India's Flame — Restaurant in Tempe

I had hoped this would be our new “go to“ Indian dinner buffet since it is much closer than driving to our favorite spot in Gilbert. And, Indian dinner buffets are rare, though lunch buffets are common. While there was certainly nothing wrong with this restaurant, it didn’t wow or impress us in any way. It was completely middle of the road, uninventive, main stream Indian fair. Here are my impressions…

Atmosphere: The atmosphere is very nice, it’s clean and comfortable. The tables are set nicely with tablecloth‘s, silverware and glassware. The bar is clean and aesthetically pleasing. The buffet is very clean and well laid out. It’s relatively quiet inside and overall very comfortable. I rate atmosphere 4 out of 5.

Service: The young lady who greeted us and sat us was very nice and personable. But that interaction was only about 30 seconds long. The server did his job. He wasn’t overly friendly, not overly attentive, just kind of “there.“ No real complaints with the service and nothing special to speak of. I rate service a 3 out of 5.

Food: The food here was generally unremarkable. There was nothing on the buffet that isn’t at our other favorite Indian dinner buffet, so I have experience with it all and love it all when done well,... nothing here was as good as I’ve had elsewhere. Now, this isn’t a direct comparison to the other place, or my favorite lunch buffet, it’s an objective review based on experience. And my experience with the food here tonight was that no menu item “took a chance”, nothing had that good, Home cooked, full spice flavor that I love. It was decent, just very main stream and bland with little excitement. Quality seemed decent, temperatures were fair, not quite warm enough, but not cold. The biryani was the most bland and one of my least favorites I’ve ever had, I took a couple bites and left the rest. The chicken tiki masala was decent, again somewhat bland. The curry chicken was bland, boring and had bones which was unappealing. However, the Saag Paneer was very good, creamy with the right amount of spice and lots of cheese. Overall, I rate the food a 3 out of 5.

Conclusion: as they say “meh!” A clean, comfortable place with decent service and a reasonable selection of main stream tasting, not terribly exciting food. My guest and I both agreed early on in this meal that driving to Gilbert to our favorite Indian dinner buffet as we have for many years is still the right thing to do as the food and service are far better. I had to really hoped this would be our new dinner buffet choice, but it was not to be. For the best Indian dinner buffet and lunch buffet, which are different restaurants, see my...

AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Paid 70 dollars for 1 tandoori chicken, 2 curry dishes, 3 Naan bread and only recieved one small thing of rice. Tried this place because I missed good flavorful food. Being middle eastern I love food with flavor. The first couple times I ordered here was great. We were sent home with 2 things of rice and the Tikka masala was pretty good considering theirs so many Indian restaurants that have tikka that taste the same. I unfortunately have health issues and have to have a family friend pick my food up and I buy him dinner as well and he gets the tandoori chicken and the Daal curry. He loved it until this last trip when he was treated rudely as was I when I called to get a price breakdown because no receipt was sent to email. The tandoori chicken this time tasted different and wasn't that beautiful red color it's known for. After being told they changed the recipe and stopped using RED FOOD COLOR(he actually said that) i was told to bring it back for a refund. My family friend is 76 years old, he doesn't want to drive back and return it after all the issues and being tired. I was put on hold so they could pull the receipt up and see if the email was sent because we didn't get it and I was hung up on. I thought about calling back but to be honest I'm so disappointed at how this was handled. To tell me thats how much rice comes with 2 curries... and thats what the tandoori chicken is suppose to look like because they did a recipe without food coloring...without letting us know they changed it before we ordered and left with the food no less... to arguing on the phone... and then being hung up on, blown away. The pricing online and ordering online are completely different from ordering at the restaurant as well. Just shameful to treat customers that way and not try to make it right. Being middle eastern I know how tandoori chicken is made and where that red color comes from so to say it's because they didn't put food coloring in it is shameful. They probably thought I wouldn't know better because my family friend is a white 76 yrd old man who picked the food up. He also knows better from his travels. Would not recommend this place if your a white American person because apparently they think your dumb enough to be told tandoori chicken is made with red food coloring...good thing I recorded this encounter because it sounds unbelievable. The tikka marsala and tandoori you can see the difference. Usually tje tandoori is a much deeper red than the tikka. But according to them it's all because of the red food coloring they used before? I mean...

We went in for lunch on a Sunday afternoon and it was fairly crowded. It's around $16 per person for the buffet. It weren't allowing À la carte orders at the time.

The non veg options included baked fish, chicken Tikka masala, tandoori chicken, and chicken curry. The tandoori chicken kebab had food coloring in it and was super dry. The chicken Tikka masala had a sweet-sour gravy. And the chicken curry had a bland tomato based gravy. The baked fish had a strong fishy smell which isn't characteristic of the dish Didn't really enjoy any of the meat options.

The veg options has a potato-cauliflower dry sabji, curry pakoda, chhole masala, pakode, a mixed Daal (lentil soup), and palak paneer. The curry pakoda and the mixed Daal were the best out of the lot.

The salad section had fruits, yoghurt raita, Indian style pickle, and lettuce salad. This section wasn't bad.

For dessert they had a kheer and fruit Custard. Their fruit Custard is undoubtedly their best offering. Even though I paid full price for the buffet, it was the custard that I enjoyed the most. The rest was kind of disappointing. Perhaps they are aiming to serve more of Americanized Indian food, so our expectations were misdirected since we were looking for authentic Indian food. Even their naan was disappointing because it tasted a lot more like pita bread than it did like a traditional naan. It's possible that we chose the wrong day to visit.

Another odd thing I must mention is that despite serving so many curry based dishes, they provide bowls only for the dessert. I didn't enjoy being reprimanded for taking a bowl for a serving of the curry pakoda. As the plates are small, and due to the nature of the Indian gravies, bowls are needed for eating comfortably. I do hope they change...