We had a family dinner last night at Masala 50+ guests. The service they gave was useless!! Made a few mistakes with some of the orders. We had to wait nearly 2 hours before they would take any orders from our tables, they kept telling us they were busy. Not good enough! If you want to make a group booking they can’t cope with it & from what I observed last night they could only manage 2 guests at a time. Really disgusted with the service & lack of it. Had a lot of unhappy guests & we will not be returning to this restaurant!

We had a wonderful family dining experience at this restaurant. Amazing value with the $10 main meals mon, tue and wed. I thought the restaurant was well presented, the white tablecloths gave the restaurant a fine dining feel. The food was delicious too.

I’ve been a Birkenhead local for 5 years and have seen the chefs come and go at all the local Indian restaurants. Masala has definitely stepped up it’s game lately so worth a crack. If you like very herby/spice indian try Indique around the corner.

I shouted my partner a meal at Birkenhead Masala on Fathers Day this year, as a treat.
He ordered Medium Butter Chicken, I ordered Mild Lemon Chicken, and x2 pieces of Garlic Naan. It totalled $37 and was a Takeaway meal.
I was disgusted with the quality of food we received. The Butter Chicken was Mild, not medium as requested and the Lemon Chicken was NOT what it should have been.
We used to live in Stanmore Bay and were very regular customers of their Masala Restaurant and have never had such a poor quality of food delivered!!
On writing a complaint letter to Masala, I have heard nothing in return, which in turn I feel goes to show what type of a restaurant they are running.
I would not recommend this particular Masala restaurant to anyone.
Incredibly poor quality of food, no response when a complaint is laid and a rip off at full price when what you receive is not what you ordered!!

Ordered from Masala after reading such neat things in the reviews but was horrified at the quality of the food and the lack of curry in the containers! (both were about half full)the Chicken Tika Masala & Beef Vindaloo were so bland and watery it was difficult to eat – the naan was the only good thing about the dish. For the price I was expecting a bit more. I won’t be eating from here again.

Have eaten at th birkenhead masala 2x now and have been pleased with my meal and the service both times.

The atmospheres very warm and inviting and the staff attentive and friendly.

I ordered a lamb masala the 1st time and good old butter chicken the next and received a good quantity of curry both times. The naan bread was also excellent! And so were the wedges!

Would definitely go again.

They have a spesh on every mon, tues and wed where mains are all 10 bucks! V good value for money!

I have been buying takeaway curry from here for a few years, has always been to die for and recently a few friends and I ate in restaurant for the first time, the setting is very warm and romantic, friendly staff, service was awesome, waited a little longer than would have liked for our meals, but worth it, my Chicken Tikka Masala was AMAZING…Thank you so much for delicious curry every time.

My girlfriend and I have been regular visitors to several of the Masala restaurants in Auckland (on average once a fortnight) for the last 2 1/2 years. This was our first visit to the Birkenhead restaurant.
We can say this was without a doubt the worst meal we have ever had at a Masala and probably the worst Indian meal anywhere. The food was actually an insult. The dishes were so watery and runny with very little ‘food’ actually in it. It looked and tasted as if it had been watered down with a mountain of butter. The dahl had about half the amount of lentils there should be; they were swimming in butter.
The staff were completely indifferent to our obvious disatissfaction.
Masala has a great concept but this place was a shocker. Not surprisingly, it was the quietest we have ever seen a Masala restaurant.

We ordered and collected the Banquet Menu for two people last night and were not impressed. The curries had been watered down so much they resembled soup and were virtually tasteless. We thought chicken must have been expensive that week as the butter chicken had 4 thumbnail morsels you had to dig around in the runny sauce to find. We won’t be back. Needless to say for a Friday night there was no-one in the restaurant.

I had been 2 Masala a few times and was happy with the service, premise and food.

Then in March of this year a big group of us went in on a busy Wednesday night.

We waited at least 45 minutes to even be served and the whole experience went downhill from there, the food was absoultely terrible – a friend’s chicken was obviously undercooked, naturally we complained and they offered a voucher – which we did not accept.

A few hours after leaving the resturant I became violently ill. This began a nightmare that lasted eight months !! I lost almost 20kgs in that time, missed copius amounts of work due to constant stomach problems and my doctors could not figure out what the problem was until recently (after many invasive and upsetting experiences!!) They have finally found that I have had a serious helicobacter pylori infection.

I do beleive that it began and was caused by the horrible food at Masala and I would never ever consider going there again, and cannot even walk past the building!!!!!!!

Just had a delightful lunch today.
The staff are just lovely and friendly. It was my mothers 88th b’day and they were so kind to her that it helped to make her day very special.Great food and do try their coffees. Delicious !

