Pooja Exotic Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Franklin Township

The Good: The food was really great and is some of the best Indian food I've had from a restaurant. I really enjoyed the various dipping sauces they give with the complimentary appetizer. No real complaints here besides maybe the amount of food served in the main entrees. You can have as much rice as you'd like and the size of the appetizer we ordered was decent, but the Lamb Vindaloo and Goat Curry bowl sizes were ridiculously small for the price (literally small than the appetizer bowl). They also have Groupons online which is what we used.

The Bad: If you're not South Asian be prepared for stares. Given that I went here with my South Asian girlfriend I was prepared (I deal with it so much it's not even a bother anymore) but seeing what other reviews here say it seems like anyone not South Asian gets this treatment here.

The Ugly: The service. I don't know if it was because I'm white. I don't know if it was because we were using a groupon and the waiters thought they didn't need to try because they automatically would get an 18% tip. Whatever the reason, the service was absolutely awful. We were pressured into ordering fast even though the menu is huge and then when we were finally ready the waiters took forever to take the order. They bring out the wrong food for me and then act like it was my fault (How does tandoori lamb sound like lamb vindaloo??). From that point forward only one of the waiters would go anywhere near our table and very sparingly. We consistently found ourselves waiting for service whether it be needing more water, more rice, the check, MY CREDIT CARD (this one is really not ok). When we are finally out the door it has been at least 2 hours. To be honest, they are damn lucky we used a groupon, or else I wouldn't have tipped.

All said and done, this kind of put a damper on what was supposed to be a celebration for my finding a new job. The food tasted great so it really is a shame, obviously the chefs know what they're doing, everyone else just doesn't. I don't think we...

Horrible management, horrible food and horrible service. Two weeks back we had booked for 24 people a special buffet only for us. The booking was done well in advance . On the day of the lunch , when we all reached the restaurant, no one was there to attend us. There was only one helper who was all confused and did not understand English or Hindi . There was no manager and no owner. The items in the food were not ready , we had to go to the kitchen to ask for each item including the basics like chutney. When asked, we were told that everyone is busy preparing for the big party order we have for tonight and the owner has also gone there. The height of everything was there was no one to even pick up the plates after appetizers, we had to pick up our own used plates and keep on another table before picking up a fresh plate for the entree. The entree was another story , it took them an hour to even bring out the food . The food was tasteless.We had ordered special Jain dishes for 2 people , which never happened because the owner forgot to tell the kitchen. It was just too bad and embarrassing as two of our guests had to leave hungry. My question is if they cannot give service, why did they commit to us. Even we were paying for the food it was not free, so why give priority to other parties and no value to us. Please do not waste your money and get insulted here. Sorry for the long post but I had to...

I have been to a handful of Indian restaurants across Eastern PA and New Jersey, and I have been consistently disappointed with many of them. Either the food was not of the best quality, the prices were unreasonable, and/or the portions were too small.

Pooja was not any of that, far from it. Food was very good, like it was homemade, and they were of very good portions for a reasonable price. For one takeout order, say Chicken Makhni or Goat Curry, it can feed two people or last two days for only about $12-14, $6-7/meal. Add a naan or two and it would be, if I remember correctly, about $8-10 per meal. To put it into comparison, Chick-fil-a (a decent fast food chain) charges $7 for a Classic Chicken Sandwich meal in PA/NJ, and this Indian restaurant offers a very good meal that is not simply a standard burger and fries.

The only concern would be the cups for takeout. I ordered a Chai, which was good, but the cup lacked a holder meaning that it was very hot to the hand and the top made it difficult to drink from. Bar that, my experience was perfect.

Although my distance means that I could only visit once a year at best, this is a place I highly recommend to anyone in the area. The people there clearly put a lot of heart into the restaurant, and they care about the quality of...