[Editor's Note:  The picture of the front of the restaurant is an old picture.  They are currently remodeling the facing of the strip mall that this is in and it will end up looking entirely different.]

Taj of India Restaurant
5929 East 82nd Street
Indianapolis, IN 46250
http://tajofindia.org/default.aspx

Everyone knows that buffets are an invitation to overeat.  But, if you are smart, you can actually use a buffet to your advantage.  For example, my food education is somewhat shall we say…uh…limited, so I can use a buffet at an ethnic restaurant as a way to educate myself about the culture’s cuisine without being tied to one particular dish.  So, with that in mind, I recently ventured to Taj of India to both overeat and also to educate myself.  I was there on a Sunday for their lunch buffet ($7.99) and what you will see is my various samplings/impressions of all the foods that I tried.  In order to relate the food more to myself, I tried to pair each food up with a taste that I am already familiar with.

Just so you know, I’m offering to sacrifice my expanding waistline as a gracious service to you, our loyal readers, in the name of a review/education!  Ha!  So, without further adieu…

Plate #1 was the Chicken Tandoori.

Chicken Tandoori is chicken marinated in yogurt, freshly ground herbs and spices baked in Tandoori.  As you can see these herbs and spices included onions and green peppers (lemons were also in there as well).  Basically though, these were just chicken wings.  As far as taste, this chicken was very tender but sadly, also very bland.  If something was cooked in onions and green peppers, I would expect it to have a little bit more flavor and this didn’t have it.  Although, when I was messing around later, I managed to pair this with Tamarind chutney and got entirely different results.  The Tamarind chutney was spicy and sweet and reminded me of barbecue sauce, so when I paired them together, I was essentially eating tender barbecue chicken wings and I am a BIG fan of those.  If Tamarind chutney is not your speed, try the Mint Chutney.  I didn’t think I would like it because I’m not a huge fan of mint in food (candy is okay), but it gave me a pleasant little surprise since it is made with mint (obviously) and cilantro.

Plate #2 was Garlic Naan bread (top), Chicken Curry (left) and Chicken Tikki Masala (right).

The Garlic Naan is basically a crispy pita covered in minced garlic and cilantro and is absolutely delicious.  I could honestly eat this bread for hours and be a happy man.  A word of warning though, if you do have a piece or two of this, plan on not winning any kissing contests for a while because this one will stick on your breath for quite some time.

The Chicken Curry was lightly spiced chicken breasts cooked in curry sauce.  They describe it as a light spice, but if you are sensitive to spice, you aren’t going to think this is light at all.  I like spice, so it didn’t bother me, but for those of you that don’t like spice, you will want to be careful.  I would equate the taste of the curry sauce to something similar to a very spicy mustard.  This was definitely would not be something I would choose to eat on my own, but if someone put it in front of my face and was also paying for it, I would find a way to eat it because it is edible.

The Chicken Tikki Masala was my favorite item on the buffet.  This was made up of chicken cooked in house specialty masala sauce with sliced onions, tomatoes and bell peppers.  In my mind, I viewed this masala sauce as a runny, yet oddly creamy tasting version of tomato sauce, which I love.  The taste wasn’t overpowering, but it did have a little kick to it and that is something that mixed with me quite well.  This is a dish that I would pay for by itself and enjoy quite a bit.

Plate #3 was Saag (top left), Vegetable Pakora (bottom left) and Paneer Tikki Masala (right), otherwise known as a walk down Vegetarian Lane.

Also known as Palak Paneer, Saag is spinach cooked with chunks of homemade cheese.  Basically, this is creamed spinach and since I am a fan of creamed spinach, I could eat this all day.  Taj’s Saag was a little slimy, but as a creamed spinach lover, I was willing to put aside my reservations.  If you like creamed spinach like I do, try this one out.

Vegetable Pakora was something that was very gross looking, yet actually tasted very good.  It’s chopped vegetables (I saw spinach and cauliflower in there, among other things) that are then fried in a chickpea batter.   When I think chickpeas, my first thought is gross, but this chickpea batter was unbelievably good and this was the food that shocked me the most during the day when weighing tastes versus looks.  What is odd about this is that you’d think the veggies would end up making this thing very soft, but it is actually very crunchy.  If I had to think of a way to equate this to a mainstream food, I would say that this is an an especially crispy hash brown mixed with spinach and other veggies.  If I had some ketchup nearby, I would have thought I was basically eating my breakfast hash browns.  LOL.  Give this one a shot if you are feeling like being pleasantly surprised by something.

Paneer Tikki Masala is the food that won the award for the weirdest looking, tasting and sounding food of the day.  Paneer Tikki Masala is chunks of cheese cooked in the house masala sauce (see above for the description of the sauce).  While I’ve already covered that I loved the masala sauce, mixing it with blocks of cheese was not a good combination.  Especially since the cheese tasted like it was something that is not native to this planet.  It was soft, spongy and just plain weird.  It had neither the taste of cheese, the texture of cheese nor the look of cheese.  All I can do here is describe how weird it was and that I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone unless you were looking for something adventurous.  After eating this, you may wonder why you eat food because its weirdness will have you questioning everything.

Plate #4 included Galub Jamun, an Indian desert (that’s another piece of Garlic Naan bread next to it; it was about my fifth piece of the day).

The menu described this as deep fried milk balls in sweet syrup.  I describe it as delicious.  To relate this to a food that people are familiar with, I would say that this is basically a donut hole soaked in syrup.  Or, a pancake that is rolled into a ball, fried and then soaked in syrup.  Regardless, these things are awesome and apparently I’m not the only one that thinks this way because they had a sign above the tray begging people to only take one at a time so that they will eat everything that they take and there will not be any uneaten waste.  I’m guessing that means that they are kinda popular, eh?  Definitely try this out because if you like donuts and/or pancakes, you are really going to like this.  By the way, I grabbed a second one on my way out the door.  I hope that didn’t make them mad at me!

Would I Buy It Again?  Yes, definitely. This was actually my second visit to Taj of India, but my first where I chronicled my visit for you, our beloved readers.  I never thought I’d like Indian food, but based on my limited exposure (two visits to Taj of India and one to another buffet), I’m a big fan.  I realize that Indian food is not for everyone and there are some stinker places out there (Deep Indian restaurant in Fishers is one), but if you find the right place, you may find out that you end up liking a kind of food that you never thought you’d like.  Taj of India has done that for me and I’d recommend it to everyone else as well.

On a side note, when I was at Taj of India, I felt like I was part of a cult.  There were about five other pairs of people that came in while I was eating and the staff knew four of them intimately.  They were people of all races and creeds, so it was not just one group of people with the same ethnicity grouping together.  It was people from all walks of life and that was kind of cool.  I could actually make the humorous generalization that there is some sort of secret Taj of India dining club that I am unaware of.  If this club does exist, I want in because I love Taj now too!  On my next visit, I may have to even order off the big boy menu and try something else!

By the way, Taj also has a full menu and carry-out menu/buffet options available as well.

-IndianapolisEater

Tags: chicken curry, chicken tikki masala, Food, galub jamun, Indian, naan bread, paneer tikki masala, saag, vegetable pakora

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010 at 6:00 am and is filed under Food Reviews, Location: Indianapolis, IN, Recommended: Independent. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.