Raja Restaurant: Biryani & Curries House — Restaurant in Stowe

The reasons for the 3 star review:

Good: The food was decent. Unlike some of the other reviews which said this is one of the best Indian restaurants in North America, I disagree. I have had Indian food in the world and multiple continents. The food was slightly better than I would expect from an Indian restaurant in a place like Stowe. I must add that I have had worse Indian food in the Boston burbs.

Bad: We had asked the mutton dish to be spicy but it was not. At least it tasted good. The chicken biriyani was quite ordinary especially it had chunks of chicken breast pieces which is not at all authentic biriyani. Usually you would have drumsticks and wing pieces.

Ugly: They are very unprofessional. I ordered around 6:10 pm. We were told that we would get it in 35-40 minutes. But, when we arrived around 6:40, we were told 10 minutes which was fair as we came early. But, around 7:00, we were told 5 more minutes. Then we got our food around 7:20. If we were told that it would be take 60-70 minutes, we would have gone to our hotel first, maybe showered and then came back. I under he was short staffed but it is quite easy to give a...

It was the craziest night for us. We went to this restaurant for the first time for pickup on October 8th, sunday night. After waiting for a few minutes someone mentioned this is only an online order place. Then we placed order around 7 PM. The Pick up time was 7:44 PM. we along with our family waited hungry in the car and came back at 7:45 PM for pickup. We were shocked to see they were backlogged by over 20 to 25 orders and struggling to fill them. No one was at the counter scared to answer questions. He was trying to fill order to whoever yelled at them since they were unable to cancel. After a lot of yelling my order was filled after 9 PM. But to my surprise, it was all incorrectly filled up and missing items. There was no veg and panneer roll but all chicken rolls. we had to come back again and fight and get back a veg roll. This added another 20 minutes. it was a crazy night and never ever will I go near this restaurant. Please avoid this place if you are going during a weekend. Such places should be shut down. I do see some of the people who waited that day have added...

Being of Indian descent, I am very particular with restaurant Indian food and am pretty skeptical about how much I would like it in more remote places around the world. (Best I have ever had was in Cairns, Australia and worse was in Niseko, Japan if you are curious to know). This is all based on personal preference and taste, of course - I like my Indian food more spicy, less sweet. So when I came across Raja and read the polarizing reviews, it was the only time I can recall that I was on the fence about trying it so I started off with momos only one night and seeing how good those were, I went for the chicken biryani the next day. Both were spectacular and really hit the spot after a long day on the slopes.

Please try it if you feel that you may have a palate similar to mine, but do be sure to try it on a night where you have a bit of cushion with time since it does seem like they may be struggling with operations. I really hope they get some help in that area because it is the only thing affecting their patronage....