MEZBAAN MAHAL — Restaurant in Portland

I've been eating and loving Indian food as my favorite ethnic culinary choice since 1985. Portland finally has a world-class Indian restaurant! The black dal is stunning... it reminds me of Madhur Jaffrey's dal makhani at Dawat in NYC back in the 80's and 90's. The makai kofta (veggie balls in a rich cashew/tomato sauce) is also world class... the best I've had in Portland in the 32 years I've lived here. I also love the mushroom sag... a rare dish to find but also reminiscent of top-level NYC or London restaurants. The spinach is perfectly spiced--it looks beautifully deep green and it tastes amazing. The kabuli naan is stuffed with pistachio, cashews, coconut and raisins... just delightful! Even the mango lassi has the extra spin of cardamom to kick it in to the next level. All the small details seem perfectly executed at this restaurant... what an incredible dining experience! My highest possible recommendation after two in-person visits and a delightful delivery service meal for 8 of my co-workers a few weeks ago. Do yourself a favor -- if you like (or love!) Indian food, get to this restaurant as soon as possible. The prices are lower than Portland Indian food average rates because they are so new. This place is my Portland dream restaurant -- family owned...

Horrible horrible horrible experience and food. My partner and I went in at around 8 one night and ordered a butter chicken, lamb biryanis, samosas and fries. Fries were amazing, everything else was absolutely a disappointment. The samosas were undercooked, cold in the middle. The butter chicken literally tasted like the sauce was already made and they added some boiled chicken. The serving of rice was a joke. The lamb biryani was DISGUSTING. The lamb was tasteless and hard, the biryani rice was basically what was left from the night aka scraps. Basically what we got was their leftovers at $19 a plate. As if that wasn’t enough I got an allergic reaction to whatever was in there. I call the restaurant two days later and tell them about the experience and the lady tells me to pass by soon and she would refund the money. I go in today from Battle Ground, and she tells me she can’t give me the refund because the owner wasn’t there, so she tells me to call the owner I tried to explain what was goin on but I couldn’t get two words in without him interrupting me. Basically he said to bring a doctors note and he’ll refund me the money. What kind of business is this? Definitely won’t last long in Portland with so many other options. DO...

Visited the place looking at the star reviews. The food was decent - Ordered Chicken tikka masala, naan and Dahi papdi chat. The chicken gravy quantity was small, (too) thick for comfort, and felt like there was quite a bit of ‘food color’ (far too red); lots of restaurants have pre-prepared curries, but they balance it with other elements, when prepping the dish (upon order). In my case, it just looked like the curry was just heated up, till it became really thick.

The chat was great, with fresh curd/yogurt. If I were to visit again, it would be for chat.

The service itself was fast. The server could have suggested for the combo meals (which was on a board in the restaurant, but not on the menu itself - looked like a much...