Curry & Cocktails — Restaurant in Middletown

Preface: I am not an expert at Indian food.

I'm a firm believer that if something is in the title of the restaurant (Cocktail) you need to go with that.. hence the CURRY MANGORITA (tequila, margarita mix, mango juice, mix of curry masala powder and a dash of cayenne). I was being brave as I wasn't sure about that combo. I am so glad it did, it was amazing and I even had two!

I got the mixed appetizer for two which was combination of vegetable samosa and vegetable pakora (my favorite, a crispy little fritter). The seasoning on the appetizers was extraordinary.

The Paneer Pakora seemed dry and the spring rolls very doughy. But as I said, I'm not an expert.

Two of folks at the table thought their chicken dishes were mixed up but we were assured they were correct. They looked and tasted too similar to me. I think the issue was that they mixed up the mild and hotness.

However, I ordered Chicken Malai Kabab a spicy dish, so my tastebuds were already off. It said it was boneless chicken breast pieces marinated with ginger and garlic but it was covered in something red and super hot, even for me ( I love spice as long as it doesn't overpower the flavor, it did). So I can really only speak to the texture which was perfectly moist and tender.

The garlic nan bread was perfect!

The service... had to take it down a star here. It wasn't that the food took long, but actually getting served. When we arrive we were the only ones there. But still attended to very slowly and had to ask several times and still didn't get silverware or napkins until halfway through the appetizers. I think later on more help arrived because we started getting waters refilled. We were not asked at the end if we wanted dessert. I actually didn't think they had any until...

Unfortunately you cant give less than 1 star on these reviews. Being a long time Middletown resident and lover of Indian food, I was excited to see this restaurant opening up near my home. It's just too bad I'll probably never be giving them my business moving forward.

Recently I placed a large order with them for myself and a group of friends. When we got our food we noticed they had sent us things we never ordered and some of the food was cold. This is something that probably happened through human error and is forgivable.

What's not forgivable is the fact that my rice literally had mold growing all over it. Not in one spot that could have been missed, but literally all over it. It literally looks like the rice was patient zero for COVID.

What made things even worse is that when I called the restaurant to tell them the rice had mold on it, they told me this was impossible. So I sent them pictures and they said I must have cooked this rice myself and it couldn't be theirs.

So now they're telling me I took the time to cook rice, let it get moldy, and then put it into one of their containers.

You can forgive cold food, late delivery, or even a mix up. But you can't forgive potentially getting customers sick and then having the audacity to accuse me of false claims.

If you want good Indian food, good service, and don't want to end up in the hospital, stay away from this place.

Please view the photos to witness the level of disgusting I was sold by...

Overall the food was good and waitress was very nice.

The spice level with their dishes seem to be on the lower end so medium was fairly mellow and mild had the slightest hint of spice. You can taste the actual seasoning of the food through the spice so that’s always nice and it doesn’t have that overpowering burn sensation spicy food can sometimes give.

Starting with favorites..The eggplant dish (baingan bhartha)- It was creamy but still felt light and had such a nice flavor profile. Another favorite was shrimp tawa. It also had a light feel to it and the sauce was perfect to top with rice. The shrimp were fresh and cooked to perfection.

The gobi Manchurian was good but not the best i’ve had. They gave you a lot but the sauce was a little clumpy and the breading on the cauliflower was a little mushy while still being crispy. But the flavor was there. The curry paneer was average. Nothing special to note.

I’m not sure what happened with the shrimp tandoori but it was not good. (They did take it off our bill which we were not expecting so that was very much appreciated) The first piece of shrimp I took was undercooked and the next one was mushy and somehow rubbery. It also had zero flavor except for the slight char taste from however it was cooked. After that the dish was left untouched.

If I’m in the area I’ll for sure go back and try other dishes. They have a nice size menu so there are plenty of...