Raj Mahal
“They have a sitar player come in here and there who sits in the window and plays.”
“Had vegetable samosas, bannana pakora, coconut soup, poori, mixed tandoori grill, lamb curry, rice, dal, firni and spiced tea.”
“i usually tend to stick to the chicken tikka masala and the saag paneer and both of these dishes are flavorful and very food coma inducing fulfilling.”
Raj Mahal
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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Nice place. Down a few steps, typical railroad style restaurant. Had vegetable samosas, bannana pakora, coconut soup, poori, mixed tandoori grill, lamb curry, rice, dal, firni and spiced tea. All excellent. The dessert was on the house. Excellent service. Would definitely return.
I went yesterday with my boyfriend to redeem our groupon. At 8pm on a Wednesday night, we were the only customers there. Seriously, just my boyfriend and I with the whole restaurant to ourselves for the two hours we were there.There are like 10 other Indian restaurants on the same block so I can understand the competition is tough.
Because we were the only customers, the staff here were very attentive to us. Our water was refill and the food came out in a timely matter. My boyfriend got the lamb vindaloo ($12.95) which was spicy and good. I got the chicken kuma ($12.95) which was creamy and delicious, and highly recommend!! Our dish came with rice and we ordered one garlic naan ($3.50). The garlic naan is pretty big so for a party of two, you only need to order one. It was fluffy and nicely toasted. The moment you sit down, you're given papadam with three sauces. Awesome!! My boyfriend and I got desert at the end of our meal. We didn't order it so I'm not sure if this is routine or we were special for being the only customers there. Also, there is live music by a man playing an interesting instrument. It wasn't crazy loud. My boyfriend and I were able to carry a conversation with the music in the background.
The only random thing was we didn't get a receipt at the end of our meal. The staff basically took our groupon code and thank us. My boyfriend and I sat there, continued talking thinking the staff will come back. Nope. Granted we did not go over the $30 worth of food the groupon is good for. So we left a tip, finished drinking our water and left. We kept looking back to see if we were being chased for leaving. Not getting a receipt felt like we had unfinished business or something. Hahaha. Anyways, the place is not that bad. It's dim with a romantic atmosphere (nice touch with the chili pepper lights).
Sixth Street used to be THE place to go for cheap-and-delicious Indian lunch … but times have changed, restaurants have closed, and the restaurateurs who sat outside drumming up business, are now inside and indifferent.
It was prime lunch hour. Nobody was in Raj Mahal. Nonetheless, we gave it a go, and actually had a pretty good lunch: the usual relishes, papadum, mulligatawny soup, samosas, white meat chicken kurma, basmati rice, nan and what appeared to be carrot custard, for dessert. A deal at $6.95.
Yes, the restaurant is old, narrow and cramped … but that's how I remember most of these restaurants.
Went here with a group of friends we ordered garlic and regular naan, samosas, chicken tikka, vegetable korma, and saag paneer. Everything was definitely good, the saag paneer was the best, but everything lacked the spice I was expecting. In fact, it wasn't really even spicy at all… Overall the service was good and the price was great. If you like spicy be sure to mention that when you order.
When I was in college I used to love going to 6th Street for the Indian food. There was place after place and each was as good as the next. Last night I made the mistake of stopping in here without checking yelp first (WHAT?! I know. Total rookie move.) and let's just say I will not make that mistake again.
The last word that would come to mind when you think "Indian" food is bland, right? Well it's the very first word that I think of when I recount last night's meal. Not only was the food flavorless, it was luke warm when they brought it to the table. I know that most Indian food can not be made fresh to order. They spend hours upon hours cooking their dishes and at best it will be on a low simmer awaiting your arrival. But this food seemed like it was prepared yesterday and had just been sitting out on top of a non-functioning hot-plate.
The first clue they were terrible was the man outside, beckoning us into the restaurant, like a desperate fortune teller trying to sell her snake oil. But I saw a man playing a sitar in the window and thought "well, that seems authentic enough" and ignored my first instincts. Never do that.
Side note: I know it's customary but I just don't want to be three feet from the two bare feet of the gentleman serenading us with his sitar. Dirty bare feet are not appetizing.
We ordered the plain Saag, the Aloo Matar Gobi, and a Mixed Vegetable Curry which is described as "fresh vegetables cooked in lightly spiced sauce. Recommended at mild." But I don't think these people could prepare a spicy dish if their life depended on it. Mild is another word for tasteless in this case. The saag was a strange consistency and the Gobi was literally only 4 pieces of cauliflower in some lame sauce with some peas.
I choked it down because I'm a pro and I had a plane to catch and didn't want to sit hungry for 5 hours but I didn't like it at all and would not recommend.
