Indian Taj

Stumbled upon place in an afternoon boutique crawl with visiting guest in tow. What a gem!
Staff was friendly and welcoming at 3:30pm…the lull of the day.:0) Warm décor, extensive menu, and fair pricepoint.
I can’t wait to return, and try to get the table in the window again. THE spot on Bleeker to pull up a chair and people watch.

I went last night to eat for my birthday I had pekoras for appetizers which where so delicious and very flavorful, next I had tandoori chicken which was cooked well but not dry and basmati rice which was to die for!!! My absolute favorite was the cheese and garlic naan which is like nothing I have ever tried before. For a busy Saturday night everything came out very quickly and as a nice personal touch the staff brought me a cheese puff pastry complimentary desert since it was my birthday. I had a great experience!!!

Lunch buffet all you can eat for $ 11 on weekdays. Good food and enough choice (7 or 8 main dishes plus rice, naan and 1 dessert) particularly at that price. Clean restroom.

I rate places for what they are.
This is by far one of the best Indian buffets I’ve been too. They have great selection and they change it up everyday. The even open up their front windows for al fresco dining weather permitting. Staff is quick to serve and are accommodating.
For the price of 10 dollars, you can’t really get as hardy a lunch like this anywhere, let alone New York City. And if you want to eat vegan style, they have plenty on their menu to let you do that.
This has become my new favorite random finds in NYC.

On two occasions after ordering from them, the orders were wrong both time; on my last try, I received a frozen dish. Obviously taken out of their freezer/​cooler, someone apparently having forgotten to warm it up. Come on guys. :-(

Great Indian food,. Very quiet for whatever reason so it’s a good place to host interviews, small lunch meetings, etc. Probably TOO quiet for bring a date ;)
Try the Peshwari Naan, basically a nutty version of naan. I like spicy food so I always end up getting chicken or lamb vindaloo. My friend likes mango chicken, but it’s way too sweet for me.
Service is very prompt since it’s so quiet.

good inexpensive Indian. Nothing fancy.
Just a little slow on the uptake.

Nice atmosphere, with the front of the restaurant elevated and open to the street on a lovely evening, which is nice. A decent selection of Indian flat breads and Indian beers (other than just Kingfisher), although two brands were not available when we went. Service was prompt. The tandoori mixed grill was very good indeed. Coconut chicken was good, but the paneer with peppers was done in a slightly bitter red sauce. Far from the best Indian restaurant I’ve been to, but not bad.

It’s cheap. And quality-​wise it’s… well, cheap.

Popped in here last night with some friends and were seated at one of the comfortable booths. Drinks arrived quickly (Large bottles of Taj Mahal beer for only $ 9) and service was friendly. Restaurant décor is dark red, booths around the outside and a few tables in the middle with a long buffet set up on the side (lunch only). No real bar area to speak of, so this really is a dining establishment.
I have to admit that all 4 of us were surprised that the food was as good as it was. Portions are definitely small, but the taste of each item was delicious.
Meat Appetizer platter: 2 small kofta kebab, 1 small white meat piece of chicken tikka, 1 small white meat piece of some other kind of chicken, 1 ground beef & peas samosa. Every item was very tasty and the chicken was … SUPER MOIST. (this really surprised me the most — but it truly was cooked to perfection).
Veggie Samosas: filled with curried potato & peas, light and crispy, sitting on a bed of chick peas with raita and some other veggies. Quite tasty, went well with the garlic naan we ordered.
Cauliflower M…: I forget the name, but it’s an appetizer of cooked cauliflower buds covered with a red sauce. I was the first to try it and declared «It tastes like General Tsao’s chicken!» Then husband (and expert on General Tsao’s chicken) tasted it and agreed. Our 2 other friends, one who HATES cauliflower, tried it and guess who ended up asking to eat the last piece? Yes, the cauliflower hater… that’s how good this dish was.
Lamb Korma: hunks of lamb in a creamy almond gravy — loved it, brought gravy home to have with rice later today!
Chicken Tikka Masala: very well executed with huge chunks of MOIST white meat chicken.
Yellow Lentil Daal: pretty standard stuff here
I will admit that this is definitely Indian food tailored to «Gringo palates» as I like to call mine… meaning not too spicy or hot. But everything was very flavorful and if you like spice (as our friends do), they will bring you some hot stuff on the side to ramp it up.
Price: pretty good — we pigged out with a feast for 4 plus 4 large bottles of beer and it came to $ 60 per couple. We were never rushed even though we were the last ones there at the end & we would definitely go back.

Average Indian priced at student lows — an ok option if you want a to spice it up a bit. Mind you, just a bit because Indian Taj does very westernized (read: mild/​not so spicy) food. On the plus side the menu is very large though, so you have a great pick of curries, meats, tandooris, breads, etc. More a place for a friends’ night out than a date spot — unless you’re a broke student.

I’ve only had the buffet lunch here and it is a splendid value.
Also, for people who are trepidatious about trying Indian food because of the «spice factor» Indian Taj kicks that all down a notch or two; more hardcore Indian food fans might dismiss it as too bland but I don’t not that I personally can’t deal with hotter and spicier food.
(Salt is my one real bugaboo and no, I don’t have a medical problem; atheistically I just don’t like salty food.)
The ingredients are all of good quality; I’ve been there when they’ve gotten deliveries and I can attest that they use only name-​brand chicken and this does show up quite deliciously in the good flavors of the food. (By contrast I’ve eaten at a «Perkins» and I can assure you that they do NOT use name-​brand chicken; they use the cheap junk that you see with an unlabelled pedigree in lousier supermarkets; it’s the kind of chicken that, whenever I encounter it, it always gives the impression that a cat peed on it first.)
Staff is friendly and professional and they always keep my «pani» (water; that’s the only word I know in their language) topped off.

