TAJ Caterers & Cafe

Wow, Started coming here about 5 years ago, hoping to find some qaulity Indian Food. I struck GOLD!!! The staff, although sometimes hard to communicate with when placing the order, are very nice and offer great customer service. The food is seriously delicious. Butter chicken, samosas, lamb vindalo and chicken biryani are all tasty. They have an onion and pepper naan (onion kulcha) that is great for scraping up all the delicious sauces. Mint chutney and samosa sauce are on point. They are a Catering company, but have a store front that also offers dinner sized portions at very reasonable prices. Will continue to support them for years to come.

Good food and great service. A hidden treasure.

Hidden off of Randolph road, down from Harris Teeter is this quiet storefront. They seem to spend the bulk of their time preparing food for catering events.
They should probably stick to that.
The food is exactly what you would expect from a company that caters. Large portions prepared with little attention to detail.
The food itself isn’t bad per se’. It just isn’t that good either. The portions are small and pricey for what you walk out with. I’ve eaten here a few times and have traditionally stuck to the butter chicken and lamb vindaloo along with some naan.
The service is lackluster and a smile or greeting is hard to come by. Plenty of much better places to get Indian such as Mem Sabib around the corner.
I’ll spend my money over there instead. You can keep this place.

I didn’t like the food at all. Chicken tikka was not cooked well. Kadhai chicken had some spices which did not blend well with each other. I will not buy from them again.

The food is spicy and excellent. If you like Indian Food, this is excellent. My wife and daughter swear the food is authentic– I just think it is excellent.
For carryout, of course. They do have a few tables, but this is a carry-​out joint.

I love Indian food so as soon as I saw the sign to this store, I decided to give it a try. The first thing that you will realize when you walk into their store is that it is meant to be a catering and take out facility. So dont plan on coming over with a party of 8 for a 3 hour meal.
The food itself was good but not great. My favorite Idian dish is the tikka masala tasted juat fine but it certainly was not fine dinning. Prices were reasonable.

So I’ve been craving Indian food for a couple of weeks now and my fiancé doesn’t really like it. I’ve been looking for an opportunity to get my Indian food fix, and since he’s still at work and it’s a cold, rainy Tuesday I finally decided to give in and look for some Indian food around Rockville (North Bethesda area.)
I found this place on Unilocal and decided to give it a shot. I found the menu online and ordered the Chicken Korma (which came with a container of rice) and I also ordered some Onion Kulcha (really soft, warm bread reminiscent of pita with some onions baked into it.) Everything was delicious! I’m no Indian food expert yet since I’ve only had it one other time so far at Tiffin in College Park (also super delicious,) but from what my tastebuds tell me this is some good food!
The restaurant can be a little hard to find, but it is in the little plaza across from the Charles Automotive plaza (I actually pulled into there first accidentally.) There was only one front of the house employee (cashier), but he was very nice and welcoming. This definitely seems to be more of a take-​out/​catering place since there are only 2 small tables that seat around 2 people each, but I would definitely try it again as a take-​out destination! It hit the spot! =)

Terrible. Rude service, inauthentic, and when I ordered a spinach and paneer salad, they gave me a soggy and brown iceberg salad with no paneer and some disgusting tasteless mayo dressing and charge $ 7 for it. Do not go here.

Excellent home style Indian with friendly service!

Over the wrong side of the tracks, located in semi industrial park that really looks like a complex of storage units turned into individual businesses there lies a crown of indian food.
It’s definitely not what one would expect here. The principal role of the business is catering, not so much as a restaurant since there are only three small tables and a bench as you wait for your carry out and therein lies it’s strength for the curry junkie. The smells of curries are overwhelming in the best way possible when you enter the doors and are awash in a sea of ball walls. So, this review is not based on the business as a caterer, but as my favorite new curry take out.
Here’s the run down:
Vegetable Samosas (2): $ 2.00
Spinach and Paneer Salad: $ 5.95
Chicken Tikka Masala: $ 8.95
Lamb Vindaloo: $ 9.95
Two small containers of rice per main course
Two sets of condiments: Cilantro, Tamarind and Raita
For two people this a good amount and a good cross selection of the offerings here. And really my way to testing any Indian kitchen is there ability to make samosas, the properly moist and tender tandoori chicken and a properly spicy Vindaloo.
The potato and peas samosas were delightful, the right amount of pepper and fennel seeds was just a great way to start off my meal. The salad was lacking it’s namesake: Spinach, but was replaced with standard mixed greens. No, big deal. The shredded paneer on the greens made for a nice light salad. It’s great use of a light cheese and having it in a salad makes it seem ‘meaty’ It’s texture is softer with it being shredded, but using the Cilantro and Raita as a dressing for the salad gave it a wonderful lift.
Chicken from the tandoor oven was moist and tender and with the tikka masala sauce. The amount of coriander and tomato to yogurt was spot on. It was creamy and still engaged my spice levels nicely. The only issue with this dish was that there could have been more chicken.
Lamb Vindaloo. Now, here’s my issue with most Vindaloo in our area. It’s not on the menu and when it is, it is so watered down that the very idea of it being spicy is no longer a mindset. Now, i’m not talking mind searing heat like Phaal, but it should have that proper amount of heat, a little sweet and sour where you can taste the cardamon and still have that heat that makes you blow your nose at least once.
I ‘ve had some restaurants make it off menu for me and i’ve had some that couldn’t even make it onto the scoville scale even with a ladder. But here, I found that magical mix of heat and spiciness where the chilies are married properly with the lamb and potatoes.
The rice was light, flaky and moist. I know I should have gotten naan, but in my excitement, I forgot.
You know how a lot of reviews will call a place a hidden gem or the best ‘hole in the wall’ joint that they ever did come across. This actually is one. Without it’s canopy sign, it is almost indistinguishable from the other storefronts.
But, when need a good lunch and have a few moments this is a great spot. The prices as you can see is incredibly reasonable and portioned well for one person. All the food is made from scratch. I’m not sure who they’re scratching, but I know it was fresh. So, I would say call ahead, put your order in and pick up for lunch or your way home from work and enjoy one of the best meals.

I saw a sign for indian food while driving and I figured some little hole in the wall should provide some good eats. I spent about 11.50 of Lamb Rogan Josh and the portions were tiny. I mean really, I could clutch the content in one hand including the rice and there was barely any lamb in the container. I’ll also mention that my hands aren’t that big.

Love this place, never would have found it by myself, was referred by a friend. they have 2 small tables but we always get it carry-​out.