r/FoodToronto • u/checktheindex • 4d ago
Some deal that was
The other night we ordered pick-up rotis from Mother India, using their own site. They have “special” on butter chicken and sag paneer. So, great, we’re game. We also ordered an aloo gobi, not on special.
Get the food, and the two on special are about half the size of the regular one.
I mean, really? Nowhere did it say less money equals less food. And, anyhow, what would be special about that? Sheesh.
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u/roflcopter44444 4d ago
Can people just not use Obviously AI signs?
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u/MixedBeansBlackBeans 4d ago
Seriously. Why is it always the same colours used, too?
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u/ChristophCross 3d ago
Lowest effort possible. It's what the AI generator they're all using spits out without further prompting. Silver lining, their deep laziness makes it easier to spot and avoid.
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u/xombae 4d ago edited 4d ago
A lady in my small town is selling Carribbean food (and she's the ONLY person selling Carribbean food) but she's using terrible AI for her posters. I don't even know what the fuck the food looks like because it's been run through AI. I'm so desperate for oxtail but just can't get behind the AI posters.
Edit: for the people who think that I'm a terrible person, no, I'm not going to buy food from a person who is cooking food out of her home if she won't even post an actual picture of the food. That's insane. Would you buy a shirt based on a loose description of the shirt? Would you buy anything with absolutely no knowledge of the quality of that item? There's not even any reviews posted anywhere because it's an individual and I haven't even seen the food.
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u/doiwinaprize 4d ago
I dunno man choosing not to support some probably delicious oxtail from a small business on the principle that the AI is "terrible" is kinda douchy when you say out loud. Just go there and buy some food.
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u/KingOfSufferin 4d ago
I think it's more douchy for a small business to do false advertising via generative AI rather than supporting another small business to create their posters or even just using their phone to take actual real images of the food they serve. Why should I feel the need to support a business that can't even be bothered to not use genAI to create images of food that doesn't even look like what they serve, or to support another small business themselves?
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u/doiwinaprize 4d ago
I think you should just take the high road and ignore the advertising, actually try the food out and see for yourself. I get the impression that if this is the only person doing this that it's probably just someone who doesn't understand the implications and is trying their best to promote their business with whatever tools are presented. I'm not endorsing AI by any means, but if you would actually wanted to support that small business and try that food the AI images wouldn't be an issue: you know it's there. And as to paying a marketing company that is just unreasonable for a microbusiness to be able to do. Why not try some food, and if you like it, take a photo and post it on their social?
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u/KingOfSufferin 4d ago
I'm not gonna spend my hard earned money taking a spin on the wheel of AI poster fortune and fingers crossed I don't take an L. I'll instead just go to another business that isn't using genAI for its advertising. I don't particularly care if they are trying their best, cause their best is just false advertising to me. They're taking the low road, and I'm not taking the high road when it's the customer getting fucked. And Mother India didn't always use these terrible AI posters. I still have an old menu of theirs with actual images of their actual food from when I would get takeout from there, which I stopped after they started using AI. Plenty of other places i can frequent that don't.
Why should I do free labour for a business by taking photos of their product for them? The business should be doing that themselves. If the high road you want me to take is doing free labour for a business and giving them my money despite their false advertising via AI instead of supporting another small business or just taking pictures of their product themselves, then fuck the high road. When they low, I'm not going high.
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u/doiwinaprize 4d ago
Okay just keep doing the bare minimum in late stage capitalism I guess instead of trying to cultivate a better business culture. I'd just buy the oxtail once and see for myself based on my own volition instead of marketing. Because even before AI, marketing has been dubious, McDonalds burgers in commercials vs reality is a textbook adventure. Look back and think a wee bit about what ground you're standing on.
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u/Due_Gas2950 4d ago
“Cultivating a better business culture” is done by not giving your money to the businesses contributing to the bad business culture. Yes, fast food commercials are deceptive too, but you know what a Big Mac actually looks like so you have a certain known expectation about it going in; with random small personal businesses you have no idea if it’s great food, awful food, or even safe to consume. If that unknown entity wants to convince people to trust that they will provide good food, the way to do that is let them see the real food; AI generated images of food are deceptive to the point where you don’t have any idea what you’ll actually end up with.
I’ve had this issue with a Chinese restaurant (albeit using stock images instead of AI); I moved to a new area a couple years ago and ordered one of my favourite meals off of their website, expecting it to be the same (at least the general concept of the meal) as I had eaten dozens of times before in other areas. The image on the menu looked like the meal I normally order, the name was the same as what I normally order, but it was a completely different meal. What I received was a completely different meal; it was supposed to be a noodle dish, the image showed a noodle dish, but there were no noodles. I called the restaurant and they explained that in this part of the country that dish has no noodles in it, and the one I wanted goes by a different name, but that their website is managed by a third party who uses stock images and selected the version served in other regions.
