Mela Indian Restaurant

70 N Lexington Ave, Asheville, NC 28801, USA

Location

Photos 100

Reviews 5

Tree M

We are visiting Asheville for the fall colors this weekend, and were craving some Indian food. So based on Google reviews, we decided to come to Mela Indian Restaurant. But we shouldve picked Chai and Pani instead. The restaurant itself has a good ambiance: good lighting, great artwork. But the tables were much too close together and both waitresses and customers kept bumping into our chairs on their way to the kitchens or the bathrooms. I liked the Halloween costumes too. We ordered mango lassis to drink and they were amazing. Thats where the 2 stars goes, because kudos to the divine quality of that drink. And I was really looking forward to slowly sipping it throughout my meal too, if it werent for the mirchi pakora appetizers we ordered. We thought it would be like the mirchi pakora we are used to from India, but it was a disaster! We all took a bite before we realized our huge mistake. The jalapeno peppers were RAW underneath a thin layer of fry. It was ridiculous! Who serves jalapeno raw? Can anyone eat that? We are used to very spicy food, but we could never eat something like that. We told our server, and she didnt seem too concerned (we were very considerate and remained polite - even through our watering eyes and burning throats). Anyway, to get rid of the burning fire in our mouths, we downed our lassis (+ three glasses of water) and didnt get to enjoy the drink. Maybe it was because we were full from drinking the lassis and water so fast, but we werent impressed with our entrees either. We ordered the Mela chicken curry and the Kerala fish curry. We are originally from Kerala so we were particularly excited for the latter dish. But the only thing Kerala about it was the coconut. For some reason it was a sweet curry. The Mela chicken curry was mediocre. The chicken pieces were much too large, stringy, and a bit dry. If youre making boneless chicken curry, you really should use smaller chicken pieces. But all could have been forgiven, if we didnt find out that we were charged the full amount for the appetizers we didnt eat + complained about. I dont really think its a sign of great customer service. Generally, if a customer is not satisfied with a product, they should not have to pay for it. So in summary, unless you just want a mango lassi to go, dont eat here.

Sreeroop Sen

Worst experience ever!!! There are fewer choices of lunch buffet over weekend. Even when we wanted to go A La Carte we were told they ran out of "Paneer" (Cottage Cheese equivalent) which is like a restaurant saying "I ran out of Chicken in my kitchen" on a Saturday prime time!!! Seriously!!! I have a photo taken of the grilled chicken leg ("Tandoori Chicken") and it was broiled to an extent where it is burnt to Carbon!! Severe health hazard!!!! I have taken the photo of it and am wondering how to add the photo to this review to prove what Im talking about here. Rest of the food were selectively good to taste - some were really good (such as the Assorted Veggies Fries) and some were bland (such as the Veggie Korma or even the one they call it "Butter Chicken"). The Dessert (some Payasam) tasted like having a sugar level of 11 out of a scale of 10. Nans were emptying out within 2 minutes in the buffet tray and they were not refilling it for more than over 10 minutes. net-net, except for the restaurant ambience, theres just nothing in this restaurant for which we would ever think of coming back there again, forget about recommending the place to our friends!! On top of all these, the server we got was not courteous!! When we asked her to help us reach out to the Floor Manager, she balantly came back after 5 mins saying "Everybody in the kitchen is busy, so theres nobody as a Manager who can listen to you at this moment". She came back with an attitude and saying "Do whatever you want to do"!! And all these after we waited for about 20 minutes out in the street just to grab a table inside!! So much for that!! I am going to report my experience to BBB and contemplating reaching out to Ashville Food Inspection office with the photo of the Grilled Chicken Leg I got!!! Please stay away from Mela!!!

Kent Wicker

A pretty good place. Good atmosphere, good service (in general; see below). The food is generally fine, Western-oriented Indian food. And my wifes lamb was some of the best lamb Ive ever tasted. However, my curry was not too impressive. Plus, there are no vegetables if you order a meat entree; you have to order either veg or meat -- you cant get both protein and veg as in a proper meal. Worse, I made it clear to our server that I have celiac disease, and cant eat gluten. She told me no problem -- but my entree came out with some crunchy stuff on top that had clearly been fried in a deep-fat fryer with glutenous stuff. Such things are not unusual -- but what alarmed me was her attitude: "Would you like me to take that off the top?" she asked -- as if that would somehow magically remove all of the gluten that it had already shed into my entree. I of course sent the entree back, but I didnt feel completely confident or comfortable accepting what she brought back later, knowing that the staff there is clearly not well-trained to deal with gluten or other allergen issues. (I note a recent Mela review on a different site in which someone with a nut allergy also got contaminated and taken ill.) So this is a place which might be good with just a bit of work.

Spring Dasgupta

This place is good or bad depending on what youre looking for. If you want cheap, authentic Indian food, this is not the place for you. If you want quality, Americanized Indian food, this is the place for you. I believe this restaurant is more geared towards Americans, and that was 90% of the crowd when we ate here for dinner. (Yes, Im American, but I like spicy food.) We had lamb curry and salmon kabob. The lamb was from New Zealand, and the salmon was wild Atlantic--so very good quality meat. And my husband was really impressed with the quantity of the lamb, too. The salmon was basically blackened salmon--not a kabob--but delicious. Each plate came with some sides, like rice, salad, sambar--displayed as you would see in an American restaurant. The food was quite bland, and unfortunately there were no salt shakers. We got the hot (spicy) lamb, but I would consider it medium. If someone is scared of spice, then they dont have to be afraid to come here. Plates cost upwards of $16, but they are quite large and two people can share one plate. We had leftovers.

Anonymous User

We arrived at 7:55 for our 8PM reservation on an extremely busy Saturday night. We earlier made reservations because we knew that the wait would be too long on this holiday weekend night. The hostess at the door informed us they were busy and that although there was a table ready for us, she had just given it away to a couple who had walked in without reservations, but had been waiting longer than we had. I asked Einstein why they accepted reservations if they didnt plan to honor them. She replied "Reservations dont mean anything." I asked to speak with the manager, only to be told that she was too busy to speak to me. I have no idea how good or bad the food is and dont care. I have a really good idea that the management is horrible and that is never a good sign for a service business, let alone a restaurant. My strong suggestion is to find another Indian restaurant in Asheville. Also, the place was really HOT inside. Others have made the same observation.