Mantra Masala

One star for good service (we were the only diners).
2^nd star for decent papdi chat.
Chicken tikka masala was a huge disappointment. Chicken was inedible which really ruined the experience. Most of the chicken was hard and almost all of it was gray and tasted old.
(See pictures)

Everything we had here was good. Papdi chat to start. And we had lamb biryani and chicken tiki marsala. Oh and some garlic naan. More people should eat Indian food, it’s so flavorful. And it would be nice to have not been the only ones there.

I have been here twice in the past few months and both times it has been excellent. The Malai Kofta was particularly good and the samosas excellent. Our service was top-​notch both times, with the server frequently refilling our waters and checking on the food. The atmosphere is cozy and the staff pleasant and attentive. I highly recommend it!

Our dinner was delicious! We had several entrees and each of them was great including the chicken tikka masala, lamb vindaloo, chicken korma and saag paneer. The staff was very kind and attentive and the restaurant was a great atmosphere, even for our loud family. Highly recommend!

Here’s my short review…
— Ordering was a chore
— The food smelled old
— The food was bland
— Don’t go here
— Go to Curry Leaf Flavors of India on Ft. Apache
Hers my long review…
I didn’t know Mantra Masala existed so I was stoked to find an Indian restaurant so close to where I live.
I called to place a pick up order and the guy taking my order seemed like he was on another planet. It wasn’t a language barrier issue either.
He got my name wrong at least ten times. I knew I was really in for it when I started ordering the food. I asked how many samosas were in one order and he said «one», so I said I will have four samosas thinking I would get four samosas with my order. I got home and opened the carton to see eight samosas. There are two samosa per order so I spent loads of money on some vegetables wrapped in fried dough.
Then I ordered a paneer dish a curry dish and onion kulcha bread. It literally took this guy five minutes to figure out what I wanted. I could hear him flipping through the menu trying to figure out what I was ordering. After a while, I heard another guy rip the phone out of the first guys hands to get my order in properly.
I skeptically drove to pick up the order. It was ready for me and I paid. Thankfully there was no issue with picking up the food or paying.
I got home, opened up my order and everything looked good, but the contents smelled musty. You know, like an epically old crazy lady’s home smell? Yeah, like that.
The samosas were huge. They tasted ok. My paneer and curry dishes were bland. How can that could happen with Indian food??? How can Indian food be bland!!!
The rice was dry and yellow. This was the first Indian place where I was served yellow rice. It’s usually white rice.
The onion kulcha? Well, let’s not even talk about that. *barf*
The food sucked and I had double the amount of samosa that I ordered. The only things I liked were the chutneys that came with the samosa.
I literally threw everything out but the samosa because I was so friggin hungry.
Do yourself a favor. Drive the extra few miles and eat the delicious Indian food at Curry Leaf Flavors of India on Ft. Apache Rd. The food there is fantastic! The service is on point too.
Sorry, Mantra Masala. I thought I found a gem, but I didn’t. I found a crazy old lady’s musty smelling couch in a bag with eight samosas
Love,
Me

Maybe it’s meant to be more authentic, but this is the first Indian joint I’ve eaten at that didn’t make their tikka masala with chicken breast cut into bite size pieces. They were very fatty large chunks of chicken thighs. The sauce was kind of runny and light on flavor. The prices are way too high as well. Just seemed like it was made with as cheap of chicken as possible. I’m not knocking dark meat, I love me some chicken thighs and there may have been some white meat in there but there was so much fat on it that it was difficult to eat and tell. Such a bummer because my wife and I love Indian food but this is the only one in this area. Sucks because we ordered delivery via stub hub so that I didn’t have to leave the house tonight, but instead I have to put my outside clothes to go get something else and we wasted 50 bucks. To put this review into perspective, I felt compelled to do so under the assumption that posting on Unilocal is the dorkiest thing I could possibly do and I hope the restaurant owner takes this feedback as an opportunity to adjust his selection of chicken used to appeal more to the masses instead of those looking for something more authentic. Authentic doesn’t pay the bills. The masses do.

I’ve tried 3 different Indian restaurants in town and this place is by far my favorite ! Little pricey for a hole in the wall but it’s delicious and the atmosphere is awesome.

My fiancé and I ordered 2 entrees and unfortunately are extremely disappointed. We’ve been here several times over the past few years hoping for a better experience but every time it seems to decline. We don’t mind paying good money for equal quality food, but this was not the case. I was ignored when I walked in to pick up our order. Then once I took the food home there was little rice and more potatoes than meat. I don’t think we’ll be back.

