India Hut — Restaurant in Las Cruces

I have eaten Indian food all over the world. Throughout the US, Britain (which probably has the best Indian food outside of India), Ireland, Thailand, etc, plus I’ve eaten food cooked by a friend who is from India originally. This was the worst Indian food I’ve ever had. It is in no way authentic. There was NO flavor. The mushroom muttar didn’t even have sauce! It was just mushrooms, peas and onion sautéed and put in a dish. The paneer tikka masala was a tiny bit more flavorful, but tikka masala is supposed to be bursting with flavor. This was like plain tomato soup or something. I ordered buttered naan and got dry, plain naan. The naan also, bizarrely, just tasted like dough. I’ve never had naan that tastes like this. I know every restaurant is going to use different recipes, but this was silly. I don’t know if it is extra Americanized or what. I ordered the food via DoorDash, so it’s not like I could send it back after tasting it. Maybe they are having an off day? I just don’t know how it’s possible to make these recipes and have them taste so bland. I also want to say that I definitely have not lost my sense of taste due to Covid. I was eating a small snack before the food was delivered and it tasted great. I would not normally leave a bad review for food that was simply mediocre. I don’t want to be a jerk like that, especially when businesses are struggling to stay open. I really don’t. But I feel like I had to review this place. I’m very disappointed because it was expensive and gross and now I don’t have anything for dinner. All of the good reviews are surprising. Either the restaurant is having an off day or the reviewers are just really used to eating bland Indian food. I would recommend the restaurant add an option for spice levels on their DoorDash order form, but even had it been spiced to my tastes (a 3 or so), the food would have just been spicy with no other flavor. I will say that the mushrooms, peas and paneer seem fresh and taste as they should. It’s like they simply left out ingredients....

The India House is first purely Indian restaurant and is an alternative to Mexican cuisine in the restaurant diversity-starved Las Cruces. This restaurant has been open only few month at the writing of this review. Like many Indian restaurants they have a lunch buffet, so we thought it would be way to try a variety of their foods offerings. Indian cuisine I have tasted were very savory because variety of spices used in there curries and sauces, the use yogurt to contrast with spicy seasonings. Our first impression was that nearly all the dishes were under-seasoned, i.e. not very savory. Their mango lassi lacked the tartness from the yogurt. The following is a listing of items on the buffet, chicken tikka masala (not savory), pea and potatoes (good), chicken curry (good), tandorri chicken (tasteless), egg bhwyi, na rathan korma (not savory), yellow dal, dal makhani, vegetable pakora, meatballs, and rice pudding (very good). It also noteworthy that their rice is presented in a pile in large serving pan under a warming lamp, which is a formula drying the rice if it sits too long under the lamp. Better to put the rice in a chaffing pan. That said, we intend on returning for dinner and ask what part of India is their predominant influence, because it was hard to tell based on their buffet offerings.

I called this restaurant at 4:30P, a half hour before they open for dinner. I inquired about gluten-free items on their menu. The gentleman who answered said, call back at 5:00 when we are open. As a consequence of this response we won't be returning to see whether their dinner menu is more savory than their...

Pretty good, but certainly not the best Indian cuisine I've had. There are a few menu selections which can be found at basically all Indian restaurants, and my wife and I use these as our gauge to compare between restaurants. Chicken tikka masala is one of them, and compared to several other Indian restaurants we've eaten at around the country, it's only ok here. It seems like it's missing something, and kind of tastes like pre-packaged sauce. To be honest, my wife and I make this dish at home, and our sauce is better. It did take us a year of experimenting to perfect it (none of the recipes we found online were quite right), but I'm just saying I would expect an Indian restaurant to make it better than us amateurs.

I highly recommend ordering from the menu and skipping the buffet. There are some very good options on the menu, not normally found at Indian restaurants. Try the lamb mughlai. The large selection of naan is nice. The masala chai is good and not too sweet. Again, not the best I've had, but I'm glad they didn't over sweeten it.

If you enjoy Indian cuisine, India Hut in Las Cruces is definitely worth a stop, and I'll be giving them repeat business. Just don't expect to be blown away. Half stars are not possible on Google reviews, but India Hut is a solid 3.5 compared to other Indian...