Taj Mahal Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Columbia

I just finished eating at the new location, and I cannot implore you enough to avoid eating here. My girlfriend and I were quite excited to try Taj Mahal again now that they have moved. And as the owner's daughter pointed out in a previous review of her family's own restaurant, you would think the service would be faster. No. It was awful. We entered at 7:10 pm, and left at 9 pm.

It took 15 minutes to get two glasses of water and one bottle of beer (Indian beer, it is pretty good and I recommend trying that at least). That should have been a hint to us. I know you might be thinking, "well it is Friday at dinner time, of course service will be a bit slow." Nope. 5 total tables being used. We had to sit on the second story because half of the table below had not been bussed or cleaned. We thought that may be the reason for slow service so we moved to the first floor once we received the waters and beer.

We ordered at 7:25 pm. We got our naan at 8:15 pm. Upon asking two different employees when we could expect our meal (not the server, he had disappeared by this point or started avoiding us when it was clear we were displeased), they had to ask us what we had ordered. My girlfriend, being the sweet person she is, talked me out of leaving. She regretted that decision once we started eating our food (at 8:40 pm).

Her paneer tikka masal was very bland. This is not something that should take over an hour to make, and then taste like something store bought. My tandoori meat platter was overcooked and fairly bland as well. They never brought the masala that is supposed to accompany the entree, even after asking.

We asked for the check immediately after the food was dropped off, and 20 minutes later we received it, paid cash and left as fast as possible. Others may have better experiences than this, but in my opinion you should avoid eating here, and try another Indian...

This buffet consisted of a very low amount of items. When we got there (in the middle of the lunch hour) the items were either cold or not filled (which meant we had 2 things to choose from for meat). We got our first plate (small with cold naan, cold rice, and some mysterious meat and curry... because there was no label) and then waited for them to fill the items on the buffet, but they NEVER (over the span of an hour) did. Our second plate consisted of rice and the leftover sauce from the curry meats, because we wanted to try and get our money's worth. Even with the discount from purchasing a Groupon (which really wasn't worth it either).

If you are in the Columbia area and want a decent buffet (worth the cost) and all around experience/food quality, etc, do yourself a favor and go to India House.

Oh and by the way, when it says two buffets and a drinks. The "drink" is for soda only none of the specialty drinks, which should have been advertised properly in the fine print. The only time I would go eat at this place is if it were free and I was starving and had no other choice.

The service was also terrible, I had to go get my own check, she took 20 minutes to bring us water and the two drinks that came with the Groupon. I believe they should rethink their fine print to state, please do not tip us as we aren't going to have good service anyway. Tipping is for service not just a surplus required cost added because we bought something. When did people/companies decide that tips were a requirement?!?! I am not stingy when it comes to tipping... but to tip on a buffet, means they better be cleaning plates and bringing me refills on my drinks that I paid for...

I am always down for trying places at least once or twice to give it a fair review, but I will not waste my time, calories, or money at this...

New location-Same delicious food, SAME SLOW SERVICE! I've been a loyal customer of Taj Mahal for about 5+ years. I've been to the new location about 6-8 times since it opened. The buffet food is still great but I know some friends now REFUSE to go there anymore because of being neglected by staff. OLD LOCATION took forever to get some water NEW BUILDING now you wait for silverware, too!!!! Only two times at the new location have I not had to wait at least 10-15 minutes for someone to bring me water and silverware so I can start my meal. 11/22/13-Took a friend who hadn't been back to Taj Mahal in 3 YEARS for the sunday lunch buffet. We were greeted and shown to a seat, so staff knew of our prescence. She told us to help ourselves, so we went and got our food. Returned to our seat, no silverware! Waited 10 minutes, so I went to the bar myself and grabbed 2 silverware rolls! No water, so I went to the buffet, grabbed glasses, went back to the bar, and poured water from the pitchers sitting there so we could proceeded with our meal. Saw the woman bring a pitcher of water like she was about to pour us some when we'd already been seated for about 20-30 minutes!!! Seemed surprised when she saw we had some and left. So disappointed!!!!!!!!!! Very apprehensive about taking any future business associates or personal outings there due to this...