Taj of India — Restaurant in Jena

Ambiance: Restaurant Taj of India is located in a quiet automobile restricted zone of Jena. It is a pleasant location to sit and watch pedestrians as they stroll by.

Food: I ordered the lamb vindaloo. According to the menu, this item is categorized as a 3-star spicy dish Since I am a longtime fan of hot Szechuan cuisine and having being previously disappointed ordering spicy food in provincial German towns, I told the waiter to add an extra "spice star" to my dish. He asked if I was sure. I reassured him that this would be OK. When my meal arrived in a copper bowl, I saw several cubes of lamb which had been drowned in a thick tomato paste. It did not look very appetizing, so I dipped a spoon into the paste to try it. It was sour and absurdly hot. After eating a few spoons for reasons of politeness, I motioned to the waiter to clear my table. He saw that I hadn't finished and asked in a strange way if it was "too spicy". He seemed to take pleasure that I was not able to finish my meal. I found his amusement peculiar and wondered if he told the cook to nuke my dish for laughs.His evident pleasure rubbed me the wrong way.

Service: I requested the bill and when it came, I was informed by the waitress that payment was cash only. Fortunately I had enough cash on hand. I asked her why it was not possible to pay with debit or credit card. She seemed a bit nervous and said that they only took cash payments. Come to your own conclusions why.

Bottom line: your taste buds...

Had a terrible experience here. We ordered a tandoori mix teller with chicken, paneer and seekh kebabs. However, we were served a platter with only chicken and some lamb pieces and the seekh kebabs were missing. When we spoke with the chef, he was reluctant to admit the mistake. It was clear that they didn't have seekh kebabs and he tried to pass off a few lamb and chicken pieces as seekh kebabs. He probably thought the order came from some German guys and tried to cheat. Eventually we returned the dish and ordered something else. Even the other dishes we tried were bland and uninteresting. Naan was stale and chewy. Only the Samosa was good. The staff member was nice and helped change the order. Otherwise there's nothing positive about this place that'll make us...

We've been there two times. The location is super nice. On our first visit, the service was so slow (that's why I gave it one star less). But, the second time, the service was so much better and lot faster.

Personally, the foods are tasty (P.S: I'm not Indian or South Asian). We ordered lamb biryani, tandoori grill, and butter chicken, naan, and lassi. Our personal favorite is the butter chicken. The portion of biryani is massive (a good thing, of course). So, the price is quite worth it.

Just a bit confused with the reservation system because it seems that we do not need one because there's enough...