TNH

Before you read this, please know: I usually cook at home and love cooking.. but last night My friends convinced me to order out for a treat. Last night two friends and I decided to order from Foodshop 45. The menu looked good. :-Đ One of my roommates used to regularly order from here. He said it was delicious. And it looked good in his past orders... My other friend was talking this place up like it was gold. So we went online to order. We figured it might be easier to communicate through simple numbers with check-out instead of trying to tell them our whole order over the phone. We ordered: 1 Plain Nan, 1 Masala Nan, 2 garlic nan,2 spinach chicken curries, 1 beef Vandaloo and 1 Tarka Dhal. The prices online were a little above what was on our menu, which isn't so old. No big deal. It still sounded wonderful. When the delivery man arrived, we were so happy.... he had come early. My friend paid him and gave him a generous tip. We got: 1 beef vandaloo, 1 vegetarian thing that was unrecognizable, and 3 nan.... 1 plain, 1 garlic, and some new one.... We called back. Where was our other Nan? Where were the 2 chicken curries? Where was the Tarka Dhal? The guy came back again... and he was friendly, mind you... so that's why they get two stars. He gave us 2 chicken curries. We called again. They insisted they gave us all of the order and the proper order. The receipt was correct. The order was all wrong. To make things even better... the "spicy" beef vandaloo needs more spice. Needless to say, me nor my friends will be ordering from here any longer. Cooking at home is much, much better.

The fish we got delivered was rotten. We called to request a refund. They passed the phone around and said the manager would call us back. He/She never did.

To the manager: You should prioritize food safety issues and get on the phone. Or you should hire staff who give you your messages.

OK, yes, the prices have gone up. Up until a few months ago, a meal not including a heap of beers was the same price as local street food! Where have the prices not gone up?

The curries have always been bland enough, but not many (if any) complaints because it was cheap? Yep, my favorite local spot has hit the big time and i won't be enjoying cheap Indian food so often, but that extension on the third floor has to pay for itself!

As many others have noted, there's recently been a hefty price rise which makes Foodshop 45 a much less attractive proposition than it used to be. Prior to, it was worth visiting as it was 35-40% cheaper than the "real" Indian restaurants which have Indian owners/chefs, ie. Khazaana (before Gopi left and it was good), Tandoor (which has been rubbish for years) and of course the flagship Indian restaurant in town, Namaste.

These days, Foodshop 45's prices are on a par with Namaste's, but the curries simply don't come close. You've always had to know what to order at Foodshop 45, as a good 50% of the curries are bland - bland! bland curries! wtf? - the standout bland curry being the saag (spinach sauce) curry. When done well this can be amazing, but Foodshop 45's has the appearance and consistency of what you'd find in a soiled nappy, and it tastes of nothing. Which I guess is an improvement on what you'd find in a soiled nappy, but still. You get the point.

On the positive side, Foodshop 45's kebabs are good. In particular, the kalmi kebab is amazing. And some of their curries are decent. I generally order the kadhai curry, as I find it to be the most flavoursome. However, it doesn't even come close to the spice flavour complexity that you'd find in a curry from Namaste.

Yes, the service is decent and the owner, Hue, is perennially hospitable and charming. But I just can't justify visiting Foodshop 45 anymore when I can go to Namaste, pay pretty much the same money and get a far, far superior Indian cuisine experience.

Sorry Foodshop 45, but your recent price rise has pushed you into the Hanoi curry premier league, where you're hopelessly outcompeted by Namaste. You really need to think about going back to being the cheaper alternative, because you aren't going to win on quality.

With the new prices it makes more sense to pay a little more from Namaste for twice the taste. I used Foodshop as the local quite often twice a week or more but now the value isn't there. The flavour isn't as high as Namaste or even Khazzana but they were quick and cheap. Well now there not cheap, they have been taking over 40 min for less than 1k away, and to top it off have made a few friends sick after. They have more sensitive stomachs being here only months but still happened a few times.