Bay Leaf Indian Restaurant — Restaurant in New Bern

Ok let me first say that Indian cusine is my favorite of all types of food. I travel alot both here and abroad and have had the pleasure of having wonderful authentic indian food at many locations around the world. This however is not authentic by any means. First, most Indians would be offended by beef being offered on the menu. That in itself makes this not an Indian resturant. Even Pakistani resturants seldon serve beef.

I arrived early just at dinner opening time so I wouldnt have to wait as some reviews have mentioned. I was luckly to be the first served and there were only two other tables with a total of 4 guests while I was there. Alot of Indian food places in the US change their food to what they think Americans believe is authentic. The first incorrect assumption is that all Indian food is spicy hot. While Indian food is by far the most flavorable food it is not all spicy hot. That style is usually readily available as Vindaloo. Others fixed with various chilis or alot of cumin share some heat as well and can be quite strong. However alot of Indian courses are just rich in various flavors most Americans probably are not familiar with. The famousTika Masala sauce is one of these that is usually mildly spicy. A rich tomato based sauce. Paneer an Indian cheese is rarely ever hot unless ordered with some sort of chillis. This is always a good choice when determining authentic food. If I order Paneer Tika Masala and the waiter asks me how spicy, I pretty much know they are not preparing food traditionally. Sure enough this is what hapoened when I ordered the Paneer. It came to me in what I can only descrided as hot ketchup. The cheese itself was fine but the sauce was nasty. There are better sauces available in the grocery store. The other item I ordered was the lentil soup. Virtually every resturant has its own recipe. I look forward to this as usually all are wonderful to try. This can be rich in cumin or cilantro or maybe even sweet. What I got was a large portion of what appeared to be yellow grits. Dal or lentil soup is usually hearty but I have never had it the consistancy of runny mashed potatoes. It virtually had no flavor. Such a disappointment, I drove about an hour to have Indian food and only the naan bread and rice were ok. Because I will be in the area for awhile, I may give this place another try just to have something more complicated and see how they do. Obviously there is a local desire for something different like Indian food here or else there would not be such a wait as mentioned in the other reviews. I just wish this place would have faith in true indian cusine. I want them to succeed. I like the location, the space is small but nice, and the staff was friendly while...

What an unexpected find! Bay Leaf New Bern We were visiting the New Bern area and had lunch at Bay Leaf on Thursday, May, 12. It was wonderful. Generally, we are not fans of buffets, but Indian food works well on a buffet. I believe you do have the option of ordering from the menu at lunch if you prefer. We are big fans of Indian food and eat it often. In my experience, Indian restaurants can go wrong in one of two ways. Either the food is so bland it requires salt, or the spice is overdone to the point it is hard to eat. I am happy to say the the flavors and seasonings of Bay Leaf’s offerings was ideal - enough spice to make my head tingle without being too hot to eat. We arrived at 11:00, just as they were opening so we had to wait just a few minutes as the buffet was stocked with fresh, steaming selections that turned out to be as mouth-watering to eat as they were to smell.

Here are some of the selections on the buffet the day we were there.

Mixed vegetable pakora - one of the best pakoras I have tasted, crispy and flavorful. I especially liked the baby spinach pakora. Vegetable korma - mixed vegetables and nuts in a mildly seasoned creamy curry. I had to have seconds of this it was so good. Beef kofta - tiny seasoned Indian meatballs and vegetables in a flavorful red sauce. Very tasty. Chicken Tikka Masala - traditional chicken in a spicy red gravy. Saag Paneer - a simple classic Indian dish of creamy spinach with chunks of paneer cheese. As simple as it is, it is one of my favorites, and this was VERY good. Tandoor chicken - traditional Indian chicken coated with a seasoned red yogurt sauce and baked in a tandoor oven. My wife said Bay Leaf’s was very good. Alas, as good as tandoor chicken usually is, I rarely try it at any Indian restaurant only because all the other dishes always look so much more interesting! Mango pudding with large chunks of fresh mango. I could have eaten several bowls! Kheer - the traditional Indian rice “pudding”. Bay Leaf’s version is especially good.

If we are ever in this area again we would definitely eat here again. If we lived here, it would definitely be a regular stop! I encourage anyone who loves or would like to try Indian food to...

This restaurant needs to get more recent reviews and ratings. It was once good, but the decline in past few years is pretty obvious. We’ve been several times in the past few years but our most recent visit made it even more obvious that it’s not the experience it once was. First, the older Indian lady that’s there makes you feel like you are in the way and she’s just overall pretty grouchy UNLESS she knows you. We watched how she interacted and hugged people she clearly was familiar with vs the new comers. Her demeanor is way different. She made us feel stupid because we didn’t know where to sit and then when she told us to ‘go over there’ apparently we picked “the wrong table”. Felt like a small child being scolded and moved. AND we were stuck in the back of the room, smooshed up against a unused buffet cart, at a table that appeared to have been dug out of the trash, the paint on the top was chipping and flaking off everywhere, it wobbled all over the place so badly that we couldn’t lean on it or it felt it would collapse. The table was not only stuffed next to the buffet cart but there was also one right behind my husband about 10 inches behind him and servers were constantly squeezing back there to pour sauces and get utensils. We tried to scoot out a bit because it was just awkward to have someone that close. It was a pretty awful experience. We felt like second rate guests who didn’t belong in an expensive restaurant, stuffed in a corner next to the food cart with not even the same table or chairs as other guests.

The food wait time has always been kind of absurd, an hour to hour and fifteen minutes to get your food, but it used to be worth it… until our food came out last time and the portions have been INSANELY reduced. $25 for about 7 little cubes of chicken in my tikka masala. And the rice portion was a joke, a spoonful sprinkled around the already small plate. The flavor is fine. However, I’d at least like to get my moneys worth when I pay $20 for a bowl of chicken cubes in sauce.

Gave 2 stars because the bartender (long blonde hair) was so nice to us when he came over and the Naan was good. But that’s about it. After several years coming here, we won’t...