Taste of Cochin

I love the buffet here. They are delicious, fast and clean. I usually come with here my coworkers for lunch. Their buffet has lots of selections w myriad vegetarian and meat dishes. Every time I come to the buffet I feel so full that I can skip dinner. Although the food is a bit heavy I guess it’s just normal for Indian buffet meal.

The absolute best indian restaurant in an area with a ton of great spots. The buffet is untouchable and the guys that work here remember you after the first time you stop in. By far the best lamb, goat and chicken dishes in queens. I can’t stress enough how fantastic the food is here. Service is impeccable and serving sizes are huge.

This is the best and economical Indian buffet in NYC with non-​veg and vegetarian options. $ 8.99 with 18 dishes during weekdays and $ 10.99 with 25 dishes on weekends. Don’t even bother with any other buffet in queens or Long Island.

So far, so good.
I grew up in a small village between Cochin (Kochi) and Trivandrum (Tiruvananthapuram) in Kerala. It’s hard to find food that reminds me of the cuisine of my youth. The lunch buffet at this place augured pretty well for future visits.
Start with the Kerala red rice (Matta), a real win here. I have yet to visit a restaurant outside of Kerala that serves THE rice of Kerala. Basmati rice is unfortunately the standard everywhere. It does not compare to parboiled Kerala red rice.
Other winners included the thoren, redolent of coconut oil and curry leaves, potato bhaji, and fish (meen) molly. The unsmiling guy on duty informed me that the absent avial, theeyal, and pulissery would be available «tomorrow,» a Keralan way of saying they may or may not ever offer these items.
(Note that papadum was not on the buffet but was served on request.)
I’ll have to check back to order off the regular menu and see just how Kerala this place can go…

If you are looking for authentic Indian food, served up by some of the friendliest staff I’ve encountered, look no further than Taste of Cochin.
The food was absolutely delightful, the dining area was clean, the buffet was piping hot, and we were waited upon in a timely manner. The restroom needs some attending to, as in some friendly treatment by a bulldozer and a trip to a big box department store for a makeover… Otherwise I would have given it a five star push.
Smiles all around made for a fantastic experience. People of all shades were treated the same, which is a plus. I shouldn’t have to mention the fact that eating in an establishment that is not your own culturally makes for a tremendously awkward experience most of the time, especially when it’s an authentic spot I.e. managed and run by people of that culture. You usually get the moans and groans, don’t know what is going on etc.
Not here.
Highly recommended!

Came for my first Onam sadya. Amazing !!! The staff were nice, ambience adjusted as per the occasion, price was reasonable. Will be back soon.

Their weekend lunch buffet is a very good deal and features a huge variety of excellent food. The fried chicken, I believe only served on Saturdays, is my favorite. Really everything I tried was good. It gets busy during lunch, with mostly Indian customers, which is a good sign but may make you wait. If you live in the city, it’s a bit inconvenient without a car, but it’s worth skipping Murray Hill or Jackson Heights and coming out here instead.

A restaurant set in the midst of other Indian oriented stores. The food speaks for itself. It has a South Indian theme. My favorite of kappa and fish curry were just one of the home cooked meals I haven’t had in a while.
The service was decent. Aside from the picking of plates very limited interactions.
I recommend this place.

Excellent both — North Indian as well South Indian food. Price is reasonable. Parking is available behind it. Today i went for the lunch buffet. Outside ambiance is not good, but inside is nice and the food is excellent. I think they must be certainly missing some customer due to their outside looks. I grew up in Bombay, so I was skeptical how will be the tandoori chicken and chicken tikka masala in an south indian restaurant. But this had excellent tandoori chicken and chicken tikka masala. Both these items were better than one of the north indian restaurant in the neighborhood, which I went and tasted on the same day. The nan and south indian style paratha were excellent. Particularly the south indian style paratha was just perfect, not too chewy, some flaky. The chicken biryani is good. Service is good.

