India Pavilion — Restaurant in Cambridge

Declining Standards, Questionable Hygiene Practices

My husband and I have been frequent visitors of Indian Pavilion for almost a year now, having dined here about 10 times in the last nine months. We absolutely love Indian food, and I would rate the food here a solid 3.5 out of 5 stars. The flavors are authentic, and the dishes are generally delicious. The price is high, but not outrageous. However, the lunch buffet is very limited in options, though what is available is always tasty.

Unfortunately, despite our love for this place, things have taken a downturn recently. The most noticeable change is the addition of an $8 fee for anyone caught wasting food at the buffet. While I understand the desire to reduce waste, this seems excessive. On top of that, prices have gone up, which is somewhat understandable given inflation, but still worth noting.

What really drove us away, though, was the issue of hygiene. The restaurant has a lovely open-concept layout where you can watch the chefs cook. Normally, this is something I enjoy, as it offers transparency into the cooking process. However, we recently noticed that none of the kitchen staff were wearing gloves while handling the food—no gloves, just raw bare hands. To make matters worse, we saw our server pick up dirty plates from our table, then immediately head to the kitchen and start cutting naan without washing his hands or putting on gloves. No hand washing between handling dirty dishes and preparing food!

How many other dirty plates had he touched before handling the naan? The thought was revolting. I’ve always known Indian culture to emphasize cleanliness, which makes this even more disappointing. While the food is undeniably good, I simply cannot overlook the lack of basic food safety protocols here.

After witnessing this firsthand, we won’t be returning. If cleanliness and proper hygiene are important to you, I would suggest finding another spot to enjoy Indian cuisine. This was a...

I really have no idea who in the world is giving them such high ratings, but my experience here was about a 1/10.

The menu was very small, so there was not a lot of choice. We ordered chicken tikka masala, fish vindaloo, naan, and masala dosa. All ~basic items hoping it wouldn't disappoint too horribly. We were unfortunately very wrong.

Chicken tikka masala -- Honestly, i would recommend the trader joe's frozen chicken curry over this. It was way too tomato-ey and the spices were not at all well integrated into the curry. Tasted like they added them later in the cooking process and did not temper them well, causing them to be grainy. If this was a hamburger food truck selling this for $4 a plate, fine, i'd eat it. But at an Indian restaurant? Absolutely not.

Fish Vindaloo -- a -2/10. I was SHOCKED at this curry and how bad it was. I love fish curry and make it all the time, and I was with a group of friends to whom I talked up fish curry only to be severely disappointed. The fish was fried in a thick batter before the curry was made. Who the hell does that? Honestly, it tasted like frozen battered fried fish (i.e., the kind for fish and chips) in a curry. The potatoes were hard and also not fried/cooked well. The gravy was watery with chunks of tomato in it. Truly, I was shocked to my core at the poor quality of food that was being served to us.

Naan -- was nice and soft. Was prolly the frozen kind too, who knows. Would have been better if I had something good to dip it into.

Masala dosa -- extremely mediocre. Not at all worth it.

Service -- they started vacuuming and cleaning the carpet while we were still eating. Not because there was a spill, but because it was an hour from closing. We could not hear each other talk because they were full on vacuuming for about 15-20 minutes. We ended up leaving.

Safe to say, I'm never coming back. I hope they improve their...

This place SUCKS!... Food was Horrendous! Matar Paneer was not made from fresh peas.. it was made from badly tasting HARD peas... Jalebi was cold... with Sugar deposits on it... NOT FRESH. Chole (during buffet) had Yeast in it, to fill your stomach up. Yeast is bad on GAS! Everything tasted like Sugar was added... even the curry dishes. There is NO DAAL in the buffet... everything in the buffet is FATTY and has SODA. Some of the Na'ans were burnt while some were undercooked.

Service was ok. Servers were 2 college kids. Not professional servers.. but nothing wrong with them... except that they did not know what is "GReen Chutney" / "heat Gajar ka Halwa" meant. The other fairly senior looking Server had a BAD Attitude!. He would bump everyone while loading the buffet area. hahah. Real Cheap Canteen in India style guy!

Decor was ok. But, hey this place is not somewhere u can take ur customers n all.. Decor was better than being Bad. and it is of no value to you.

Music - Sorry, there was no music.. i put on my own Iphone on speaker and enjoyed a few songs with my wife... to which the Senior bad attitude server was looking at me angrily.

And yes, do not expect someone to fill up your glass of water! IT just doesnt happen

The biggest loser was the Chef... who absolutely sucked at Cooking!! Me and my wife were laughing at the ignorance of this...