Tarka Indian Kitchen — Restaurant in Round Rock

Solid food, horrific customer service. Choose your next take out order carefully…

Read on and be warned.

OF NOTE: an experience has to be unacceptable in multiple ways for me to leave a negative review of any business. This is one bad review for 20-30 positive ones I leave other businesses. In most cases, I simply won’t return.

This situation is much worse.

Recap: I took a close friend here for dinner on 12/30. This was her first time trying Indian food, and Tarka.

Dining room is closed for Scamdemic, call in your order. Understood.

Placed our order by phone. Told them we were paying by cash. Told them we were sitting right outside waiting. I even provided a short description of what we were wearing to avoid confusion.

There were no order numbers given or assigned, but they did capture our name and phone number. Good so far.

We placed our order @ ~8:25. Man on the phone said 15-minutes. All good. We sat and waited.

After 30-minutes I knocked on the glass door. Our food had been sitting on a table inside for some time.

In that 30-minutes:

-No one ever came out to look for us or call our name.

-No call or text stating the food was ready.

Since the front doors were locked to protect the dining room, I called back in and asked about the status of our food, and if they forgot about us.

Man on phone made excuses of:

“We didn’t know you were here waiting. We came outside and didn’t find you.” …This was all covered on the initial call in. Also: you had a phone number to call the customer.

When the manager on duty came out to process our payment, he stated the restaurant is a cashless establishment. Even though it was clearly stated when I placed the order how we would be paying. No objection was given by the order taker at 8:25.

Cherry on top: they also botched the order.

WHY ANY OF THIS MATTERS:

I’ve been a Tarka fan for 11 years at the south location. I have a few friends and customers who ask me where they can go for decent Indian food (they aren’t local to this area). I’ve always listed Tarka for its convenience, food selection, and relaxed dining atmosphere.

I’m disappointed to say, I cannot recommend the Round Rock location to anyone moving forward.

And in case you’re wondering if I was a 1-off situation, or a nagging customer, take a look at the pictures attached:

Tarka Round Rock is outdoor dining and carry out only, but no one bothered to take out the trash the entire day, so other folks were leaving their trash on tables and benches like it was downtown Austin.

It’s another indicator that the folks in charge on this shift didn’t care about the most basic restaurant responsibilities.

I’ve been in the service industry since 2006. These were all amateur mistakes induced by poor communication and pure laziness.

All of this was easily avoidable if the folks working the front counter this shift had employed common sense and...

For "fast casual" Indian food, Tarka is hard to beat. It's the usual go through the line to order and pay. Then they bring it out to you at your table. Unfortunately, the menu is very meat-oriented, so vegetarians don't have as wide a range of menu items to choose from as I would like. (As a vegetarian myself, I give Tarka 4 stars ⭐ instead of 5--but if they emphasize more their vegan and vegetarian options, I'll up it to 5! 😊👍)

The curry was flavorful but gave a slight hint of having been previously frozen and microwaved before serving, as I belive the naan was.

[I love freshly prepared food, which is usually for me easy to distinguish from the stuff that's prepared in advance, usually in an off-site industrial kitchen, then transported to the restaurant frozen, where the food is thawed daily for heat-and-eat serving to the busy people with no time or inclination to cook. And that's where most of us are at, much of the time. Still, I hope for better even as I know things will never change...]

Tarka's hot/spicy designations run from mild to medium to hot to extra hot. I ordered my curry Hot, and they delivered! 🔥Most Americans would probably prefer medium or mild, though. I think Extra Hot appeals mainly to those who grew up in a region where kids are raised eating (to me) painfully hot peppers from a young age. I like my curry spicy enough that it causes my face to flush 🥵 and my sinuses 👃 to clear out, but not worse than that, please. I know many South Indians who can eat Extra Hot and never break a sweat or drink a full glass of water but they still can't stop the pain, however sweet it may be.

The mango lemonade is popular but I tried it and found it too sweet and syrupy. It is most likely reconstituted from a concentrate with minimal mango and lots of artificial flavoring. I couldn't drink it but people lined up for it and the free refills.

The store is inconveniently located in the rear of a shopping center behind the IKEA store. Even with Google Maps, it's rather difficult to find the place.

Despite a few misgivings, I do recommend Tarka, one of the few fast-food places I will visit.

One last tip: If you're a big eater like me, you may want to order extra rice with your curry. The servings are on the...

Originally, I gave the restaurant a lower overall star rating due to some food that was missing from my order. I wanted to report that a manager contacted me apologized which is what compelled me to go ahead and review. Customer Service reigns above all else for me and this shows that they do pay attention to their surveys and they do indeed respond which I did not expect. The food itself was delicious. I had no complaints about the flavor, in fact Tarka has always been my go to for the style of Indian food I prefer. First of all I absolutely love their mulligatawny soup, I ordered a large this time and it didn’t disappoint. It was delicious. I also had ordered the spinach sag another one of my favorites with some naan. Perfectly spiced and this side was actually my main course along with the soup. My friend ordered a children’s portion of the masa paneer and it was a decent meal for her - she had a piece of naan too. There are two pieces to an order so we shared. The mango cheesecake sounds really good and the next time we go we will try it. We did take out this time and ate at home. The curbside delivery was perfect. Ordering online was not difficult and they have a couple of parking spots there at the Round Rock location where we picked up …where you can park and they know you are there for curbside. I have to say the thing I appreciate most about Tarka is that the food taste is consistent so I don’t feel it varies based on who is cooking that day. I love Indian food but sometimes the heat or possibly the floral tastes can be overwhelming for me so that can make it a bit of a challenge to eat at family owned and operated Indian food locations. (at least until I learn and understand more about food...