Guru Palace — Restaurant in Mesa

Excellent! Any time I visit Arizona to teach private long range rifle training or to visit family, I eat here! I am an Indian buffet aficionado. I have eaten at every Indian buffet that looks good in Eastern Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and Western Colorado. Unlike many buffets, Guru Palace offers more than cheap vegetarian and rubber chicken. Their buffet has goat, beef, chicken and vegetarian. This buffet is, in my opinion, the best in the Rocky Mountain and Southwest regions.

I have eaten at Guru Palace more than 6 times, and it is always good! While the Indian culture is to keep a very straight face and not smile at customers, some of the staff here is actually friendly, which is wonderful! The general atmosphere is friendly.

APRIL 6, 2022 UPDATE:

Sadly, much has changed in the last 25 months since Tony "big pharma" Fauci began his sales campaign to push covid vaccines. I presume that there is new ownership, I did not see any of the former staff, either front of house or chefs refilling buffet items. The two friendly gals, one of whom I think was probably the former owner, the other a nice Mexican lady, we're absent on this trip. Instead, a masked man and two unsmiling gals worked the front of house.

The garlic naan I ordered with my buffet arrived in about 20 minutes instead of the former 5 minutes. Rather than being hot, thick and meaty, it was now thin, cool and burned. The bathroom is now dirty, as a test to see if it was simply a sign of age, I used a paper towel and wiped a tiny portion of the mirror, and the filth came right off. This is not a problem caused by the covidians or government, this is a manager directing someone with elbow grease to consistently do a thing for 10 minutes each day.

On a positive side, the food was still very good, it seems that the goat masala recipe has changed, and that had been my favorite dish, but as far as I know, it is still the only place to get goat curry in a buffet, and that means a lot to me! :-) The buffet is still large and well stocked, and the price for a buffet and a soft drink was only $17!

I can appreciate the challenges caused by the covid-panic, and also by the Federal Reserve-caused massive inflation. I would be happy to pay an extra 20% more than 5 years ago if, in exchange, things were nice and clean, staff was friendly, and the food was excellent.

I am in the area for the rest of the month, so I will give it another try before changing my many-year-old five star rating. My hope Is that the owners have simply been out of town for a couple weeks on spring break and perhaps forgot to leave a manager in charge to make sure things were wonderful. I want to continue bragging that Guru Palace is my second-favorite restaurant in the whole wide world, second only to Mama Africa in the UK. I will be back to see if I just happened to arrive on the...

This is How We Do it in Punjab!

I was a repeat customer here, off and on, for many years. My last visit here, was a few months ago (some years after I had been here prior). I went to the lunch buffet with my mother and 3 children. We are from the Indian sub-continent -- an otherwise possibly irrelevant fact, but which will become relevant shortly.

There were only a couple of other customers dining, although it was lunch hour. The food was mediocre -- not what it used to be. We took our time, ate slowly, and enjoyed each other's company, since it had been a long time since we had dined out (COVID). I took my children to the men's restroom at some point while we were dining. A short while later I went to the restroom myself. When I returned, I found my mother quite upset -- because the owner had scolded my 9 year old children for allegedly leaving the toilet in the women's restroom unflushed. When my mother tried to explain how that was not possible, given that they had not been into the women's restroom, the owner ignored my mother's attempts to clarify the situation, addressed my children directly and insisted that my children go and clean up the toilet in the women's restroom, which she alleged they caused. The owner was not at our table when I returned to learn of what had transpired in my absence.

I went up to the cashier, paid for our food, and asked to speak to the owner. Her son went to fetch the owner, and returned with the reply that she was "unavailable." I then explained to the owner's son what had transpired. He claimed that he had no first-hand knowledge of the facts but did insist on justifying and defending his mother's actions. When I calmly pointed out the outright impropriety of her mistaken assumptions, her failure to make proper inquiries, her false accusations, her insistence on addressing my children directly in my absence, and her audacity in ordering them to clean her toilet, he replied, "We are all from the same place (India). This is how our elders deal with children. It is for their own good." I reminded him that we were not in India. He replied, "That is how we do it in Punjab!"

There was no acknowledgement of any wrongdoing on their part, no assumption of responsibility, or god-forbid, an apology. Instead the situation took a turn for the worse, and the owner's son began shaking with anger, used a number of expletives and profanities and went on to claim that they did not need our business.

In the end, we ate mediocre food, and were left accused of soiling with feces a restroom we did not even set foot in. But, the latter fact appeared to be...

A hidden gem!! My husband has never had authentic Indian food before. I asked a few Dashers I know if they could recommend a good place. They all said Guru Palace, and they weren’t wrong. It is a local family owned restaurant. When you first walk in, the smell is amazing. It smells like fresh garlic and spices. The staff were very friendly and attentive, and the atmosphere is very clean and open. We went on a Sunday and they had a buffet or you could order off the menu. We ordered off the menu and had Samosas for an appetizer. They were served with a cold cucumber mint dip and a sweet fig? sauce. Absolutely delicious. He had the chicken Korma and absolutely loved it. The chicken was tender and the yogurt sauce was creamy and delicious with a hint of nutmeg and other spices. I had the Paneer Tikka Masala, which is the Indian equivalent of cheese and tomato soup. The menu says they make their own cheese. It was very hearty. I like spicy, and having the spice level at about a 7/10 was a perfect balance with the cheese and the rice. The tomato base was homemade and not bitter or acidic. After the meal, they offer fennel seeds and licorice to cleanse your palate and freshen your breath. This is a fabulous place to go if you want really good Indian food. They also cook with a tandoori oven. They have many vegetarian options. They also have a bar that serves beer and wine. Also, they have take-out available and you can DoorDash it if you prefer to stay in, which is what many people do, so even if you don’t see a lot of cars in the parking lot, don’t let that dissuade you! Stick your head in the door and take a deep breath....