Pepper House — Restaurant in Plainsboro Township

SEPTEMBER 2023 UPDATE (dine-in experience):

We can't even tell you how many transformations this place went through since the last 25 years: Flavor of India, Indian Hut, Indian Cakes, Bordolois, and now Pepper House.

The food is great but really burning spicy. We specified two different degrees of spiciness for two people: "super Indian spicy" and "mild." However, all food arrived extremely spicy. Oh, well. Please have in mind that all their tandoori sizzlers are served WITHOUT rice!

Otherwise, the food was great, prepared and served right out of tandoori oven. Be careful. You gotta wait a few before you can sample it; the food is searing hot!

The service is average. We were not allowed to sit ar the table due to "busy time" per the only server. Well, guess what? Even by the time we were leaving the restaurant, there were four people inside including us! Then, our server completely forgot to bring our Tamarind rice and admitted to "forgetting". The interior decor is either nondescript or rather non-existent. On a Saturday late afternoon, we were the only two diners in the entire restaurant. That's, however, is not indicative of the restaurant's popularity, for Indian people tend to dine rather late, close to 9 pm. We we also noticed the Pepper House was quite busy with take-outs.

You can pay your bill on your smartphone.

For close to quarter of a century (we moved to Plainsboro in 1998 and lived there for eight years), the restaurant now known as Pepper House Plainsboro has been in business, under various signs and through multiple transformations.

We ordered a take-out last night from Pepper House (via a DoorDash) and totally loved the experience.

The menu: quite extensive line-up of Northern and Southern Indian cuisine offerings, vegetarian and non-vegetarian appetizers, chicken, lamb, and goat curries and other main courses, biryanis, and sizzlers. A wide selection of breads. Awesome choices of different rices. We opted for "Tamarind Rice," and it was one of the best rices we ever sampled! The Tandoori section is, however, somewhat limited, with a notable absence of ground meat kebabs (seekh kebabs).

The food: five stars, thoroughly prepared and cooked to perfection, bold, and flavorful. Our specific requests of spiciness (from super hot or "Indian hot" to mild) were honored in the right way.

The prices: very budget-friendly, at least 25% to 30% cheaper than at some of the area's more pricey competitors (Crown of India, Palace of Asia, Mint, Chennai Chimney, etc.)

The portion sizes: rather generous (except for a kebab platter).

The delivery: even though we lived about 25 minutes away from Pepper House, our food arrived very hot, a pleasant surprise.

Overall: great experience, highly...

In terms of the food, I can at least safely say that it was good. If you’re looking for some decent takeout, this is definitely a place you can keep in your options.

However, would lost a lot of points for myself and my girlfriend was the dine-in experience. The quality of service was simply not there. We did not see someone come to check on us very often.

But the larger issue was the attitude. At one point during ordering I asked for tandoori chicken and then a side of rice, and the first thing the person taking our order did, in a tone I would almost call scandalized or offended, was ask how I could order things so dry like that together. It’s not even the content, I wouldn’t mind if they politely warned me that both items were a bit dry together and asked if that was OK with me, it was the way I felt chastised for making that decision.

And then when I was asked about the spice level, if I wanted mild or medium or hard, I started to say I have been getting more into spicy things lately… And then immediately the person taking our order said “no you don’t want spicy”. Again, I can appreciate the constant, and would have been fine if they suggested it was really hot and asked if I would be OK taking that chance. But again, I felt chastised and talked down to. Not the attitude that makes me want to come back.

Overall, I don’t think we were really even smiled that. I know that seems like a weird thing to say, but I make this and all proceeding comments as someone who previously worked as a server at multiple restaurants for over a decade. And while I do try to let that help me be understanding and patient with restaurants and their staff, I also have a standard, and this location simply did not meet it in terms of service...

I live closer to the Mt. Laurel one and have always had a great experience there. Today, we went to this one. Let me start by saying the food was absolutely delicious. For appetizers, we got the vegetable samosas and chili paneer. 10/10. For entrees, we got palak paneer and paneer butter masala. It was also 10/10. I was a bit disappointed with the rice because even though we got two entrees, we only got one serving of rice. When I asked if the rice was for one order or both, the gentleman said it was for both orders.

Personally, i would order take out next time. While there, there were many instances where I felt like the staff didn’t really care about taking their job seriously. One gentleman walked out of the kitchen (maybe a cook)… walked past our table screaming on the phone… Shortly after another man walks in with a bottle of alcohol and walks right into the kitchen… Maybe 5 minutes after that, we heard screaming from the kitchen… we ended up cutting our dinner early, packed our food and left. This was just my experience and maybe I just walked in at the wrong time but I’m always honest on my reviews. I would definitely eat here again, I’d probably just...