Indian restaurants in New York City come in two forms.
A small minority meant for humans and the vast majority aimed squarely at God’s four-legged feline, canine, hircine, asinine, porcine, leonine, vulpine etc creations.
We’ve graced the portals of the Indian Taj branch on Bleecker St in Greenwich Village (in downtown Manhattan).
Since the downtown location serves sexy Indian food we walked into the 74th St Jackson Heights branch of Indian Taj nourishing hopes of a similar titillating meal here too.
Merciless Assault
Alas, the Jackson Heights branch turned out to be the bastard child of the Indian Taj restaurant group that operates multiple restaurants in NYC.
For much of what we tasted at Indian Taj on 74th St in Jackson Heights is definitely not designed for biped, i.e. human consumption.
Indian Taj Jackson Heights – Horrid Indian Food
What we encountered at Indian Taj was one brutal, furious, merciless assault after another on our taste buds.
Be it Vegetarian or Chicken items, Indian Taj’s kitchen lobbed one missile after another, lacerating not merely our palate but making sharp gashes into our tender soul at the thought that one Indian could be so perverse, so cruel, so heartless, so maleficent toward another.
Indian Taj – Horrid Fare
Can some sane individual explain to us how Chicken Chilli can be anything but spicy.
You see, the beastly monsters lurking inside Indian Taj’s kitchen decided that Chicken Chilli must be a spice-neutered, emasculated travesty.
Not in the least spicy, the blandness of Chicken Chilli brought tears to our eyes over the absence of any heat from the chillies and spices.
With their effete palates, a lot of Americans may not have the testicular fortitude for spicy Indian food.
But we certainly have the cojones for spicy food. Bring it on.
Adding insult to injury, the Chicken Chilli was cold, just minutes after the restaurant opened.
Cold, Spiceless Chicken Chilli
The medium sized Vegetable Samosa was evenly fried and that’s all we can say in its favor.
The Potato filling inside, which is the main allure of a Samosa, was horridly tasteless.
Worse than the bland mashed Potatoes that an American Grocery store deli peddles.
By God, if you can’t get the Samosa right you really have no place in an Indian kitchen. A Samosa is the equivalent of toasting bread.
How f*cking difficult can it be to get a Samosa right!
Tasteless Samosa (left)
Kadi Pakora with a surfeit of Turmeric Powder did not provide us any joy of eating this famed Punjabi delicacy.
Pakoras in Kadi Pakora were so tasteless that we cringed after one bite.
Kadi Pakora – Mucho Turmeric Powder
Yellow Dal was hot temperature wise and that’s it.
Devoid of any flavor, Indian Taj’s Yellow Dal in our opinion is not fit for any living creature’s consumption leave alone paying diners.
Where do crappy restaurants like Indian Taj pick up their clueless kitchen staff from?
Are they Indians, Amigos or Aliens from a distant galaxy?
We wanna know.
Tasteless Yellow Dal (top), Palak Paneer
and Navratan Korma (bottom left)
Mercifully, Palak Paneer did not have the usual raw taste that you encounter at so many Indian restaurants in the NY/NJ area.
But it was hopelessly flavorless and it felt like we were eating finely boiled chopped Spinach with fried Paneer than the North Indian creamy delicacy Palak Paneer.
Navratan Korma was creamy but dominated by Chickpeas making us wonder why Indian Taj had two Chickpeas items on the lunch buffet. Navratan Korma is usually prepared with a combination of nine vegetables including some nuts.
Compounding our irritation, the Indian Taj version of Navratan Korma was far too sweetish. Continue reading »
Horrid Samosa, Tasteless Mixed Veg Curry
Awful Fish Tandoori (top left), Tandoori
Horrid Alu Gobi (bottom left), Zucchini,
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