This is amazing south Indian food, verified by my 2 half-​Keralan relatives. The beef fry is an absolute must-​have, and the fish curry, fried chicken, fried sardines and roti canai/​naan are sooo delicious and flavorful!
Went on Mother’s Day and they were super friendly and giving out free champagne and soda :)

I’d like to start my review with a series of numbers. If there is no desire to read further, just remember this:
4 stars, 25 buffet items, $ 10.95 on weekends.
That is all.
Now for the details and because I don’t believe in short reviews…
What is a taste of Cochin? Who or what is Cochin and why should I taste them?
It’s a major city in the southern Indian region of Kerala on the Arabian Sea. Far, far away from cities like New Delhi in the north, the flavors of Kerala cooking will vary from what many people assume to be ‘Indian’ cooking without considering regional variation. If all of India tasted like New Delhi, we eaters would survive but suffer through a culinary monoculture.
With free parking in the back, getting to Taste of Cochin via car is quite simple. As I entered, I immediately felt comfortable. Families were celebrating birthdays, friends were meeting who hadn’t seen each other since last winter break and a convivial atmosphere was abundant. It was as if I were privy to multiple private parties in a party or church hall, with everyone getting up to help themselves at the buffet.
We were seated promptly right near the multiple hot plates of wonder. The free carafe of water is a welcome Parisian touch although other beverages are available at a cost.
So as soon as you are seated you will get up to investigate the offerings, fill your plate, eat, have plate removed and repeat the whole process ad infinitum.
Four rounds of savory, one round of sweets was my final tally. I haven’t any need to eat since visiting earlier this afternoon.
Highlights of the 25 dishes included a light and airy dosa, addictive chili chicken (Not too hot at all), goat curry, chicken tikka masala and palak paneer. Yes, many of these are northern Indian specialties but there were several south Indian vegetarian options to try as well.
Sitting close to where the trays of food were being carried into the dining area has its benefits: seeing a fresh batch of naan was a call to action. Even though I was nearly at capacity, I scooped up two naan and another serving of goat curry to feed my greed.
Desserts were ras malai and gulab jamun which I combined into a styrofoam bowl of sweet mingling.
Again, the whole affair felt like a family gathering with little or no frills (which is fine by me– styrofoam desert cups and plastic forks are definitely functional)
When you reach the wall and can no longer eat another bite of any of this delicious food, stop by the bar and have a drink if you’d like or pay for the buffet.
Unlike other more expensive Manhattan based buffets, the quality of each dish remained consistent without any weaker links. And at a significant discount to big city prices it’s well worth the trek along Union Turnpike. (Much less of a trek if you live in Queens/​Long Island)
Taste of Cochin also offers a full menu after buffet hours. I’ll have to return for further exploration.

After many trips here for their lunch buffet, we came here tonight for their (recently added) dinner buffet. In short, the lunch buffet is much more desirable, at least when compared to tonight’s experience. For dinner, the selection was lacking and the freshness seemed to be diminished, quite possibly due to the lack of traffic. I’m not sure if that was due to tonight’s inclement weather or because there is a lack of awareness that they offer a dinner buffet or if there is less traffic now that they have stopped serving alcohol. Since I have generally been pleased with T.O.C. in the past, I may try the dinner buffet again… but a repeat performance would signal «enough» for me.
The service was nothing to rave about as it was a buffet but the staff are generally nice and there to meet our needs. The dining area is large enough that it could easily handle groups, and there are also booths for smaller parties or couples.
As for the food itself, the largely boneless goat curry & kappa (mashed yucca) with fish curry were the better dishes offered tonight. The fried rice was okay but the chicken tikka masala and selection of flat breads left more to be desired.
My next visit will be for lunch — to see if the quality has diminished any — and I hope the satisfaction returns to normal levels. I want them to do well and remain a solid local option for Indian food. Otherwise, I’m sure that nearby competitors such as Santoor and Sohna Punjab will be eager for an increase in their business.

