Signature India Restaurant & Bakery - Bloomington — Restaurant in Bloomington

Let me start the review by saying I am neither affiliated nor has been paid/requested by restaurant for this review. We ( me and my husband) have been their customers soon after they opened. I am writing this review on behalf of North Indian ( myself ) and my husband ( who is an american with very low spice level). We love the food , ambience service and staff as well as manager and we are there almost twice a week for their veg buffet on Thursday and Weekend buffet. We have also eaten at their weekday lunch buffet and Ala - carte and almost sampled everything from their menu. So I will start by clarifying all the 1 star reviews -

1. Initially when they opened up their service was little slow which they have greatly improved. The initial slow service is expected with small time outfits. I can understand since I have handled similar situations personally.
2. Few of my American friends have said food is horrible spicy etc. I would like to say if you are trying a new cuisine you should always try a buffet if available. Also if your palate can handle salt and just a pinch of black pepper, stay away this is too exotic for you.
3. Few of my vegan friends have complained about no vegan food. So i would like to. clarify even in American restaurants vegan option is limited and Signature didn’t advertise Vegan. Also, said there no no healthy fresh fruit juices. So let me tell being associated with medical field fruit juice is never healthy. Please google.
4. Few of my Indian friends have suggested Puran and Aroma outrightly. I have eaten at AROMA multiple times food is good but service is pathetic. Puran we tried once at buffet, there food was below par specially non veg. I can understand that as the folks who run that place are primarily vegetarian themselves.
5. Few of my Indian friends have said paneer gravy is too sweet or about spice levels. For them I would like to clarify that India has diversity in food . The same dish can be cooked in multiple different ways depending upon the region . When i say this i mean for e.g. same dal tadka recipe can vary across regions . Buffet is always at medium spice level due to the convenience of all. Please go to ala carte and they adjust spice level for you from 1-5 range. 6)Manager Karthik and his staff all are sweet talker. But they are very humble very courteous and always receptive to suggestions.
6. Somebody complained about cleanliness standards. plates bowls etc are really clean and they have santizer station too which is absent in most other places. But people do not use it.
7. They have very elaborate buffet during any Indian festivals and with unique fresh dishes.
8. Somebody said deconstructed samosa, its chaat and there are different versions of chaat.So please stop criticizing my Indian cuisine if you dont know...

This review is of the Dine-in (non buffet). I hope to review it again when the buffet opens back up.

The Price: Seemed moderate. No surprises.

The Service: Perhaps in connection to ordering so much for a lunch hour, we were given complementary appetizers. We were given free yogurt sauce as well (apparently not always free). Finally, we were given a small cup of a cardamom flavored rice dessert (I expected mango since it was orange, but I couldn't taste any).

The Dine-in Experience: This is all about the food. The dine-in experience is not their priority right now, though we were happy with the service. We were one of two tables being served at lunch on a Wednesday. The place was set up for efficiently fulfilling orders and serving through the drive through.

The Food: One of the three appetizers was underwhelming but ok (a fried dough ball). The others were excellent (one was a fried cauliflower, the other bezawada shrimp). We both enjoyed our main dishes, house special goat curry (slightly sweeter) and goat chettinadu (slightly more savory). Beware of bones when ordering goat. I love nibbling around the bone for each bite of succulent fat and tender meat. But it's not for everyone.

The Heat: this place offers substantial heat. We were thankful for the yogurt offered to us (and the server stressed that it can be pretty spicy and offered to make it more mild for us––we are white Americans--tho both of us have a habit of eating spicier foods).

In the end, it's exactly what I was looking for (except for COVID precautions meaning no buffet). Most of my Indian cuisine experience is from Chicago area. Signature (Disney font) India easily met those expectations. I will be returning, probably to introduce another friend to this wonderful...

Situation: Was doing a long drive, arrived pretty hungry. Ordered: (Total 8 people, everyone ordered different). I ordered a fry goat biryani and my wife ordered one shrimp fried rice.

Food: It was fantastic in taste and well cooked. Amount of food was so much, that I would say, none will be hungry upon finishing the dish. (I took to-go box). A must try place for food. Also ordered a soft drink and a mango kulfi.

Dislikes: Though the price looked reasonable, I was baffled to know that they had a disclaimer (i don't know where) that the dishes were more expensive and a mandatory (18% :O ) gratuity fee was there. I would have paid 10% in tips either way, but given the scenario, I decided not to pay anymore tips. The reason of brining down a star from the rating is that, even though their online website has the correct price, it is off-setting to update the menu (costs maybe $10 for all the papers they have) you provide in dine-in. On the other hand, the server who billed us kept on forgetting what and who ordered what. I understand that 8 people group is large, but forgetting to add soft drinks in the bill, even after saying we had beverages and then charging us again for that is not a good sign (not complaining, but not expected either). Also, even with 2 servers, none of them mentioned to us that there is a price hike than the ones mentioned in menu.

Conclusions: Even though the menu and the server issue kind of has negative feeling to it, I will recommend visiting the place, and ofcourse, will visit again if I have the chance. After all, the restaurant did what they are supposed to do - Fantastic tasty food and put a fullstop to my hunger...