When you are seated, they give two half pieces of papadam with a gross onion relish, watery mint sauce, and even more watery tamarind sauce. Then when your meal comes they try to take it away so they can charge you for more. Bizarre.
In hindsight after reading that one customer got his wallet stolen by the staff I suppose I should feel lucky I walked out with all my belongings. Sadly, though, I read another review where the guy said he saw a waiter leave the bathroom without washing his hands and noted that the "A" in the window is a photocopied fake. That made me just pray that I didn't get food poisoning and so far so good…?
Will not return. Do not recommend. Bland, bland, bland with a side of bland.
I actually never knew that there are so many indian restaurant located 2 blocks away from st. marks.. thanks to my bf that brought me here on a casual night out..
So we haven't had indian food for a while.. he was just taking me here and we wanted to have something delicious and cheap.. So how did we ended up at Raj Mahal? We wanted to check out which restaurant has specials.. So Raj Mahal has someone standing outside promoting.. telling us that only 12 dollars, 3 course meal + naan + papadam.. We just entered and decided to be random..
We were immediately served with papadam once we were seated.. the papadam was quite different than what I have tried but it was good.. We were both so hungry.. and we went with the 3 course meal..
As you can see I "eat like a man".. and my bf and I ate a lot.. we both couldn't finish the 3 course meal..
appetizer
– vege & meat samosas.. To me.. I never like the meat samosas.. I love the vege one because it has potato in it and tasted like curry puffs.. they are both good tho.. my bf ended up liking vege samosas.. WIN!!
Entre
– lamb kurma.. I thought it was curry at first but it was not.. It has the curry texture but it's sweet.. I really love it especially with naan
– ** Chicken tandoori.. They grilled it on a sizzling plate and they served it in front of you so that you won't smell like chicken after you leave the restaurant.. The chicken is not dry.. my bf was really surprised why I like tandoori chicken because it's always so freaking dry.. but he really enjoyed this dish!! You should try this..!!
Soup – I think it's lentil soup.. It's so thick, creamy and delicious..
Naan – This is the biggest naan I have ever seen.. Omg.. we both can only FORCE ourselves to finish one of it.. it was serve warm.. it tasted so delicious with the lamb kurma and tandoori chicken..
Dessert – dessert wasn't as great.. it was something with coconut.. at least is not so sweet.. I can still enjoy it..
The have live music here.. It is a really nice small little place if you want indian food in east village..
Raj Mahal is located in East Village on a street with other similar Indian restaurants. You have to step down to the lower level to the restaurant, so it was dimly lit. As soon as we were seated, the waitress served us two pieces of papadum with three different types of sauces (onion relish, spicy mint sauce, and sweet tamarind suce). While nibbling on this appetizer, we browsed through the extensive menu. My boyfriend ordered the Chicken Tikka Masala ($11.95) with a side of Garlic Naan ($3.50), while I got the Tandoori Dinner Combo ($15.95).
The Dinner Combo came with additional appetizers, including soup, samosa, and pakora. The soup looked like baked beans. I am guessing it was made out of garbanzo beans? The skin of the samosa was a little too thick and it was lacking in fillings, but still pretty good. I am not a huge fan of pakora (potato fritters) and it was super greasy, so my boyfriend ate it all :p
Shortly after finishing these appetizers, we got our main entree. The Chicken Tikka Masala was served in a tin bowl. There were chunks of boneless broiled chicken cubes cooked with a special tandoori mild spiced sauce. The sauce had the right amount of creaminess. The saffron rice could have used more flavors. For my Tandoori Dinner Combo, I got a tandoori chicken leg and onions (served right from the grill), shamai kebab (ground sausage…it had weird seasoning), smaller portion of vegetable curry with brocolli, cauliflower, potatoes, and carrots, and a bowl of dal (it had weird coffee flavors that I didn't like). At the end of the meal, we also got mango pudding.
Throughout the dinner, there was a man at the entrance playing Indian drum music. There are so many other Indian restaurants to explore around the neighborhood that I'd go visit there before coming back because the food didn't absolutely blow my mind.
For my birthday, I wanted Indian food. I moseyed over the 6th street where one can find a cluster of Indian restaurants. We headed into this place b/c it was pretty crowded, offered a good special and looked divy enough (some of the best Indian food I've had has come from dingy places). We both ordered the dinner special. Jesus, muther of all gods Christ, was it a lot of food. It was served with a samosa, a potato fritter, some soup, some papadum, two kinds of curries and a puff bread. I could barely finish half.
There were numerous other birthday celebrations occurring here. Apparently, it's the place to be if you a) want Indian and b) want Indian on your birthday. The lit up the room dancing, hollering and playing some Indian birthday music. Luckily, there were two people ahead of me, so I was saved the embarrassment (ie, didn't feel the need for them to acknowledge my bday).
I would definitely return!