Tikka Shack Indian Grub — Restaurant in Lubbock

Consistently inconsistent!

After 8ish visits in the last year, I still don't know if/when I'll return to Tikka Shack. At every single visit, something is either terribly wrong or lacking the attention to detail that delicious Indian food demands.

My first several trips, the food was extremely underseasoned (a common complaint among reviews here). If you know anything about Indian cuisine, you immediately recognize how bland and "Americanized" the food tastes when compared to authentic Indian fare. This has improved in my last 2-3 visits, but the food needs to always be flavorful (independent of spiciness).

Second, the food quality is also highly variable. Often, the rice is undercooked (and never seasoned). When ordering vegetable-based entrees, sometimes the vegetables are nearly raw, but other times well cooked. When ordering dishes spicy, sometimes they are very lightly spiced, and others so spicy you can't breathe. It's a complete coin flip regarding what you'll receive, even when ordering the same dish multiple times.

Third, portion sizing is inconsistent, even at elevated casual dining prices. For example, consider the photos I've attached, taken from my meal tonight. Both dishes were our standard entrees of vegetables in curry (served with basmati rice). Both dishes were priced identically, and included nearly all the same vegetables in a different curry base. However, the darker Southern Curry portion was significantly smaller than the Korma Masala, for no reason whatsoever. As you can see in the combined photo, it's almost like the restaurant scooped some out of the Southern Curry bowl and tried to fill it with extra cheap rice. Completely unreasonable and unacceptable.

To summarize, Tikka Shack serves average Indian food at above average prices. If you flip heads before walking inside, your meal will be enjoyable. If tails, your meal will be underseasoned, undercooked, and...

My wife and I love Indian and food and have eaten it throughout the country and internationally. This was our 1st experience at a Tikka shack and we did take out as we drove into town later in the evening. The website app to order was easy and worked well and let us schedule our order pickup time easily. We had the southern curry, the lamb korma hot, and the saag. Our boys had the Naan pizza and the kids kabob and the mango and strawberry lasi. The restaurant was modern, clean, and new. The staff were polite and took care of our order and were accurate. The restaurant was nice but defiantly lacks the small family feel of most Indian food restaurants.

The food was good and had flavor and decent heat but not great and while good lacked the full creaminess and spice of a good curry. The portion size was just right but seemed light on the sauce. The basmati rice was decent but once again not great. The Naan was good but definitely on the small side. If you enjoy eating you curry using Naan pieces you may want to order a double portion. The lassi had a nice fruity flavor and was creamy but if you are not a fan of yogurt don't order it. We were disappointed in the lack of traditional desert options such as Kheer which is our favorite.

The kids pizza was very good and cheesy and the small kabob was nice with decent char but lacked the flavor and color of a good tandoori chicken. Our kids ate this adequately.

This was a good quick stop and filled our curry craving but it definitely lacked the traditional curry and Indian food experience and full creaminess and umami flavors we expect. If you are looking for a quick meal or a more americanized version of Indian food this is a good spot but if you have time I would definitely pass on this for a more traditional Indian food...

I expected a wait at a new restaurant, but nothing like this. We waited an hour to put our order in. While the line was a moderate size, the wait was due to the fact that they only had one girl working a register. This same girl was also bussing tables and delivering food! The manager and the other girl were standing there seemingly only able to observe. We finally made our way up to the front and the manager asked the girl to have us wait 5 minutes before taking our order.

5 minutes turned to 10 and from what I gathered, they had run out of cooked chicken so they were waiting for more to be done. Ok, fine, but they could have said something instead of leaving us standing there. In the end, the food was not great. I ordered the Chicken 65 shack bowl ("Chicken doused in spiced-up red-hot yogurt sauce, curry leaves, and green chilies") however, it was not hot at all and lacked much flavor. It came with rice and a cup of Tikka Sauce for dipping which while it didn't taste bad, it had an off putting sweetness to it. The rice was a bit on the dry side as well and I expected more food for $10.

I don't anticipate going back here for a while. I wanted to like this place and I had high hopes, but they need to get themselves together or it'a going to be short-lived. I'll be sticking to India Palace on 34th and Flint Ave. It's a bit more "hole-in-the wall" but they food is delicious every time I go for dinner (do not get the...