Taste Of India

A great option for vegetarians and vegans. I like the Mutter Paneer. I am so glad we have an Indian restaurant in this area and I hope we can keep it this way.

I miss how this resturant use to be. since changing owners it now takes over 30 minutes just to get a drink of water. Every time I come there are brand new servers who have no clue what is going on. Their food is no longer the same taste I used to love because I enjoyed a little heat.

Taste of India has a new cook that has brought the food up to a new level. We had found the dishes were not as good for a while but we’re happy with the new cook and management. I had the classic Chicken Tika Masala with incrediblely tender chicken. My wife had lamb biryani with very tender lamb. We had mild but would go medium on the spices next time. Service was prompt and friendly and food timely.

I have a love/​hate relationship with this restaurant. I’ve never had a bad meal here in a year and a half. The food and chai is always good, and flavors are consistent. But the service? It’s somewhere between just ok to completely awful. The ambience is decent when they keep the front door from staying open. I return for the food, but it’s a roll of the dice when it comes to the experience and service.

******Dont go, don’t go. This place has had many changes since it opened. Recently there has been a change of ownership. While the new owner is nice, the food isn’t. This is a sad example of an Indian restaurant, and the food here does not reflect what real Indian food is about. Don’t waste your money, you will be better off buying frozen entrees at Target or the local Indian store and eating at home… At least that will taste better.

I’m going to adjust my review since they have new owners.
I noticed a distinct change in taste: the flavors seemed enhanced, and the gravy dishes were thicker in consistency. Also, there is more protein per order.
All of these are pluses in my book. The new owners are very personable, and I have enjoyed my last couple of experiences, and I will continue to come back.
I strongly recommend adding naan to your order, it supplements the food nicely!

This review almost pains me to write. I was so excited to get an Indian restaurant locally as my wife and I absolutely love Indian food. This place has gone through ownership changes, employee turnover, vandalism of the kitchen and the food and the service has gone from good, to awful, to great, to terrible. My previous visit was not the best I had ever had… But it was really good. The takeout last night was garlic flavored cream with a very small touch of Indian spices.
On behalf of Indian restaurants everywhere, do not judge Indian food on your experience here if this is your first time.
I’m not sure really how to rate this place because of the dramatic differences during each visit. Based on my last visit: service was average and the food was below average.

Every time we come here, there is something on the menu that is not available. And they never seem to be that busy. So it’s just poor planning rather than too many people come and but out the item. Sweet Lassi is on the menu, but they never ever seem to have it available. The food arrived fairly fast, but it seemed to be be greasy and too spicy. We asked for mild and it tasted spicy. Not the best Indian food I’ve had– not even close.

We have visited often since my previous review, and it is still one of my preferred restaurants in the area — lots of vegetarian options and generally very tasty food. However, the service has not improved and we have been seeing the kitchen get slower and less consistent, and have gotten incorrect orders more often. While I really like having the option in the area, they definitely have some work to do to improve the experience for their customers.

Great dishes, especially for the very uncultured food scene of cedar falls. Recommend the masala dal and chicken tika masala!

The Anglo «manager» is psychotic and needs to be replaced (or medicated). We ate at the bar and when we complimented the appearance of the countertops, he countered that the men who made them still owe him 30,000 dollars which seemed an odd thing to say to us. I had never seen a clearer indication for an episode of Bar Rescue, from a restaurant perspective. I have since had superior chicken saag/na’an at other places in Boulder and Broomfield, Colorado [Jaipur and Avitra, respectively] and know now how sad it is for the Cedar Valley, Iowa to have to accept and settle.

This was my second visit to the place. Shortly after my first visit, an employee vandalized the place and they shut down until the culprit came forward. During that first visit, I had an hour to eat with my coworker. Service was ridiculously slow. Food was pretty good.
My second visit I stopped in with my children. As it was nearing closing time, I ordered to go. The female server had ZERO customer service. I couldn’t believe how cold she was. We had enough time to finish our mango lassis at the bar and our food was ready – super fast! It was a much different experience than our first visit.
Service: F
Food: C+
Speed: A
Don’t forget to take a spoonful of fennel candy near the cash register when you leave. Fennel is said to help digestion:)

This place seems to have rounded the corner from bad to better. Lexi is new but was a great server! Most of the food was quite good but there were a couple of low points. Avoid the Saag/​Palak– whatever they’re calling it. Honestly, it reminded me of Stoufer’s spinach soufflé, which is in fact a guilty pleasure of mine but not what I want when I’m at an Indian restaurant. The Aloo Mutter was very thin on peas which I really didn’t understand. I’d go back and I’d enjoy it. Plenty spicy, the way I like it, and each dish was distinctly flavorful and nicely presented. We were served quickly despite a 10 top being there when we arrived (we were 5). We actually got our food first. That may have had more to do with their server, not sure though.

