The Mint Room — Restaurant in Frederick

I’ve been really looking forward to trying The Mint Room since it first opened and finally got a chance to today. Overall it was ok…I’d say a 3.5.

Let me start with the good:

Atmosphere, restaurant design and aesthetic - 5 stars; enjoyed the layout, the plate selection and even the squiggly kid straws that they had for the plastic water cups for the kids I thought were all well-selected and you could tell there was thought put into it.

Food presentation: also 5 stars; visually pleasing

Service: 4 stars; they definitely aim to please and to make sure that you have enjoyed the food; The waiter was also willing to exchange the lemonade which my son ordered that was too tart; . What I didn’t love though is that the waiter couldn’t really tell us which menu items were things he recommended, especially since I had heard such good things from the other reviews about how well the seasoning is, I was actually willing to venture away from what I typically order to try new things, but we mostly had to figure out on our own and I always like it when waiters rattle off the chef’s specialties or the things they do well here…which brings me to my next point….

Food: I’d give it a 3. The lamb chops were on point but just about everything else we had wasn’t. The butter chicken was too sweet. The fish curry was ok but I think from just personal preference I didn’t enjoy the small cuts of the fish and the texture of the fish (I had also never had the fish curry dish so maybe that’s how it is served).

What I do get at just about every Indian restaurant I go to is the naan and the chicken tikka masala both of which weren’t my favorite here, even though the chef tried to fix the chicken. First it was too spicy (even though we got a 1 on the spice level), then it was too watery and yogurt-y and it was also made with chicken breast which made each bite tough.

The good news is that the chef and the team there were open to feedback and went above and beyond to try to ensure that we left pleased.

I’ll give it some time for them to iron out the kinks and get their alcohol license before giving it...

New restaurant in North Frederick, opened just a few weeks ago, I decided to check it out for a birthday dinner with a close friend.

Food: the food was absolutely amazing, definitely five stars; amazing flavor profiles, a wonderful take on northern Indian cuisine. We had the chicken samosa appetizer, which had a lovely, almost phyllo-style, flaky crust with a delicate, well spiced ground chicken, filling. Our main dishes were chicken vindaloo and the Goan Shrimp Caldin, which were fantastic (with the requisite side of garlic Naan). We finished with the bread pudding and the donuts in syrup. The bread pudding was fantastic.

Ambience: nicely designed interior, mostly modern, presumably largely left over from the previous restaurant in that location. It looks like they performed a light remodel. It didn’t really feel like an Indian restaurant at all, which is not necessarily a problem. The comfort level needs some work. definitely some disturbances they need to work on, like a loudly-ringing phone (likely for carry out orders), music turned up a bit too loud, and it was very warm.

Service: service was poor and very slow, and you could tell that they were severely understaffed. Now, we were celebrating a birthday, and weren’t necessarily in a big rush and had a lot to get caught up on. However, if we were a little more pressed for time or impatient, this might’ve been a pretty bad experience, based on the slow service alone.

I spoke to the owner before leaving, getting him some of my feedback, which he listened to graciously, and I wished him well with his new restaurant. This is their sixth restaurant, the first in the western Maryland area.

I would consider waiting until early- to mid-March (2025) to check this place out, giving them some time to work out the kinks, particularly with their service staff. That’s when I plan to return for another in person,...

I placed a 35 dollar to go order that included butter chicken and rice with plain naan(why so expensive?) I've never been more disappointed in my life. I saw all the great reviews and I even got a word of mouth stamp of approval but I will not be back. I was served huge chunks of tough chicken. I've never had chicken from an Indian restaurant that wasn't silky in texture and just incredibly tender. The size of the chicken was just so off putting it seemed like hey just cut a mammoth size breast into 6 pieces. 6 giant tasteless pieces. If someone wiped the sauce off I wouldn't even know I was eating Indian food. The sauce was tasty upon first taste but then I noticed that the flavors weren't there. It was very thin and a bit too sweet not the robust thick and creamy sauces that I'm used to. It tasted like they boiled the giant tough chicken in the sauce. Don't get me started on the rice! How do you mess up rice? I was starving and I almost cried as I dipped a couple pieces of naan into the sauce and took several bites of one of the huge chicken chunks. I threw the rest into the nearest trash can. I will never waste my money at this establishment again. The atmosphere was fine but I should have been concerned bc it was absolutely EMPTY. Trader Joe's has better indian food in their...