Tamba Indian Grill & Bar
“It'd be a lie to say that this restaurant wasn't amidst some formidable opponents – Bhatti and Dhaba offer a fairly good spread.”
“They have standard items, such as tikka masala and various vegetable pakoras, but also some more unique things.”
“(Bhatti's food is excellent, too, but the place can get drafty and you sometimes can't hear your companions above the din).”
Tamba Indian Grill & Bar
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
PokéStop Nearby: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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I stopped by for brunch because I had no other place in mind- honestly!! But I am SO GLAD i did! The stars do NOT do justice to this place at all! I have been in India for half my life so I knw wat real desi food should b like. Let me break this down a bit-
1- food- THe most important part of the experience. It was a Sat Brunch. They had Chat selection, spiced yogurt, chicken tikka, samosas, veggie pakoras, jalapeño pakoras, salad selection for starters. Main course had palak paneer, butter chicken, dal, veggie korma, chicken biryani, lamb vindaloo. They served Warm and crisp naan bread. Dessert options gulab jamun( indian sweet round donuts) and kheer. This is pretty much the same menu everywhere- obviously! But the taste of everyb single item was distinct. Every spice hit my palate. I enjoyed every bite of my meal. Excellent food. Amazing cooking. I have been to dhaba a bunch of times and I would rate this place way above dhaba. It hurts me to see that such a gem is so underrated!
2- the service- oops! That is where this restaurant kind of falls apart. The TV constantly runs some ages old bollywood movies which kills the ambience. However, i have seen this before at many other highly reviewed restaurants as well. If you give that taste to my palate, i can enjoy the bollywood music for a lil bit too.
In sunmary- dont choose this place if u r looking for a date night. Definitely visit this place if u r hungry and u want to eat good, absolutely delicious and well made Indian food.
The owner of this restaurant Malik.. Certified crook. Stay away, at all costs, unless you like to be ripped off!
It's a shame I did not go through all other reviews.. filter by all 1 star reviews.. it's quite synonymous to what I am saying!
I hate to say it, but this is by far the worst Indian experience I've had in Curry Hill.
I came here for a late dinner on Friday night with a few friends. The inside is actually decent – very bright and nicely decorated. The waiters were all confused as to who should walk over and be our host/waiter for the evening.
When someone finally walked over, we placed our order. I ordered the samosa and the saag paneer with garlic naan. They have three spice levels – mild, medium, and spicy – so I opted for the medium because sometimes spicy at Indian restaurants is too spicy. After ordering, it took about 25-30min for the samosas and this chicken appetizer that my friend ordered. That's an absurd amount of time to wait for an appetizer on a Friday night at like 10pm when there's only a few other people in the restaurant.
When the samosa came out, two pieces came on a dish. There was no chutney or anything, which I thought was weird, so I asked for it. The samosas were actually pretty good – they weren't dry, were flavorful, and had a good combination of potatoes and peas.
Our food arrived close to an hour after we ordered it, which again is SUPER SLOW. You can't keep customers waiting that long, and there were only three of us! When I tried the saag paneer, it was literally one of the blandest things I have ever eaten. First of all, it wasn't spicy AT ALL. It was very mild, so if you come here, make sure you order your food spicy. Second, there was barely any paneer in the dish. I had maybe about 5-6 pieces of paneer in the entire dish. I was not impressed at all with the quality of the food or how long it took them to make it.
Finally, when we finished and were ready for the bill, it took another 15 minutes or so for them to get it to us. The guy was at the bar counting receipts or something and wouldn't pay attention or would just go back to that without giving us our check after we asked for it multiple times. We tried splitting our bill three ways with three cards, but he looked at us and refused, even though it's not written anywhere. He claimed that they get charged so much that they would prefer us to pay with cash, even though it's not mandatory. I understand that restaurants get hit with credit card charges, but you should put that on your menu or tell us before hand, rather than throwing us a pity party that you get charged when parties pay with multiple cards. So just keep that in mind if you ever come here – only one card and everyone should bring cash or pay that person back.
Overall, never coming back here. This place needs to clean up their act.
I was a bit concerned about my Groupon purchase for Tamba after seeing the mixed reviews, but I wound up having a very nice time last night.
I printed out the groupon and called ahead, as instructed, and had no problems. The place was nearly empty but this is a slow week for everyone. Every place we passed was empty last night.
Our groupon was for 2 entrees, 2 glasses of wine, rice and naan. The place is nicely decorated and the bar is elegant. We started with a couple of glasses of chardonnay and studied the menu.
We ordered an appetizer and some raita to go along with our other stuff. The appetizer was a chicken wing dish, nicely spiced. For dinner I ordered Zafrani Murg Masala, a chicken in saffron sauce. It was good, not very spicy, but had some nice flavors.
