Taste of India — Restaurant in Virginia

I ordered carryout, so I know that's not the way to get an optimal sampling of a restaurant's capability, but Taste of India was pretty good. And, yes, we put the Butter Chicken and Tikka over rice, I understand that may offend some people's sensibilities. . . Those people are welcome to cook and serve me in a manner that pleases them. Lol.

We had: Butter Chicken, Chicken Tikka Masala, Samosa Chaat, Gajar Ka Halwa, Chilly Paneer, and some Naan. (The picture with the slightly more "orange" colored chicken cubes.)

The Butter Chicken was good, not overly heavy, and didn't have a great deal of flavors that would be bizarre to a Western palette. Wife had this one.

The Tikka Masala was nice, the ginger confused me a bit when I found it but I wasn't unhappy with the dish. The chicken was cooked well, by which I mean: cooked throughout but not to the point where it was dry, it was enough to make me notice so kudos to the chef for the good work.

The Gajar Ka Halwa (not pictured because I forgot to take a picture before my wife ate most of it.) was slightly more moist than we're used to, not runny or anything and possibly an artifact of condensation due to it being packed for carryout. It was good, flavor was good, texture was good, heavy enough, but not overly so.

The Samosa Chaat caught my attention. They had brighter flavors than most samosas (less fennel or cumin, perhaps? I misappropriate spices from Indian cuisine when I cook, but I'm sub-hack level so I'm just guessing.) With the Samosas, I am completely certain that I missed some of the execution by ordering carryout. Please don't mistake me, they're worth ordering but the flavors and textures by the time I picked up my order late and got home made me realize this would be even better in the restaurant.

The Chilly Paneer had some bold salt, vinegar, and acid notes (Notice the word "notes" as these adjectives can be construed in an overly harsh manner. I don't mean them negatively.) I can't recall having had this dish before and have no antecedent for comparison, but I suspect I'm eating this wrong. . . Like the first time I had hummus and ate it straight up with a spoon while thinking, "Woah! This isn't like what I'm used to in American food." and the people around me were probably thinking, "What is this idiot doing?"

Spice level wasn't bad but, having had my Indian friends cooking, the chef is being gentle with us. 😉 Hot was almost enough to raise a sweat but not enough to induce coughing or swearing and I don't feel like my stomach is full of warm embers. There were some different flavors up front compared to what I am used to in Indian food but overall the food was less heavy and brighter than I expected. I'd eat here again.

And for what it's worth, while I was picking up my order, the dining room seemed clean, pleasant, decorated in a modern or contemporary style, and looked like an appealing place to have a date or...

WORST INDIAN FOOD I HAVE EVER HAD! AVOID AT ALL COSTS! What was once a nice classy little restaurant featuring food from Northern India with amazing decorating, has obviously changed ownership. When you walk in the first sign of trouble is that there are no actual Indian people running this place. Then what was, at one time, a beautifully decorated interior, has now become a gallery for some horrid artwork. While there, my party noticed that the menu had shrunk incredibly and the prices had increased dramatically. When our server came we explained that we could have no dairy of any kind in our meal. The waitress talked to the cook, that's right, not chef, but cook. And the cook said he could accommodate the meal requests. This is usually not a problem in Indian restaurants because of amount of Hindus and Buddhists that reside in the Indian culture. Of course you would need some actual Indian people there to understand that. Unfortunately this did not stop every dish from showing up on our table covered in either yogurt or butter, save one. Most of my party were extremely upset! On top of that most of them ordered their food with a mild level of spicy heat for their meals. When the food arrived no one could eat due to the intense heat that were in their dishes. Me being one who loves spicy food tried the others dishes. After three bites my lips went numb from the heat. Instead of making a scene about how horrible the food was, my party just wanted to pay and get out. When the waitress asked if we would like boxes for our foods we declined. That was when the cook demanded to know why we didn't want to take our food with us. And pretty much sums up a visit at Taste Of India. i personally love Indian food. It is one of my favourite styles of food to go out and get, and i feel that it is a completely misunderstood style of cooking and tastes. And i have NEVER had a bad experience at an Indian restaurant, until now. Places like this are the reason that Indian food has a bad name. Places like this are why people are scared to try Indian food because of the intense levels of spiciness in the food. And places like this are what make people think that the Indian culture may be quick tempered and rude. If you are curious at all about Indian food then please, please, go out and give a try, i promise you will be delighted....

About me : I extensively eat out 2-3 times a day door dash or Uber eats in different cities due to my job. Read the FULL review to get an honest idea about this place !!

Honest review of this place - I ordered Daal Makhni and Chicken Vindaloo. With Indian Restaurants, if you’ve never been there, you can order daal and be comfortably certain that they can’t mess it up. I also ordered regular naan, bullet naan and Aloo Parantha.

Daal was disappointing, it’s supposed to be made with Black lentils and kidney beans, which it was BUT it tasted sweet due to over use of cinnamon. I purposely ordered Bullet Naan, which is naan with green chilies, which if you like flavorful food, SHOULD pair well with medium to Mild dishes. Even the bullet naan was not enough to save the daal.

Chicken Vindaloo : you can Google the origins of this dish, but simply put its made with vinegar and usually has potatoes along with the protein you ordered it with. THIS dish had tooooo much vinegar, to the point that’s ALL I tasted. Think salt and vinegar chips but no salt just vinegar. Again very disappointing.

Why did I give the restaurant 3 stars : As I mentioned before, EVERYTHING I ordered was taken literally to the way it’s supposed to me made, Too much cinnamon in Daal makhni, too much Vinegar in Vindaloo, too much carom in Aloo parantha, HOWEVER you may like the taste I didn’t. If you’re craving super vinegary chicken, it can possibly be balanced with little extra salt.

Gulab Jamun was really good, as a dessert !!

Would I order from here again ? Yes, since they have made dishes with LITERAL ingredient of what a dish is supposed to have, I’d cautiously order chicken Karahi and daal Tadka, to see if it has flavor of onion gravy and ginger garlic and cumin. For me personally, I think I’d enjoy a strong daal with ginger and cumin every now and again,

Final word : Not really a restaurant with middle of the road flavorful food, to me it seemed like dishes had overpowering of one or the other main ingredient and again, based on your individual pallet and what you’re craving in particular, it may or may not be a...