Clove — Restaurant in New York

I was so excited and happy to find a place has good price and reviews in NYC. Then the reality hit.

Buffet lunch for 10, good price? Yes yes it does come with a harsh service and 4 things to choose from with naan and samosa, rice.

The service girl in green was having an off day, as the lady next to me said when she saw I got bad service. The green shirt lady sever jumped in front of me when I'm getting food, then she looked at me and said: "oh you want this?? Fine, you go." I was like, well, I have been in line getting food, but thank you for your generosity to let me get food I'm paying for.

Then 10 minutes later (I usually take my time at buffet to enjoy food and peace) she came to my table and take the white water bottle and slammed it back down, I'm not sure if she was just checking to see if the bottle is empty, it's clear glass bottle so there is more than half water left, maybe water is hard to see... And before that, about my first plate, she came with a check slammed on my table, slammed the salt and pepper down to hold the check.... I started to think maybe this is just how she does things. So I laughed off and move on.

Food: it is not that great. I am in computer science field so yes I know how to judge Indians food since most of my friends are Indians. This is not what good food taste like, chicken was extremely dry wth sauce, shrimp is shrunk to the smallest and sauce is not creamy and tasty as regular paneer.

Samosa is ok, super small with little filling.

Ok I'm done complaining lol anyway, I'm sad that I was fooled but oh well, NYC, I'm experiencing it.

The clear glass bottle ... But the server can't see water in it so slamming it down the table helped her know 😂slamming table is the new norm in...

The service ruins everything about this place. I’ll start off by speaking very well about the food, as it is important that if you want good Indian food, you should know you won’t be disspaointed. However, our experience here was, by far, the absolute rudest I have ever experienced in the service industry. My friend brought us here for the food, we are not locals and could have gone anywhere. We were seated outside and and our server went through the menu with us very thoroughly. We placed our order; 2 appetizers, 3 alcoholic brevags, and 3 entrees. Our server was very awkward, but friendly. After we got our food he disappeared immediately, we didn’t even get refills on our drinks. After a while, he returns to pick up our table. THIS IS WHERE THINGS TURN...After finishing our food, we saw a sign that mentioned a buffet until 4pm; we ordered our food at 3pm. We mentioned to the server that we wish he would have told us about the buffet as it included free alcoholic drinks and a variety Of options (including someone of the food we ordered). HIS RESPONSE, “well, why do I have to tell you, there’s a sign, that’s what’s signs are for” We were taken away, as we were not rude, just explaining we wish we would have known. The best part of this is when he goes even further to tell us how amazing the buffet is and that it would have been a better deal, but we should have read the sign. We asked to speak to the owner, who told is THE EXACT SAME THING. For the record, we know very well he wasn’t the owner, but the son of the owner acting as the owner, but we didn’t want to pursue this any further. We paid our bill and left, never coming back. HORRIFIC SERVICE OUTWEIGHS...

This place was fantastic. I went to Clove for a wedding and the experience was amazing. Habib stopped by to ask us how everything was and made our experience personal. I felt like family!

I ordered the samosa as well as this beat/carrot dish wish was so sweet. Especially with the tamarind & cilantro sauce. Additionally, I hate salads. HOWEVER, what they did with the chickpeas and cabbage was phenomenal. When they brought out my saag paneer...I was in heaven. I have been eating Indian food since I was a kid. And as a New Yorker, there are more than a few restaurants to choose from. But clove is my #1. The spinach was creamy and soft. The panneer was a whole other experience. Usually the cheese is just a nice addition with little to no flavor, but this was an entirely different. It was the perfect texture and actually had flavor! A flavor that was separate from the dish entirely.

In Conclusion: -Best Indian restaurant in NYC -The Saag Panner is a must have and the naan is above all else -The service is fantastic!!! The entire staff treats you like family, I ask for something and it is there in a minute. They even make you laugh. It's rare to have a genuine experience at restaurants but you can tell how much they care. They want to make sure you have a great time and they remember returning customers. -The chef/owner, Sammi is also fantastic! He caters too! When we were planning on taking over the restaurant for a few hours for the wedding he was so attentive. He answered all of our questions and made sure to call us back. He really does it all and I hope he knows how much we appreciated being able to...