On the road in the U.S. means discovering a few good, some not-so-good and many ugly Indian restaurants.
Lunching at Mantra, one of those not-so-good Indian restaurants in Paramus, NJ.
Borrowing a page from Bollywood movies, Indian restaurants in the U.S. fail at the most basic level – Unclean plates, slipping over common curries and desserts and poor service are the norm and not the exception.
Will somebody please tell the Mantra clowns to keep some clean plates and to not yank our plates away before we finish our dosa. We are referring to the dark schmuck (from Hyderabad?) wearing glasses.
And they are playing the song Masakali. from Delhi 6 featuring our bete noire Abhishek Bachchan.
Fortunately, Masakali is one of the better songs in Delhi 6 and a distraction from Mantra’s lousy Chicken Jalfraize and lousier Sambar.
Full review coming later.
Update:
Some months ago, perhaps when there was still some snow on the ground, we’d called Mantra to ask about their hours and to our amazement the person who answered the phone responded in a civil, polite way.
To say we were astonished and baffled would be an understatement because Indian restaurants in the U.S. are notorious for their bad manners on the phone, particularly when it comes to talking to desis. Continue reading »
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