I’m writing this review after observing this chain of restaurants over a period of almost two years. I used to love Mast Kalandar a lot when they opened a few years back in Bangalore and was regular at their Bannerghatta Road outlet. But in last couple of years they have gone from bad to worse.
Some of the things I’ve noticed:
The restaurant staff appears untrained (can’t communicate properly) and quite poor in the services ( a case in point is discussed at the end of this post). - There is almost always a problem with their ordering whether you are dining in house or ordering home delivery. I’ve witnessed this multiple times. On home delivery the food almost always arrives cold (even though I live just 3-4 minutes away from the closest outlet). When dining in house you have to remind them multiple times to get your order. The whole system appears to be very adhoc.
There is a depressive feeling about most of their places although they choose very vibrant colors for their outlets. I dont know if its the hygiene, the staff appearance, the decor or combo of these.. There is no camaraderie.. I don’t know if its only me but whenever I visit, it appears that there is gun on everybody ’s head - be it the clients or the servers... To me a sit-in restaurant should be a happy place.. should have some energy, some vibrancy...
Half of the menu options are almost never available (so why they are there in the first place ??)
And the biggest disappointment is their food quality. Their biggest USP based on which, in my opinion, this chain flourished in their earlier days. Its going from bad to worse by the day.
Now, sample this - a recent incident from the home delivery I ordered from their marthahalli Outlet on a weekday (which is about 2-3 minutes away from where I live).. Ordered at 1:15 PM - called up at 2:00 PM - apparently the guy had forgotten about the order & was fumbling; promised to deliver within 5 min. food arrived at 2:20 PM but guess what - a wrong order but he managed to bring the right bill. Called up the restaurant - they guy at the other end listened to me for a couple of minutes, called up another number simultaneously & started shouting at the other guy without putting me on hold/asking to call back. and then to top it... disconnected the phone without even telling me when & if the food will arrive (come on.. seriously ??). My subsequent calls were not answered (thanks to Caller ID)...
Just to end this story.. the food did arrive finally - on 2:45 PM a good 1.5 hours of ordering which I turned back as I had finished my lunch by that time.
The question to be asked .. is this how you treat a customer in service industry ?
Please note that my review is not based on this incident alone. Only that this was the worst of the lot. I had refrained so long from writing this, hoping they would realize & improve some day. After all I used to love this place.
And the owners are ex-techies. Fellows from my industry. I was hoping they would be more open to feedback (being rational, educated guys and all..)
But when I posted this incident on their Facebook wall, they deleted the post within 5 minutes. This shows how serious they are about customer feedback.
I’ve seen telecom/ car companies being brave enough to accept negative feedback and trying to resolve/reply positively to adverse comments on Facebook. They have much bigger business at stake..
I guess they are targeting for a place in the high -end road side dhaba segment which is mostly reliant on walk-in customers and almost no repeat business. Though I still feel the road side dhaba offers a better customer service and probably better tasting food as well.