Mantra India Mountain View — Restaurant in Mountain View

This is one of the great restaurants along the famed Castro St at downtown Mountain View. I have been to Sakoon previously but I liked this one better. It's recommended to get a reservation before heading out there since it gets really crowded around the weekend nights. This review is for a dinner and not the lunch buffet.

I reserved a table for 2 on a Friday evening at 8. After reaching there, it takes a while to find parking. Street parking on Castro itself is extremely rare to find. The surface parking lots on the neighboring streets are almost always full. However there are multiple parking lots nearby which are free and it's easier to find parking at the higher levels.

We reached the restaurant and waited for 5-10 minutes to get a table in spite of having a reservations (to be fair we were offered a table right in front of the entrance which we declined). We got a table soon after and got seated. A Yelp check-in got us a Mango Lassi and it was perfectly textured with the right amount of viscosity and sweetness. We ordered chicken 65 as our appetizer and chicken 25 and Kashmiri Rogan Josh as our entrees. Since the entrees don't come with rice, we ordered a basil pesto naan and a keema naan to go with it. The chicken 65 came within 10-15 minutes. Firstly it was quite spicy which was perfect for our palate and second it differed from the usual dry and fried taste of chicken 65. This dish was juicy and infused with the right amount of aroma. People with preference for lower spice level may choose either to tone down the hotness or try different appetizer items.

The entree dishes were equally mouth-watering and perfectly cooked. The lamb pieces in the Rogan Josh were one of the most succulent and tender pieces of red meat I have tasted. The gravy was also delicious with the right amount of yogurt and the spices of cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and bay leaves. Most often, the dishes in other restaurants mess up the proportion and the taste veer off to either too much of the aromatic spices or the yogurty flavor. This dish was cooked in the perfect taste that I expected. In comparison, the chicken 25 is a new dish that I have not found anywhere else. This dish was described as chicken cooked with 25 herbs and spices in a tomato fenugreek sauce. The dish was surprisingly delectable with a great-tasting gravy and the large potato pieces. The chicken pieces were small, soft and well-cooked. Both the dishes go extremely well with both rice and naan. We loved the keema naan with its minced meat stuffing within the naan but the basil pesto naan was too much mushy and I think we could have done without it.

The interior of the restaurant has great ambiance and decoration. The portion sizes are commensurate with the price and we ended up packing some of the leftover food in to-go boxes. Overall, this has been a great dining experience and I will definitely be coming back...

Came from San Mateo on Friday night (June 28) for my birthday with my wife & my 4 year toddler, waited for 25 minutes to get a table after being told that wait time is about 10 minutes. Ordered gobhi Manchurian dry, beer and mango kesar as they don’t have mango lassi. Gobhi Manchurian was sour like other Indian restaurants in bay area coz they make it in tomato sauce here instead of soy sauce so I didn’t complain, mango kesar was quite good. While having appetizers , we ordered main course of dal Bukhara/Veg biryani & a garlic naan , we waited , waited & waited and informed our server about the delay as our toddler was hungry & getting restless , he went to check inside. Tables left & right to us were occupied later but got their orders before us , I think our food was served to table left to us who probably ordered similar options as there was some confusion , then we again ask our server who again went to kitchen and brings our food , probably good 25 minutes after we had ordered main course . Dal Bukhara was decent, not too creamy but kinda light in flavor but veg biryani was pretty underwhelming, it was full of semi-cooked carrots and lacking any kinda good flavor, garlic naan was good. I am usually not the one to complain but paying 16 bucks for such a bland pulao like biryani & 18 bucks for a simple dal bukhara makes you wonder your life choices, may be I should have sent the biryani back. My wife then told our main server that it was my birthday so he said he will check if he can get something but later on he did not come with any confirmation and just asked if we need anything else, I replied to him no. We wondered if they gonna get some dessert for us. My wife again asks another server about the same who then returns with a litchi dessert and tells us that please let us know in advance about any special occasion, we said okay and my wife pays the bill and adds around 25% tip , total of around a little under 100 bucks. In the end our main server comes and asks me how was the food , I told him honestly it was just okay , nothing special , I told him Yellow Chilli in Santa Clara has much tastier food with better quality. He apologized and gave excuse of it being a very busy night and to please visit again so that he can take good care next time and handed me a $10 off coupon on dine in for future use. I don’t think we will visit again as it wasn’t the worth the money & hype, at the end it was just a mehhh experience on a special day.

PS: I didn’t click any pics as food had already got delayed and we...

My previous rating was 1 star, I am changing to 3. We visited store again remembering that we liked the malai kofta/malai paneer. The curries were amazing this time, literally finger licking good. We still had trouble with bread. Our tandoori roti was raw in some parts. they replaced the roti but it will be nice if they can fix the problem, we would hate to waste food like that. Changing to 3, given the inconsistency. Hopefully we will continue to have good experience in the future, and can change it to 5 eventually. Changing rating from 5 star to 0 star Order attached in pics.

1. Harvest mix vegetables - very bad. a) No salt - we had to add ourself b) Big uncooked pieces of veggies. Potato was raw, complete big florets of cauliflower. c) Despite asking for spicy order, food was bland. Even mild spicy food should have flavor, this did not.

2. Malai kofta - good.

3. Bread basket a) Lachha paratha - raw dough . See photo. It was thick in the centre , ends were cooked fine. In laccha paratha, we expect the layers to show, but they were stuck together as it was raw. b) Kulcha - Initially there was literally no filling - two layers were stuck together with no filling to separate them. They replaced it - this time it had filling and was cooked fine - but filling itself was flavorless - only potato and onion, no spices. We had the same item 3 days ago at their restaurant and it was full of flavor. c) Naan - good.

Service :

1. Our order explicitly says SPICY FOOD - our food did not reflect that.
2. I wanted to use an offer - I unlocked my phone and kept it on table and stepped aside for waiter to copy code while I was packing the food. The waiter picked up my unlocked phone and took it inside. I used the same offer from phone 3 days ago at their restaurant, the server that day got a piece of paper from inside to note the coupon code instead of taking my phone inside. Specially during covid, I recommend the staff doesn't touch people's phones. Taking inside the unlocked phone of a customer - no, no.

For context, we visited restaurant just 3 days ago and had an amazing dinner (baingan bharta, malai paneer, bread basket - every item except lachha paratha was great that day). I gave it a 5 star.

Unfortunately last experience was bad - changing it to 0. Doesn't look like we are...