Mitti Taj India — Restaurant in Athens-Clarke County Unified Government

Personal Context/Disclaimer:

I am Pakistani and have been dining at Mitti's since its opening. As such, I am very familiar with Desi food (Pakistani in particular) and will try to give an honest review. Also, I can only speak to the some of the menu items (e.g., chicken 65, butter chicken, chicken tikka masala, chana, aloo, daal, etc). Before Mitti's, there was only one option for Desi food in Athens, which was Taste of India. In short, Taste of India is a restaurant that has so horribly gentrified its flavors and its prices to appease a White American audience. That being said Mitti's was a very pleasant addition to Athens' sparse Desi food scene. However, I have found myself giving Mitti more credit than it deserves because other viable Desi options are 1+ hours away closer to Atlanta.

Flavor:

The flavor of the food will definitely pass as a 5/5 for non-Desis because of a lack of familiarity and choice with this cuisine. However, this is not true for those who are familiar with other excellent Desi places in Georgia like Mughal's, Mumbai Masala in Global Mall, Zaika, Gokul Sweets, and others near the Atlanta area. I find that the flavor is lacking. For example, the chicken 65 does not taste like much. It barely has any spicy notes and lacks the savory-ness that I am accustomed to.

Other examples are the butter chicken and chicken tikka masala dishes. While this will appeal to the American palette because they are both creamy dishes, both dishes are terribly underflavored. I'm not sure if it is because of cost-saving or because of the challenges of batch-cooking. Nonetheless, these dishes should just be more than "Cream Chicken" and "Cream Chicken but with Green Pepper and Onion". This theme of under seasoning is very common across this menu, unfortunately.

Texture:

The samosas, dosas, naan, etc are all good in texture specifically. However, some of the fried items, like Chicken 65 are terribly soggy. It needs to be crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. This may also be due to their method of storage. They store some of their food items in a buffet-style, heated serving dish, sitting and capturing moisture throughout the day. Some dishes, like chana masala become like a thick paste as they sit still. I'm not an expert but I'm sure intermittent stirring would help prevent this.

Consistency:

As much as I would like to hope, Mitti's is unfortunately inconsistent. Part of this is due to their buffet style of storing some dishes. As a result, you may get fresh food, or food that has degraded throughout the span of the day.

Proportions:

As much as I hate to say it, Mitti's proportions have always been heavily side-biased. For example, the amount of naan and the rice given will always be more than the entree you order. I was able to overlook this problem as in the beginning, their prices were alright. This is not the case anymore.

Pricing:

This category is painful to write. When they opened, Mitti's had very reasonable pricing. Their Curry/rice combo was around 10 dollars for 1 curry. However, it's now closer to 15 dollars. I used to get it more often but now I can't afford to get it nearly as often.

For example, why is the naan so expensive??? It's not nearly large enough to justify a 5 dollar price tag. Other restaurants, like Mughals charge less (like 2 dollars) and provide a much larger, more fluffy, buttery, better quality naan.

Conclusion:

When Mitti's opened, I was ecstatic to get some decently priced tasty Desi food. As time passed, quality lowered, and prices increased, I couldn't lie to myself anymore. The restaurant is mediocre as of the time of writing this. I really, really hope that Mitti's improves in the long run. My fear is that they will gentrify their food to fit the taste of White Americans. I would have given 3-stars but the pricing alone knocks it down to 2.

However, I see that they have been trying new foods and specials, which are nice to see. The Chapli Kabob was good, but I cannot justify paying 20 dollars for one naan and one kabob, that pricing...

I’ve given this restaurant multiple chances, but this last experience sealed it—I’ll never be back. We placed a large order: 4 chicken tikka masalas and 2 butter chickens (and other food too, but this was what they got wrong). What we got were SIX butter chickens. When we called to address the mistake, the man working was immediately hostile and accused us of lying. My wife even showed him proof over FaceTime when we got there—he saw with his own eyes that every single container had the exact same curry. Still, he insisted the order was “packed perfectly” and treated us like we were trying to scam him. He told us to come in and he’d make it right.

So we drove back, expecting a reasonable fix. Instead, he then said to us, “why didn’t you bring the food” after he said we didn’t need to bring the food in. We were handed a single tiny container—not even 8 oz—after paying for 32 oz of tikka. Only after we said we’d never return did he reluctantly give us two small containers. Still not even close to what we paid for. He even stirred the butter chicken and paneer tikka in front of us, trying to prove a point, while literally showing us that he didn’t have any chicken tikka prepared—and still somehow tried to gaslight us into believing we were wrong.

On top of all that? The mango lassi was warm, and the prices here are absurd for the small portions they give. It’s not just bad service—it’s disrespectful...

Very happy to have a casual Indian restaurant nearby. But there are some adjustments needed, for sure. The chicken biryani was first rate, nice portion and included a thigh and leg. Came with raita. Very pleased with this dish, much better than I can make it and the fairly generous quantity was acceptable for price paid. I feel pretty good about this dish. The chicken tikka masala was another story. Very little chicken, barely enough for one person. A few pieces of veg, mostly sauce, which was good. Not best I've had, but good enough. This container needs to be mostly chicken, at least enough to feed two people. Barely enough for one. Will not get this again or any of these entrees for fear of same low protein approach. Sorry, but if you want to charge $15-16 or so for a meat centric dish, it should have at least 8 oz of protein, not 4 oz. The naan was also somewhat disappointing for price paid. Two small butter naans for $8. Better off going to the market next door and buying a frozen pack. Naan should not be more than about $2 each, especially this small and really not much better than frozen. Hopefully, adjustments are made going forward and, if so, would see me coming here more often. There is a lot of...