Zareen's — Restaurant in Mountain View

Before I say anything negative about this place, I would just like to say the food is AMAZING. I recommend getting the Masala Fries as an appetizer of side order, I also recommend the chicken or lamb Masala Burger, very rich flavors and spices, and cooked perfectly- no burnt nor raw. However, while the FOOD here is great, the overall restaurant isn't as pleasant as the one on California Ave (this ones kind of a hole in the wall, honestly). Always very crowded, especially around the end of the closing hours. And since the food is pretty spicy, people need water, but wheres the water? Somewhere like no one can see!! Its small, so it seems hard to find it, but it is, and they keep running out of cups, so I was forced to use one of those tiny plastic cups used for sauce. And the water in those big jugs with spouts on the end and water comes, yeah, THERE WAS NONE. My God, I absolutely hate it when this happens, so I ask, please, every 1-2 hours just check if its full. So annoying! The service is good though, and the parking is fine. Overall, great food, but keep cups and full...

Chicken tikka masala was below mediocre. The chicken was pretty scrappy, not breast meat and the portion was a little small. The sauce was lacking in flavor and appeared to be just mostly heavy cream. The atmosphere inside the restaurant was frankly horrible. Constant alarmingly loud banging into the walls from the kitchen and overall didn’t appear very clean. The kitchen had multiple timers going off they they didn’t care to stop which was just a little irritating as you are trying to eat. Watch out they add fees for dining in and don’t tell you. I’m confused on how this place has so many positive reviews because it was pretty bad, I won’t be returning. Also I’m not sure if it’s the owners truck or not but backed up to the front door is a truck with garbage piling up around it with a smashed windshield that looks like it’s been there for a while and it’s a little off putting as you are walking in. It’s also there in the google maps picture of the restaurant so I guess it must be a...

We were quite disappointed. We have not been to Zareen's for some time. We know they enjoy a great reputation. So, perhaps, our expectations were set too high. We were 3 people ordering vegetarian food. The paneer in the paneer tikka masala came straight out of Nanak Paneer from Costco! It was old and chewy and hardly a paneer that anyone that includes paneer in their cuisine would use, let alone a highly reputed restaurant and chef such as Zareen's. The dal and rice were good. The Naan was undercooked and not very good. The chai was too sweet. The prices were reasonable. It is pretty much a self serve place. Although you provide your phone number when you place your order on the machine (like the airport check in machines), they do not text you that your food is ready. The person working there just comes to the door and hollers your name. Why then take my phone number? Perhaps their sit down restaurants in palo alto and redwood city are better. This Mountain View place...