I had heard from friends the service at Taste of India had improved and yesterday had the opportunity to check it out for myself. I got to the restaurant about quarter until one, walked inside and was seated immediately.

At this time of day, they only serve a lunch buffet. So after being show to my table, I headed over to the buffet. It was well stocked, steaming hot (my glasses literally steamed over while looking at the food). Everything looked & tasted very fresh.

I give them bonus points for having both rice & mango puddings in the desert section of the buffet (side note: I highly recommend taking 1 scoop of each & mixing them for your desert).

But I have to take away some of those points for having the most flavorless chicken tandoori I have ever tasted. It looked like chicken tandoori, but tasted like plain chicken (no seasoning/spicing flavors at all).

Taste of India is located in an oddly shaped strip-mall like building. I first spotted it when driving by to get lunch with a co-worker. A few weeks later, the food blogger for my local paper wrote up quite a favorable review for it and I ended up having dinner there with some friends. That first time was fabulous. The service was quick and friendly. The food was fresh, hot and delicious.

This past weekend we went back to the restaurant and things were quite different. Since we were a party of 5 and we wanted to around 5:30PM on a Saturday, we called ahead to make sure there wouldn’t be a wait. We were told that would be fine and we also were able to get one of their traditional tables, “where diners can take off their shoes, lean back on some cushy pillows and sit cross-legged on a raised floor.”

Our friends got to the restaurant ahead of my wife and I by about 10 minutes. When we walked in, we looked around the restaurant till we heard them calling out to us. As we headed around to the table, I heard the waitress/hostess say something like “good you found your friends”. Then we got over to the table, sat down and waited. And waited. And waited.

Finally, I got up walked back around to the front and told the waitress/hostess we had all arrived and we’d like some water and menus now. She came back a minute later with those items and was reasonably efficient in taking our orders. However when consulted about one of the dishes on the menu, she was unfamiliar with it and read the menu description in an attempt to answer the question.

When we placed our orders, we specifically requested that they split the bill up into 3 separate checks. This will be relevant later in this review.

We also ordered their “Basket of Assorted Breads” appetizer. It showed up promptly and our party happily munched away at while chatting amongst ourselves as we waited for our dinner. A co-worker of our friends sat down at a nearby table. The exchanged pleasantries and then we went back to our own conversations. 30 minutes pass and no food arrives. 45 minutes pass, still no food for our table but the table with our friend’s co-worker receives their food. An bit more than an hour passes and tempers are starting to flare as we continue to wait on our dinner.

At last, my wife has had enough with this patiently waiting and goes to see what’s taking so long. She comes back a minute later, saying they told her our food will be out momentarily. And lo, she barely had time to finish telling us this when a different waiter comes out with our food. Our food which judging from the temperature has probably been sitting in the kitchen for the past 15-20 minutes (e.g. they were lukewarm at best). The waiter who brought our food over seemed tired and distracted, but he was polite and efficient. If I remember correctly, he was the same waiter we had when we’d been in for dinner previously. A bit later, our original waitress came back to check on us but said something more than a little odd. I didn’t catch it at the time, but my wife repeated it to me later. The waitress came back to say she didn’t realize the rest of the wait staff wasn’t bringing back our food and then she asked if we’d like her to apologize. Excuse me? We’ve been waiting for over an hour and you’re asking if we want an apology?

It’s a real shame that the service was like this, we had been planning on introducing other friends to this restaurant. But after this evening of horrible service I could not recommend the restaurant to anyone. My wife and I might give them one more chance, but I’m in no hurry to go back at this point.

Oh and my earlier comment about asking for separate checks? When the brought us the bill, it was all on one check. Maybe they were expecting to break it up at the register, but after all the other failures in their service that evening it was just one more mark against them.

The food at Taste of India is by far the best Indian food I’ve had in Iowa. While there are some good Indian restaurants in Iowa City, Taste of India beats these venues hands down. Moreover, prices are very reasonable – especially the buffet!

I guess I’d take caution in placing a great deal of stock in some of these negative reviews of Taste of India. A reviewer noted, “Also, The Manager came over to us as we were getting up and asked us if we were planning on paying for our food. Obviously that tells us that people have refused to pay due to the POOR SERVICE and POOR FOOD!!!” In other words, “If A, then B.” This is very fuzzy logic. People may have refused to pay (or not) due to poor service (or not) and poor food (or not), but how would this reviewer know this? While it is possible, without any additional evidence, however, it seems like a significant leap in logic. I’m not contesting how he viewed his experience at Taste of India, but I’m always a bit skeptical of a review when I see significant logical errors in one’s arguments.

Go try Taste of India for yourself; it has always been a great experience every time I’ve been there!

I’ve been there many times since it opened a few months ago, and the service has been nothing but fantastic. I have no idea why the other reviewers had problems with the service, but it sounds like an aberrance from my perspective. The waiters are honest and nice individuals who try hard. Don’t knock them for being busy!

As for the food. It is bar-none the best Indian food in Iowa. WAY better than the crap spooned out by Taj Mahal and the restaurants in Iowa City. And they will make it spicy on request. Avoid the chicken sizzler (it’s basically a Fajita dish). If you want a tour of their better dishes, order (family style) Kadaai Chicken, Chicken Tikki Masala, and Palak Paneer with a side of naan (the bread basket). Tear off a little naan and scoop up some of an entree and eat it. For those that don’t know (and given the previous reviews, they are legion), that’s how you eat Indian food.

Don’t go for buffet, but then again, if you are considering buffet food, perhaps you’ll like it. But I think the buffet is as bad as any other Indian restaurant.

I have eaten here several times, both for dinner and buffet and have never experienced bad service or bad food. The food is wonderful and the service is very attentive.

My husband and i went to this resturant to try something new, We walked in and it took 15 minutes before any one came and asked us what we wanted to drink, When the waiter did come over we could not understand them and it took them another 15 minutes to bring us our beverages.

It took them 50 minutes to get us our food that tasted like it was sitting out all day, then when we were ready to pay it took them another 20 minutes to take our payment.

All in all the service was horrible, they were in the back talking loudly most of the time and not paying attention to us in the resturant. There was 3 other couples in the eating area with us that were sitting there longer then we were and they got up and left before recieveing there drinks.

I DO NOT recommend this resturaunt to anyone, I have a friends that will never go back because thier experience was horrible. Just an FYI the food is not worth the wait and the beverages are watered down.

Also, The Manager came over to us as we were getting up and asked us if we were planning on paying for our food. Obviously that tells us that people have refused to pay due to the POOR SERVICE and POOR FOOD!!!