Tasty chicken is what a lot of tourists try here. Guests visit this cafe to try delicious masala chai or great bubble tea. The great location of The Tea Junction makes it easy to reach by any transport. The patient staff works hard, stays positive and makes this place wonderful. Enjoyable service is something that visitors note in their reviews. From the guests' viewpoint, prices are moderate. The peaceful atmosphere adds a relaxing feel to a clients' stay at this place. But many clients who use Google didn't give this spot a high rating.
I don't mean to offend any big conglomerates or hi-fi chains and I have nothing against them as well but somehow in my own travels for tastes, I've always felt that I came across the best ones in the really inconspicuous locations and shops -- most not registered with Zomato or with Internet.
The same is the case with my travel in Siliguri, West Bengal region as well. With the view of visiting City Center, which is like the best available option for the mall in here, we travelled to Matigara, and to be honest was really happy to see the Tea Junction's outlet.
Currently there is one small dukan just outside but I was really attracted to the one inside the City Center on the ground floor, due to the ambience it had . Went inside the same but didn't really get a good service as expected. We waited at the counter for quite sometime , with a view of ordering and then noticed the sight --- there were two cockroaches roaming clearly on top of the Vegetable Puffs, in display.
The one with me just ran out of the shop on seeing it and we decided not to eat anything from the display. But still I thought of giving one more chance to them by telling them ' what I had seen' and the guy at the billing took the entire section of veg puffs out of the glasses and kept it outside. He didn't even bother to clean or check the display of other foods again.
Although both of us were grossed out by what had happened, I thought of calming my taste buds with the satisfaction of the chai. I ordered one of their fancy chai ---- Kesari Chai, for which I had to wait at the billing for 5 minutes again, to bill.
I paid 60 Rs and tea came in a fancy earthen glass. It was pleasing to the eye. But I must say the entire display was just to hoodwink the customers. Even when they state it's Kesari, they don't really add adequate Kesar and I felt really violated with this chai for the sixty plus odd rupees I paid. We actually saw them reselling the puffs to unsuspecting 'victims' who came into the shop even though they saw with their own eyes the cockroaches.
In total it was a very bad experience for me. Normally you'd see people putting 1 star out of some fight or rift they had with the people at shop.
THIS 1 STAR FROM MY SIDE IS BEACUSE OF THE VERY POOR AND BELOW THE STANDARD CLEANLINESS OF THE FOOD, FOOD HANDLING & CUSTOMER SERVICE OF THE TEA JUNCTION.
I request you to not mix the southie-northie thoughts and prejudices in here, to this review. Maybe you have been to Tea Junction many a time and you might not have felt this kind of a problem and might think that I'm exaggerating. But let me tell you, I've been to other places like SHUBANG'S MOMO SHOP in Pradhan Nagar & felt heaven there, even though the entire shop is smaller than a studio apartment, so I blog what I have felt & often I blog other's experience as well.
Being an avid blogger in @zomato for quite sometime now, I believe and would like to UNDERLINE the fact that when a shop gets enrolled / registered into a food platform like Zomato , they ought to keep a minimum level of cleanliness and hygiene and customer expectations.
Or another words THE ONE STAR I GAVE is only because of the ambience they have set up in the city centre with all the bright yellow / orange combo and the fact that they accept food cards as well.
√ CLEANLINESS :: 1/5
√ FOOD HANDLING :: 2/5
√ CUSTOMER HANDLING / ATTENDING TO CUSTOMER :: 1.5/2
√ OVERALL HYGIENE :: 2/5
√ FOOD QUALITY :: 2/5 ( most food items & beverages listed doesn't really live up to their set prices in our taste buds )