Restaurant: Tandoori Hut
Location: North Austin, 13717 North Mopac, Austin, TX 78727 Map
Phone: (512) 238-0500
Price: $5-$10
Hours: Mon-Fri 11:30am – 10pm, Sat-Sun 12pm – 10pm
Food (7/10)
(6/10) Aloo Chole
They give a generous portion of chole (chick peas) which is enough to last a few meals! The chole is similar to dal (lentil soup) in texture and pretty spicy. Although we didn’t get naan (round flatbread), the chole would have tasted good stuffed inside a warm buttery piece of naan.
(7/10) Chicken Jalfrezi
This chicken curry is marinated and fried in oil and spices to produce a dry, thick sauce. It is spicy and delicious! Jal means hot and this dish sure lived up to our expectations. It also had peppers, diced onions and tomatoes. Our only complaint is that it’s too oily.
Service (7/10)
We ordered our food to-go, so we are unable to give a full review of the service. However, the owner happily explained the dishes to us and brought our order out in a timely manner.
Ambiance (5/10)
Tandoori Hut is a clean and simple restaurant with plenty of seating. The table and wall decorations are nearly non-existent but don’t let that turn you away from this place. Tandoori Hut offers lunch and dinner buffet daily, but patrons can order off the menu as well. The restaurant is located in a strip mall where parking is not a problem.
Just a note chole is not stuffed inside a nan. Unlike western cuisine Indian cuisine is not about experimenting endlessly with food
Also try to understand the way food is eaten in the subcontinenti. there is no entry or exit in the menu(I couldn’t resist that!!).
The word for meal is roti(ie bread) where wheat is used predominantly and khana/sapad.. (where rice is eaten predominantly). What I’m trying to say is bread or rice is eaten with one ore more dishes(that you call curries) nobody ever eats most the curry itself unlike your entree.
Pervez,
Thank you for your comment. When we said “the chole would have tasted good stuffed inside a warm buttery piece of naan” – what we meant was it would have tasted great if scooped up with a little piece of naan, or a roti. We have been to a few authentic Indian restaurants where they did experiment with foods and flavors and the outcome was desirable. Some restaurants also fuse Indian cuisine with a different cuisine with successful results. We also did not understand what you wrote in your last paragraph, nor did we understand your “entry or exit” line. Please feel free to clarify. Happy eating!
I overcame a lot of inertia to write this review. Lets establish some facts here:
This restaurant is in its fifth owner ship in 3 years. And just when you thought the service could not get any worse–it actually could. And it is much filthier and unclean than ever before. You see in June the old owner became the employee/waiter and a new owner took over. You can imagine the dynamics here. The waiter is all grumpy and upset that he is no longer the owner. He used to provide with some bare minimum service when he was the owner (I used to go there because I was addicted to their goat biriyani). Now any questions to the waiter he either simply ignores you or points you to the new owner. I don’t blame him. I would be upset if I am cleaning tables where I used to be the boss. On this particular day the worst part is I observed him cleaning the tables with a dirty cloth and then going over to the buffet to mix up the food—without washing and cleaning his hand.
I had ordered nan about an hour ago and it was not ready. So I asked the waiter to speak to the owner (the new guy). The new guy is THE most rudest person you can find. Restaurants having bad service is nothing new. But I am perplexed that after the new guys had invested so much money just recently, that he would have so much attitude towards his customers. The guy was so rude when I asked him for my take out, that I thought that he must be deranged. Successful restaurants can be kaki. A new business can sometimes be kaki due to lack of experience. But why on earth would a person taking a failed business, presumably to turn it around act like an idiot. He started yelling “You don’t know what I am going through. “ “You have no idea who I am. “ “You don’t walk into my restaurant and ask me nan.” (What else what I supposed to do) Folks I am serious. The situation was so bad, that I just walked out with disbelief. Dumbfounded. Maybe the new guy bit of more than he can chew by buying this restaurant and is now venting it out on his customers. Me no go there no more. I would go to Shalimar.