Tadka Indian Bistro

Mediocre food; unfriendly staff. This restaurant is the same as Delights of India, but renamed as it serves meat. However, the staff wouldn’t admit there was any relationship, when in fact their very website said that they are the same owners but just renamed the place.
The interior was ugly, dingy and unappealing. It was one small room with brown carpet and cheap-​looking tables. The food was average. We took it to go, and would never return, either for takeout or dining in.

I was so excited to eat this food based on the images they posted on their online menu. Unfortunately, the actual eating experience was less than enjoyable.
The pickled vegetables were so overly seasoned (or, should I say overly pickled?) that they were nearly inedible. The pappadam was burnt, and what were supposed to be crispy fritters were in fact quite soggy. The rice looked like it had been sitting in a pot or cooker for hours — perhaps even all day.
The channa masala and potato dish I got were mediocre at best.
I’m incredibly disappointed. I will not recommend this place to anyone, and I may even actively persuade people to go elsewhere. Serious disappointment…

Tadka tadka tadka,
OK let me say this first. I’m indian so I would say I’m a pretty good judge of what is good food and whats not. Let’s take a measured approach to this place.
Scene: 12:00pm on Thurs. Lunch Special.
I walk to the restaurant and the front door is locked! There is not a soul in the place and the owner was just heading out. Heading out! At lunch?! Anyways, he says come on in and opens the lunch buffet.
Atmosphere:
The food looked very unappetizing sitting in the warmer trays, the plates were ice cold and the silverware was wrapped in a paper napkin. I thought «not a big deal, let’s see how it tastes». The rest of the restarant is painted a sad shade of grey and very littel light is coming in. The carpet is worn and out-​dated and the plants have dirt spilling over onto the window sill. Again «maybe its just ghetto and will actually taste good».
Food:
The naan was flat and crusty, with none of the signature charring and pillowy texture that naan should have.
The curries were luke warm and the chicken curry had bone in chicken that was very hard to eat, and along with that was FLAVORLESS. Basically it was chicken dumped in water mixed in spices (GROSS). Indian chicken should be tender and be in a creamy cause simmered with the right balance of spices.
Total Experience:
Come on guys. Give the customer a little more to rave about, at the very least provide respectable Indian food, warm plates, a clean restaurant, and a smile. The place makes me sad, and I would not return.

This is the reincarnation of Delights of India, which was vegetarian, but now not. A few years squad car drove into Delights when it hit another squad.
The Chicken Tika Massala has more vegetables than most varieties, including tomatoes and green peppers, and not as lusciously cream as most of the other Indian places in south Minneapolis.
The Murgh Shahi Korma (chicken in cream sauce with cashews, raisins, coconut and Tadka) was tasty, but I had to spit out 4 pieces of chicken because of bone/​cartilage/​foreign matter issues. One, no problem, or if I was in India (which I haven’t been to), no problem, but the bar is set very high in America. We Americans do not like things in our food that we can not swallow or have to crunch up to do so. We may be spoiled and petty, but this is the only Indian restaurant where I’ve ever had to eject more than one thing from my mouth.
But the owner was friendly and gave me a good deal.

This place is adorable! tiny, clean,. kinda like a living room, but a stylish living room.
Started with the samosas. These were oversized, and almost pastry-​like. They were buttery in texture, and the filling was very smooth, almost cream-​like.
I had the Shahi Korma. This is just right if you are craving a savory-​sweet flavoring. The sauce was creamy, but it didn’t seem like a stew. Just right for this weather (today’s weather being warm). I asked for mild/​medium spicy. This was about as spicy as peppercorn. It was perhaps too mild for even me, but now I know.
The naan was delicious, but I’ve never had bad naan. Kinda hard to goof.
Mango lassi was fresh!
My date had the punjabi bone-​in lamb. I can’t stand lamb anything, so I’ll give it a solid N/​A (he liked it, though)
They get an easy A for quick service, friendly, attentive, kept the water filled, etc. I didn’t pay, so the price was right.
I will put this on heavy Indian rotation.

Food is alright. Seemed a little bland and like everything we all got kind of looked and tasted roughly the same. But hey, that’s sort of Indian food for you. I thought mine was alright and I ate it all feeling satisfied. The Naan was pretty awesome — we ordered extra.
I did find something very small and hard in my food and could’ve chipped a tooth. It was green and looked sort of organic but girlfriend insisted it was a piece of small plastic that had broken off of something. I put aside and didn’t say anything; I’m not one to make a stink about the small stuff. If I found another or had hurt myself I would’ve said something, but as it was, there was nothing to get too fussed about.
ATMOSPHERE: It’s a hole in the wall. There’re some nice tapestries on the wall but mostly it felt like a dinky town trash bin. Unused buffet filling up an entire corner with cords hanging out, stacks of plates (dirty?) also in the corner just sitting there for no reason. One of the tables near the kitchen is reserved for the workers of the restaurant and it is filled with business papers, coats and just stuff. Essentially the whole place looked cluttered. But again, it wasn’t filthy or anything so whatever — it’s just a small, family run joint and they maybe don’t have the room to store all this stuff.
Ordered drinks. Glass of wine for me (it was fine). And sodas all around (four of us there for dinner). Sodas are from the can and poured into a glass with no ice. So that means no refills on soda unless you want to pay another two bucks. And I guess no big deal, but the water and Cokes in a glass without ice just felt odd. No big deal, but odd.
Server was clearly the «mom» of the family and she wasn’t particularly friendly. She wasn’t mean or anything, just kind of felt like she really didn’t want to be there.
Then the bill comes. It feels like it’s about twenty dollars too high. So I look through the whole thing and start to add it up and it’s added correctly. I look closer and realize the server has automatically added a 20% gratuity. What?! I get adding gratuity for large groups but we were a group of four and there was only like 2 other table there at any one time. Plus, TWENTY percent? Seems a little presumptuous. So we asked her to just charge our cards for the price of the stuff we ate and we would put in our own tip. She complied and we did.
I would say all in all it wasn’t terrible. It just wasn’t anything very good either. The tip thing threw us for a loop though and was kind of the nail in the coffin. Chances of us going back ever are pretty slim. There are MUCH better places with comparable prices that serve Indian food in the area.