My date had Lamb Korma Kashmiri, and thought it was great. He said he'd have liked more spice but it was still very good. He also ordered 1947 beer to go along with the dinner, and said that he enjoyed it.
We finished dinner with tea.
Service was good, attentive, but they did forget to bring the naan until we were almost done. I think at that point they were staying away because it was obvious we were having some deep conversation. Other than that, though, everything was good. The tip was added onto the check at the end, which I always think is a bit odd when it's only two people, but I understand some places have to do that with groupon deals. It doesn't bother me, but I know it bothers some.
Would I go back? Yes. I think that we might try it for lunch since the buffet sounded good. There are so many places on Lexington and they are hit or miss. We think this one was definitely worth it.
Walking in the strip of 27th and 28th street on Lexington, you find a lot of really great Indian restaurants. Tamba is certainly great for its food, but it's service is something else.
Anyway, about the food – we started with complimentary thin naan with two sauces. Very nice starter. Then, we waited about 20-30 minutes (a bit ridiculous if you ask me…) for our three chicken tikka masala and one lahori balti gosht. We were also given two rice dishes (we had four people, we thought we'd get four) but not much to complain about that because it does look small, but it is certainly filling. If you're not hungry, two people can share one.
The prices are relatively same to all of those in the area. There is nothing wrong with the food – it's absolutely delicious. Full pieces of chicken for the masala – nice, large chunks and same goes for the lamb. However, asking for mild spice… still a bit hot but that's not the problem.
The problem was their service. Continuously, we'd have to ask for water when most of the waiters were just hanging out by the bar because they didn't pay attention to us. The service is absolutely poor but it was strange – it wasn't even busy. We were one of the three tables there at 8pm on a Tuesday night. When they gave us water, they either didn't fill everyone's cup or overfilled and spilled some. Also, the waiter is different from the person who takes your order… yes it's strange. The waiter has no idea about the sizing of the dishes, but the person who takes your order and checks up on you does (I guess he sorta realized that we weren't too fond of the service). With that, they gave us complimentary rice pudding with ginger and almonds – very good but not for my taste.
Also, the overall atmosphere is also kinda dim (he asks if you want to turn on the light). The art is kinda nice and the chairs are comfy but I guess if you look at it other than that, the whole restaurant is just kinda silent until the waiter turns on the TV with Bollywood. No music, just Bollywood (which sort of has music) but a language that I'm sure a lot of the people who visit this restaurant wouldn't understand.
I would come here for the food, maybe take-out but not for the experience.
I feel compelled to write an update because we've come to this restaurant a few more times since my original post, each time with a mouth-watering craving for the dosais. The last time we came will unfortunately be our last. My huband bit into the dosai…… Right into a huge PIECE OF GLASS! A broken piece of glass!!! What?!
We called the manager over and showed him the glass and he acted like we had planted it or something. He picked it up, very nonplussed, not-apologetic at all, and said "Sooo…. Are you saying you want a new dosai?"
We said, "Absolutely not! We want to leave. And you should probably figure out why you have broken pieces of glass in your food!" The whole situation was completely ridiculous, scary, and disturbing.
Follow-up regarding my husband's tooth – He had mouth pain for a few days and was able to be seen by our dentist – fortunately, there was no permanent damage or cracking of his tooth, but wow, what a crazy situation.
One buffet is not definitive, but this was good, not great. Chicken tikka masala was below average; chicken biryani above average; goat curry average; pakora etc appetizers very good; hot chicken tandoori and nan broguht to table very good.
Service very good and weekday price of $10.95 a bargain.
Round one goes to Dhaba across the street.
This was a new try for us in Curry Hill. My friends wanted protein so we didn't go to my favorite vegetarian Indian.
We stood outside debating. It was fairly quite inside for a Saturday evening dinner. Checking Yelp. Hmmmm…I know sometimes those stars make or break a decision but in this case we decided to take a chance.
The low key restaurant had some lingering patrons eating on the night we went. As far as service went. It was fine. It was acceptable. The host came to take our orders after settling down and looking at the menu. The Ginger Ale was flat from the tap so they gave me friend from a can. The vegetable samosas were slightly dry on the inside but overall tasted good. The 4 pieces of Tandoori Chicken was pretty good and moist still. The Chicken Tikka Marsala in a creamy sauce that was slightly spicy but held together. The okra was the only one that seemed to have been left in the pot all day and this was the last of it for the night. It was good but the okra were a bit dry. I liked the lemon rice aromatic with pieces of whole dried chilli peppers and lemon leaves.
So our random pick turned out to be a decent choice even with the Yelp rating. We enjoyed our meal. It was a pleasant service. Food came out not to long after our orders. While the water wasn't always refilled and had to ask. We were content in our little world. Sometimes you have to just give it a try. We did and were happily surprised.