India Palace — Restaurant in Memphis

We love Indian food, and have been to nearly a dozen Indian restaurants. We have a pretty good idea of what to expect. We’re still new to the area, and this was the highest rated Indian restaurant around. Overall, we sadly weren’t impressed by our experience. The entrance is narrow, and you have to either go around the wall in front of you, or to the left. For us, it was obvious since the lights weren’t on in front of us, but to the side. We weren’t welcomed in, but were asked “two?” and were gestured to follow a gentleman to a booth. The restaurant had just opened 20 minutes ago, and the buffet was available. We tried nearly all the dishes, and were surprised the food was cold. Neither of us like to complain, so we ate what we put on our plates. We tried the chai (Indian tea) and mango lassi. Neither were anything to write home about, but not horrible. We were pleasantly surprised they handed out naan, which was very good. The saag paneer (spinach with blocks of cheese) was delicious, even cold. The butter chicken was the warmest dish, though it had fairly large raw onions. While I’m not a fan of onions, in most other butter chickens I’ve had, the onions are cooked into the sauce and not noticeable. Another interesting part of the experience was the lack of music. They didn’t have any music playing, though there was clearly a speaker system and TVs throughout the restaurant. This made the large room pretty quiet, so you could unfortunately hear everything; people eating, coughing, talking, and loud noises from the kitchen. Even if the music isn’t relevant to the theme or food, I wish there had been something to make me not feel like I was eating in a library. I also wanted to mention the cleanliness. It wasn’t the worst I’ve ever seen, by any means, but the place needs a refresh. Things seemed run down, needing to be replaced. For example, older spoons for the buffet felt like they could break if you weren’t careful. The carpet is beautiful but has faded with time. There are several minor things I could go into, but I’ve already made this review fairly long. I know this place could be and should be amazing. While I won’t be going out of our way to drive there again any time soon, I wish this...

The minute you step into India Palace you are met with a commitment to excellence in service, ambiance, and of course the food. They have signs that boast their love and respect for life and food. That type of environment the food has to be the bomb. And yes it is!!!!!!!

Each table is prepared with water already set and ready, the seating is comfortable and plentiful, and the customer service is A1.

The process is simple. They make sure you're comfortable and have all you need. I requested the buffet. After that it was pure bliss.

I'm not well versed on all the various names of each dish. However my palate is keenly aware of what it likes or doesn't like. I do know about Naan, Biryani, and Sambosa. All of them were excellent.

It was Friday so they had special dishes that the buffet during the week might not boast. However, the consistency is the same no matter what day you go. The flavors are robust. There is a perfect balance between spice and savory.

They also had a live station where Dosa was prepared. Dosa is like a pancake that is thin and either stuffed with savory items or sweet toppings. Both dessert and savory options were prepared fresh on-site cooked to order.

Kiara was a very attentive server. Her customer service is one that should be modeled for all restaurants or any service based business. She made sure I had zero needs and educated me on the dishes as only one who loves food can.

The dessert options are the perfect "icing on the cake" pun intended. They are sweet yet subtle which is a perfect compliment to the flavor profiles of the buffet dishes.

All in all. Come visit. Let your tastebuds...

I’m sorry but this was just bad. This comes from an actual indian that understands Indian food and has also eaten his weight at Indian buffets in the past.

Let me start with the few good things about this place. They have really delicious and fresh naan that is given tableside. Additionally, they look to be the only Indian buffet open in Memphis so far in 2021.

Now for the critiques... first of all the tables are not clean. Our tablecloth on the table had a lot of dried food stuck on it, which is unappetizing to begin with. The server providing water looked disgruntled, and threw our napkins on our table with a grimace. The selection of food is pitiful. They only have 6 dishes and 1 rice. 3 of the dishes use the same gravy base. It was not appetizing at all. They had a chicken tikka masala, veggie korma, and “lamb meatballs” that were all in the exact same tasting sauce. It was underseasoned, bland, and too heavy with cream. Their spinach and paneer dish had almost no paneer in it.

The restaurant had no appetizers at all. Every other buffet I’ve ever gone to provides so type of appetizer (even as simple as bhel puri or fried vegetable fritters).

The place had really bad gulab jamun which tasted less like a tender sweet dessert and more like a dirty sponge that had freezer burn.

Ambiance-wise, it’s a disaster. They have all their boxes and cleaning supplies and stuff that should not be be visible all next to the buffet out in the open. You have to navigate around junk in the middle of the room to get to the food itself.

Honestly if it wasn’t for the naan, I’d be giving this...