confirm they got everything and after a good 40 seconds of ringing they finally picked up and seemed annoyed at me for checking. Once i got there the guy just didnt seem happy to see me and the place was completely dead at like 8:40 and im not surprised looking at the other reviews. the curry was good but the nan bread was pretty awful. That may have been because i accidentally ordered from the wrong location (i live closed to the "RTP" one but ordered from here because i live in durham rather than RTP) and it took me 20 min to get there and back. Thats my fault though.

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Rebekka Olsen

Ive been going to Dales for about 10 years. (There is also a Dales in Greenville) Today will be my last visit. As usual, they were in no rush to serve us. Got our drink orders wrong. Brought out the bread well over half-way through our meal. We were there for the lunch buffet. I got a small bowl of the raita (yogurt based sauce). I dipped a veggie pakora in it and popped it in my mouth. I immediately spit the contents of the food onto my plate. The sauce was SO spoiled that it tasted like it was fermenting. I immediately told the owner. He apologized. Left the raita on our table. Left my plate with spit up on my table. Never came back to our table. When we were leaving he explained this happens all the time in restaurants and that I was just looking for a free meal.

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