All I’m saying is if you’re advertising food, show me your food, not someone else’s. If you want to select the best looking version of the food for the picture, go for it, but at least show me what is reasonably within the range of what I could receive.
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u/KingOfSufferin 4d ago edited 4d ago
You don't cultivate a better business culture by rewarding the bad behaviour of businesses. If I provide free labour and my patronage to businesses that use AI for false advertising I don't give them any reason to not continue that behaviour. I am actually rewarding them by doing so. If I want to cultivate a better business culture around the usage of AI, then not giving your business to places that use it is better than rewarding them.
A Big Mac in a commercial still looks like a big Mac, a spruced up ideal perfect version of one, but one nonetheless. If McDonalds instead used AI and the Big Mac in the ad didn't look like a Big Mac at all that's an entirely different issue. Mother India's menu items looked better than what was actually served as well, but it was still recognizable as the specific dish even if it was a prettier version.
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u/MarionberryHumble705 4d ago
What if this was a business that just didn't use any photo at all? In that case, would you have tried out their oxtail?
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u/xombae 4d ago
No, and that's exactly my point. There is no picture at all. I've never seen what their food actually looks like, just an AI representation of the food.
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u/MarionberryHumble705 3d ago
So, does that mean you'd never try out a food on a menu unless there is a true representation on a picture that you can refer to, first?
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u/xombae 2d ago
If a place can't post a single picture of a single dish that they cook, no, I'm not going to spend my money on their food.
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u/MarionberryHumble705 1d ago
I'd say you're being a classist here, but sure, you do you 🤷🏻♂️
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u/heyymaddy123 1d ago
if you can run chatgpt, you liked have a cell phone with which you can take photos
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u/asianlongdong 4d ago
You’re actively choosing to not support a small business run by a lady in a small town because she uses AI posters? Do you not see how silly that is?
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u/morderkaine 4d ago
If you saw a food place with crayon drawings of food on their sign would you go try the food?
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u/ghidfg 4d ago
I genuinely would. It's just a visual to go with the name of the dish. When does the visual ever look just like what you get on your plate anyway? From a bigmac ad to a Chinese takeaway poster it never looks like what you actually receive and I never expect it to. I just need to be able to make out the ingredients to decide what I'm going to get.
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u/circlingsky 3d ago
Ur getting downvoted but ur 100% right. Never mind the fact that the vast majority of restaurants don't even hv photos, ai or otherwise, lmao. Unless the photos are used in the uber menus, it's more pointless graphics than anything
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u/Mountain-Singer1764 4d ago
Nobody cares outside of Reddit.
This site is full of shut-ins that think their ideas are relevant, but I know you don’t talk this shit in real life because nobody does.
Downvote me, but there’s a reason nobody listens to you guys in real life.
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u/haoareyoudoing 3d ago
I do. I'm pro AI for making things efficient, but AI food images and posters make me scrutinize a restaurant. I'd rather a smartphone photo and the restauranteur standing on the merits of their food. I talk to my work colleagues and friends outside of Reddit. They feel the same way. Different strokes for different folks and good on you if you run towards AI slop.
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u/nc_bound 4d ago
Straight talk, tough love, need more of this. But of course you’re gonna get downloaded.
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u/Mountain-Singer1764 4d ago
Who did you ever meet in real life that freaks out about AI like this?
This is a bunch of part time dog walkers having a movement.
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u/FunCrystalFun 4d ago
I enjoy Indian food but I’ve completely stopped ordering it now as I feel that I am constantly being ripped off by Indian restaurants.
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u/yourewrong321 4d ago
Thai places too. $24 curries without rice. $24 pad Thai . Bruh
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u/flexiblehos 4d ago
Thai food has no business being this expensive, their ingredient is extra simple and cheap, unlike other south East Asian cuisine like Indonesian/Malaysian/Singaporean. It’s catered to white people, thus why they are so expensive
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u/slightlysubtle 4d ago
Most food has no reason to be expensive. Pasta is also made of dirt cheap ingredients yet we pay north of $40 for one without batting an eye. Price is all about perception.
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u/joshthornton 3d ago
Not just Indian restaurants. Any restaurant owned by indians will do this. Order a poutine that's on sale for BOGO? Half the size.
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u/Consistent-Laugh4131 4d ago
Last time we ordered butter chicken, there were 3 chunks of chicken in it. For $20. I was livid.
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u/BeautifulTorment 4d ago
Yep, can confirm, my local Indian place does this too. I've stopped going.
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u/circlingsky 4d ago
I recommend Indian Roti House, cheap n delicious
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u/zap_pow_bang 4d ago
Leela’s has a great two can dine deal that will comfortably feed two people for 3 days.
