Taj Mahal

I ordered the butter chicken entrée and two sides of rice with plain naan. If you’re uncomfortable with spicy, stick with 1 or 2. I ordered 2 and I would probably order 3 next time because I love spicy food. The food came in plastic and styrofoam containers inside a stapled shut plastic bag, which preserved the heat well. Definitely best delivery service I’ve had so far in my time living in Chicago.

This place used to be good and now when I go the bread is drenched in oil and kinda rubbery tasting and they always seem to forget something I order. I loove this food sooo much! It’s like comfort food for me, but one things I’ve always disliked about this place is the service and that in the end can really ruin a place. Prices are defintely reasonable and I like how it’s never busy when I go in.

The smell as soon as you get inside the restaurant was horrible. Hence, we just came out and did not eat there.

The food was really bad. Although the korma sauce was nice, I’m pretty sure it was made with canned veggies (I’m vegetarian). The mutter was all around bad, it tasted like canned tomato soup with canned peas. I feel bad leaving a bad review… The delivery guy was very nice, but delivery took over an hour on a Monday night…

I probably won’t order takeout after hearing about everyone’s bad experiences, but dining in was pleasant and the food hit the spot. The place definitely has a «hole in the wall» feel but many Indians were eating there so they must be doing something right, and our server was really nice. We had samosas, garlic nan, 2 meat dishes, a mango lassi and a chai tea. Everything was delicious (the mango lassi and the nan excellent). They topped up our rice for free and we left with a box full of leftovers. I do like higher end indian places like Cumin, but for the value I think this place is well worth it.

BAD CHOICE STAY AWAY
Bad service and bad Indian food. No flavor. On top of that they sent me the food to my hotel with no spoons or forks. I know I love Indian food but not to the extent that I will use my hands!
Chana Masala was so watery and with no flavor and chickpeas were hard like stones
Shrimp Masala tasted wired and shrimps were not fresh
In General food from this place had a wired energy. Was a waste of $ 35
Terrible!

I’m new to Chicago and LOVE Indian food, especially good Indian delivery. Taj Mahal had such polarizing reviews… but it is really close to where I work, so I thought I would figure out for myself if it deserves a 1 or a 5.
Pros:
–It’s relatively inexpensive. the veg entrees are $ 8 – 9, and the meat options are $ 10-​$ 12.
–The delivery was prompt and the service was friendly
Cons:
— The food was really so-​so. I’m giving it two stars because quality-​wise, this place is lacking. The paneer masala tasted mostly like a mildly spicy tomato soup. We ordered the butter chicken because other reviewers raved about it, but again, the flavor lacked depth. Also, there wasn’t very much chicken in the dish (I guess you get what you pay for…). The best part was the Aloo Gobi, which was ok, but not good enough to redeem the rest of the meal.
Overall, I will try other Indian delivery options before I re-​visit Taj Mahal. I really wanted to side with all of the other 5-​star reviews, but the food here just isn’t that great.

Was in the area again, so i ordered what i had last time. There must have been a different cook because it wasn’t good at all. The freshness was totally absent which surprised me because I came at the same time of day as my previous visit. I was thoroughly disappointed. Its very likely that I will not return.

Before I used to go eat there because I lived at a walking distance, then moved about ten blocks south, I had no problem getting their food delivered up until recently. This is really really strange since I’ve been ordering from them for over a year.
Here’s how it went, I ordered and the service was denied arguing they didn’t deliver as far as where I live, got upset and hung the phone, then called back and ordered for pick up (assorted breaded veggies, paneer butter masala, two chicken bryani and naan), he said it’d be ready in 45 mins. When I showed up to pick up my food the guy said; «We don’t have your order, the phone didn’t ring at all for the past hour». The one group of people dining in just stared at me with a look of surprise in their eyes, I got very upset and obviously left arguing I’ll never be back.
And now I recommend you to call ahead and find out if the person on the phone is in a good mood to do his job, or to not go at all to this retsaurant.

i love indian food! i usually go to Ghareeb Nawaz Express for my quick fix since its not too far for me. but one day i was driving around taylor street looking for a new random place to eat. i stumbled across Taj Mahal. stopped. looked at a few pics on Unilocal.then decide to give it a go.
i ordered garlic naan, lamb biryani, and chicken pakoras… i wanted chicken biryani but they said they ran out for the day and told me that they can still make it but it was not taste the same or as good. he told me to try lamb biryani instead so whatever. im down to try something new. no biggie. also they said they dont have anymore chicken 65… dam they dont have 2 out of 3 dishes i want. haha. so i settled with chicken pakoras since the pictures look pretty good on Unilocal.
garlic naan — was kind of burnt and rubbery…
chicken pakoras — very bland! no onions or anything on it. seems like they just cut up pieces of chicken and dip it in flour and fry it without any seasoning or salt.
lamb biryani — also very bland. and they didnt use the long rice. they used normal rice like chinese restaurants. i looked at the Unilocal pics again to see did others get normal rice and they didnt. maybe cause im chinese and they think i only eat regular rice? lmaooo just kidding! i dont know… the rice was very moist so it made it mushy and also there wasnt enough pieces of lamb in there.
it also took a long time for my food to ready… i will not be coming back here again.

Food is great, but place is very small and not cozy.

Looks like there was a chef change or management change recently. We ordered take out and it was clearly the worst food ever. Existing purely due to previous establishments’ legacy and location.

