Curry Craft Nordahl - Indian Restaurant & Catering Services — Restaurant in San Marcos

Food: 4/5 Service and Setting: 3/5 Value: 3/5

I have been visiting new areas and found Curry Craft and decided to visit. The restaurant is spacious and clean, in particular the buffet section looks very well maintained. Going in, you sort of just serve yourself. When I found someone who worked there, he just gestured to me to eat haha. After you get some food and sit, they will bring you a pitcher of water and ask what type of naan you would like. It is a dollar more for garlic naan. Curry Craft’s food is a notch up from the typical Indian buffet and worth a visit! I read a passionate review from someone saying that the food was very spicy, but I found it to have almost 0 heat, but rather everything sort of leaned on the saltier end. I wish that they would put napkin dispersers on all of the tables as it was very odd to sit down and forget to grab them at the buffet, but everything else was great! The water glasses were particularly well cleaned. I have arranged the foods from best to worst for your ease of reading! The ratings are done on a buffet scale, not a normal scale.

Bhindi Masala: 5/5 This is the crown jewel of this buffet. It was absolutely delicious with a unique seasoning. Be warned, as you eat it the slimy texture of the bhindi (okra) will start to manifest itself, but this is seriously delicious and well made!

Tandoori Chicken: 5/5 They do a good job with this dish here. Each piece has a nice bit of char, though I legit got a leg that turned into charcoal. It is not too dry and has a deep savory flavor. I think this tandoori chicken can hold up against any non-buffet version! A pricey item and a great option if you want a straight protein.

Vegetable Pakora: 4.5/5 This is one of the better vegetable pakora I have had even in non-buffet style restaurants. The pakoras were not dry and the batter coating the veggies was fully cooked. The pakoras are mostly onion and have a strong yet sweet taste. This dish was particularly salty.

Dal Makhani: 4.5/5 This was pretty standard. I like my dal makhani to have a lot of deep flavor. This was not that, but it did have a rich creaminess and solid nonetheless.

Garlic Naan: 4/5 Great naan! It was crispy, fresh, buttery, and had tons of garlic and cilantro. The only thing that was odd was that I felt that it did not match the food. The copious amounts of garlic were unable to be tamed by the mild curries served, it may be in your best interest to get plain!

Gulab Jamun: 4/5 I definitely prefer warmed gulab jamun, but cold was a refreshing way to end the meal.

Paneer Pakora: 3.5/5 I think they put this out by mistake, but I got the last one. Bland by nature, the paneer pakoras were lightly battered.

Chana Masala: 3/5 I love me some chana masala but I was disappointed that it tasted fairly generic with a little extra cardamom.

Butter Chicken: 3/5 The butter chicken is better than the chicken curry and has a very familiar taste. I found it to be a bit too rich with dairy.

Raita: 2.5/5 I liked their raita though it was very cucumber forward. Slightly thicker than what I am used to.

Samosa: 2.5/5 Like most of the food, pretty standard. I found the wrapper to be quite thick and the filling to be the most salty of the food here. This was surprisingly the spiciest thing I ate with a clear kick of chili.

Chicken Curry: 2.5/5 This one was pretty average, almost forgettable.

Vegetable Korma: 2/5 I was never a fan of vegetable korma and Curry Craft’s version is similar to the rest. It was a creamy and sweet curry with a mixture of veggies.

Mango Lassi: 2/5 I bought this separately and it was pretty meh. It was very sweet and thick and not cold enough.

Rice: 2/5 The rice tasted pretty fresh but the overall bite was dry.

Saag Paneer: 1.5/5 I found the taste of this to be slightly odd. It had a gluey texture and was bland in the oddest way, very hard to explain.

Kheer: 1/5 Kheer is literally my favorite dessert and I was so sad when I tried it. There was a distinct Windex flavor that never...

Need to give an update as I've given them 1 last chance and I've never been more disappointed. They no longer include bread for the entrees! Used to get a few slices with an entree order. Curry is flavorless and runny, not sure what happened. Original review: I've had food from here dozens of times at this point, both picking up and getting it delivered. I've tried at least half the menu at this point. I have not dined in the actual restaurant but I've seen it in person when picking up. When picking up the service has not been great. The center the restaurant is in is hard to get to so I usually have it delivered for that reason too. This is the most wildly inconsistent restaurant I've ever eaten from. Sometimes the food is excellent and other times it's terrible. It's really a gamble what you are going to get. Sometimes the naan bread is delicious and other times it's burned, paper thin and flavorless (see picture). Lately the food has been served cold when it used to be piping hot. The portions and prices don't make any sense here. For example the Chana Masala is $5 more than the Samosa Chaat which has samosa and yogurt added and is otherwise the same and the same size but is $5 less, it's rather bizarre. Items from my order have been forgotten before I did not get offered a refund or apology. Today I tried the mixed pickles which was a $4 "side". It came in a container the size of a chipotle salsa you would get for free. It was extremely salty and terrible (see picture). Overall I don't think I will be ordering from here again, it's become too much of a gamble getting good food...

I'm very confused about all of the good reviews because, sadly, that was not my experience at all. My family and I went there on a Sunday around 5:30pm. It was not busy at all. The family members that chose the buffet finished their food before we got our order since it took so long, from getting our menus to getting our orders taken. When we finally got our food, I tasted the sauces first and they were quite delicious. I took a few bites until I found a hair in my entree (fish), which was not cooked all the way . I lost my appetite and just wanted to leave but I was still thirsty. Waited a while for the staff member to refill our water but that never happened so my husband just paid and we left.

To be fair, I didn't bring up any of our issues to the staff. Why? Because I felt that wouldn't have made anything better since they couldn't handle the most basic customer service task. I was so disappointed with the entire visit that I just wanted to be done with it and leave. I don't fuss and make complaints because I really try to be understanding when things go wrong, but in this situation, it was impossible to ignore. So many missteps that just weren't justifiable. I wouldn't recommend this restaurant and will not...