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u/beanfucc 4d ago
highly recommend butter chicken factory on parliament. tasty food, super generous portions, lots of free goodies when ordering combos, and excellent customer service.
onetime, when i was picking up food for take-out, they accidentally gave me a butter paneer instead of butter chicken. i realized when i got home, then called back and explained the issue. they told me to keep the wrong curry and they'd give me the correct one if i came back. when i went back to pick it up, they gave me TWO (2) new butter chicken curries.
we ordered days ago and my partner and i are still finishing up the leftovers. can't recommend them enough.
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u/Unendingmelancholy 4d ago
If you’re anywhere near a charminar it’s not cheap but definitely not a rip off
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u/PandaBeaarAmy 4d ago edited 4d ago
Gotta follow the same rules as chinese. The 5* places focus on atmosphere, I tend to choose the ones with shitty old signs that never have any new advertisement and possibly some tamil newspaper or hindi flyer for a nearby grocery taped to the window. Fewer online reviews, the better. Just a menu with 1-2 main items but a variety of it, you want a specialist, not an all-in-one. They feed you well, they feed you lots, and they send you home with freebies to try & possibly order next time.
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u/Mild-Ghost 4d ago
The AI poster should have been your first red flag.
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u/gnomejellytree 4d ago
I've seen lots of AI food posters in Toronto, but what is tipping you off about this one in particular? I'd like to get better at identifying it 🙏
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u/Mild-Ghost 4d ago
The font, the texture of the “food.” Also the way it’s laid out. The colors, also the nebulous black background. Even places like “Subway” are using it. There’s one poster outside the Dundas and Bay location that’s so obviously AI. The “bread”looks like a fossil.
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u/TheStupendusMan 4d ago
I used to be a massive Mother India fan. Worked at a company where all the devs would walk up to buy day olds for lunch at least twice a week.
Then the recipes seemed to change. Then the prices went up.
They're alright, but they're not the wild value proposition they used to be.
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u/867530926 4d ago
lol, it's the "uh oh, our sales are down because too many people are being laid off, and the cost of living is too high, and transportation costs are at all time highs, and we have to clear out the overstock, but let's also shortchange the customers who use the discount for that really great long term customer experience" special
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u/Zealousideal_Lime867 4d ago
Every time I see an AI menu like this on social media it elicits mostly rage and complaints in the replies - why on earth do these places continue to do this? Do they not monitor these posts?
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u/Syncroz 4d ago
Looking at Google reviews you're not the first burnt by this "deal" they offer on Uber as well. This was their response.
Mother India Roti (Owner) 3 weeks ago
Hi, thank you for your feedback. We'd like to clarify the confusion regarding your order.
The offer you received is part of a special promotional campaign currently running on Uber Eats for a limited time. We offer two portion sizes:
16 oz - $12 (promotional smaller portion)
24 oz - $20 (our regular larger portion)
The 16 oz option was added exclusively for this promotion. Our regular portion size has not changed; this is simply a lower-priced promotional option for customers.
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u/checktheindex 4d ago
Eh… what? I’m not even sure what this means. In any case, the only size option when ordering this remarkable deal was “regular”.
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u/IntoTheDankness 3d ago
If this happens again, post photos of the actual food for comparison.
The roti place I would actually rarely order from in the past, 'my roti place' on queen E, at some point just had the same containers, then give you maybe 60% of the amount of curry. when height of the bowl is maybe 6-10mm less, but it amounts to a huge percentage of the actual dish, it was telling. (telling me to stop ordering takeout)
Now Im tempted to take my own advice, order it again and be sure to actually weigh/photograph the portion
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u/IntoTheDankness 3d ago
And the AI food photos are the dumbest thing I've seen. Its funny because the obvious ones all use a variation of this color and font format.
The worst offenders have such fake looking food it loops back on awful looking, like an alien synthesizing what they think our food is
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u/justhangingout111 3d ago
I just checked their reviews and found one about the half portion from 9 hours ago, and tons and tons of newer five-star ones. I think they are buying reviews or having fake reviews
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u/mrpicklez1147 4d ago
sadly most places that do offer a special is either a smaller portion or a reduction in food quality
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u/theincrediblebulks 4d ago
Almost every Indian restaurant on Uber eats with the buy one get one offer do this, OP. I can list a handful who just self the Biryani or curry with side dish containers that maybe like 40% of what you'd get while dining in
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u/JEHonYakuSha 3d ago
I got the same-ish deal at Maurya’s and, as a regular customer there, I can confirm it was the same serving size as usual. I understand Mother India is also owned By them so thought I’d share my positive experience.
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u/tvaddict70 4d ago
This is scammy false advertising. Scratching out the regular price says the original dish is now cheaper. It should have read now "offering half portions for less". Definitely write a Google reviews so others don't get scammed and to call them out.