Puran India — Restaurant in Bloomington

I really love to see this restaurant succeed with their lunch buffet and hope they can improve their buffet, mainly because they are clean (unlike Aroma Indian Restaurant food that always makes me sick), but their buffet has several issues. First the goods: clean, nice people, they have cucumber and they have goat on weekends buffet, and their Raita is based on good house made yogurt which is sour and good, not like store yogurt that is too smooth and sweet.

Now the bads or what is lacking in the buffet: The buffet does not have any creativity, specifically there is no real vegetable in the buffet. And No, just because a dish does not have meat does not mean that dish is vegetarian! for example bread, white rice, or potato or corn or the so called vegetarian biryani that has nothing but rice and potato and corn or tofu are all plant based but they are not real vegetables, they are just pure starchy carbohydrates. Real vegetarian dishes which are absent here would be dishes made from for example eggplant, super healthy bitter gourd, zucchini, cauliflower, Gongura, cabbage, methi, squash, etc. And No, a pakora which is basically a tiny piece of some veggie coated in a thick starchy coating and then deep fried is not exactly a healthy vegetarian option either. The only thing that is vegetarian in their buffer is the Saag paneer which is made of spinach but spinach is really bad for people like me with kidney stone. So not being a fan of chicken or plain starch (rice or potato or bread) or spinach, and not seeing any real vegetarian dishes, I basically end up with only one thing (the goat on weekends) that I can have from their buffet. And sadly their goat also is too salty and not tasting that good. I also think a good Indian buffet should include chai masala and papad (the crunchy thin bread made from lentil flour) for people who try to avoid wheat based bread. Or even better lamb byrani would be a nice option. Bottom line I hope they decide to add some real vegetarian dishes and lamb because I like this restaurant and really want to support them but right now I just can't visit...

I've been regularly ordering from this restaurant for ten years. It can be hit and miss, but when it's good, it's great.

Tonight I ordered over the phone. The guy told me twenty minutes. I gave them twenty-five.

An hour. An hour before I got my food. And in that hour, the only time the guy spoke to me was to try and get me to pay a second time. I had frozen groceries melt in the time it took me to get my order.

Then when he gave it to me, and I pointed out how long it took, he rolled his eyes and walked away from me.

There are too many Indian restaurants in this town to give this one my business. I'll go somewhere they don't openly disrespect their customers and pay for enough people to staff their restaurant efficiently.

You lost a good one tonight, Puran. Though I'm sure you'll just roll your eyes when you read this, too.

I've been regularly ordering from this restaurant for ten years. It can be hit and miss, but when it's good, it's great.

Tonight I ordered over the phone. The guy told me twenty minutes. I gave them twenty-five.

An hour. An hour before I got my food. And in that hour, the only time the guy spoke to me was to try and get me to pay a second time. I had frozen groceries melt in the time it took me to get my order.

Then when he gave it to me, and I pointed out how long it took, he rolled his eyes and walked away from me.

There are too many Indian restaurants in this town to give this one my business. I'll go somewhere they don't openly disrespect their customers and pay for enough people to staff their restaurant efficiently.

You lost a good one tonight, Puran. Though I'm sure you'll just roll your eyes when you read this, too.

Update: And when I ate my food right after picking it up, it was somehow cold. I now realize my order was one of the many cartons just sitting there for an hour. Because that makes sense. Way to go, Puran. So glad you wanted me to pay double for this experience.

Update 2: The owner just called me. Not to apologize, offer to refund me, or anything, but to beg me to take down this review. Yeah, no. Shame on...

I have loved their buffet for a several years now. During Covid they stayed open for carryout and I loved being able to get my favorites (even tho I had to choose just one item, love the buffet as I can get a bit of several things)

Since they restarted the buffet its smaller, but still really nice. The old buffet had 2 lines of dishes and nearly always included Chili Chicken and Chiken Tikka Masala and some other rotated dishes. Their was usually one large pan of a vegetable item, sometimes potato based but often eggplant or even Okra or Zucchini.

The new buffet is smaller and the dishes rotate. Their is usually butter chicken and Curry Chicken - I did catch Chili potato which was great and Saag Paneer is a staple which I love. I wish they would do the vege dish with eggpplant or Okra - so good.

The service, even tho the gentleman is nice, is a bit lacking. He brings you water but never checks to see if you need a refill. I often have to ask for a spoon. Like he is just not really paying attention - but he is really nice, I wonder if its just a difference in cultures?

I love this restaurant and its food. Its...