Namaste America Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Cedar City

Man, I don't know what happened to this place. I put in an order at 4:30. Says it'll be available 5:25. Long time but whatever. Leave my house at 5:10 and get there between 5:20 and 5:25. The kid who's by himself is already helping another PO'd customer. Then he comes to me and I tell him I'm there for pickup. He goes back and comes back and says "sometimes the orders get lost." I made the order on THEIR OWN WEBSITE! Whatever. Kid says they'll go back and make it real quick. I'm upset but say no thanks, just give me a refund. I leave and I'm in a drive through elsewhere getting dinner and get a call at 5:50. Almost a half hour after my food was supposed to be ready and it's the owner. He asks "what do I want to do." I said I want my refund that I already told you I wanted. He says "you want a refund for the food we already made?" I said are you kidding me? It's a half hour AFTER it was supposed to be ready. And I told them cancel it before they ran back to try and make it afterwards. Well clearly their communication is just as bad inside the shop as it is on the website because these fools actually made it after I told them not to. Then the owner starts complaining about my refund. Then he had the nerve to say I was there at 5. 20 minutes earlier. I told him if I left my house at 5:10, how could I have been there at 5? Then I hear the kid in the background say I was there at 5 too. At that point I told them I'm just going to dispute the charge for a refund if that's the kind of operation they run over there.

Unreal. Things happen. I was upset but still would've come back. But then he decided to call me a liar twice and refused to own up to the restaurants mistakes, and instead chose to blame us.

Edit:

Now the owner is texting me nonstop after I told him I don't want to speak with him. Just a refund. This guy even had the nerve to change the story and say my order was supposed to be ready by 6:25 and I was an hour and 5 minutes early. Unfortunately for him, he didn't realize their system sends out a confirmation text that says "5:25" and I sent it to him. Even telling him I don't want a credit or anything, I just want my refund. Still wouldn't take responsibility. Shocker.

Edit 2:

Not surprised he replied with a lie. One, I sent him a screenshot of the confirmation text with 5:25 as the pickup time. Weird that he's pretending he didn't receive it and see it. Two, I didn't curse at his staff. That poor kid in there looked overworked and that place looked understaffed. He was out of breathe from running back and forth and helping the other customer who also had an issue. I appreciate food staff. It's the owner who felt it appropriate to call me a half hour after my food was supposed to be ready and after I told them don't make it since I wasn't going to keep waiting, I just asked for a refund, the kid took my order number, said ok and that was it. But yes, after the owner called me a liar and wanted me to pay for food, I never received and refused to refund me, then I cursed at him and only him. Guy can lie all he wants but the text from his own system proved him wrong. Neither do my call logs. I have. 5:29 call to my wife made from their parking lot the minute I walked out to tell her they didn't make the order. I've uploaded and attached a picture of the text confirming the order time of 5:25pm, confirming the owner is wrong. And the email confirmation as well for good measure. But I appreciate the effort to...

First of all, to anyone who are here before when the restaurant was under old ownership and management and the name The Taj, you definitely owe it to yourself to go back and try the new dishes/menu and give the new owners a try.

American Namaste has won our hearts and our tastebuds. We have been here twice since the new owners took over. The first time was on accident as we came in on their 2nd night of being open under the new ownership/family. The wait was long and there were some obviously dissatisfied customers because of the delays with the food, but we gave them the benefit of the doubt because of everything being new and really wanting to give the new owners a chance. It was so great to meet the new owners and to have them tell us their story of purchasing the restaurant and trying to fix the menu and make the dishes much more authentic.

I agree with some of the past reviews when it was The Taj Where some of the dishes were flavorless or basically tomato sauce with very little authenticity to the recipes. But now when the dishes are brought out, everything looks and smells much more authentic and tastes amazing.

The new owners are genuinely running the place as a family business using old authentic family recipes that are absolutely delicious. Gone is the soupy tomatoey Chicken Tikka Masala of The Taj and now the same dish on the menu is almost unrecognizable from the past. It is hearty, chunky, full of so many complimentary flavors, and really is a culinary delight.

The Vegetable Pakoras appetizer is fresh and soft yet also crunchy and fried to perfection. Every dish we have had is absolutely amazing.

Butter Chicken ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Chicken Tikka Masala ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Lamb Vindaloo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Bombay Chicken ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Vegetable Korma ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Vegetable Pakoras appetizer ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Vegetable Samosas appetizer ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Garlic Naan ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Mango Lassie ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

And the service is excellent. They are genuinely excited to have you come in and taste their food and to make it as authentic of an experience with their family recipes as they can. They are very gracious and it feels like you are being invited into their home to share a meal with them.

The prices are on the high side, but for excellent Indian food, I’m willing to pay a premium. My wife and I typically spend $100 (including the tip) but that is typically with an appetizer, each getting a mango lassie, 2-3 entrees (we like having multiple dishes to eat and some to take home) and ordering some naan. An entree is on average about $20-$22 so it’s not hard to spend $40/person and then add a tip on top of that.

We will definitely continue to come support this new family business and hope that many others will too. We are so grateful they took over The Taj as the quality there had definitely dropped a bit and so far our experience at American Namaste has been...

I typically follow the rule of not saying anything at all if there is nothing nice to be said when it comes to reviews, but I feel this needs to be said. I was excited to try a new Indian Food restaurant as I seek them out in almost every city I visit or travel to. When we arrived at late afternoon, the place was completely empty, which should have been red flag number 1. The hostess was kind, greeted us, seated us, and I placed our order. I noticed on the way to our table a distinctive smell that was similar to a backed up sewer, and was very unpleasant. As we waited for our food we noticed that the table was made, but every single plate, utensil and even the napkins had dried and crusted food on them. Even the drinking glasses had some type of black grime inside some of them. I stood up to check the other tables for cleaner dishes and silverware, and all of them had dried crusted food on them too. This gave me greater concerns about the hygiene of what was happening in the kitchen…Red flag number 2. At this point I should have walked out, but to avoid conflict I asked for some take out boxes and plasticware to eat our food on, which the hostess kindly obliged to. When the food arrived, some of it didn’t resemble in the slightest what I have eaten at so many other Indian food restaurants. The Chicken Curry was a bright bright red, almost like it had food coloring in it, and the flavor profile of it was way too sweet with something not right I couldnt put my finger on with the balance of the spices. The Bismati Cumin Rice was dry as the Sahara desert, and just tasted like chunks of cumin flavored chalk. Both the normal and Garlic Naan were hard, like a pizza crust, and honestly just tasted like those frozen pre-made pizza crusts thrown in an oven and seasoned to taste like Naan. An Indian food restaurant is made or broken on their Curry and Naan, and both of these were a huge fail. The one thing that I found acceptable was the Samosa (not sure how you could mess that one up anyway). It came with a traditional Tamarind Sauce which was delicious, but the Mint Chutney again was bright green like it had food coloring in it. It looked like an acrylic lime paint. When I tasted it, the best way I can describe it is similar to the smell of Comet bathroom cleaner. I was really hoping for so much more with the review ratings on this restaurant, but overall it is the worst Indian Food Dining experience I have ever had, and was a massive...