The Monk's- Heights — Restaurant in Houston

I had a very disappointing experience at this restaurant. The food was extremely bad — I’ve never tasted anything like it before. We ordered the Gully Chicken starter, which was overly salty. The Potlam Biryani Family Pack had no salt at all, and the Sichuan Fried Rice was filled with too much food coloring. The only item we liked was the soup. When I mentioned the issues to the staff, the service boy simply said, “Bro, this is what it looks like,” and mentioned that the chef was new — which is not an acceptable excuse for such poor quality food. We even drove nearly 20 miles to try this place because the menu looked different from the branch near us. Unfortunately, the other branch is much better, and this one was a huge disappointment. I definitely wouldn’t recommend this location to anyone.

@owner

I’m extremely disappointed with the food and service at this restaurant. @Owner, you really need to pay attention to what’s being served to your customers. The food quality was unacceptable. We ordered the Gully Chicken starter, which was unbearably salty, and the Potlam Biryani Family Pack, which had no salt at all. The Sichuan Fried Rice was full of artificial food coloring. The only decent item we had was the soup. When I raised these issues with the staff, the response was shocking — “Bro, this is what it looks like,” followed by an excuse that the chef is new. That’s not how you treat customers who travel nearly 20 miles to try your restaurant. @Owner, please take this as serious feedback. If you continue serving food like this, you’ll lose loyal customers very quickly. The branch near me serves much better food, so there’s clearly a big inconsistency in quality. You really need to step in and fix this before more people have the same...

I was so happy to find an authentic 'indo-chinese' place nearby (chinese food indian-style!). This location does not have dine-in but their food and service has me wanting to visit the restaurant in Hillcroft too. Their momos (dumplings) are delicious - especially the veggie ones are packed with flavor and come with a spicy sauce/oil on the side. The gobi manchurian is flavorful and with the expected crunch. Even their regular Indian fare is excellent - I tried the veggie chettinad (highly recommend) with a garlic naan. The saag-paneer is delicious and healthy as well, but a tad hastily put together - needs the paneer to soak in more masala. I relished it as it was so no complaints! HIDDEN GEM - their Chiku-shake! Oh my, tastes so fresh and not over-sweetened. Sipping it as I write this. :) I'm definitely going to try more of their menu over the next few times I go for takeout.

Updated in Feb 2022:

Hot and sour soup from this place is my comfort food.

One cautionary suggestion to the restaurant: occasionally I've tried an item on their menu and disliked it because of it being slightly too salty or too overloaded with spice or masala (Chinese bhel is one example). I would advise reducing the seasoning proportion as too little salt is a problem easy to fix, not too much salt.

For my Chinese Bhel now I am planning to chop up some fresh tomato or cabbage and mix it in so it balances out the excess salt.

Update (01/23/23) Up at 3:30 am right now with a bad stomach after eating the schezuan fish from this place for dinner. Very rare for me to have cramps at this hour. Definitely means the oil or spice or fish was too much/bad...

First, this place doesn't have a dining area - it's just a small pickup and delivery spot. It was really tasty and the average price for Indian food in Houston. For the location being in a higher end neighborhood, the prices are quite fair. And I'm stoked we finally have a decent Indian option inside the loop!

My only complaint is that the website is pretty confusing. Some of the photos don't match the dish - like the Gully Chicken. My son ordered it thinking it was grilled per the photo, but it turned out to be battered and fried, and he's avoiding both in his diet. Better descriptions would be helpful (but it was still really good lol!)

I had the Butter Chicken and super fresh and soft garlic naan. Both were very good and I'm VERY picky about Indian food. My standards are based on our Hillcroft area restaurants, and the only Indian restaurant in the Heights (on 19th) was really disappointing. (Please can we have more good Indian and Middle Eastern restaurants in the Heights/Inner Loop??)

As mentioned, we also tried the Gully Chicken which was even better than my dish. My husband ordered the tandoori Murg Angaar Bedgi (typical cubed chicken) but our son ate it, and it was good too. Again, the photo doesn't look anything like the actual dish, so hopefully they'll get that sorted soon.

We'll definitely order again soon!

(Photos show the real Gully Chicken vs the pic on...