Vintage India — Restaurant in Lakewood

I've been coming here regularly for about a year so I was surprised to see that I hadn't given my favorite restaurant in Lakewood a review yet. There are good options in town for good Indian food but in my opinion Vintage India is by far and away the best.

The atmosphere is somewhat bare, but cozy. The staff are great. Very kind, attentive and polite. The food is fantastic as previously mentioned and reasonably priced as well considering the amount of food you get with an entree.

I've sampled a few different things, the butter chicken is very good, Tandoori Chicken is great but at some point I found myself only ordering the Chicken Tikka Masala every time I go. Fantastic dish, full of flavor and spiced to your preference.

A disclaimer for anyone adverse to spicy food, order your spice level fairly low. For myself I am a lover of all things spicy so I tend to go for a 9 or 10/10 on the spice level.

Finally, the Naan is fantastic. Garlic Naan, bullet Naan, you really can't go wrong. I honestly cannot speak more highly of this place, if you haven't been, you're...

Food tastes excellent. Service is average. Waiter should not just serve the food but pour water in the glass and not just leave the pitcher on the table. Waiter should visit couple times while patron is eating and ask if anything needed. The prices in general are little high compared to other similar Indian restaurants. Just for a plate of onions they charge $4.95 which is not reasonable compared to the price of samosas at their restaurant that costs $4.95. Samosas require lot of work to make as opposed to cutting a plate of onions. Most of the Indian restaurants in Cleveland don’t even charge for onions with the entre. Overall recommend the restaurant.

I don’t think you have taken our feedback positively especially by accusing us wrongly. We just gave you feedback based on our experience and thoughts. We don’t want anything free but pay something reasonable. Anyway it is your business and you may run the way you want. That’s fine. Also, I don’t want anything free...

I genuinely feel bad even giving this place 1 star.

We ordered Butter Chicken, Naan, and Tandoori—and the entire experience was just terrible. No flavor, no spice, no real taste—just a flood of artificial red color trying to pass off as “flavor.” It felt like they dumped red food dye and called it a dish.

The naan? Crispy to the point of confusion. We literally thought they served us rusk instead. And the tandoori? Dry, bland, and forgettable.

And the cherry on top? They charged us 80 dollars for this bullshit. EIGHTY. DOLLARS. For food that didn’t even deserve a second bite.

To make things worse, the owner actually came over and asked, “How’s the spice?” We politely told him the food was bad—and instead of listening or even pretending to care, he just shrugged and said, “I asked about the spice,” like that somehow made it all okay.

Seriously? That level of ignorance and arrogance just added fuel to the fire.

Absolutely not worth the money, time, or taste buds....