Yelpers « Kasa Indian Eatery Blog

How do I feel about Yelp? Hmmm. If I’m really honest, I would say we have an intense love/hate relationship.

Kasa Castro and Kasa Marina are blessed to have excellent Yelp ratings — “people love us on yelp”

— and many new customers find their way to our doors via Yelp. For this, I am grateful and LOVE Yelp.

I also LOVE Yelp when we get reviews where people get our concept, appreciate our passion and recognize the food’s authenticity and quality.

And even though one of the hardest things on this planet is to receive negative feedback, we carefully study feedback as it allows us to learn what we are doing well and ways we can improve. We also get to see how my staff is doing in delighting customers.

For all this, I also LOVE Yelp.

However (and you knew there’d be a however)….there are times when I want to tear my hair out, throw my laptop out the window and scream to no one in particular: “Come and say that to my face!” Or “Go get a life!” Or “What in the world are you talking about?” and “Clearly you are a vicious competitor posing as a Yelper!” (Whew, that felt good.)

Those outbursts are aimed at the small minority of Yelpers who have no idea about the topic that they have a strong negative opinion on.

My favourite examples are:

“The naan didn’t taste like naan.” –> That’s because we don’t serve naan. We serve roti.

“Why are they serving Mexican black beans?” –> We don’t serve black beans. We serve black lentils (daal). There are dozens of different types of lentils.

“Why are there white people serving us Indian food?” —> We live in the United States of America!

And my favourite most hated comment: “It’s Americanized Indian food.” –> It’s homestyle Indian food, different to what people may have tried before.

There isn’t much to do during these moments. My first reaction is to fume and feel hurt and disappointed that people don’t realize their flippant remarks affect the hard work and love that we put into our business. Eventually I get over it, read the review again to see if there is useful feedback and remember why I love Yelp.

But I do secretly wish that I could concoct my own 1 to 5 star rating of these handful of ignorant yelpers based on the following criterion:

1 – How cute were they?

2 – How funny were they?

3 – How cheap (with their tip)?

4 – How clean (did they buss their table)?

5 – How polite?

But who has time for that? I just get back to trying to delight each and every customer… and the love/hate relationship with Yelp continues…

After 16 months of being open, curiosity has finally gotten the better of me, and I google imaged ‘Prison Food Trays’. The reason for this strange search, is that one too many yelp reviewers have commented that they feel like they are eating on Prison trays. These comments have perplexed me for a while, as I have not really understood the link (thankfully having never eaten in Prison). Now that I see the picture, I see where the connection is coming from. Prison food is indeed served in compartmentalized trays, as is our food at Kasa.

I feel I must explain why we use these trays here at Kasa. It is a sign of huge respect to the majority of India who eat out of these trays every single day and have done so for centuries. Most especially the humbler economic classes. Nowadays, of course the wealthy people tend to use porcelain plates in an attempt to mimic the west and distinguish themselves from the poor. I also love the plates because they are extremely practical. They never ever break and often last a household a lifetime.

Our thalis, plates and bowls are all imported (via my very interesting cousin Kiwi) from India. I aim to be truly authentic, along with our food and serve it the way it is eaten in India for an entirely authentic experience. I would never have guessed that it would make people feel like they were eating like prisoners, or eating in an ultra modern plate (a separate confusion).

My hope is that some of those yelpers are able to read this blog and realize (just as I have done today) that it appears that the majority of India and prisoners in the US have something in common. They both eat out of compartmentalized trays:) On some level, I find this discovery extremely cool. The Thalis are a no nonsense, no frills, humble way to eat. I’m guessing that this is the reason for the trays in prison too. The only difference being that food outside of prison is hopefully cooked with love and care and a lot more delicious.

After 16 months of being open, curiosity finally got the better of me today and I googled ‘Prison Food Trays‘. The reason for this strange search is that one too many yelp reviewer (5 total) has commented that they feel like they are eating on prison trays at Kasa. These comments perplexed me for a while, as I haven’t understood the rationale (thankfully having never eaten in prison). Post Google search, I can see where the connection is coming from. Prison food is indeed served in compartmentalized trays, as is our food at Kasa.

Kasa Thali

Prison Tray

I feel I must explain why we serve our meals on metal trays (called a ‘Thali’) here at Kasa. We do it as an homage to the vast majority of people in India (many of humble socioeconomic status) who eat out of these trays each and every day and have done so for centuries. Nowadays, the wealthier classes in India tend to use porcelain plates in an attempt to mimic the West and distinguish themselves from the poor. But we love the metal thalis because they are extremely durable, never break and fit our vibe of being ultra-practical. We think they look pretty cool too…

Our thalis, plates and bowls are all imported from India with the help of my very interesting cousin Kiwi, to whom we owe many thanks as we had him searching for days on end for just the right sizes, weight, shininess, etc.

We aim to be true to the way Indians serve and eat food in their daily lives. I would never have guessed that the plates would make people feel like they were eating like prisoners, or even eating in an ultra modern place (a separate confusion that we hear occasionally).

My hope is that some of the Yelpers commenting about prison plates are able to read this blog and realize (just as I have done today) that it appears that the majority of India and prisoners in the US have something in common. They both eat out of compartmentalized trays :)

On some level, I find this discovery extremely cool. Thalis are a no-nonsense, no-frills, humble way to eat. I’m guessing that this is the reason for the trays in prison too. Hopefully, most of you find our actual food to be at least a cut above though…