Apna Kitchen — Restaurant in East Ridge

My wife and daughter waited about 45 minutes for their food, which isn't excusable, otherwise good when it all came. My grilled Tandoor Shrimp came in more like 15 minutes. The waiter was, believe it or not, gruff with us when I asked with a "-It's coming!!!". We'd possibly give them another try down the road someday, but only after they've had a chance to correct their mistakes. And from own experience, order the grilled dishes or the rest of your table will be waiting forever. And nobody is likely to brink more papadum crackers unless you ask for them while waiting 45 imnutes for your food, which is what I had to waive down the waitress to get them to do.

My advice to the management is to make sure you can serve your dishes in a more timely manner and that you have a bit more professionalism in your younger male servers. The restaurant was not even full on the night we came. And there were ample tables empty when we arrived. There's no excuse for making most of a table wait 45 minutes for their food!

Also, the atmosphere could easily be improved in an Indian restaurant with lower lighting in the dining area and a little Indian style music? Watching TV in an ethnic-food restaurant may be growing in popularity in America, but it's still kind of a dumb idea and I'm willing to bet if you took a vote on any given night with your customers, they'd wholeheartedly agree with me on this. People can watch what they prefer on TV at home, after all. What they can't get a home is an authentic Indian dining experience!

I liked some of the sparse Indian-themed artwork strewn across the walls, but if it were my place, I'd deck it out in a fuller fashion to suit the theme of the restaurant. Why not make the entire experience a special treat? Also, why not offer a larger version of every dish? I could have eaten 2 dished of what I received for what was...

I went to this Indian place a couple of months ago on my way to visit my sister-in-law. Here is a summary of my experience of this place and its food.

-- Ambiance 3.5/5: Nothing great. This looks like a hole-in-the-wall place that resembles a college cafeteria. From outside it looked like small local joint but I was craving for Indian food and wanted to try it.

--- Service 4/5: The service was a little slow but the good thing was that they ensured we had things on our table and our table was never empty once it started coming.

-- Food 3/5: This is where my major issue is and I did not like some of the taste of it. Here is the summary of what we had:

First the good, this is the first Indian restaurant in the USA which serves you free papad. I have never seen this anywhere so this was a delight.

Coming on to the food we ordered:

Aloo Chana Chaat: The chaat did not have enough yogurt and did not taste good. There was a lot of sour chutneys and not enough sweet chutney to balance it.

Gobhi Manchurian: The gobhi Manchurian tasted raw. Once the layer was out you could see raw cauliflower in it. The quantity was low and was pricey as well.

Garlic Naan: This was good but one of the costliest naan that we have ever had

Gajar Halwa: This is the most disappointing in my opinion. It didn't taste anything like gajar halwa and hat grated coconut pieces in it. I had never seen it before and the taste tasted like nothing. Very disappointing and not recommended at all.

-- Value for Money 2/5: I felt that this place was costly for the food taste and ambiance that they had.

Overall, not recommended from my end unless you are really craving Indian food and there is nothing nearby plus you have deep pockets.

Also Gajar halwa is a...

Apna Kitchen is delicious and I highly recommend! I cannot emphasize enough how good Apna Kitchen is, except to say that it is my new favorite Indian food restaurant. Where does one begin??

I will start with my favorite part, the food......ahhh the fresh tandoori bread, aka naan. Apna's Special Naan, because they do truly have a special naan that did not disappoint. It will be hard to ever waver to order any other tandoori bread because it was so excellent.

I ordered the chicken Korma (extra spicy, because I love the heat). They even had extra spice for the side available if you just cannot get enough. Their mint chutney was very good and fresh as well. And the tamarind chutney was delish. Since this was the first visit, my friends also shared their dishes to sample taste the Chicken Tiki Marsala (a classic staple) and the Chicken Methi Mushroom. So much flavor! Next time if I don't get the Chicken Korma again, I will have to try a couple of other favorite "go to" dishes like Saag Paneer or Dal Tadka. For dessert, I got to enjoy the wonderful Kheer. Its a most balanced and deliciously mild, sweet rice pudding. My friends had the Mango Lassi, and raved about it. Yum!

Finally, can you say amazing rice? Go ahead and say it again. Some of the kiddos got the egg friend rice and I about fell out. Beautiful food and soo flavorful. All the food here was just the best. The staff we kind and did an excellent job as well. Joni was awesome, attentive, and took the best care of our large table. Such an enjoyable dinner experience with all around the best of the best food. Cannot...