India Gate Exclusive Indian Cuisine - Authentic Indian Food Newmarket — Restaurant in Newmarket

Dinner (a' la Carte) might be different but my wife and I went for the lunch 'buffet'. First off, I've never been to a more expensive Indian lunch Buffet ($12.99 vs $8.99-$9.99) and seen so FEW options for the food. So on the price point, a 1 out of 5.

Rice was just plain boiled rice. Not Saffron or some sort of Biryani rice. The dhal was like thin soup, and honestly tasted like Habitant Peas Soup. (Yellow) Butter chicken was good but overly sweet, Lamb was.... I can't put it nicely, tasteless. I didn't try the fish dish. The one actual vegetable "dish" - I think it was a Sabji (green beans and peas) that also had very little flavour. Only other vegetable was "Onion Fritters" that were quite bland. (Not a dish. Finger food.) So, on the food, another 1 out of 5.

Desert, if I could make that a separate category, was "Orange Slices" which were Naval oranges, skin on, cut into 8 pieces, and "Rice Pudding" which was about the consistency of heavy cream (very thin for rice pudding) and.... believe it or not, NO BOWLS. You're expected to put the very thin rice pudding, on a plate.... (Someone else asked for a bowl and was told they "don't have any" so, I didn't even bother to ask.) Also, there was almost nothing left in the rice pudding container. And there was still over an hour left to go in their "lunch time frame".... 0 out of 5 on the desert.

Service?? There was service? We were shown to a table. We figured out ourselves (as with most buffets) to just go get a plate and start filling it. When we returned to the table, the server had brought two glasses of water. The water ran out quite quickly... tried to get the waiters attention for more water.... he served water to a couple of guys near us but seemed to be ignoring us waving. Tried again a few minutes later... still no apparent acknowledgment.... OH.... he's yakking on a cell phone! And he's the only one in the place. Several minutes pass and finally he comes and fills the water glasses.

This may be as good as it gets for Newmarket. We're not from that area. We've probably eaten at 20 different Indian restaurants in the Greater Toronto Area and this one has to be the worst ever experienced. As I said, it appears dinner is a' la Carte and might be a lot better.

NOTE: I am always wary of review sites when I see a mix of reviews that are ONE star and FIVE star and almost nothing in between. It makes me suspicious of the 5 star reviews. There SHOULD be some in between, 2, 3, 4 star...

We just happened to be in the area picking up Tour Guides from the CAA Store in the same plaza and happened to notice this place while looking for CAA. We love Indian food so that's why we ended up there for lunch. I had never seen reviews of the place before.

To be quite honest, at $12.99, when I saw how few choices there were in the buffet, and the plain boiled rice, we were ready to leave without even eating. But we were hungry so we chanced it.

Also, 'taste' is an individual thing. For some people, they might find the food here just fine for flavour. But if you are used to eating in Indian restaurants where the vast majority of customers are of Indian descent (or regions around India) you will find the food here bland. Sorry but I tell it like it is.

(Edited after reading comments about getting eerie feelings about the one star reviews.)

And once again to stress the point, it may be VERY different ordering a' la carte rather than going for the buffet.

Date of visit:...

I've been coming to India Gate for almost 10 years, from when I first saw it in the same plaza as a few of the other stores I frequently used to go to. I gave it a try and I was generally quite happy with the food as there are no good Indian food options around that are still in business. I tend to order the same things that I feel are tasty and worth the money, and some of the things that I've ordered and felt were overpriced, I never ordered again. Truth be told, I have always ordered take out from India Gate and my order has been taken professional (not necessarily happily, but definitely professionally).

However, if I am so pleased, why am I leaving a 2 star review?

First off, I know who the owner is vs who the staff are. While the owner is "professional", I personally find there is nothing done to show appreciation or friendliness to customers, even customers he has seen multiple times or have supported his business multiple times. A smile, a conversation, even a greeting is appreciated but anytime I've gone in he is staring at a phone and his conversation has been cold and stoic. Eventually, it annoyed me enough to the point I just didn't want to see him anymore and could live without my Indian Food. Simply putting on a "professional sounding voice" is not enough to keep your customers, you've got to earn the business. I've also found this now to be the norm with the staff as well - well, there's only 2 of them at any time from what I can tell.

Secondly, having ordered a few times during the pandemic, my top concern is my health and without getting into too much detail, I ordered twice and just felt like all protocols weren't followed, so I don't feel good coming back

Food is so overpriced here you could literally go to Little India on Gerrard Street in Toronto and have lunch buffet for the entire family, or more. Curries are missing half the meat you'd expect to see, but all you get is a container full of sauce that leaks all over the place, other meal items come with the bare basics, such as for example, some meat items come with a side of vegetables, but here it is scarce. Half the time you don't get the chutney unless you ask.....just.....what is happening to this place?

I won't be returning again to this establishment after almost 10 years. I like to go to places where they appreciate...

My husband and I walked in around 5:00pm on Wednesday July 18, 2018. There was a table with 2 customers seated together. Otherwise, the restaurant was empty. We stood and waited for several minutes at the front for someone to come and seat us at a table. While we waited, we could hear sounds like someone was emptying out a dishwasher and putting dishes away. My husband decided to just walk to the back where the kitchen was and let them know that we were there... the man (owner?) answered: "Yes, I know. Just a minute". So my husband returned to the front to continue waiting beside me. He'd been to this restaurant before and he already knew that the food is very good. Finally, the same man comes to the front and seats us at a table. As I ate here, I thought that there was only employee on the premises, but my husband said that there was another male employee on site. The food was very good. We ordered an appetizer of Samosa and an order of Murg Makhani for each of us. The food was very delicious and seemed to be done the way that Indian food should be done. My husband and I felt very satisfied after eating this meal. However, after a while, I started to realize that I felt very bloated for the whole rest of the evening. Infact, even the next day I still felt bloated! (My husband felt bloated too but not to the extent that I was). Hence, I let my husband eat both of our leftovers the next day for his lunch. Although I would eat here again, I won't be doing it too often as I don't want that bloated feeling...