The Second wife — Restaurant in San Jose

This place is truly incredible! Fantastic super delicious food with very high quality ingredients and many vegetarian chicken lamb and fish varieties to choose from. They even had the most proper/delicious chicken Biryani in the buffet and all the condiments that go with it. Everything was absolutely perfect including the spice level of all dishes. It was perfect! They also make butter naan fresh and serve it to your table hot from the tandor, and it's included in the buffet price!!

The restaurant is super clean and smells very fresh. Many South Asian restaurants have an issue where the curry/food smell is so strong in the restaurant that it sticks to your clothes and even hair sometimes. That was definitely not the case here. That's another big plus for people with allergies and smell sensitivities.

The service was beyond amazing. There was always a waiter watching over the restaurant patrons constantly to see if they needed anything, and also making sure that the buffet is tidy and all buffet items are replenished promptly. Very professional 5 star service! 👍👌

In terms of atmosphere: The Indian instrumental music that was playing was well selected and very soothing and relaxing with a perfect volume level. So much thought was put into this restaurant's decor atmosphere and dining experience.

Finally, in terms of price, at $24 for the lunch buffet; they are at least 60% cheaper than similar high quality options in the Bay Area, at least at the time of posting this review. Their dinner is A-la-carte only though. It's really mind blowing how affordable this place is for the high quality and excellent variety that they offer.

Really WOW experience 🤩

Update from my 2nd visit to this place

There were a few new food items in the menu that were different from the day before, which included new items in the main coarse appetizer and dessert, so they certainly keep their buffet line up interesting and consistently high quality. I went to this place 2 days in a row, which was a first for me, and it was totally worth it and I was beyond impressed again!!

I attached more photos from my second visit. I also learned the water pitchers that they provide for free (cold or room temperature) with the buffet are naturally alkaline. They spend 24hrs to prepare the water and they include some herbs in it which gives it that natural alkaline property and makes it very fresh. Their water was so good/smooth that I drank 2 pitchers almost! I'm very picky about my water due to personal health issues, so this additional added value in particular was very impressive...

We were a group of 8 but sat at separate tables since we were told it was buffet. That was good advice. When we started our lunch however I noticed that some of the food containers had run out of food. At the table we were waiting for the naan and batura which was coming very slowly - 1 at a time. It was fresh and nice but not timely. By that time I was done with most of my meal. When asked they said it’s a tandoor and it takes time. The food was very disappointing. Service overall was bad. We asked for water thrice and had the lady - probably the owner, come and speak rudely, calling us rude. She said she was human. She said she wouldn’t mind if we didn’t come back to the restaurant. By this time she was very loud looking for an audience. Customer is NOT important here obviously! We were taken aback. They also had the gall to charge 18% service charge for a large group!!!!...

We recently visited this place for an office team lunch. The food was okay, but the options were quite limited.

I had opted for the vegetarian buffet, while some of my teammates chose non-vegetarian.

Starters: Honey Chilli Potato and Hara Bhara Kabab were tasty and well-prepared.

Main Course (Veg): There were only Saffron Rice, Bottle Gourd (Lauki) Curry, Eggplant Curry, Paneer Curry, and a Cauliflower Fry. Except for the cauliflower fry, the rest of the dishes were quite bland and lacked flavor.

Main Course (Non-Veg): Included Chicken Biryani, Mutton Curry, and Butter Chicken. My teammates mentioned that the Mutton was a bit chewy and not very tender.

Desserts: Rice Kheer and Halwa were served. The Halwa was good, but the Kheer was disappointing.

Overall: It was an average experience — food quality and taste could definitely be improved.

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