Monsoon Indian Bistro

My wife and I love the food here! Great service in the restaurant and sometimes I drive 20 minutes to get takeout here because it’s worth it. Prices are reasonable for the area. Love it.

We love Monsoons! It’s our favorite Indian restaurant. We try to go at least once a month if we can.

Horrible. I found a LONG black hair in my food from the normally good buffet in the potato section of the buffet today (3÷9÷16) where I had taken a sampling of food from.
I was eating the portion at my table and a found a LONG BLACK HAIR intertwined in my potato dish.
When i complained to the manager he tried to blame it on me. He said it must have been my hair. Obnoxious and rude. I have blondish /​brown hair and felt insulted. He offered NO compensation and acted like a jerk. No apology. I am NEVER going back.

We moved to the area recently and are grateful to not only find an Indian restaurant within 10 min of our house but one that can go head to head with the best Indian restaurants in Boston and Cambridge! The veggie pakoras are the best we’ve ever had and all the vegetarian dishes are packed with exquisite spices and kick! Staff is wicked nice and attentive. If you’re in area be sure to stop by!

Ordered the butter chicken, vegetable vindaloo, gobi ka tikka, vegetable briyani, and of course samosas and naan.
We’ve had Monsoon twice, and it is now our go-​to Indian place. The spices are beautifully balanced, spicy where they should be and as flavorful as it gets. I crave samosas at times and these are not only perfectly full and a bit spicey, they are HUGE with a wonderful crust and beautiful filling. The included chutney is the perfect amount of heat.
I love that the menu calls out some of the food regions — it helps someone who’s never been to India understand the different palates. (I’m learning that I like the northern regions more)
Although both of our meals were take out, they made us very comfortable during the wait, with some nice crispy poori and tasters of the various curries. The folks are just plain nice both on the phone and in person.

I think someone new has bought this place as the food has gone down hill in quality and quantity. The chicken tikka marsala had few very small pieces of chicken, I think the sauce was very different from the norm and not as good. The lamb for what you get was way over priced and dried out. The bread is priced very high as well. Although still good. After a recent dinner not sure I will return, even though this is our local Indian restaurant.

First (and last time) to visit Monsoon.
Complimentary pappadum with three sauces — disliked each sauce. Tamarind and onion chutneys both tasted of rancid chili powder. Coriander chutney very bland.
Aloo chaat appetizer — Very little spice and not nearly enough yogurt or tamarind sauce. I think they topped it with their pre-​made Chana masala curry. On a positive note, it was the right size for sharing.
Naan — could almost be called a roti. Little to no puff, and if this was in fact cooked in a tandoori, the heat is too low because there were none of the nice char marks or bubbles you should get when making proper naan in a firepit. Could easily have been a packaged bread from the grocery. The generous buttering made it edible.
Navratan korma — Absolutely awful. 4 – 5 small pieces of paneer in the entire dish, which was otherwise comprised of frozen vegetables (corn included). Even worse was that you could taste the frozen vegetable-​ness through the flavorless sauce. I could only identify chili powder and turmeric from the color of the dish. Otherwise, it was just cream poured over Bird’s Eye. And most revealing of the quality of the dish, the Dehli belly.
I also agree with the reviewer who was appaled by the dinner prices. Absolutely do not spend $ 14 on a curry here.

While it may not be the best Indian food I’ve ever had, it’s good, and the only Indian food in a 25 minute radius. Buffet does a nice job. Food is fresh, and they are friendly. I’d like to see them have some more spicy appetizers on their menu. It would increase the chances of me coming to have a beer and watching a quarter of a football game.

Have been to this place a few times and finally gave up. Save your valuable time, money and especially your digestive system — JUST STAY AWAY … FAR, FAR AWAY. Why? Let me count the ways (to AVOID thee):
— HORRIBLE food — an insult to Indian cuisine
— PATHETIC service — the waiters talk loudly and lounge around instead of serving you
— FILTHY conditions — the dining room appears terrible until you see their Kitchen and Restroom
— QUESTIONABLE take-​out — you really need to check what they gave you before you leave
— ASTRONOMIC prices — ANY other Indian place will charge way, way less
— HOSTILE ambiance — way too hot/​cold and unbearably dark/​bright depending on the day
— UNACCEPTABLE quality — ‘Unidentified’ ‘Flying, Floating and Flailing’ Objects (UFOs) in your food
— NEGATIVE value — Plenty of UFOs (re: above line) to make sure U FO for good! Enough said!!!
Go to any other Indian, Chinese, Mexican, Thai, Malaysian, or ‘FILL IN YOUR CUISINE’ place but this!

