Mantra Indian Bistro — Restaurant in Oconomowoc

The food is tasty, but as some other reviews have noted, somewhat overpriced for what it is. The dishes tend to be sauce-heavy: each time I've ordered, the mutter paneer has had just a couple of paneer cubes and a low density of peas in a pint serving (while other places tend to have a container mostly filled with peas and paneer, with the sauce filling the gaps), and the dal makhani has had a similar low density of lentils relative to the amount of sauce (which surprised me even more). Given that ingredient costs usually compose a minority of the cost of a dish for restaurants (labor and capital upkeep are most of it), I'd rather pay a dollar more for a meal that's filled out with peas or lentils - but that may be a minority preference, or may not work as well for the target market segment.

I don't eat meat, but there seemed to be a similar low proportion of chicken in the tikka masala my girlfriend ordered.

The upcharge naan options are not worth the price - one smallish flatbread isn't really worth even the baseline price to me.

The samosas, on the other hand, are tasty, substantive, and reasonably priced; I highly recommend an order with any meal, or maybe as an entire meal.

Basmati rice flavored with sauce is still delicious, hence my willingness to continue to order from here (aided by Oconomowoc's general lack of cuisine variety, especially vegetarian options), but if you're looking for substance and nutritional balance, you might be better served by...

We recently enjoyed a delicious lunch at Mantra Indian Bistro. The food at Mantra Indian Bistro is prepared with love and nourishes the body. Thank you! May you continue to do well in Oconomowoc and prosper. We will return soon and often for many reasons. We were greeted with friendliness and seated at a clean, comfortable table. Mantra's menu includes a nice variety of entrees, both with and without meat. The wait staff, Anand (happy), was very pleasant and helpful concerning entree selections, flavors, ingredients and spices. My husband ordered a shrimp dish with a creamy, curried sauce served with Indian rice and asked for it "hot." Wow, was it ever! Anand first brought a creamy tomato base soup with paneer (fresh Indian cheese) that was delicious. We had not had this particular Indian soup and really liked it. Soup was followed by a simple salad of fresh lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, sweet onion and tomato, and then our entrees were served. An appropriate time was allowed between each course of our meal, giving us opportunity to enjoy and savor each. The entrees were beautifully presented and so delicious! Our dessert was a perfect size portion of traditional Indian rice pudding with cashews, milk, raisins and a hint of cinnamon. Mantra serves some of the best, authentic Indian cuisine...

Worst experience I have ever had at an Indian restaurant. I eat a lot of Indian food but have never been to this restaurant so I thought I would give it a try. I ordered butter chicken and shahi paneer with naan. Both of the curries were made incorrectly. The actual gravy was not the correct gravy for either curry. When I called and asked the man working there he seemed to know they messed up and it seemed purposefully done. I am Indian myself and know what these dishes have in them and I could tell they used leftovers of other dishes and just mixed them. Neither of these dishes come with whole green peppers and eggplants but we found them in both. Also the base for the shahi paneer was so watery and completely flavorless. It was not the correct base by any means. A shahi paneer should be creamy and thick when this was basically clear and watery. The butter chicken had so much tomato paste in it that it tasted like a tomato soup and was inedible. I could tell it was leftover chicken tikka masala that they just called butter chicken. We were told the owner would call us the next day and give us a refund as we couldn't eat the food but we never got a call or a refund. I would never recommend or go back to this place after the...