Taste of India — Restaurant in West Hartford

We went for Saturday Lunch buffet and basically we were Vegetarians. First of all, the servers aren't aware of what they were serving. when we were inquired about drinks, we suggested lassy and when we asked abt flavors, he said there are no flavors, but he brought us Mango lassy !!!! The appetizer selection was good, with pani puri and other stuffs. The vegetarian items were relatively less compared to Non-vegetarian items. The Medhu vada was actually hard vada, which didnt even spare to our stainless steel forks. literally we had to use our teeth to tear it. They had labelled a dish called Sambhar, which is not Sambhar actually. It was a soup with all vegetables in it and it didnt even resemble 10% of traditional south Indian Sambhar. I had a debate with my wife for Jeera Rice which she advocated as Pulav. Bottomline, that dish was neither Jeera rice nor Pulav. it was some kind of rice. All the vegetarian curries (Navratan kuruma/Potato dish) were bitter and I suspect the chef used the same oil which was used for Non-Vegetarian items. If my suspicion is right, I think I have every right to sue the restaurant. Last but not the least, the dessert (rice pudding and gulob jamun) was made out of desert sand. No sugar, No texture and we somewhat satisfied with Globe Jamun, coz the size was too huge. My intuition says the Chef is not of Indian Origin as I didnt see any traces of Indian Chef's mastery, either in Spiciness or Varieties. To support my intuition, through out my presence, I didnt see any local Indians. If you really want to know "how not to cook", you can visit...

We visited Taste of India because of its appearance on CT magazine as the best Indian restaurant in Hartford county.

We visited for lunch. They used to have a 7 days a week lunch buffet but after covid they are no longer doing the lunch buffet. It is a cozy restaurant, and the service was very fast and attentive. We were given a complementary appetizer of these delicious crackers with an red onion type dip, a green cilantro tasting type dip, and the tamarind dip which is my favorite. For an appetizer we ordered the Momo a napali style dumpling which also had great flavor. For the entrée we ordered the chick pea masala, lamb curry, and tandoori platter. The curries were rich with flavor and paired very well with garlic naan and the basmati rice. The tandoori platter had one meat that was a bit dry and hard to chew but the rest of the meats were cooked very well. Most of the meats were very tender.

All in all, the flavors of everything we ordered was on point. I am hoping that in the future they will bring back the...

The food was OK… definitely not worth the drive but it was standard Americanized Indian food. Definitely not traditional and not spicy so if that’s what you’re after don’t try this place. The food itself though wasn’t bad enough to write a poor review it was the service. I think the owner was the guy who waited on us and he was completely inappropriate. The husband of the couple we went out with ordered his food and the guy chuckled to himself and offered no explanation as to what was funny about the guys order. We all assumed it would just be a lot of food. It came and was a large portion but not a laughable amount. He came around and was very pushy about refilling our water glasses several times without offering to refill our other drinks. Then when he wanted to know if he could pack up our food I asked for extra rice to go and he seemed annoyed that I wanted more rice. Kinda of huffed as he walked off as if it was such an inconvenience. However, I did get extra rice. Overall I would say decent ish food…...