I had the onam sadhya 2013 and 2014. the 2014 was excellent, all the curries were delicious. we came with a group of 11 people. and we all will be there for onam 2015 definitely.
they also had a chenda kottu and maveli… it was a very nice and enjoyable experience.:)
The servers were so friendly and sweet:)

We tried the lunch buffet and loved it. Specially the beef fry, fish curry, and avial.
Being from Kerala and having had authentic Kerala food I can’t agree more on them being authentic.

OUTSTANDING! Dined here recently & had an amazing time. The food was amazingly fresh & full of flavor. The management & staff are doing it right, ya’ll! If you enjoy Indian food which is well prepared and restaurant staff who jump through major hoops to make sure you’ll enjoy food they’ve prepared for your enjoyment & tasting pleasure, visit this restaurant. I am not kidding! They’ve got it right!
By the way, I had the goat korma with rice, garlic naan, poori, fish pakora, mango lassi & kheer for dessert. Everyone there made me feel welcomed & like family. Visit and be blown away!

I love goat, but the problem I have with Indian restaurants is that the goat dishes consist of 90% bone and 10% meat. Now if I were a Doberman that would be fine so my question is «Where’s the Goat?».
I have given up on Indian restaurants until someone tells me where the goat meat is.

This place gets 4 stars for there lunch. All you can eat for 10 a person. High quality Indian food is hard to find especially for this price. The restaurant itself is clean and reminds me of a typical Chinease food all you can eat spot. Nothing fancy and it looks like crap outside seriously i almost turned around when i saw it lol. But when you are sick of paying overpriced fare and your all about the food then come here for lunch! You wont even need to eat dinner afterwards. This is feed my belly style eating. With vegetarian options and about 18 dishes to choose from.

I have been coming here for years, having grown up a few blocks away. Taste of Cochin has an excellent lunch buffet on the weekends! They offer many typical Anglicized Indian dishes (e.g. Chicken Tikka Masala), as well as an array of South Indian specialties. I love the South Indian stuff! It reminds me of childhood when I would eat at friends’ houses who were from Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and marvel at all the exotic spices their aunties used.
The sambar is great. All the South Indian stuff is done well, except the fish curry. I don’t like the fish they use and it has an off putting flavor (Bengali boyfriend agrees).
Weekday lunch buffet is good, but doesn’t offer as many options as weekends. And weekend lunches are always full of Indians, which must be a good sign.
Ordering anything a la carte here is hit or miss — very inconsistent. Stick to the lunch buffet. I’ve also had their dosa, which was eh.

I returned to Taste of Cochin last Friday to find it just as wonderful and fresh. Though of course like most places, the weekday buffet has fewer items and a lower price, the value remained far above average. This is in part because they had a seafood dish in addition to the standard chicken and goat. It was fish molliee, lightly breaded chunks of delicate white fish in a creamy, gingery sauce. YUM to the umpteenth power!
Also, this time I tried their version of the ubiquitous chicken tikka masala. The chicken was off the charts for tenderness; its sauce, for flavor and lightness.
The thoran turned up again, thank goodness. And for the first time I encountered tindora, a sauteed gourd dish high on spice and very low on oil. I’m always happy to try new foods, which is the main reason I go to so many buffets.
I gorged myself for just under $ 12, including tax and generous tip. Taste of Cochin has acquired a new regular patron.

Lunch Buffet: It’s the only time I go to this restaurant. I’ve been here about a dozen times over the last few years.
HUGE RECENT IMPROVEMENT: The waiter (40ish, kinda bald — greasy longish hair) doesn’t work here anymore. He was a slug. Rude. Cold. Gone. Good riddance. Don’t let the flying nan hit you in the butt on the way out.
Back to the food: For about $ 10 it’s the best damn Indian lunch buffet deal in town. Period. Plenty of choices, each one prepared very well. Don’t ask me about gourmet Indian food… Isn’t that an oxymoron? Chicken dishes, goat, fish, vegetable choices, I try a little of this and a little of that… I mix and match… and I never leave hungry.
Who leaves a buffet hungry?
Street parking and parking lot in the back. Beats the heck out of going CRAZY looking for parking in Jackson Heights.
I like place and I think you’ll like it too.