shradha doshi
Google
In today’s world, customer experience and fair, transparent access are everything — especially for high-demand venues. That’s what builds trust, loyalty, and real brand love. Unfortunately, Papas Bombay completely missed the mark here.
Let me walk you through what happened.
The reservation portal was supposed to open at 11:00 AM sharp for August bookings. I was ready on multiple devices, with cards and dates lined up. But exactly at 11:00:05 AM, it already showed “Sold Out” for every single date in the entire month.
How is it even technically possible for all August reservations to disappear in under 5 milli seconds? Either the system isn’t robust, or something very shady is going on. Of course, Papas blamed a “technical glitch.”
Still, we persisted. After multiple failed payment attempts, money debited from cards, refreshing tabs on different devices, and a whole lot of stress, we finally got a confirmation at 11:17 AM for a table for 4 from one device. We were thrilled — this was meant to be a special birthday celebration, and we were happy to splurge on an experience we’d heard so much about.
But that happiness didn’t last long.
At around 8:30–9:00 PM the same evening, I received a cold email from District Zomato stating that our confirmed reservation was being cancelled because the restaurant was full — and our confirmation was apparently another technical glitch.
No logic offered. No explanation about which algorithm or criteria decided which confirmations to cancel and which to keep. A note saying, “Sorry, the restaurant is full and your confirmation was a technical glitch”
I even suggested they open fresh bookings for August, considering their glitch ( this does happen) , to ensure a fair chance for all guests, but that was met with silence. Yes, they apologized — but apologies don’t fix poor decisions or the lack of transparency.
If only they had done the right thing — cancelled all confirmations, informed everyone, and reopened slots fairly. That would’ve been understandable. Instead, they made us feel like we were filtered out of some mysterious guest list, and our occasion didn’t matter.
I’m sure the food at Papas Bombay is excellent. But great food doesn’t excuse poor customer handling, and that’s where they truly fell short.
Good luck to them — I’m sure they’ll continue to serve VIP guests and celebs well. But for the rest of us?
PS: Pictures attached in the order of the actual event as it happened.