Taj Mahal Cuisine of India — Restaurant in Cedar Rapids

They are Cheaters....!!! Beware of their grocery purchase...!!!

1. For the items that don't have a price tag on, they charge a price whatever comes to their mind OR is based on the person who is at the billing counter. Luckily they started putting a price-tag on most of the items in the shelf now days. The fresh vegetables they get every Wednesday, frozen items and many shelf items still do not have a price shown. If the price varies weekly, based on the market price, that is understandable. Here, it varies on the same day...! You ask one person in the back, they say a price; the price written down near the billing register will be different, and the the price entered by the person in the billing counter is different....! I bought the same item in the afternoon and then again in the night - I got charged differently...!! And this happened multiple times.

2. I, and many of my friends, had multiple incidents which proved that they over-charge. They weigh an item and enter a unit price in their 'new' weighing machine. However the price they enter in the 'billing register' is different - a higher price....!! For example, let's say you bought 2 pounds of an item whose price is $2/pound. The weighing machine will show $4 for the 2 pounds you bought, but they enter $5 in the billing register.. You won't even notice or pay attention; they are misusing our trust...!!

They are misusing the fact that there is only one Indian store here in Cedar Rapids. Note: Do not go there to buy groceries on Wednesday evening, unless you want to spend 15-20 minutes standing...

This place wasn't bad, but it wasn't anything to write home about either. The restaurant has no ambiance and the building is run down. The waiter seated us and brought us poppadoms - but no napkins. He also didn't bring our drinks or return to the table until the food was ready, Therefore, when my dinner companion spilled some of chutney on his shirt, we had no napkin to wipe it up and didn't have a server to ask. I had polished off all of my water (and he had yet to bring our drinks) and also didn't refill that until after the food was already on the table.

The food was actually pretty good. I have had better Indian food, but the choices for Indian food (or any authentic, ethnic foods for that matter) are quite limited in Cedar Rapids. I asked how hot their medium was and was told it was pretty spicy. Unfortunately, however, it was mild enough that my 10 year old daughter who doesn't like spicy food would have eaten it. Additionally, my dinner companion ordered his Hot, and it was equivalent to medium salsa at best. The flavor was still good though and the food was fresh. However, like many Indian restaurants in the bread basket, you won't get it hot, even if you order it that way.

I also ordered a glass of wine with dinner and there were pieces of cork floating in the glass. They were also out of the only Syrah they had on their wine menu, so I settled for a Stonehenge Cab.

I was discouraged by the Kheer as well. It was more of an American style rice pudding than a traditional Indian Kheer. The Chai, however,...

The staff were beyond friendly! We didn’t realize we came in probably only 15 minutes until they close for lunch. We only overheard another customer ask if they were closed while we were waiting for our food. We felt so bad!!! But they never made us feel rushed, they didn’t act annoyed or frustrated with us at all that we came in so late. We would have never known if I didn’t overhear - that’s how kind and sweet the staff were.

And the food…OMG the food is so good. Hands down the best lamb curry we’ve had. I tried something new - Chicken Makhani and it was so so so good. I could drink the sauce straight out of the bowl. We also had garlic naan and peshwari naan which was sweet and salty. Both flavors of naan were soft and fluffy with the most delightfully crispy crunchy edges. We left stuffed and...