Tikka Masala — Restaurant in Maryland

All I can say is that a lot of these reviews must be fake reviews paid by someone to get this restaurant going--a lot of these reviews are by local guides who are getting paid to do this and I suspect others are by friends and family. We found the place to be extremely mediocre at best. The restaurant is trying to be a place that is higher end Indian fusion food--a good concept, but one that lacks in execution.

The set up doesn't feel particularly high end; in fact the back area where we were sitting felt more like a fast food place than high end--very bare and plasticky tables and pretty much no ambience.

The service was well intentioned but not prompt or thorough. The waiter and waitress were both nice and friendly, but always apologizing because they kept missing something or the other. It took 25 mins for the first drink we ordered to arrive, and that was ordered at our initiative. No one really came to take drink orders. We had to wave to get our food and drinks ordered at the same time. The waitress didn't ask how well done the lamb should be and it arrived overdone. Appetizers arrived without plates to eat them in. Raita arrived without a spoon to serve or eat it with. No one asked if we wanted dessert, coffee, tea,---you get the picture.

The food was also a mixed bag. The best dishes of the night were the chicken biryani and the samosas--both well flavored and tasty. The chicken garlic noodles were flavorful but greasy, and the lamb and the salmon were okay but a bit bland and overdone. The calamari and the palak chat were extremely disappointing. Neither had any flavor to it, and the calamari was soaked in grease. The palak chat was heavy and soggy--it was not a well-conceived dish with chick pea flour doughy fritters and raw paneer added to it--a really bad idea as they made the dish anything but light and crispy which it should be. I appreciate that the restaurant is trying to cater to American clients by keeping the heat down, but Indian food can be flavorful and spicy without being hot, and this was not the case with several of these dishes. The spices were also not well balanced in the masala chai which was overwhelmed with cloves and cardamom,...

This is going to be a long review but being a vegetarian from India the expectation are really high when you order from outside because generally home cooked food is better than outside and mostly I feel sad after eating out because of money involved and the taste and quality expectation especially when vegetarianoptions are onlyavailable in non vegetarian restaurants.

Tikka Masala was exceptionally good when we tried their vegetarian options and definitely I will be ordering more often from here. Below is my review of the food we tried from them.

We ordered veg meal which included Sag paneer Malai kofta 2 cups of rice 2 butter naan 2 samosas with sweet and green chutney

We wanted no onion and garlic and low spices. It was prepared exactly accordingly. Taste was really great and malai kofta was made really professionally.

Samosas and Chutney which are included in veg meal were amazing especially the green chutney.

The quantity is perfect for two or maybe 3 as we 2 were not able to finish even half of it.

Even through it was a delivery the presentation was really elegant and professional and the food was fresh and hot.

The only reason I have the review 4 star was because paneer was good but not great in saag. It was really hard to chew and many restaurants dont know how to make it soft. The way we make it soft at home is boil fully submerged paneer in microwave for 6-8 minute and it makes it ultra soft. I hope the restaurant will take a note of it and...

his review is mainly focused on the buffet experience.

The restaurant itself is good and is one of the nicer-looking Indian restaurants in Bethesda. The restaurant was clean, the service was attentive, and everything seemed fine—until the food was brought out.

The buffet was a letdown with very limited choices. Most of the food tasted unremarkable, with a lot of dependence on plain tomato paste and spices. Being an Indian, I was hoping for authentic flavors, but the food tasted like it didn't take the flight from India at all. Chicken 65 was tasty but far too oily. Palak paneer was soft but had no taste, and chickpeas lacked any depth of flavor. On the brighter side, butter chicken was cooked to perfection and was a highlight. I also tried the Kashmiri kofta, and I must say, it's one of the top dishes here!

Meat lovers are treated to some good choices at this place. Vegetarians, on the other hand, have very limited options, so some of my family members were relegated to eating the same 2-3 dishes—a disappointing lapse for any Indian buffet.

If you are looking for Indian casual food, this place would do, but if you are looking for authentic, delicious food, you would likely want to keep looking. In total, I would rate...