Ordered through BiteSquad. The tikka chicken was very dry and it was burned, the lamb vindaloo had very tough meat with sauce that lacked flavor oand was watery. The chicken biryani was very spicy, when I had requested that it be mild. The overall experience in eating this food was terrible. Even the naan was soggy and old. The only thing we ate was the basmati rice (which was very small in portion size,) which was not that bad. The yogurt sauce was watery and very sour.
I don’t think we will ever give this place a chance, not even for the buffet. I don’t know who to talk to about this, bitesquad or the restaurant. I don’t think BiteSquad should even deliver this food, it was the worst indian food I have ever had in my life.

Just had chicken biriyani at this stupid indian restaurant. Very average food. Ridiculously overpriced. Highest prices for any indian restaurant across America. Charged me $ 3 for Pickle which is given free in every indian restaurant. This restaurant is meant to rob customers. Complete avoid.

Northwest Durango Location– iloved it. It is a bit pricey for take out– but I went in there with zero expectations. I had no idea what to order, and just told the gentleman that I was ordering for my husband and I, what did he recommend. He gave me the chicken masala and a lamb dish. Medium heat. Holy chow were they delish. So with that being said, I would go back again.

My God, this place sucks… Very disappointing. I’m sitting here eating soft samosas that taste average and appear to be microwaved rather than freshly fried. The naan bread has a limp, chewy, suspiciously microwaved texture also. Lamb korma is somewhat lacking in flavor. When I walked in the door tonight the owner stared right at me and didn’t even acknowledge me plus the food is also overpriced. I wanted to like it as Indian Palace my FAVORITE is not close by but I will not be back here as I have nothing good to say.
If you actually know good Indian food I can’t see that this would be appealing.
Updated– I even wrote the owner himself to tell him how disappointed I was and how bad my meal was. Rather than any kind of effort to fix the situation, he said” thank you for your kind compliments. «That’s it. This guy is a jerk and doesn’t deserve to be in business with how badly he treats customers and Unilocal,don’t block my review as it is real and this was a real and true experience I had. I’ll prove it if need be.
Update– I would also like to mention that I just came back from Dubai where I had the pleasure of dining in an area heavily populated by Indians, so I do know what good Indian is. Only Westerners who don’t know any better could like this and the Indians posting on here that like it are likely friends with management.

North Durango location: they opened a month ago and it was worth the wait. It’s carry out only and I think it’s a bit pricey but the food is good. This is the only Indian Cuisine on the NW side of town; I will definitely eat there again

Oh boy. A rare bad review. Let me state clearly that I tried to give this place the benefit of the doubt. At first I thought «Maybe it’s because I’m here on (insert any day of the week but Monday)», or maybe because «I’m here (alone/​with a date/​with colleagues)». a half-​dozen «benefits of the doubt». No more! I’m never going back.
No cocktails, no beer, only wine. «Lunch Specials» are advertised, but apparently no lunch buffet. In no way could this restaurant be considered competitive. Not in the West End of London (by far!), not in Silicon Valley, not in Washington D.C., and not even in the desert wasteland of Indian Cuisine that is The Southwest Neighborhood of Las Vegas. Even in a field of 1, this restaurant doesn’t rate.
Unless you live in the Southwest Neighborhood, you would never know this place exists except for listing conglomerators with apps in the app store. And that’s probably just as well. Service is consistently slow, though courteous. This is truly the only Indian restaurant west of Decatur but you would never know it. Ask for a booth or table right next to the telephone… so you can listen to the chirping of the ringer ring of the hook the –entire– length of your dinner. This is a classic example of a poorly-​run restaurant that gives Las Vegas restaurants a bad name. Why is the phone ringing off the hook? Because everybody from a 10-​mile radius is ordering from one of those UHAUL-​style food delivery places and this is the only Indian-​cuisine restaurant in the area. Is the food authentic? Is the food fairly priced? Is the wine list good? I think the answers to these questions is «probably, yes», but really what is «authentic Indian cuisine»? If you read the original owner’s numerous publicly-​available print-​media articles you would conclude there is no more «authentic Indian cuisine» than this restaurant. I don’t think most people who are frequent customers choose to eat here because of this restaurant’s value, authenticity, or wine list… and really couldn’t care less about the poor service. I think most frequent customers of this restaurant eat here because they work in the nearby Dignity Heath San Martin hospital complex, they live in the traffic-​jam-​central nearby housing developments of Mountain’s Edge or Rhodes Ranch (both developments notoriously crammed to the gills with more residential units than can be supported by the surrounding businesses causing huge infrastructure problems…) or any of the mega-​complex apartment villages that plague the Southwest Neighborhood. This restaurant will never attract a sufficient level of tourist traffic because of its location, and there is no alternative restaurant of this ethnic specialty within any reasonable amount of driving time, and the residents of the aforementioned housing developments and local employers like the hospital are totally accustomed to poor quality and poor service, so this business will always remain.
The ambience of the restaurant holds no value for a romantic liaison, a business conversation, or even a large gathering like a UYE. Only those with a LOT of time on their hands come here at night. Like only retirees and families with multiple children bother coming here at night (which describes the predominant makeup of those who live in this neighbourhood).
I doubt anybody but the management of this restaurant and Unilocalers who will never have the chance to visit this restaurant will ever read this review. That being said, I offer one piece of advice, and I bet you can’t guess what it is… Is it «Try the Lamb Vindaloo» or «Save room for a Mango Lassi»? No. It is simple: Bring a bottle of water in your purse when you come here for dinner. Better yet, just go next door to Teriyaki Madness and save your money.
(Why is this restaurant’s ambience poor? The telephone ringing constantly, for starters. Secondly, the interior design seems like it was designed in some computer game like «The Sims» or by midgets with vengeance against tall people. Also, the second booth has cloth so thread bare the stuffing is poking out. The booths are placed so close together you have to be a little person to fit into them without feeling like the table is poking you in the stomach and I am by far certainly not a candidate for weight loss! The «mantra» here should be «if you have time to lean you have time to clean» but it is, sadly, not.)

