This all started as Vanessa and I finished once again verbally "reviewing" the restaurant thus far (we hadn't gotten our food yet, but there was plenty to comment on) and Vanessa pipes up that we should "write out own Groupon restaurant blog". As the idea swam around in our heads, it became a better and better idea. We both have a lot to say about restaurants, and we both like trying out new ones when we can find a good deal. We both also go looking at Yelp and Urbanspoon before going ANYWHERE. So, as you can imagine, Vanessa had our blog SET UP before we even finished lunch. Yeah, she's like that.
Anywhoooo.... on to the restaurant.
I'd been to India Palace several times years ago and was less than impressed with it. It was always dead empty and the food was unmemorable. The buffet was adequate but again not memorable. Since then, I've been going to other local Indian restaurants that were marginally better. However, Groupon stepped in and offered a $15 for $30 deal and I couldn't resist. So, off we go! You couldn't use the Groupon for the lunch buffet, but that's fine, because neither of us can eat even a quarter of our worth in buffets so we order meals and take the leftovers home. (Actually, I got her leftovers today, too!!) The first thing we noticed (other than in addition to the Indian grocery story on one side of the restaurant) was that there is now a threading salon on the other side. Maybe when we come back next time, there will be another Indian establishment! I love Indian ingredients AND threading.
When we walked in, we were AMAZED at how crowded it was! Almost every table was taken up and one of them had about 20 people at it. I swear I saw monkeys and trapeez artists swinging across the roof because it was as loud as a zoo and people were just zipping around with plates piled high with tasty-looking food. There were only 2 workers in the entire place (well, out front - I'm sure others were cooking in the back, or I'd be REALLY impressed!) and one of them half-heartedly showed us to a table in the back/side and when I said I was going to order from the menu (which I had to grab from the front desk myself), he said, "That's fine" without even looking at me. Okaaayyyyy.... questionable so far. When he came over to take our order, I ordered chicken tikka masala, SPICY PLEASE, a diet Coke, and a water. Vanessa then says, "I'll take chicken tikka masala, too. And a regular Coke and a water." He just kinda turned around and left. We stared at each other and I said, "I think you're getting yours spicy, too." Vanessa does NOT like spicy. At all. She just kinda resignedly said something like, "Yeah, I know." Sigh. After a while, we were kinda wondering how bad it really was going to be since we hadn't gotten our sodas yet. The whole time the two servers were rushing around cleaning tables, refilling the buffet, etc. All of the diners were just happily chatting away and shoving mounds of food in their mouths. They didn't seem to want to leave, which gave me hope. When we finally got our food, the server put down my dish and it had a jalapeno pepper on top. He put down Vanessa's and it was noticeably lighter in color and had no pepper on it. Score! He turns and walks away and Vanessa says (with sad puppy dog eyes), "But we didn't get our drinks." I told her I think he was coming back because we had no rice, either. He did come back - with rice, a diet Coke and a regular Coke. Things are looking up.
The chicken tikka masala was amazingly delicious and was loaded with big chunks of chicken. It had a lot of depth of flavor and they actually DID make it hot for me. Like Indian-spice hot. Nobody else does that, to my annoyance. The naan was good. I wish they offered garlic naan. hmph. I went up and inspected the buffet table and it was lookin' goooood. They offered two kinds of soup, veggie pakoras, samosas, the typical salads, a bunch of vegetarian dishes but also tandoori chicken, chicken tikka masala, and Chicken Curry. Or maybe it was Butter Chicken. Or maybe they're the same thing. I can't remember. It made me want to eat the buffet next time. Until Vanessa spotted this..... The two creepy guys at the table behind us took their DIRTY PLATES UP TO THE BUFFET TO RELOAD!!! So I says, "Maybe not the buffet next time after all."
So, 2 ample-sized servings of chicken tikka masala, an order of naan, and two sodas came to like $32. With tip and tax, it cost us $8 after using our Groupon. AND he brought us out complimentary dessert! We decided that the servers were focused and not necessarily rude. They were just not interactive, but then again... I don't know how they did it all so calmly! That place was packed!! And people are rude - like the couple that had their 2 kids there, eating Chik-fil-a and left their trash on the table, the chair pulled out, and the cloth napkins on the floor. Watch your kids, people.
Ratings (0 bad - 5 fantastic)
Food: 5
Service: (wow, hard to say since they did it all right, just weren't "nice") 3
Ambiance: 2 (it was like a zoo in there... I couldn't even hear Vanessa)
Take home message: AMAZING food. I'm totally going again and getting the buffet if there aren't any creepy old men nearby.
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