This is my local Indian restaurant for takeout. I usually get takeout at least once a month. The delivery service is great it’s fast and the food comes hot.
I usually order the panner dishes and find the food to be above average. I have eaten at many Indian restaurants in the city and there are many places around me in the west village where i can grab Indian food but i always end up getting Indian Taj.

I’m feeling almost contrarian enough to give this place four stars, but in all honesty three is about right. if we’re basing it on quality of food. The first Indian place I’ve sampled in my new neighborhood, Taj was blissfully empty at 3:30 in the afternoon. I took a nice seat by the window and went to town on the $ 10.95 lunch buffet while taking in the Bleecker Street foot traffic.
The owner was courteous and the waiters were fairly attentive, though it’s hard to really judge wait staff when a place is empty. The food was decent. Nothing knocked me out, but the paneer and tandoor chicken were pretty tasty. It’s definitely a student haunt so at peak times I would prepare to overhear undergraduate whining over exams and casual date banter.

This place is pretty good. After having visited India, I can definitely tell that Indian Taj goes easy on the spices, but I really enjoy the place, nonetheless.
The chicken tikka masala with cheese-​garlic naan is hands down my favorite.
I wish they would be open later on Fridays and Saturdays.

Come here frequently with my fiancé and we always have a great time. The staff is very courteous and prompt, and very friendly. After our first two visits, they remembered us and always welcomed us with a warm greeting and their best table. My favorite dishes are the Chicken Tikka Masala and Lamb Saag — both are made with the perfect blend of spices so that it’s not overwhelming. Also, they make the best meat samosas I’ve ever had!
It’s in a great location on Bleecker Street, within walking distance to many bars and other nightspots, so it’s perfect for grabbing a bite to eat before going out. It IS rather small inside, so it’s not really good for groups of more than 4 – 6 people.

We ended up putting some of our food on the radiator!!! No seriously this place is cramped. Imagine having Thanksgiving dinner with your whole family in an elevator. Yea but that’s why I deducted one star. P. s. There are tables that has an underneath swivel attachment that can extend the length of the table abit. I think
Now onto the food. I had three separate en trees. The Chicken Biryani, Goat Biryani and Tandoori chicken with basmati rice. I ordered them all to have medium heat as I didn’t want the spicyness to overwhelm the taste of the food. The chicken biryani is simply rice and chicken and other goodies all mixed up with amazing herbs and spices. The chicken biryani is certainly enough to feed 1.5 people. I would rate it an 8.25÷10 based on taste. The goat biryani is easily my favorite. I would rate that a ¹⁰⁄₁₀. The goat was cooked to perfection and had amazing flavor. You also get a white sauce to accompany it but i think it took away from it’s immense flavors.
The tandoori chicken was also very very good. You get half a chicken and it was a beautiful crimson in color and just had great flavors and was very savory. This entrée came with basmati rice and a side salad. This place should not be rated 3 stars. It is better than that and the customer service was good as well,.
P. s. The mango Lassi drink is also amazing!

My aunt treated me to my birthday lunch here yesterday.
The only other time we were here was for dinner so this was the first time we experienced their buffet.
They had both vegetarian options and meat options in heir buffet. The Dal (which had an unusual amount of vegetables) was very good.
They had goat curry which was unusual for me to see at an Indian restaurant. It was surprisingly Good. The an and the white rice was mislabeled but everything else was correct.
For dessert they had Kheer and some fruit custard on the buffet and we both tasted a bit of each. My aunt also decided since it was my birthday she would ordered some mango ice cream for the two of us. When we ordered it, it came out in five minutes. they gave us each two generous scoops in a nice glass dish.

I went here yesterday for lunch. They had a buffet set up, but I am not a buffet kind of guy, so I asked to see their menu. I ended up ordering the Boti Kabob with a side of Nan. I am always taken with Tandoori dishes, so it was an easy choice.
The serving sizes were very generous and I thought the lamb was nicely done. I didn’t enjoy how the lamb was seasoned however. It was spicy which I love, but I really could not distinguish any distinct flavors which was a shame. The tandoor is usual really useful in developing deep and complex flavors. Also, as the lamb was not sauced, it made for a difficult pairing with the basmati rice.
The service was fine, and the restaurant was simply appointed. Note that they do have a 20% discount for those affiliated with NYU. All in all, everything was fine, but nothing was memorable.

I’ve gotten take out from Indian Taj for awhile but this was the first time I ate in. I went with my Mom and D as we felt like Indian but didn’t want to walk to EV because the weather was horrific.
We arrived at 7pm on a Saturday night and while they definitely had tables filled, we were seated right away in one of the booths in the back. I can see what peeps were saying about the service having a little ‘tude, but that seemed to only be the Maitre’d and he’s more business than rude. The other servers were extremely pleasant.
We ordered the vegetable samosas, chicken tikka masala, saag paneer and the garlic naan and peshwari naan. All of it was super delish, though the mains seemed to be a bit on the smaller side, but I guess that prevented us from getting waaay too overstuffed.
I thought the place was clean, the décor was just a bit worn but can’t fault them for that. And they didn’t mind when we sat for about 45 min longer after finishing to chat over our water glasses. All in all, I will definitely be back for a quick/​low-​key meal or anytime I need an Indian food fix!