The Mint Indian Cuisine Of Clarksville — Restaurant in Columbia

Everyone should know the kind of person they are supporting when they patronize this restaurant, owned by Bhavin Patel.

Last night, I was the guest of a lovely Indian wedding reception for a couple that was married earlier this year. This was their only opportunity to celebrate their marriage with many of their family members who were not able to attend the wedding itself.

Upon arrival, it was immediately clear that the owner of the restaurant was not going to uphold promises that had been made when the venue was booked. Despite having booked the entire restaurant for a private event, due to start at 6:30pm, the owner and manager continued to seat other customers in our event space at 6:15pm. We were not given access to the full space until after 7:00pm, well past the starting time of the event, and after most of our guests had already arrived.

While the event itself ran smoothly, things took an incredibly negative turn as we were wrapping up. As they attempted to settle bill, the couple’s family expressed their disappointment to the owner that he had not upheld certain agreements that had been made during the planning of the event. He became incredibly defensive and abusive, telling us that we had forced him to lose business on a busy Saturday night (they continued to service take-out orders throughout the entirety of the event). Despite having paid for an open bar, a large buffet, and the privilege of utilizing the full restaurant space, he insinuated that we were somehow less than and unworthy of a minute of his attention, compared to other theoretical customers. While pointing his finger at her, he accused the bride’s sister of having an attitude from the moment she walked in, acting like “she owned the place.” Bhavin continued interrupting the bride’s sister while she tried to express her concerns with how he’d handled the event. When she questioned, “are you not letting me finish a sentence because I’m a woman?” the owner laughed in her face and said “OH, now you’re going to play that card?” Bhavin proceeded to claim “she started it!”, as if this discussion with a business owner was an argument between five-year-olds, and directly taunted me when I pointed out the immaturity of his approach.

Once we were finally able to settle the bill and leave the restaurant (the owner following us to the door and aggressively locking it behind us), we attempted to regroup amongst ourselves and say goodbye before we all went our separate ways. While we were hugging each other and checking that everyone had what they needed from the event, Bhavin came rushing through the front door and began accusing us of having touched his car, a Tesla that was parked in front of the restaurant. He threatened to call the police and repeatedly told us that he had a Tesla and ran a multi-million dollar business–a clear attempt at labeling us as inferior to him.

While continuing to escalate the situation, Bhavin then looked at us and said “Are you people from the hood?” At that point, I started recording the interaction on my cell phone. He then called the groom a “racist son of a b**tch,” and said to his employees, “Just call the cops, let’s see who’s drunk right now, how many of you guys are drunk right now? I’m going to call the cops, just watch.” He called 911, making false accusations about all of us, and gave the 911 operator our license plate numbers and descriptions, attempting to have us stopped and arrested for drunk driving. All of those present either do not drink alcohol and didn’t have a single alcoholic drink that evening, or had a maximum of two drinks over the course of the 4 hour event.

Bhavin turned what should have been a joyful evening into an absolute nightmare. He cares only about money and making others feel inferior to him, not running a reputable business and where ALL customers feel welcomed and cared for. I cannot stress enough that patronizing Mint Indian Cuisine is doing nothing more than enabling an abusive business owner to continue treating people like he treated us...

Update June 2024:

Came back a full 5 years later after a terrible experience in 2019 (to which the owner never owned up). Sad to say, but the food is still lackluster and service even worse. I would not come here again. There are much better Indian options in the area that live up to their name and ratings (Royal Taj, Ananda)

Update 8/26/2019: I went to Mint a couple weeks ago on a weekday morning for their buffet. It was my first time back in about 2 years since my last experience was rather subpar (see below). Still, I gave the place a shot and was pleasantly surprised to see a fully stocked buffet when I walked through the doors. The restaurant has kept up its cleanliness and great interior decor-- it's a place where you can spend some time dining.

