Either we arrived here on a bad day or selected the wrong items to order, but the food we ordered was utterly disappointing, despite seeing the 4.7 overall cumulative Google reviews of this place. We arrived here at lunch time on Friday, but there...
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Either we arrived here on a bad day or selected the wrong items to order, but the food we ordered was utterly disappointing, despite seeing the 4.7 overall cumulative Google reviews of this place. We arrived here at lunch time on Friday, but there were only a few tables of customers during lunch.
After reading about the lunch buffet on Tabla's Website, we inquired with our waiter about the buffet and he showed us the menu from which we would order our "1 meal plate" from the menu. When we inquired about the salads for the buffet, the waiter directed us to a table where there were about 3-4 appetizer items, an 8" bowl of mixed green lettuce that was mostly wilted. There was also a small 6" plate of cut carrots that were dry to the point that they were white on the surface. The small bowl of battered cooked chicken in the appetizer area was dry and cold. Advertising a lunch buffet on your Website is very misleading. This is not the conventional lunch buffet definition.
FOOD: 1/5
Chicken Vindaloo: The chicken in this dish did not soak any of the sauce flavoring, as though these were unseasoned chicken pieces that were quickly sauteed in the sauce. The tomato sauce and tomato flavor was dominant and I couldn't taste any distinctive spices of a Vindaloo dish.
Chicken Pad Thai: The noodles were overcooked and mushy. Chicken pieces were very sparse in this dish, but there were lots of zucchini and bell peppers, which should not be in Pad Thai. There were no bean sprouts and no eggs, key in traditional Pad Thai. The sauce was overwhelmingly sweet. This dish was served in a tapered-mouth metal bowl, the wrong choice for serving Pad Thai. Growing up eating Pad Thai from street vendors to 5 star restaurants in Thailand, I've only seen Pad Thai served on plates or wide-mouthed bowls. This is the first time I've seen this dish so wrongly cooked and so wrongly served. The tapered-mouth bowl traps in heat and moisture and continues to cook the noodles, making the noodles more mushy and clump together (it looks like a brown ball of dough clumped together) as it's being transferred from the kitchen to the table.
Bhindi Masala:
There were more bell peppers than bhindi in this dish. The tomato sauce was the dominant taste in this dish. We couldn't taste any masala. At $22 for this vegetable only dish, it's grossly overpriced for mostly bell peppers, onions, and tomato sauce. There's hardly enough bhindi and we couldn't taste masala.
Naan: From appearance, the naan looks good, but the texture lacks elasticity which is indicative that the flour lacks the level of protein needed to provide the elasticity. Good naan should have some level of elasticity when pulling it apart, not just easily break apart. The naan also lacks any smell of tandoor. The wide metal wired tray lined by paper is only good for appearance in serving the naan, but is impractical because the thin naan cools quickly as it's left wide open on a wired tray.
Salad and "appetizers" from the "buffet table": the mixed green lettuce in the 8" plate on the "buffet" table was wilted. The cut carrots were so dry that they turned to a white color on the surface. The chicken in fried batter was dry and cold.
White Basmati Rice: The only food item that was good was the white Basmati rice.
SERVICE: 2/5
There was only one person waiting and busing the tables during lunch. He looked tired. It's possible he was just overworked.
ATMOSPHERE: 4/5
Clean contemporary decor with patio seating looking out the the park and pond.