Taste of India — Restaurant in Reno

Warning! Caution! Beware!

If a negative rating scale were to be added, then this place deserves No Less than -3.

I am Not giving this review out of malice, but an assessment of my experiences having patronized this restaurant on several occasions since the New Management took ownership of it several months ago in 2022.

The new owner, who goes by the name of the "Captain" (that's the moniker he used when I first met him while ordering food) is not coothed, nor has the basic sense of customer service and public relations. He has been rude, condescending and aggressively confrontational both directly and through his expressions and tone. This pattern of expression has been witnessed by others.

The previous owners (the Punjabi American family who sold the restaurant) were quite friendly, accommodating, service-oriented and operated the restaurant with humility and tact. I had given a 4 Star rating review (up until the time of this revised review) of this place over 2 years ago while under the previous ownership.

The quality of the food and basic focus and effort engaged in its preparation and delivery has degraded substantially, to say the least. It's as if the new owner is going through the motions of running the restaurant with recklessness and abandonment of diligence, integrity and sincerity for the sake of making a profit.

The final incident that culminated in my decision to No Longer patronize this Indian restaurant (and write this revised review) was on Sunday, Christmas day, of this 2022 year. I had decided to have Christmas day brunch at the restaurant. When I had arrived, the place seemed busier than normal (based on my previous visits for Sunday brunch) with patrons. The line to the buffet was longer than it "usually" was on the previous occasions I dined here. When I joined the buffet queue to serve myself, I noticed that the serving chafers with the various dishes were running really low, and, some others, totally empty. The other customers waiting were visibly growing impatient.

I asked the "Captain" how long the wait was till the replenishment arrived, and he said they were working on it in the kitchen. As my time in line progressed into several more minutes, more customers were arriving, seating themselves, and proceeded to make their way to the buffet station only to find out there wasn't enough food. Other customers asked the "Captain" the same query I had, and he seemed to grow agitated and upset at the rising concerns by the customers.

One of the customers confronted the owner to get an update on the status of the food being prepared and an argument ensued between the "Captain" and that customer. Others from the customer's party joined in as the owner, the"Captain", started to become vocal and commenced to verbally lash out and act belligerent towards the customers. Soon, other customers confronted him as well, and questioned and berated him for his rudeness, belittling tone-of-voice and aggressive behaviour towards anyone who questioned him. Many of the customers walked out.

I continued to wait in line and served myself once some of the prepared and ready food was brought out. The chicken tikka masala and regular chicken curry were undercooked and not spiced/seasoned well enough. The gravy was too watery. The potatoes in one of the veggie dishes was also hard and undercooked. Several dishes on the buffet were totally empty and weren't replenished.

My experience that day culminated with me getting sick from the food later that evening and the following day. It was probably from the undercooked chicken or potatoes, or even the curry base. Whatever the combination of items it were, I still got ill.

I will no longer patronize or support this restaurant as long as it is under the current ownership/management. I implore others to be careful and deliberate whether you want to have your Indian cuisine here or at the many other Indian cuisine options in Reno and...

I haven't been to an Indian Buffet since way before the pandemic, so now that this buffet is open, here we go. First off, wow, the price sure has gone up! It's $15 for the lunch buffet now! I never paid that much, but I guess prices are up all over. The big Chinese buffet in town is $14, so I guess that's the price of buffets now.

Parking is open but a little weird, but just park on the empty lot and cross the curb to the door. The place looks better on the inside than on the outside for sure. Plenty of open seating inside.

I was surprised how small the buffet was, just one small line of steam tables, but I guess maybe there's not that much variety in Indian buffets. They did have what I came for though, and that's the Tandoori Chicken! Most of the other offerings besides the Tikka Masala and basmati rice, I'll pass on ... not the most appetizing looking stuff I've seen.

But I'll tell you what, that was the best tasting Tandoori Chicken I ever had at a buffet! It was so tender your teeth just sank in and pulled away effortlessly. The flavor was right on as well. I did like that they included thighs and drumsticks. Not like some Indian buffets, serving just the weird back and boney pieces and saving the good pieces for the ala carte dinner menu. I got my fill of chicken so I guess the price was worth it. Nice hot naan was brought to my table too. Drinks included with this buffet, soda, mango lasse and hot Cha.

The Tikka Masala was good flavored, but the white meat chicken in it was a little dry, but that's white meat for ya. Poured over rice, the Tikka was very good. I'll come back here sometime. But I can't help think, the big Chinese buffet for a buck less you get way more selection of food ..... but you can get Tandoori...

Even though they serve food that is alright, there are few things that you need to know about this establishment.

They treat people differently, I have seen them behave very politely with white customers, on the other hand their approach towards people of color like me has been outright rude and condescending. Asking to speak in Hindi where I clearly mentioned I don’t speak Hindi, and continuing the conversation in Hindi, by the owner. Owner also made racial comment “You people from ‘country name’ only eat biryani and it costs me more”, I paid what they wanted to charge for the whole package.

During a party they were not bringing the food out on regular intervals. They were bringing out food in a small bowl and people were waiting in line to get the food. No urgency shown.

Stopped serving food citing everyone on the party have had taken the food, even though I the host and my family didn’t get a chance to eat properly.

Didn’t count the people in the party rightful, asked them to give numbered stickers to the attendees, they said it is not needed and didn’t keep count of the people. Provided me with a number that they told me they would charge if everyone didn’t show up to the party. I counted everyone and my number was 12 lower than their number.

They didn’t serve the ice cream properly, left the whole tub of ice cream in the table with a spoon, leaving the guests in the party to wrestle with the ice cream.

The son and father were communicating different things. The son said the party could go on till 10:30pm but the father told us to end the party at 10:00pm.

This was a very unpleasant interaction with this business, they should learn to treat...