Have you ever wanted to like something so badly that you find yourself making excuses for it? I am forced to admit that, when it comes to Taste of India, that I am guilty as charged. I want to like this place. I have claimed to like this place. But if I am to be honest with myself, as with all of you, this place is complete and total rubbish.
Taste of India has one thing going for it; it’s the only game in town. I was, like many around here, one of the unfortunate souls waiting amidst the corn fields for an Indian restaurant to come to Cedar Falls. When we heard that one was coming, we were ecstatic, and when it first opened my charming companion and I entered through the doors much like the children in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (with decidedly fewer Oompa Loompas and with keeping our wallpaper licking to a tasteful minimum). The first experience, in keeping with each subsequent experience, was disappointing. Did we admit that to ourselves at the time? No, of course not. We finally had an Indian restaurant, and we had been craving it for a very long time.
Each time we have been there, I have made excuses for the terrible service and mediocre food. The servers at Taste of India seem to know little about good customer service and even less about Indian cuisine. They have been short, snappy, and appear to not hate their jobs. I cannot blame them entirely working in that dark and dismal environment (there I go making excuses for them again).
The food can be described only as unexceptional. It is quite tasty, don’t get me wrong, but compared to any other Indian restaurant it is rather second-​rate. The menu is somewhat uninspired and somehow manages not to offer papadums (imagine a burger restaurant that does not sell French fries). It can be argued that the prices are reasonable (but can also be argued otherwise). I draw the line however when they want to charge extra for a little chutney sauce. Bollocks.
But again, it’s amazing what being the only game in town will do for a business. Excuses will continue to be made. My charming companion and I will continue to eat at Taste of India, and my office mates and I will go on satiating our curry cravings there. When you want a good burger, and there is nothing around but a McDonald’s. .. and here in Cedar Falls, if you want a vindaloo, what are you going to do?

This place sucks big elephant balls. Employees get stressed out easily, amateur hour service, but the food isn’t all bad.

Food and service have gotten a lot better. Worthwhile to visit now. Highly recommend.

What a joke of a place: perhaps the worst service I have ever had, anywhere, in my life — almost to the point of wondering whether we were on some Candid Camera program.
We are seated by server #1, who is overly chummy, and condescendingly acts like he is some kind expert on Indian food. This was soon revealed not to be the case. We were told by him that they are out of samosas and a couple of other fundamental Indian menu items. Fine. We are hungry, in the midst of a long cross-​country road trip, found the nearest Indian restaurant on Unilocal,and so long as they have palak paneer — which is the only Indian food my picky 6-​year old daughter will eat — we will be ok. Boy were we wrong.
I order pappadam. My server gives me a blank look (I have to repeat «pappadam») but he then goes away. He soon returns with an order of nan, saying they don’t have pappadam. Clearly he had never heard of it, but what kind of Indian restaurant doesn’t serve pappadam???
I order palak paneer and masala dal, two of the most basic Indian dishes. I also order plain yogurt, as my daughter won’t eat the raita with carrots in it. I make absolutely clear to our server that we need palak paneer and plain yogurt.
As we are waiting for our order, we overhear this bizarre exchange with the table behind us: server #2 makes a huge deal trying to talk a customer (college age girl out to eat with her parents) out of ordering an item spicy hot — asserting that it will be too hot for her. The young woman persists, insisting that she knows what she is taking about.
Apparently our server #1 overhears this, because shortly thereafter he comes over to that table and reassures the young woman that she did the right thing: it’s good to order spicy, and she should disregard the advice of server #2. A server dismissing another server’s judgment behind her back!
We also overheard server #2 saying to this table they are out of masala dal — which I had just ordered. Since server #1 didn’t say anything, I figured maybe I was getting the last portion of masala dal or something.
Wrong. 10 minutes later I overhear server #1 and #2 debating how to break the news to me that they don’t have masala dal. Server #2 (why not our server #1, who screwed up?) comes over and apologizes that they don’t have masala dal. (Again, what the hell kind of Indian restaurant doesn’t ALWAYS have in stock samosas, pappadam, and masala dal???) I reply that it would have been nice to know this when I ordered. She makes a condescending remark about server #1 (!) and then makes a big deal about offering to give us a free mango lassi shake (like server #1, condescendingly presuming we don’t know what it is, making a big deal about explaining it to us– do they think no one on Cedar Falls has ever eaten Indian food before?)
Further hilarity ensues when she brings us the lassi, and another customer from another table irately gets up and chides server #2 for NOT ALLOWING HIM TO ORDER A MANGO LASSI! She had condescendingly talked him out of it!
So for whatever reason both servers have this weird vibe where they presume they know better than their customers, even though it’s laughably evident that they don’t.
Our order finally arrives — my tasteless dal substitute and my daughter’s *** mateer paneer ***. I kid you not: in spite of explicitly repeating that we needed the spinach paneer dish, server #1 put in the wrong order. So that’s another 15 minutes waiting for the right but still crappy-​from-​a-​jar tasting dish to arrive.
Forgot to mention he brought raita instead of plain yogurt.
So, oh-​for-​four with our order:
* Nan instead pappadam
* Brown lentils instead of masala dal
* Mateer paneer instead of palak paneer
* Raita instead of plain yogurt
What a farce! these servers were clueless. I am astonished this place is open, especially given the raving reviews the Cedar Rapids venue received. Are people in Cedar Falls that desperate for Indian to put up with mediocre food and laughable service?

It’s great to have Indian food in Cedar Falls. The space is a little cramped and when they get busy it definitely can take awhile to get your food. We just order for pickup and that works a lot better. Overall, the food is pretty solid and the prices are decent.

Really glad to have Indian food in CF. Had the shrimp biryani which was nicely spiced but the rice was a little crunchy. Chicken korma was a little too sweet, but the naan was great. Waitstaff is outstanding!

Took take out from here tonight. The chicken curry was just okay. The chunks of chicken were a little too big for me. The vegetarian dish I had was fantastic. I can’t remember the exact name but it was made with chick peas. If you are going to order take out plan to wait at least 45 minutes. The wait staff was very friendly and it seemed very clean.