Taj-Mahal

The worst Indian buffet ever if you’re a vegetarian. Dal was really good, but seriously there’s only do much serving I can take of one dish. The desert was pathetic. Rice pudding had a weird taste to it, first time I couldn’t even finish it. Gulab jamun was cold, like out of the fridge cold. Maybe this place is good on other days, but their Sunday afternoon lunch was disappointing. Especially, because this place came so highly recommended.

I am not a chef, but certainly understand what is biryani, its appearance and taste.
On one of my visit to ottawa was craving for a chicken biryani, so found this restaurant as the closest one to my hotel.
With regards to service, i may give them 5 stars. But for food, i paid $ 16.50 for one portion of chicken biryani, quantity was good, but flavor was just dominated by handful of oil. Almost had about 100 ml of oil floating in my biryani. It was no where close to an authentic chicken biryani.
I would highly recommend the owner/​chef to have an experienced indian chef in their kitchen. Alternatively, get a training from a nice indian chef.

I live in U.S. and was visiting Ottawa with family during the Labor Day weekend. Family wanted to have some nice dinner at an Indian Restaurant and we decided to go here. If I were to give rating for ambience, cleanliness and service «before» food is served, I would give 5 Stars.
I was born and raised in Hyderabad, India which is the birth place of Biryani and I’ve never seen a Indian restaurant in UK, US or Canada which serves Biryani without Raitha and Salan/​Gravy. Raitha and Salan compliment Biryani and even if in your restaurant you don’t serve it as a default one, there is something called «suggestive selling», where it is the responsibility of the waiter to suggest the sides/​drinks that compliment the dish the customer orders. Veg Biryani was fresh and ok, but it no where comes close to the actual taste of an authentic Indian Biryani. Besides veg biryani, we ordered Onion Bhaji which was just reheated in a micro, Saag Paneer which tasted ok and EggPlant Curry which was soaking in oil and taste was mediocre.
Besides lacking suggestive selling, Waiter was no where seen once the food was served and only appeared when we were ready for the cheque.

Kids wanted to eat Indian, so found this neat little Indian restaurant new Carleton U. Parking is a hassle which I do not like. We were acknowledged within a minute and were seated on a table in a near empty restaurant, but it was just after 6pm.
Were given three chutneys and 4 papads. The chutney that was green seemed to be a spicy chutney, but turned out to be SWEET. The tamarind chutney was sweet and sour and the pickle was OK. The papads were roasted (fried at Namaste India)
Ordered, Malai Kofta, Kumbh Mutter (mushrooms, peas and paneer) and Saag Paneer with naans. All the three dishes had a nice flavour to it and none of them were spicy or were overly greasy. With Kumbh Mutter to be the best of the three.
The naan we were not pleased with. They were quite thin and therefore almost crispy on some parts. We were at Namaste India a couple of days ago and their naans are something to crave for — soft and fluffy and light.
If only I can have the dishes from here and naans from Namaste — Utopia!
We ordered a mutter pulao (peas + rice) and it was perfect.
With the bill each of us got a chocolate mint stick which is a nice touch

To start with its on the beautifully lit Bank street of Ottawa, so makes a nice place for dinners, specially on a cold night. This is one place that I would go again if in Ottawa. Much better than all other Indian restaurants in area. The food here is rich in taste and does justice to the the décor. Spices are just right.

I am not typically a fan of Indian food, however a few friends felt compelled to try every Indian restaurant in the city. Our first stop happened to be the Taj Mahal. As I am gluten free, vegetarian, and peanut allergic (I know: if that doesn’t scream high maintenance then I don’t know what does…) it trends to be difficult to find food. However they were very kind and accommodating of any allergies, and the Dahl soup, biryani, and sag paneer were by far the best I have ever tasted.
After our meal we agreed we would likely not be straying far from the Taj Mahal in future.

Nice interior appearance with great details. Food is not bad either; Naan, however, needs some improvement. Saag lamb is delicious! Don’t try their chicken korma unless you like the curry cooked only in yogurt, it was rather bland and had a bit of sweet taste :(… Instead, have this other dish, chicken…(ugh, can’t recall the whole name ATM, lol), its curry is made with tomatoes and it’s very tasty with both rice and naan! :)

The décor is clean, with a large silk tapestry on one wall. The service is great with the wait staff in formal attire and a knowledge of proper service protocol and procedure. This is only shadowed by the food, which is very tasty! The plating is the only thing that I was not impressed with, I had one of the specials and it was served on a segmented steel tray, like something you would get in a school cafeteria, and found that it took away from the «class» of the meal. Having said that, I would go again in a heartbeat.

