Papa's India Grill — Restaurant in Moreno Valley

I'm always looking for a places with great Tikka Masala, and ended up stumbling onto this place via Google.

But I noticed a strange red flag when looking at the website. Under the listing for Chicken Tikka Masala; it says "$17.00 + Free Shipping". Chicken Tikka Masala is a dish with both chicken and dairy in it, so it is highly perishable. I doubt this place would make any money with shipping their perishable products for free. I assume they mean free delivery, probably within a small radius of the restaurant, but I want assurance that the place is not fake, despite the weirdness of the website and phone number, so that I can more confidently place an order, as I've placed orders before to Indian restaurants and had my card immediately used fraudulently afterwards.

I called the phone number that is listed on their Google page (and is also posted on their Instagram) so I could find out what was going on, and maybe even point out an error on the website to the owners so they could fix it.

The first call I placed was answered, I identified myself and started explaining why I was calling, and then I heard a few clicks followed by silence. I called back a few moments later to get the same person answering. I tell them that I just called but I got disconnected, and I try to explain that I want to verify what's going on with the website / phone so I can trust the information enough to buy some food. There's some amount of miscommunication, and the person that answered the phone says that it's the wrong number. I pointed out that it's the phone number listed on all of their online websites, to which they decide to respond by saying goodbye and hanging up on me.

Well. Now I was curious as to whether this place exists or not. So I drive a few hours just to check it out because this is feels like something right out of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

I get there, I order for take out from a nice normal lady. The pricing is on-par with other Indian places, and the to-go box is wrapped with extra saran wrap to prevent the oh-so-common staining that these dishes tend to create.

The food itself was excellent. The Chicken Tikka Masala had a great flavor, although the chicken itself was surprisingly dry, likely because it was chicken breast. The best Tikka Masala I have had uses chicken thighs instead to avoid the dry contrast to the otherwise smooth creaminess of the dish. This sauce I'm particular was probably the second or third best Tikka Masala I have had, and like you can guess from this absolutely unhinged review, I've gone out of my way to try out and compare restaurants to try to understand the differences between the best and the rest. If you're going anywhere near La Mirada, Whittier, or Fullerton while on the way out to LA, I would recommend trying out the Chicken Tikka Masala from Curry Hut instead.

That said, if you're a local, this seems like an okay place to sit down and eat. I'd recommend to steer clear of direct ordering due to the strange social media / phone issues. They had a few tablets for the delivery services, which would likely be safer to order from since they're a third party if you're as uncomfortable as I was with...

Those who follow me on Google Reviews know that I eat vegetarian food every Tuedsay and Thursday. If I am out and about on those days, I will look for a restaurant that serves this food. Today, I was in Moreno Valley and came across Papa's. I was impressed. It is located in an otherwise undistinguished strip mall but the interior is airy and well-organized. The booths are covered in soft beige naugahide and every surface was extremely clean. There is also a small bar with five stools. The decor is pleasing and the wall art is tasteful. The hand sanitizer dispenser in the entry, however, was non-functioning. My server, a younger woman, was pleasant and answered my questions without hesitation. When I ordered a Sweet Lassi to drink, her supervisor -- a middle-aged man wearing a turban -- suggested that I might like a Mango Lassi, instead. I did so ($4) and it was very smooth and tasty. I asked for the House Salad ($8) to be served first -- and it was. (I hate it when the salad and entree are brought to the table at the same time.) The salad was a finely-chopped combination of romaine lettuce, red cabbage, Italian green beans, carrots, cucumbers, and sweet white onions. All of these ingredients were very fresh and quite crunchy -- in other words perfect. It was served with a small cup of the house dressing (seasoned yogurt) but I ate it unadorned -- it was that good. My main course arrived after I finished the salad. It was Vegetable Pasta Rama ($16), which turned out to be fettuccine in a thick yellow sauce with carrots, broccoli, and green beans. This same dish is available with chicken, lamb, or shrimp at additional cost. My server asked me my preference of mild, medium, or spicy and I decided to be conservative and specified mild. After polishing it off, I realized that I should have gone with medium because, although the dish was really good, it was rather bland. (This is no fault of the chef because it was I who made the choice.) When I mentioned this to my waitress, she commented that mild is mostly reserved for children. Next time, I will order it with medium spices. Overall, the food was excellent and very fresh. Both items came with tongs for doling it out onto the additionally supplied plates, but I was able to finish every drop myself. This is probably because I follow an 8/16 diet and I get very hungry when dinner time rolls around. I would say that these selections would accomodate two "normal" people. Extra compliments go to Papa for serving drinks in real glass tumblers & stemware, food on sturdy white china, with genuine full-size stainless steel utensils, and a neatly-ironed cloth napkin. My experience here was terrific in almost all respects. Therefore, with confidence, I can say that Papa's India Grill is Highly-...

While the curries were tasty (outside of the overcooked chicken in the Butter Chicken), I was quite disappointed with the naan breads received. I order both the cheese and garlic naan, and both were terribly overcooked- with crispy exterior edges, tough to pull apart, and they were ultra thinner than most commonly made indian naan. I reached out to the restaurant to share my dissatisfaction and they replied that a refund was unavailable at their location. As you can imagine, their prices were not the cheapest around so I spent well over $60 for my complete meal, to which their profit margins are pretty decent. Being unable to refund my small order of naan seems unreasonable and unacceptable to me. I was also unhappy that side orders of rice does not come with any of the curries and is charged separately. Quite disappointing since this was my first visit, and now my last. They seem like a nice family run, small business, but I believe some policy adjustments can be made to...