However, the buffet continued to disappoint. Some food options weren't ready when I arrived (10 minutes after opening) and there was no naan in the buffet. When I asked the server why there was no naan, he pointed out that they were serving paranthe as the bread for the day. Still, I noticed the servers bringing naan to other tables upon request-- I just don't see why he wouldn't do the same for my table and why it isn't standard fare in the first place. Certain dishes like the eggplant were delicious but some (chicken tikka, dal, a few others) were plain underwhelming. The selection includes cheaper-to-produce entrees and it becomes apparent when comparing this restaurant to other local offerings.

I was surprised when the purported owner of Mint reached out to me on Facebook (we're not connected on the site) and asked me to elaborate on my experience. I gladly did so, hoping he'd take the review to heart and use it to improve my experience next time. He told me that " Looks like no matter what we do can't make you happy. And some of the things you talking about? Absolutely not true!!" No business owner should be criticizing a patron for giving an honest review and the interaction really brought my already low opinion of Mint even lower.

-- Mint just opened up and it's got really decent reviews on Yelp and a couple solid ones on Google; however, I feel as though Mint really is not worth the hype. In short, the food simply isn't up to the par and the service leaves a lot to be desired-- especially when compared to other restaurants in the area (primarily Royal Taj and Ananda). It's definitely not "the best Indian food ever" like other reviewers mention-- and that's what should make you wary of those reviews.

I came across Mint on a Saturday afternoon right when it was supposed to be open-- but the doors were still locked. I finally called and the restaurant unlocked the door and I was ready for the weekend buffet. However, the buffet was still being prepared as I walked in, with next to nothing ready to eat. This was definitely a bummer but I waited anyway. Once the buffet was finally stocked, I sampled everything from the raita to the tandoori chicken to the channa masala. Frankly, nothing stood out and I didn't find myself to enjoy any particular dish. The naan were fine but you've got to request it to your table.

The service is what really threw me off. My father and I were the first ones at the restaurant by 15 minutes-- yet the waiters continued to service every other table instead of ours. Finally, after 10 minutes of waiting for some sort of naan or rice to have my buffet entrees with, I gave up and asked someone for some naan-- and then it finally came. This shouldn't be the case when you're paying $15/person for a buffet. The overall lack of polish of the waiting staff was extremely noticeable too-- common courtesies simply aren't performed here like they are at Royal Taj, Ananda, or other comparable restaurants.

The restaurant has a pretty nice atmosphere-- there's tons of decorations on the walls and the silverware is just fine. Parking isn't an issue either, which is great. Still, the subpar food, unpolished service, and relatively lackluster experience are enough to keep me from going...

Not in the faintest indian (north) flavors. We started with aloo papri Chaat and raj kachori. Aloo papri Chaat was a mountain of papdi with lava of big chunks of potatoes. Very little chaat flavor on the inside. Chutneys were good. Overall we couldn't finish it because there was just so much potato and chunks of it with no flavor. The raj kachori was basically oversized pani puri. Not a kachori at all. Similar stuffing as the allo papdi chaat. Except for large pieces of tomatoes ad well but no flavor at all.

For dinner we ordered Veg Jalfrazi (jain), Dal tadka (jain) and Paneer Kadai. The jain dishes we didn't have much hope for because we knew without onion garlic, it's not going to be as flavorful. Not to mention the Dal tadka did have garlic in it. Poor service altogether. But the panner dish. It was just tomato paste or tomato sauce with chunks of tomato like the one you get from cans. Very disappointing. No authentic Indian flavor at all. Might as well been Italian Indian fusion.

Paratha was probably the only good thing at this place. I would not visit here again and if you're looking for vegetarian, authentic Indian flavor, I would recommend take your buck elsewhere.

Response to Owner: Please check with your waiters and those who attend the calls. I called ahead of time to check whether you offer jain and I was told yes. When we came and ordered Raj Kachori, the waitress confirmed with chef that no onion garlic version is available. She even apologized when we pointed out that the order has error and that it came with onion in it. She even brought out another one that we could take home (pointless because puri would be beyond soggy)

The other dishes we ordered jain and the waitress confirmed its availability. The dal tadka was clearly not without onion or garlic.

Anyways my point is that please check with your staff before responding that customer is...