Exotic India — Restaurant in Coralville

Surprising level of rude. When I lived in Coralville, this was my favorite restaurant. When I would return, I always made a point to stop there (previous location and ownership). Yesterday, having an appointment in Iowa City, we made sure to squeeze in a visit. Their website states they are open until 2:30. We got there at 1:50, hoping they still (or again) offered buffet, so we could be in and out and back on the road. We'll, no customers were seated. A guy at the "service" desk said "Dining in?" I said yes, and glanced around at the new, empty restaurant to see if there was a buffet. The guy was silent. I had expected him to seat us or invite us to sit down or to say SOMETHING but he was awkwardly silent so I said "Two please?" And he said "We are closed" I looked at the time and was confused. He said "Take out only...No more dine-in...We close 2:30." Maybe their website should explain this? Since we were traveling, we didn't have anywhere to "take out" to so we had no choice but to leave and find somewhere else to go. While we were standing outside, figuring out where to go, a couple of customers came by who were picking up their take-out order. They told us the food was really good so we should try it. We told them what happened and that we were told we couldn't eat there, so the couple (also surprised) directed us to another Indian restaurant downtown Iowa City (which I also remembered and loved). I don't doubt the food would have been good at Exotic India. It smelled good. It used to be my favorite, and the other staff were so hospitable back then. I won't try to go again. I was taught never to go where you are not welcome. So we brushed the dust off of our...

First off, let me say that the food is always very good. With that said, on more than 1 occasion we were told our food would be ready to pick-up in 45-60 minutes and when we arrived, we had to wait an additional 30-40 mins. When we asked for some sort of compensation for the excessive delay, we were offered a free dessert. We spend over $100 on our orders and understand that big orders take time, but when we drive across town to pick up an order at the time we were told it would be ready and end up stuck sitting there for another 45 minutes, we expect better service. If this was an isolated incident, I would understand, but this has happened frequently enough that you would expect them to be better at estimating pick-up times. Our experience has been similar when ordering the food for delivery. 30-45 minutes later than the delivery confirmation time. Additionally one one occasion, our food containers had been sitting on top of each other with no cardboard dividers so when our food arrived (a full 40 minutes after the delivery time confirmation) the containers had melted the lids below and fallen into the food. Very very disappointing. Again, the food here is wonderful, but clearly there needs to be better management of customer expectations. I've been reluctant to share this review because I really want this place to get it together so I can rave about the food, but I'm finally posting this in hopes that they will read this and take a closer look at how they are managing...

First of all I have to start off as I have no idea how people have given this place 4 and 5 stars. It is definitely one of the worst Indian foods i have ever had. I am yet to try the other 2 indian places here in iowa city but I tried this one today and it was sooo bad that i had to review it. no problem with the service and people there, thats all fine they are nice and all, just that they don't know how to cook, simple as that. absolutely no taste in any of the food i had and i pretty much tried everything, just in the hope that they might have a face saver. but it was all pretty bad and tasteless and was nothing even close to what its supposed to be if you have eaten regular indian food. the best part was that the dish that they call as punjabi chhole did not have any chhole in it. hahahha, it was hillarious how bad it was. I went for the sunday buffet. the only decent thing was probably the mini samosas but am pretty sure they were refried as well. am definitely never going...