After venturing to the Turkish Market, my boyfriend and I decided to try an Indian Restaurant called the Taj Mahal also located in Bay Ridge, at 7315 3rd Avenue between 73rd and 74th. It was a few blocks away from the Turkish Market I discussed in the earlier post. I read a bunch of positive reviews on Yelp so we decided to check it out.
We arrived on a Wednesday night around 8 oclock. There were only a few other customers in the restaurant but it was a little late for a Wednesday night. Once we arrived we were immediately greeted warmly and asked for our drink orders. My boyfriend ordered the Taj Mahal beer brewed in India, which he enjoyed. I had a sip as well and agreed that it was a refreshing beer that did not fill you up the way some beers do. It was $7.00 for a pint, which I thought was reasonable. I had a glass of the house merlot. I am not usually a fan of merlot, but this was actually decent. You could not beat the price, 3.95 for a glass filled to the top.
On the table was a flat bread that was delicious with the onions and spicy chili sauce. Soon after we ordered, we were giving a complimentary appetizer of Vegetable Pakora, which was delicious. It was especially delicious with the cilantro chutney. I ordered the lamb vindaloo. My boyfriend ordered Chicken Korma and we ordered garlic naan for the table. Our drinks came immediately and the service was sublime. The person who filled our water glass came by the table every other minute, which to be honest became kind of annoying. Besides that the service was perfect.
Shortly after ordering, our food arrived. My boyfriend thoroughly enjoyed the chicken Korma. He doused it in the cilantro chutney, which he thought was similar to Peruvian Aji sauce. I enjoyed my lamb vindaloo, however, I must admit that I had have better lamb vindaloo before. The sauce was a little bland for my taste, still spicy but something was slightly off. The garlic naan was freshly baked and very good, some of the best naan I've ever had. We were given a small pot of rice, which was enough for the portion of the food we ate at the restaurant but not enough for the leftovers we brought home. I would have enjoyed having another pot of rice to bring home to eat with our leftovers.
After eating our meals, we had them wrapped to take home. At that point, we were given a complimentary dessert. It was a thick gelatin pudding that I did not particularly enjoy, which is REALLY saying something since i enjoy most sweet things.
Over all I definitely enjoyed the experience at Taj Mahal, but can not honestly say its some of the best Indian food I have ever had. Baluchis in Manhattan still takes the cake as far as Indian food goes. I would be interested in going back and sampling some of their other cuisine, esp the chicken tikka masala and chicken tandoori. The dilema is that there was so many restaurants to try!