Went here with a few friends, loved it! They gave us papadums with 3 different kinds of sauce, tamarind, a mint one and a hot pickle one, they were all great. One friend ordered mulligatawny as an appetizer and I ordered a samosa. However I was disappointed to find out they ran out of samosas so I ordered pakoras instead, they were good, i didn’t like the cilantro mint sauce they came with so I dipped them in tamarind instead. Also ordered a lassi, which was excellent!
For our main courses I ordered naan and Murgh Makni with a bit of spice (I usually love hot food but I’m a bit scared with Indian food since they mean HOT when they say it!). My friend ordered a vegetarian curried mushroom dish, and another friend ordered the butter chicken and saag paneer. We all ordered a large serving of rice as well.
It took a long time to arrive, but the quality of the food totally made up for it. My chicken was excellent, perfect amount of spice with juicy pieces of chicken. My friend’s mushroom curry had a unique taste but was delicious. My other friend’s butter chicken was fantastic but we concluded we don’t like saag paneer, it was our first time trying it though. The rice was plain but had peas in it which I thought was kind of nice. The naan was also great, fresh and soft. It was a bit pricy but Indian food tends to me, and as I was going to the back to pay I was delighted to see the kitchen area had a window so you could look in and it included tandoors and clay ovens.

I have eaten a lot of Indian food in my time (My favorite food of all) and Ottawa has some of the worst available IMO but…
Finally!
I found decent Indian restaurant in Ottawa. It wasn’t a perfect experience, though but I will forgive them their error!
Looks a wee bit dodgy on the outside, had to force myself in the door, my wife bullied me a little ;)
The inside, pleasant, clean and a friendly atmosphere!
We ordered — (We are both Chilli Heads)
Samosas
Beef Vindaloo — extra hot
Chicken Madras — extra hot.
Basmati Rice
2 Naans
Samosa’s — Very tasty and the condiments provided were special too.
The beef Vindaloo, well I got a lamb one by accident, I am not a huge fan of lamb but I ate some and enjoyed it, the cook slightly overdid the vinegar but was OK.
The rice and Naans were as good as any you will find in Ottawa but the star of the night was the chicken madras!
As hot as hell! And tasty to boot! — seriously, they have a perfect Madras in my opinion — I loved it and will go back for more. Warning if you ask for extra hot you will get it! I have no idea how they managed to keep all the flavour with such heat!
The best Madras I have ever eaten!
Great service too!
A chilli heads dream!

I have been here a few times only for the Lunch buffet with colleagues from work. The décor is nice and the service is good. If you are having the buffet, they are really good with clearing the plates and making sure you are happy. My big beef with them is replenishment of the food. I am yet to go there for lunch and find/​try everything they were serving that day as part of the buffet. The containers are empty and it’s annoying to have to keep waiting for the naan, tandoori chicken, butter chicken etc. For lunch, I want to stuff my face, feel like a pig and get back to work ASAP so I can nap! That ain’t going to happen here.
The quality of the food is pretty good and is one of the better places in Ottawa but I am not sure if this would be my go to place for Indian food. They have an okay wine/​beer list but don’t buy beers that are not commonly consumed as I have questioned the freshness of the beer on two occasions. I am now almost wondering why I am giving them 3 stars!

Really good food with unusual flavors! Swift service and very reasonably priced.

This is a go to spot for Indian in Ottawa. Friends and I always enjoy our dishes. Lots of cheers for the dahl, saag paneer, butter chicken and lamb roganjosh. Also agree w/​Amanda — the stuffed potatoes are excellent.

Depending where you draw your lines for sections of downtown Ottawa, the Taj Mahal is one of three Indian restaurants in the Glebe. I haven’t been to the one by the 417, but I’ve been to the Light of India many times. I believe the Taj Mahal is good, but I will almost always opt for the Light of India because their food is slightly more delicious.
However, the Taj Mahal has lots to offer and their food is still delicious. They have tasty stuffed potatoes with raisins and cashews, an adequate vegetable korma and a great eggplant bhurta.
They have a lunch buffet from Sunday — Friday from 11:30−2. They also deliver for orders over $ 35. If you live within the area, there’s a 10% discount.