Minerva Indian Restaurant — Restaurant in Tampa

Buffet Review:

I feel compelled to write this review as my recent visit to this restaurant was an absolute waste of time and a terrible experience. Allow me to break down my experience step by step, as it may be helpful to others.

Ambience - 0 The moment we entered, we were greeted by an unpleasant odor and an ambiance that was far from inviting. The tables and chairs were old, and even unfit for a thrift store. The cutlery had water marks and hard stains from previous customers' food. The person who showed us to our table had no understanding of table manners, as he placed all his fingers inside the glass while serving us. We even noticed him using the same hands for other tasks in the restaurant.

Non-veg - 1.5 After taking a glance around, I almost left the restaurant to try somewhere else, but my hunger got the best of me, so I reluctantly picked up a plate and joined the queue for the food. I tried a few non-vegetarian appetizers and biryani, which were absolutely terrible and tasted like leftovers. They only had three chicken and one goat curry, along with one goat biryani. The only edible dish was the Chicken 65. Overall, the non-vegetarian dishes were a big NO.

Vegetarian - 1 There were only three vegetarian dishes available - Daal, Sambhar, and Paneer Masala. The Paneer Masala was decent, but not good enough to have a second helping. The Sambhar was more like a stew and lacked any distinct flavor. The Daal was below average and tasted bland.

Breakfast items - 1 They had Medhu Vada, which looked great, but tasted sour. The Idlis were kept in a small hot pot, causing them to become a big cake instead of individual pieces. The Poori was made out of maida, but it turned out to be more like appadam, and we wondered how it could be considered Poori. The Chutneys were also tasteless and lacked any punch.

The Naans were not cooked at all.

Overall - 1/5 Overall, I would give this restaurant a rating of 1 out of 5. If you are an Indian or South Indian who loves non-vegetarian food and biryanis, I would advise you not to waste your time and money on this buffet, which costs $21. We felt like we paid $45 just for sample tastings after driving an hour to get to this terrible place. We noticed that most customers were not Indian people, as they seemed to be local people there only to have beers, which may have been the strategy used by the management to...

Well first to begin the food was good, we had no real complaints about the actual food, in essence Minerva would receive close to 4 stars if based on just the food. Our real issue was with the service, the first time I tried ordering from Minerva back in late 2020 I had to cancel my order because they could not fulfill delivery on time. This time, almost a year later we were hoping for a better experience, unfortunately it appears things have changed very little. We ordered food on a Sunday at approximately 11:30am for a 2:10pm pickup time, payment was made in full at time of order. Got to the restaurant at exactly 2:12pm and a lady who appeared to be either the owner or manager, or both, directed me to sit down (a bad omen), she called out my order to me so she knew exactly why I was there, which indicates that they did not have that many orders. I waited and waited and at about 2:45pm the lady handed me two bags, with absolutely no apology for the wait. I departed and before I got to my car out comes a young man, followed by the lady who informed me that they got my order messed up and please come back, which I did. I waited another 10 mins, all the while the lady is back in the kitchen area screaming at the staff…a word of advice, don’t scream back there, everyone can hear you. She finally emerges and said a quick unimpressive sorry and gives me another two bags. Again I depart and soon after the same kid runs after me to give me the naan bread, at this point close to a 45 min wait, I really was so astonished I just had to laugh. I understand that the place is Indian owned and run, especially being part Indian myself, but this is America and really Minerva needs to get their act together. If I ever return there it would be to try their buffet, there are other Indian restaurants around, with quite frankly just as good or better food, so I see no reason to be subjected to this level of very poor...

The food itself was good, the whole experience was horrid. Put in an online order and arrived shortly after they opened for the day. I stood waiting to be acknowledged for over 10 min while workers walked back and forth. Same for a couple who had walked in and taken a seat just before me. They ended up just helping themselves to the buffet and waited yet another 10 min for water and pompadoms.

Finally 10+ min after arriving someone walked up and asked to help (I was standing right where the sign asks for you to stand for pickups). Gave them the name on the order, guy walked away. About 7 min later came out, asked for the name again and asked to see the receipt. As my partner put in the order I didn't have it on me, but did get it texted later.

Guy walked out with a bag of food, told me it wasn't mine and to wait another "2 min". 10 min later, he came out with a second bag of food. That was for a guy who walked in not 5 min earlier. I'm getting annoyed. Its been 45 min since my online order was placed and 25 min since I walked in the door. The food we ordered was on the buffet as well, so zero reason for it to take this long for Tikka Masala and Naan.

Guy brings out another colleague who reads the name on the first bag. Sure enough, that was mine.... the bag that the guy said was not. So it had been sitting on the table for over 10 min.

This place had just opened for thr day, hot steaming food on the buffet and only 3 guests in the place.... and they couldn't get service right for me or the other couple. My food was cold by the time I got it home after it had been sitting out on the table.

As I started with, the food itself was good. Far from the best I've ever had, but good. However I'll not go back. There are other good places that can accomplish basic...