Curry Sultan — Restaurant in Texas

Edit: Dudes now showing off a $200 receipt like hes showing off a high score. 😂😂😂😂. This guy is unhinged. BTW I've only stopped by once. It was horrible. Curry House is 500x better. Curry Sultan was the worst indian food I've ever had and it still comes up in conversation occasionally; thats how bad it was.

Original Review: I second guessed our decision to eat here prior to coming inside but reassured myself that with a 4.4 star average they must be doing something right. Indian cuisine is a family favorite for us, but no one ate their meal, so much so that Russell the owner asked if everything was alright. My wife not wanting to offend told him everything was fine. But in reality it wasn't. She once accidentally offended the chefs at an Indian restaurant by asking for salt and has been careful not to offend since then. Prior to going in I was wondering why they were open at 4pm (Most Indian restaurants take an extended break mid-day to prep for dinner rush since the sauces can take a few hours to make authentically.)

Atmosphere wise, it's the most dressed down Indian restaurant we've been to. It has a ratty looking menu board with a welcome message as soon as you walk in. The tables are like that of a Chinese takeout restaurant. The food is all served in to-go containers. Multiple messages reminding you its a small family owned business (which were considered prior to reviewing).

Food wise, it's not what we were expecting. The rice was measured out to under 1 cup. per entree (one container had a heaping scoop and the other was 1/2 the rice.) We are used to being served around 4 cups per sauce-type entree and the owners offering additional rice (at no charge) if it looked like we were going to run out. I saw multiple reviews mentioning $6 for an additional serving of rice. Mango Lassi was not as good as others I've had, but the kids enjoyed them. I believe they make theirs with water rather than yogurt but I could be wrong. *Masala Fries were just regular French fries with a little of bit of spices in the middle. It wasn't dispursed at all. It came with a larger than expected serving of fries (roughly 16-24oz) with only a 1oz paper ramekin of ketchup. The Malai Kofta was still frozen on the inside. Chicken Tikka Masala was very chewy and spicy - it was ordered as mild but too hot for the kids. It's sauce was good but as my wife said she would have preferred the jar from the grocery store over this one. This sauce was unappetizingly red - seemed almost like food coloring. I've never seen it this color before, normally the coconut milk gives it a lighter shade. Paneer Makhini was very rubbery.

Naan / Garlic Naan tasted okay, both were covered in char on the bottom and weren't bubbly like normal Naan. I do not believe it was cooked in a Tandoori oven.

*Basmati Rice as previously mentioned was a super small portion. It was Chinese restaurant plain short white rice, no seasoning. Most places cook with cardamom pods and some herbs / spices for flavor.

Upon checking out you put your card into the credit card terminal before being told how much they are trying to charge your card or a breakdown, got through multiple prompts before it told me the total which was $20 more than it was supposed to be. The cashier was trying to give himself a $20 tip on a $40 order.

So overall I understand why we were the only sit down customer during our time there (There were some to go orders.). The review ratio is also suspicious...they have more 1* reviews than 4* reviews, meaning people either think it's perfect or the worst and their are few in-between opinions... Look at any other restaurants that are 4+ and you'll see 5 then 4* and then 1/2. The owner asked how everything was and then gave us a card asking for a review. So that is why they average 4.4 and they try hard to manipulate the online reviews rather than recognize fair criticism from the consumers. I hope this review will invoke change rather than result in a personal attack from the owner as I've witnessed reading the other reviews...

This place is advertised as a family business, so I decided to go as I like to support small businesses when possible.

Despite the restaurant being 100% empty on a Friday evening, the owner would not let me sit where I chose and insisted I sit somewhere I did not want. I asked if I ‘must’ and he said ‘yes’. No option. Not a good start.

He then asked me to pay for the full meal in advance before I received anything. Even before getting my drink.

The vegetable pakora and lamb vindaloo was appalling, truly appalling. Full of oil, the lamb tasted like liver, and the pakora tasted like fish. Served in a foam tray full of batter and oil. The garlic naan was the only part I enjoyed. I’ve eaten hundreds of Indian meals in my life, and have even been to India. This was terrible.

I like a little conversation, but the owner would not allow me to eat my food peacefully and kept shouting conversation from the kitchen to me directly and when I responded he kept shouting ‘I CANT HEAR YOU, I CANT HEAR YOU’. It was very stressful and weird.

