7 Monk's Café- Indian & Mediterranean — Restaurant in New Braunfels

Food - This is my 3rd time coming here and I found that the food is inconsistent. Their Butter Chicken was very sweet and the chicken was very bland. The 7 Monks curry has a very bright tomato flavor accompanied with coconut. Again the chicken was bland. I understand this because they likely precook their chicken and use the same chicken in every dish, so flavoring it would be cost ineffective. The Naan was just okay, if I order Garlic Naan my expectation would be to see real chunks of garlic not just dough seasoned with garlic powder. The bacon and cheese Naan was good but portion sizing could be improved for the price. Service - The girl was friendly but she wasn't that observant. We asked for 3 waters since our child was going to share with us and when she finally brought the food out she only gave us two plates and two spoons. When I went up to ask for an additional plate and utensil she acted confused. Now if you're familiar with curry you know it's very liquidy and when you have liquids you'd want to choose the right material to eat off of - paper plates are not it. Why? Because the paper disentagrates and you end up enjoying paper fibers in your food. It was also odd to me that they only had spoons.

Atmosphere - It was hot inside and the restaurant did not seem to be using their air conditioner. The tables were clean and not placed super close together. It was odd to me that they were able to keep warm tea and warm water just sitting out on a dispenser at the front of the store. To the best of my knowledge tea is something that should be refrigerated or kept cool to prevent bacteria from forming. Or at least brewed fresh every so many hours which this did not appear to be.

Overall - I wouldnt recommend this restaurant. I feel like for the price it's a bit obnoxious to be served on paper plates and to sweat as I eat because an establishment is too cheap to turn on the AC is not okay. A portable indoor evaporative cooler in Texas is not wise (it is already humid enough here). I also didn't appreciate that the next day half of our dining party had upset stomachs and weren't even able to sleep...

Every restaurant can have a bad day but I think this is different. Perhaps I have different expectations for the richness of flavors and seasoning from various Indian restaurants in California and New York but I gotta say I was disappointed with my meal.

The chicken tikka masala tasted like watered down spicy tomato paste. There was no middle to the flavor if that makes sense. It lacked seasoning and richness. Also, typically, the chicken in this dish would be cubed, marinated breast meat. What we got seemed like it was various chunks of thigh or other dark meat with very little flavor.

The butter paneer unfortunately suffered from the same flavoring issues.

The tikka meatballs with yellow sauce was also a miss. I have no idea what they were trying to make with their 'signature' sauce but it was a sign that I shouldn't order it again.

The samosas were the only thing that seemed to be as flavorful as I expected and even those were over cooked and dark brown in comparison to the lovely golden ones displayed in the magazine article featuring the restaurant's owner.

On the plus side along with the samosas, the service was friendly and helpful and their bathroom was clean.

I think they have an opportunity to correct these items and improve the food, unfortunately I'm on a road trip and this was their only opportunity to make a good impression and they failed. We took our food with us but threw it away when we agreed we weren't going to eat any more of...

Atmosphere looses a point because the swamp cooler does t really work so it’s hot inside… but better than outside.

Edit: So all I wanted to do was post the vegan menu images because I noticed there weren’t any. This isn’t how I normally leave a review as it’s my first time posting a photo.

Google gives multiple choices and things that don’t normally pop up when I’m posting a regular review without photos. I thought I could just post the photos and be done.

I’m glad the owner replied to my review but I definitely wanted to leave a better one now that I realize this little tidbit doesn’t float under the photos only.

I LOVE this place. It is the only place that offers Vegan choices that is centrally located for my vegan friends and I to hang out and grab a bit to eat. A delicious bite I might add. Despite the swamp cooler issue in summer, I highly recommend this place to anyone and everyone. There are many options for vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores. The food is also tasty! The best falafel I have ever had. Curry is delicious and I’m glad they have a broad spectrum of spicy to not as spicy. I’m not good with a lot of spice so I like their mild spice level which is perfect for me, and for those I hang out with who love spicy foods the medium is good (which I’ve tried and to me it feels like SUPER hot, lol).

I will be trying the desserts next time I go. They have become my favorite and I’m definitely a...