Complaint Review: Ravi - New Jersey

A humiliating and frustrating experience at the so called "popular" Moghul Indian Restaurant in Edison, New Jersey, USA.

My wife and I visited Moghul in the eve of our wedding anniversary in February 2001. Actually, we were in two minds, whether to go for Indianized Chinese food or for North Indian food that night. Debating where to go, we made one of the worst decisions we could make in our lives - choose to go to Moghul in Edison, NJ. The reasons were i) we'd never been there ii) seemed very popular in NJ area and iii) was heavily crowded whenever we went near that area.

It was quite crowded that night as well. We were told that our wait will be for 30 minutes or so. We again thought of going somewhere else, but decided against it & waited (another dumb thing we did that night). Seats were becoming empty - mainly 4 seaters. But we (2 of us) would never be seated on a 4-seater table, where are four or even three people (third person could be even an infant!@) were seated way ahead of us. If you came as 5 or 6 or 8, you would have been seated instantly! We were told that one should come in a group of 3 or more to get seated faster (because 4-seater tables were much greater than 2-seater tables). I've been to several restaurants in my life, Indian or otherwise. No where that my person who accompanied me and I had to wait because 2-seaters weren't available while 4-seaters were readily available. Moghul employees termed this ridiculous strategy as " their rules & norms".

We waited for 45 minutes and finally sat down. Person who took the order would force us to order everything in one shot, even if we had to wait & see if items already ordered were too filling or not. We made our choices very quickly (we're d**n hungry) and placed our orders. We waited another 50 minutes before we got our food! An interesting point to note is that the person who took our orders, one who served water, papadams, and mango drink, and the one who served naan/curry/salad were three different persons!

We jumped on it and we started with our naan, paneer curry, and green salad. Minutes later, we took some of potato curry and figured that it was TOOOOOOO salty to eat. We let the bearer (who brought us the naan/curry) know that curry was too salty. He nodded his head and took away that curry. Logically, 99.9999999999% of the restaurant guys will exclude items such as "toooooooo salty curry" while billing customers. Moghul was in the 0.0000000001% (!@@). When we enquired why so, we were told all kinds of reasons, "you should have told the person who took orders", "you complained too late", "we will correct it next time you visit us"!! We talked to about two or three people and everyone repeated same set of reasons.

When I asked if they didn't care for customer feedback or customer satisfaction, employees over there wouldn't give a straight answer. They would say "we will adjust next time Sir". When I went " I am not sure if I would visit you another time", no response at all from them. We HAD to pay the full amount and we decided not to pay any tips (due to this sub-standard service and overall below-average food items, and arrogance of the bearers). The bearer lifted the visa slip, the pad and the pen. When he saw no tips, he threw away the pen just to the side of us (thank god, not on us!) as a way to show his anger. Entire restaurant was watching these scenes.

We came back with a heavier heart (instead of heavier/fuller stomach!). We couldn't help noticing that Non-Indians (especially caucatians who were majority among non-indians) were given red-carpet welcome and treatment, by the same bearer & other employees. We talked to a few other Indian guys about it in the restaurant and we were told "this is how it is, we must come when it is not this crowded". I just couldn't agree to their attempts to consoling one another. This is a perfect example of ANTIRACISM where persons from Indian origin ill-treat people of their own, even if they happen to be customers who help them keep their jobs/business!!!

I will never visit Moghul, Edison NJ another time. If any of the above affects your heart, please boycott visiting this place to let them know that there are some people who "care" about and are "sensitive" to some ethics, fairness, and values in life.

Thanks for your patient reading.