Have been to this restaurant couple of times. However the service is not up to the mark now days. They are quite busy on monday to wednesday. They do get lot of people, however they are comprimising on quality as you have to wait for hours for your meal….. Also the service is gone down.. Used to have good staff earlier who know you and know what kind of food you like.. But the new staff is inexperienced and lack customer service.. Would not recommend any more. At one time it was our favourite place to eat, but now everytime you go you have a bad experience especially when you order Dhal Curry…

My favourite Indian restaurant..! Service is superb meals are beautiful. The chicken korma dish is delicious as is lamb rogan josh. BYO too – woohoo!!!! Always return – great dining experience every time

I have been many indian restaurants in Auckland but I found this one is one of the top because of their good customer service and the exact taste of food, you will get what you after, now I am a regular customer here.

Had dinner at Masala with 3 other adults, evening of ANZAC Day 2011.
Choose 4 choices, everyone at our table enjoyed the food, wine, service and atmosphere!
We will be coming back soon. !

Everytime you go you will see the difference in quality, quantity and also the service. Its OK to go sometime but not recommended who likes to eat great indian food regularly.

Fantastic restaurant, great food and awesome value! only $10 Mon, Tue & Wends. Highly recommended!

The best curry I have had since moving to NZ…Thanks to the fantastic advice and service from our Great waiter BANSAL! I will definitely be back and will bring friends as well. Lovely atmosphere and great service.

Great food at very cheap prices.
Good service even if its busy.
Nice atmosphere

I had a great time… food and experience… lovely. $10 menu a bonus and whether it doesn’t include ALL MEALS is irrelevant! Great staff and service… I will definitely be back

Fantastic food along with great service. Best Indian cuisine we’ve had so far.

The food is OK, some of it is good, but seriously under spiced. Enormous TVs are very distracting. $10 mains should be ALL MAINS as stated in their advertising, not a section of their menu labelled as “All Mains” which excludes some main meals. If the restaurant persists in this misleading practice they will surely fall four of the commerce commission. Will not return.

The best indian i have had.
this is better than any London Brick lane curry and the price is great during the week. We have moved out of the area and travel back just to have a curry.

The lastest refurb makes outdoor dinning great in the summer with a cold beer.
would reccomend.

Whenever guests from overseas come to visit we include a visit to Masala as part of the ‘local experience’. The prices are extremely reasonable even if you don’t go on one of the $10 mains evenings and the atmosphere is great – but I go there because the food just can’t be beat – just remember to order “New Zealand Hot” if you like your curry mild or “Indian Hot” if you are a true curry lover!

Ive been to Masala restaurant at birkenhead a lot f times and have consistently recieved awsome service. They have amazing ambience. The food is really really yum and they have huge variety of food and drinks.
This is one of the best indian restaurants ever.

Moved to Birkenhead 2.5 years ago. This restaurant went from very good to very poor over a matter of a few months. Perhaps they changed the chef. Stopped going mid 2008, but then started again in 2009.

Something has changed and it is very much for the better. The food is now consistently very good and the new refurb really does set the scene. Glad we gave you a second chance.

Happy to recommend to all.

I have been going to this restaurant for as long it has been there and previously their one in Manly. Have always found the service to be excellent and I in my opinion they do the best Butter Chicken and Saagwala in the world!
Great value for money on their $10 mains nights (Mon, Tues & Wed). We used to get it delivered when we lived in Glenfield and was late a few times but we did not mind waiting for such good curry! We now live in Torbay and are happy to go to Birkenhead for what we consider to be the BEST CURRY!

Went there for takeaway butter chicken, Garlic naan had very little garlic, renovated rpemise looks good, the tree out front with the fairy lights looks great

My Partner and I went to Curry n Spice last night. Very nice clean,service was great, friendly, Meal was top rate first class, pricing was also great. I would go again. The Onion bajia was the best I’ve tasted. If this was a trade me feedback I’d give them a AAAAAAAAA+++++++++++, will be back soon.

After reading some of the negative comments I had to post this up.

I’ve been to Curry N Spice several times with my husband and friends since moving to Birkenhead and we have always had great and friendly service and great food to boot.

My husband is of Indian decent and my family has Fijian roots and we know good tasting curry when we have it and you certainly get that at Curry N Spice.

If you want a chilled out curry night that has BYO – this is the place to go if you are in Birkenhead.

Curry n Spice is a place where people come to relax, have a good time, and enjoy a great meal. We did too much enjoy with all the m8s and enjoy our yum food… When we walk in the door, they greeted us by a warm atmosphere, subtle music, and friendly and courteous staff…….
Host was hot, was smiley faces staff…too good…i will recommennd my more friends..
Gud luck..

This is the closest Indian restaurant to us yet sadly they have disappointed us too often and we now go all the way to Castor Bay for a decent curry.
The service when dining in is half-hearted and the food no better, often very salty.
I don’t normally put a place down so bluntly but we’ve given them several chances to get it right and it’s frustrating when your local Indian restaurant falls so far short.

EDIT: this review was written when the restaurant was under different management (and name – Curry & Spice), we’ve eaten here since and it is much improved, still not quite the authentic Indian dining I’m after. Will write another review if we go here again.

always add ten minutes to the pick up time, food is average, can not cope with big goups well and sometimes forget one of the items in the order