He uses assumptive tone all the time to pressure you like ‘can I just take a photo of you for social media’ or ‘leave me a review (3 times repeated), or ‘white people get jobs at the country club’. Sir, I am white and did not grow up with a job at any country club! How generalised, stupid and assumptive.

When you speak, he will interject and dismiss what you are saying with things like ‘No it’s not that’ or ‘no I’ll tell you what it is’, just constantly patronising. I wanted to have a nice meal, not have you comment unsolicited negative aspects about where I am from in our conversations. Perhaps comment on your own homeland first before speaking about others.

No cutlery when the food was ready, paper plates, and fork and spoon? Really, fork and spoon?! Maybe the spoon was for the soup curry that was provided.

I was hungry and drove 20 minutes to come to this restaurant, so I ate the food, but went to the hotel and felt nausea/vomiting. Overall a strange experience with what is a very eccentric personality. He will bring up topics that are controversial and has some rude and downright incorrect opinions. Such as:

‘The UK has had zero GDP growth in the last four decades’ - incorrect.

‘London is all money laundering’ - Also incorrect.

I have no idea why he brought up those topics. If the food was good I would spare everything else and give 3* or 4*, but it was not good at all.

Not a pleasant way to spend my money or time.

The gentleman I am sure has good intentions, although based on my visit, he has no clue how to cook or socialise. He is being himself 100% and that is dangerous, because if we all did that, we would all be fighting.

This review is not intended to do harm, but it is to highlight my thoughts on this eatery. No doubt he will respond with something defensive as most amateur/narcissistic restaurant owners do. I hope he can learn something from this review because it’s not fair to take people’s money for that kind of treatment. I can see why the restaurant was empty. Good luck...

First impressions "hole in the wall" but sometimes the best food can come from places like this. I kept my order simple, Aloo Samosa's, Beef Kofta w/basmati rice and 2 aloo paratha. My drink, a Coke. Let's start with the drink, this place has decided to go "strawless" instead of organic straws therefore you're drinking straight from the cup. A reusable cup. Please invest in bio-degradable straws. The soda tasted like it was from a 2lt bottle it was slightly. Samosas-store bought. No way that's fresh. They were good, certainly not the worst but frozen on the inside. Also I wasn't offered chutney so that was a disappointment but not a killer. Samosas-4 bucks for 2 standard pricing outside of Houston. Kofta-$13 bucks. I don't even know where to start. I'm assuming the "meatballs" are rolled in house and frozen. I say "meatballs" because it's more like a kabob that's been cut into 4 pieces. Each piece of meat was about 2" and one was raw in the middle leaving me to believe they are frozen then deforsted by chef mic and thrown into the curry. I could be wrong, it's rare that I am. 4 tiny pieces in about a cup and half of curry is just a lot of curry and nothing else. Aloo Paratha- Basically a tandoori naan with aloo and cilantro inside. Is it a paratha...not like I've ever seen but it was tasty. Basmati rice, cooked correctly and honestly the best part of the meal. Over I spent 26/31 with tip. Would I recommend...yes for Americans, 1st timers, or Middle Eastern/Asians looking for a quick faimilar taste of India. People who grew up in these countries and know the food I wouldnt recommend, you will be severally disappointed.

To the owner, you were very nice and staff was very nice but your restaurant doesn't feel authentic. It's trapped between should I do India or should I apease Americans and unfortunately neither work. Play some Indian music, throw on some Bollywood and spruce up the decor with bright colors. Refine the menu, make it more authentic buy some bio-degradable straws and stick true to what you know. This place could be great.

UPDATE I'm very happy you took the time to reply. Perhaps I wasn't clear. Despite being made in house or not the Samosa's were still frozen in the middle and the kofta was still raw (which, were not fried nor were they shaped meatballs). Kofta is a very easy dish to make, it's not hard to forget the way it should taste or look which yours lacked in both areas. Yes, you're correct, I did take the food to go. I never said your food was bad I said there was certain things wrong with each item. However, I was unable to eat the food I brought home because later that night I became extremely ill. Now you'll believe that something else made me sick and that's fine but in just the last week since my visit you've had several bad reviews so I'm just one of many. Hopefully no one else gets sick! You're right, you don't deserve two stars you deserve zero. I was truly hoping this restaurant would become my go to. Guess I'll continue driving to...