Gave the wrong order. Asked for vada, gave me aloo tikki. Food quality was bad, Curry had less of spice more of oil .Didn’t look fresh too.

Monsoon has been our go-​to Indian restaurant since we moved to the area in 2012. During that time it’s always been a solid choice with very little competition in surrounding towns. I would have rated with 4-​stars (adjusting for the area).
But lately it seems to have gotten better. I’m not sure if there is new management, or maybe just a new chef, but the last few times we’ve gone it’s been great. The food has tasted really good and we’ve found ourselves wanting to go more often.
The ambiance and service are not stellar, but those things don’t really matter much to me. As long as I can place my order and receive my food in a reasonable amount of time, I’m happy, and that’s definitely the case here.

Below average Indian buffet. There are much better ones in Chelmsford area.

I love this place, but it does have its challenges, so I gave it a 3. I like the food a lot, and the really low key atmosphere. I love when they play popular Indian music. The management staff is very responsive and present, but most of the other staff is a little disconnected.
Great sculpture in the front entrance!

Andrea and I stopped here for lunch on the way to pick up a carpet, not knowing anything about the place. It’s in what looks like an old Pizza Hut building, not much to look at outside but very nicely redecorated inside. We showed up at about 12:15, and the buffet wasn’t out yet, but we decided to wait because what else were we going to do?
It was worth the wait. So worth the wait. There were five or six vegetarian dishes on the buffet (and three meat dishes, but we didn’t try those). Everything we tried was good. The sambar was really good – lots of veggies in it. The uttapam was done very nicely, also with veggies cooked into it, very crispy and tasty. There were idlis, but I didn’t try them – too many things to try! There was some kind of channa dish, which was very good, and a benghan korma dish, which was great. The naan was done just right, not much gluten but chewy, thick and flavorful. A nice salad, lots of good chutneys, generous serving of tea (that was extra). The gulab jamun for dessert was very nice, not overdone, served at room temperature, not cold.
I wish we lived closer – we’d come regularly. But this will definitely be on our radar when we are traveling through in the future. Yummm!

Well this used to be our favorite Indian restaurant but no longer. As I was walking out the door I saw the chef preparing fried chicken with his bare hands. No longer a regular and sad about that.

Amazing Indian food! The service is wonderful as well. My husband and I split garlic naan which was so scrumptious, soft, fluffy and perfectly garlicky! I ordered the chicken masala while my husband ordered a lamb dish. We were very impressed and will certainly make this a place that we will come to on a regular basis!

Super friendly staff, always fast, always correct, and consistent quality! Expensive, unfortunately, because we’d eat there so much more often if our bill didn’t amount to our weekly grocery bill… at any rate. Great options for vegetarians.

I can’t believe the bad reviews here since we had a great experience. We looked at them on the way there and almost didn’t go but I’m so glad we did.
It’s a cute little restaurant with nice ambiance. We were there at about 7:30 and it seemed like every table filled up within 10 minutes of us getting there (so then we worried it would take forever to get service and food) but the service was excellent and the appetizers came out quickly. We got the appetizer platter and it had a nice mix of items~ meat and veggie samosas some chicken a cheese thing etc, that were really good.
I got tandoori rack of lamb and my SO got the korma, both were very good although the lamb dish was a little on the small side for the price. The nan was good and we tried some sort of dessert that was interesting. All and all if it were closer I’d definitely go back more often. For having a packed house and only three servers (including the bartender) we didn’t feel like we were waiting at any point.

Only the tandoori chicken is awesome. Everything else is ok, nothing great about it.
I have been there once for dining and many times for take-​out.
The waiters here dont know to treat their customers with any grace. I ordered take-​out (like many other times), but it took them 1 hr to get my order ready. Just 2 Biryanis. I ordered online and reached after 20min. Lots of people came in and went with their orders (and some of them had ordered after me, I know this because I did talk to couple of them on when they ordered). I dont think any item on menu shouldnt take 1 hr to get it done. If thats the case, then I would like to know who will order and wait for 1 hr to dine-​in.

I have been to this place for dinner a few times and I have also done take-​out at least twice. The food and service both are just OK!
Updated 3.24.2014: The service at this place is getting worst! Never going back again. The owners or the servers talk to each other from the opposite ends of the rooms with customers sitting in the restaurant. They were loud and it felt very strange as they were laughing amongst themselves ignoring the fact that there were customers in the restaurant. This behavior is unaccpetable towards your customers who are paying your bills and are there to enjoy a meal and make a conversation with their family. Basic tenets of communication and customer service violated! Changing the star rating from 3 to 1! Good Bye!