Taj Indian Fusion — Restaurant in Hazlet Township

Excited to try Taj as the Indian food scene in Monmouth is growing! This place used to be AE Thai and BBQ, so it's a cozy restaurant. But changes like wall hangings and wall murals let you know this is definitely a new establishment.

Ok onto the food, the menu has a great variety of items for veg and non-veg as well as specialty items not found at other Indian restaurants. We tried the chicken samosa...excellent, juicy and flavorful! A must order! Then for entree it was lamb korma, lamb rogan josh and shrimp korma (they allowed substitution for us since the sauces that go with shrimp seem to be on the spicier side). My friends ordered mild, and I orders spicy, and happily found that my lamb was actually spicy. The only thing we discovered about all three entrees was that they were heavily salted which was the only downside. Another thing I found was that they are very skilled at the use of spices and herbs in the food, however, I would have liked the whole cloves and cardamom either used in ground form or if using whole, sequestered from the sauces in a cheesecloth/sachet so I'm not biting down on whole cloves or cardamom. The garlic naan was very buttery and garlicky and rice, well cooked.

The service was friendly and personable with the two front of the house very welcoming of everyone! The server also gave us a 15% discount which was a nice surprise! We had no room for dessert, but will definitely try other items on the menu, hopefully they will be on top of the saltiness of...

The 3 star rating is generous as I don’t want to hurt a new business, but this feedback needs to be heard. All Indian restaurants around here seem to skimp on the rice, at least for takeout (which I don’t understand nor why it would differ for dine-in), but Taj took it to next level which is my top complaint. Also, the food was bland (at least for 2 of the 4 items ordered - aloo gobi & chana masala). Another thing that I don’t care about much was I asked over the phone while placing my order if the aloo gobi was dry or wet. I was told dry, but it was actually wet (a gravy). My recommendation to the restaurant is rice is cheap, don’t stiff your customers on it. Give extra so that it’s never a complaint and then focus on flavor of food. Other than that it was cooked well and spice level (mild) was fine (if anything a bit underwhelming), but the curry was a bit oily. When it comes to oil, I feel less is better with the US demographic. I really want this restaurant to do well as it’s closer than the other Indian options so I will give it a second chance, but I will be asking...

Pros: We are extremely picky eaters of Indian food but and I hv to say, the food here blew me and my family out of the water! Extremely flavorful food (chatpatta!) w perfect levels of salt and spice catered exactly to our liking! This is a family-owned restaurant that recently opened and originally from Long Island. Parents are 20 yrs in the business but shifted here jst 3 months ago! Son Gaurav was catering to our needs and gave us warm company when we conversed w him. We’re able to meet the chefs (Gaurav’s mom) who is a magician behind the kitchen with her home-style cooking! Very lovely and friendly family, but most of all, best indian food I’ve had in a long time!…and I’m comparing to some of New York’s greatest! Best is that we live just 5 mins away! Next to my mom’s homecooking, this is 2nd best!! Will be coming back maybe try home delivery! Con: Restaurant needs more space (tables were too close). Once they start to get really popular, seating might get very...