Definitely the best Indian food on this side of town. Flavors are exceptional and lots to choose from. It’s never busy or crowded and makes for a peaceful evening out.
Favorites:samosa
Garlic naan
Lamb biryani
Malai kofta
I wish I could give 5 stars, but service is always a bit slow and you constantly feel like you’re trying to get someone’s attention.

Tapan Bose is the Chef here and has always given me food that is bar none some of the best Indian food I’ve had. Being an Indian, and knowing Indian food– I can recommend this place to anyone with a hungering for desi cuisine.

We were wary of this place after seeing the less than ideal ratings but our fears were unfounded!
My husband and I are vegetarians. We eat Indian food several times a month and we’ve had it even in Asia.
We ordered the onion bhaji (⁴⁄₅), vegetable samosas (³⁄₅), garlic naan (⁵⁄₅), paneer tikka masala (⁵⁄₅) and malai kofta (4.5÷5). One thing we didn’t like is that the rice that came with the curries were just a wee bit. If we didn’t have naan, it’d have been insufficient.
Dinner for 2 came up to just under $ 48 excluding tips. A little pricey especially for the location and quantity. But we will come back again because it’s close to where we live.

So, SO good. I’m new to Las Vegas, and was craving Indian food tonight. After dinner tonight I am completely satisfied.
We started with the samosas — delicious. Crisp on the outside, a little spicy on the inside, and whatever that green dipping sauce was — yum. :) Dinner was the Chicken Tikka Masala and an order of the plain Naan. My boyfriend and I decided it was he beat naan we have ever had. (Not to say we KNOW Indian food, but we have had enough to compare!) I loved the spice to the Masala too. I ordered mine medium-​hot, and it was perfect.
The only thing I’d say that could improve after this first trip would be the service. It was a little slow, my water ran out a couple times (spicy food + small water glasses = water refills for me), and one of the employees (family-​owned I’m assuming) had a phone that kept ringing which was a little annoying. However, I’d say if you order an appetizer, you’d be fine.
I’ll definitely be back!

We were the only diners when we had late lunch here on a weekend and ordered:
Chicken tikka masala: No Indian restaurant can go wrong with this! Theirs is pretty good. The lean cut of chicken is tender. The sauce is flavorful & delicious with just the right amount of spiciness.
Shrimp masala: Sauce is just okay. The shrimps were large, but rubbery.
Vegetable basil curry (made of assorted veggies/​basil/​roasted cumin/​coriander/​fenugreek) — good except they obviously used frozen veggies :(which for me is a no-​no in restaurants!
Gulab jamun: a sweet way to end a meal :)
Came here on a Saturday, entrées were a bit pricey for what you get as their portion is small. You also have to pay extra for nan bread or basmati rice!
The plus side: the place is clean, with a classy (but dark) interior and has a nice & not very elaborative Indian décor; and the server is attentive, courteous & knowledgable.
Maybe I’ll come back on a weekday as they are supposed to have a better deal with their lunch menu.

We stopped in for a little snack and ordered the Mantra Masala Appetizer Sampler
and a basket of Garlic Naan.
Don’t remember the names of the items on the sampler, but it was Samosas, a crispy onion thing, and a batter fried chicken Item. The first two were good, but the chicken was tough. The two chutneys that came with the sampler were delicious too.
Not the best Indian food we’ve had, but seems like the only one in the area. ALOHA!!!