This place just reinforces the idea that food being delivered sucks!
My friend and I ordered a few days ago through Eat24. We ordered chicken tikka masala, chicken 65, and a side of garlic naan. Shortly after, I was informed they were out of chicken 65. Fine, maybe they had already shut down the deep fryer and said «eff it» or maybe they were truly out of the chicken. Who knows? I asked for the chicken biryani instead and since it’s the same price, it shouldn’t affect the total.
When the food arrived, my friend went downstairs to pay. He told me the total only came out to $ 19 instead of $ 30 so I instantly knew something was wrong. All we received was the tikka masala and naan. Not even any paper plates, napkins, or utensils as requested. You guys are freakin awesome :/​
By the time I got a hold of someone to try and correct the problem, the place had already closed. Sure, it’s fine that they didn’t charge for the chicken biryani, but why the hell would I pay a $ 5 delivery charge for ONE freakin dish?! That is beyond ridiculous! Didn’t any of you catch that one dish plus naan only equaled $ 12 which was under your requirement of a $ 20 minimum?
The food wasn’t great enough for me to even consider dining in. The naan was rubbery and the chicken tikka masala was too tomatoey without enough of any other spices.
Just avoid this place to prevent yourself a headache.

Can i pls give it zero stars?
Bcos i ordered naan (i would rather swallow a rubber sheet),
butter chicken (you may want to dip your naan in tomato purée instead) and
chicken biryani (read as hard uncooked chicken in light brown tasteless rice).

Let me start off by saying that this place has an unnecessarily bad wrap on Unilocal.I had been wanting to come here for a long time and today we finally came in… so glad we did!!!
We started with an order of samosas (2 per order) they were amazing, perfectly crisp and flavorful. Served with two of the best and most complimentary sauces I’ve ever tried.
For the main course. Get the GARLIC NAAN omg wow this was the best!!! We ordered the chicken tikka masala and the lamb khorma… The lamb was my favorite, it was tender and flavorful, we ordered it medium spicy and it was perfect.
In addition to the calm and pleasant atmosphere the service was perfect, very attentive and fast service.
Also, this place is BYOB– beer and wine

Great restaurant, great service and great food. Definitely a gem that I will continuously frequent.

I’ve had better Indian food at other restaurants but honestly, for the prices, you can’t beat the deal. Portion sizes are fair and only about $ 10 per entrée. I’m used to paying almost twice as much for the same amount of food.
We ordered the samosas, butter chicken, chicken saag, garlic naan, and a mango lassi. Though not the best, the butter chicken and chicken saag still hit the spot. The mango lassi was a little watered down for my liking, but still tasty and the garlic naan was crispy and very garlicky. The real star for me though were the samosas. The order came with two huge and piping hot samosas, crunchy and full of vegetables and potatoey goodness.
Everything came out to be less than $ 40 and we still had plenty of leftovers (we underestimated the samosas and didn’t have as much stomach room left as we thought we would). Even though there wasn’t much left, I asked our server to pack up our rice as well (can’t eat leftover Indian food without basmati rice!) and he was nice enough A to fill up our container with more rice from the back.
The restaurant is very small and casual so if you’re looking for more upscale, you might want to try someplace else. I’m from out of state but the location is close to UIC so it’d be ideal for college students looking for more affordable and authentic Indian food.

Indian food is by far my favorite food so my reviews can be pretty harsh. If you’re in the mood for Indian food but find yourself surrounded by Italian food, this just might be the place. I ordered Chicken Tikka Masala. It was good… if not a little bland. When you’ve experienced incredible Indian Food like Kansas City’s award-​winning Korma Sutra that sets an incredibly high bar, all other Indian food tends to be just good. Now, the naan at Taj Mahal was definitively bland. No clue what happened there.
Waiter was okay. I fear I will be labeled that which I am not but I’ll just say it. Couldn’t really understand him. Ugh, us un-​cultured Americans. Still, his service could have been better, it could have been worse. Maybe that is Taj Mahal’s theme: «Average.»
Would I come here again? Eh, maybe.

Just moved to the neighborhood and I’m looking for my local Indian joint. Taj Mahal won’t be it. I don’t know if I ordered on an off night or what, but I can definitely make better curry at home. And my curry sucks.
So for starters, I ordered chana masala, dal makhani, samosas, rice, and aloo paratha. My order arrived on time. Woo! I started unpacking all the food and noticed the aloo paratha was missing. Huge bummer. Since I’m not in the market to pay for food I didn’t receive, I called the restaurant. Honestly, I just wanted them to take it off my bill, since, if they had gone all the way back to their restaurant, it was going to take them probably 15 – 30 minutes to drive back with it in Saturday night traffic. The guy at the restaurant said he’d contact his driver and call me right back. I started eating.
The food was smoky, soft, and watery. I was not impressed by any means with any of the flavor. The filling in the samosas was chunky and not soft. Very little spice or flavor to any of the food. Everything was very overcooked. I was starting to wish I had the aloo paratha so I had some bread to soak it all up with.
Anyway. I ate a little bit and noticed the time. 30 minutes later and I hadn’t gotten a call back from the restaurant. Whatever. I’m not gonna mess around with the restaurant. I just called GrubHub and let them deal with the rest. They refunded me $ 5 from my meal and gave me a $ 5 coupon for future use. Then my aloo paratha showed up 90 minutes after my food initially came.
Definitely won’t be ordering from here again. Not an impressive first showing!

I had just moved into the hood and needed a new go-​to Indian place. Taj Mahal will NOT be it.
Chose to get delivery, which was insanely slow. Order the chicken tikka masala, garlic naan, and daal tadka. Naan was okay– I’ve had much better. The chicken tikka masala was the worst I’ve ever had, as I expected before even opening the container. The color was off and I thought maybe they had given me yellow lentils by mistake. Nope, there was chicken in it and it kind of tasted like tikka masala, but the flavor was really off, like they had spilled something else into my container when they were serving it up.
Overall, bad experience and will not be trying this place again. I would recommend Mughal Indian or Jaipur instead. Much better food for about the same price.