Cafe Taj Mahal

This is our favorite Indian restaurant on O’ahu. BYOB, food is scratch made, might take. Couple minutes longer than an average restaurant. But the quality of food is worth the short amount of extra time. Check out their Aloo Ghobi!

Well, I didn’t even have to remind the manager about my 10% Unilocal discount because he remembered! Then I checked-​in again and got a free naan coupon that I used that very visit! Cha-​ching!
Service was excellent, we ordered the perfect amount this time (one less curry, one less naan) though we still had leftovers. The manager brought us extra sauce when we asked for it, and even brought out two others that he wanted us to try: mango chutney and spicy pickled mango.
Figured out the parking situation after finding the lot full and then parking at City Mill ($ 5). Across the street in front of supercuts and Lighting Elegance is $ 2 parking. I thought it was free, but there’s a pay box.
One thing I absolutely love about this place is the videos they play on the two mounted television sets in the dining area. Sometimes I hate TVs in restaurants because my husband will be staring at them instead of me throughout dinner. It’s just distracting and unnecessary. But the Bollywood music videos they play on these particular screens somehow create a sort of culturally immersive experience. I love seeing the actors, the clothing, the expressiveness, hearing the music… it’s very unique and captivating. It makes you feel like you’re not just going out to eat somewhere, but you’re actually getting cultured.
We had the chicken Dopiaza, which is a sizzling dish, very tasty and spicy. I loved the spice, but my husband couldn’t handle it. I liked the amount of veggies there were in it: tomatoes, onions and green peppers. The yogurt sauce and naan can cut the heat, but I like a good sweat! Seriously, I was sweating. We want to bring out kids here but we have to find out which dishes aren’t spicy. They could put a chili pepper icon by the spicy items on the menu – that might help. :)

We had the lunch specials, Palak paneer with naan bread, and Balti lamb with rice. We also had iced chai and mango lassi.
Everything was good, especially the lamb, which was very tender.
However, the lamb and paneer would have benefited greatly by a bit more salt.
We also should have paid the extra 50 cents for the buttered naan. Naan needs butter like popcorn needs butter.
Our server was an older gentleman who might have been the owner. He was friendly and attentive. I should have explained to him the reason we had so much left over was the mango lassi, which was good to the last drop, but oh so very filling, we were unable to finish the paneer and naan. We also had a lot of rice left over. Portions here are very generous.

Food: Amazing!!! Get the butter chicken, best thing ever!
Ambiance: Loved that we watched Bollywood music videos as we enjoyed our food.
Service: We came late and only 1 girl on staff besides kitchen, she was very attentive and nice.
Will be coming back again!

Yuuummmmyyyyy food and spiced to perfection. I loved everything we ordered and we ordered a lot. Great quality food. Although it doesn’t look all the fabulous outside the food makes it amazing. There is parking out front but if they are filled, which is likely because there a lot of little restaurants in that tiny little corner, you can park where I parked which was over by City Mill by the feral cats… shhh !! Don’t tell anyone

This is the best Indian food I’ve found on this island! I really like their naan, saag and butter chicken.

Take it from an Indian, not worth the time. Had lunch here, the food was very bland, paneer was burnt and naan was undercooked. Really disappointing

«F*ck that’s delicious!» quote from Action Bronson but yes it was very delicious says my Punjabi hubby. We had the «For 2» and the samosas were amazing, nice and hot, flavorful… the chicken masala flavorful, right amount of heat, the very spicy vindaloo was just that and awesome! The garlic Nan and rice was delicious… definitely going back. NO Wait which is a huge plus our food didn’t take forever. Yum!

We came here one night because Café Maharani was closed… and it was good. It definitely allowed us to take care of our indian craving. The food was good. The Coffee was great.
Samosa are 5 star for sure!
The service was a little slow and not completely on point; it was friendly.
The atmosphere is nice and clean.
The food was flavorful and filling, but just not my favorite, though still satisfying.
Its good, but Café Maharani still gets my vote for Indian food of choice.
They were running a Unilocal incentive there with a check in, we checked in and told them we did so, yet did not receive the incentive, which was disappointing, but not horrible considering we didn’t go there knowing there was going to be one offered anyways. It was just another sign that the staff wasn’t completely on point.

We decided to try some Indian food for lunch and came to café Taj Mahal. Parking is hard to find. Only a few stalls. We were greeted and seated right away. We tried several dishes like samosa, garlic naan, lamb curry. The food was good just not my cup of tea. The banana lassie was really good and the chai tea was ok but not really my cup of tea either lol. We got 10% off our bill with check in. If you like this kind of food, you will like it here. It just wasn’t my cup of tea!

The food, service, and ambiance here are perfect for a casual weeknight dinner with friends. Plus you can reserve a table and byo. I used the online system to reserve a table for 5. Accidentally we showed up 10 minutes late with 6 people. They welcomed us warmly and rearranged the tables to accommodate our group. Our waiter was super patient and helpful with our food order. Then we just sat back and drank our wine while the kitchen prepared our food. It takes awhile because a lot of the dishes are made to order so it’s a good idea to either byo or call-​in ahead with your food order. The portions are generous so unless you like a lot of leftovers, you might want to check with your waiter about how much food you’ll need. We chose the combination dinner for 4 and added a salad and had enough to share plus leftovers for 1 – 2 meals. Our cost came to $ 21 per person.

I feel this is hands-​down the best Indian restaurant on the island. The flavors are on-​point, serving size is generous, menu diverse, service is excellent and since it’s not as popular as some of the other spots on island it’s not as crowded and doesn’t pose a long wait.
All of the curries and sides are prepared very authentic, robust with flavor and fresh. I am not one who loves spicy food and sometimes when spicy food is lacking in spice it can also lack in flavor, that is not the case here. Loved the samosas, spinach and cheese, masala, I could go on and on.
The only thing that could be improved is during lunch the dining can get a little warm.

My favorite Indian restaurant on the island, love the sweet service and the smiles from the chef! Sometimes the wait can be long but it’s because they take their time to prepare quality food. The potato naan is awesome, and the shrimp dopiaza. Try the Indian salad too, it’s simple but addicting.

This place is amazing! I wasn’t a big fan of Indian food until I tried the food here.
The guys that work here are very friendly. Since I’m not an Indian food expert, I had a lot of questions about the menu. They were very kind to make suggestions and explain everything for me.
I love the cheese naan and all the curries are delicious!
Note: Their lunch menu and dinner menu is different. The portion and price is different for lunch and dinner. Some dishes are only available during dinner.
The downside:
1) if you come during a busy time, it will be hard to find parking since there isn’t much parking stalls.
2) the food could take a while to come out so if you are in a rush, I would recommend to call in your order before hand.

Only visited here once, for lunch, on a Thursday. Not sure if the fact that no one else came was a good thing or bad thing. It was at least good for us. Just for reference, it was recommended by Indian coworkers (from India) and I’ve also been to India myself and ate a lot of Indian Indian food there.
It was just the two of us. We had a meal for 2. Saag paneer, chicken korma, lamb curry masala, plain naan, rice.
The food is very good. Not Indian banquet good but good restaurant good. The dishes were well cooked and the spices were in there long enough to actually be presence. We didn’t ask for it spicy (as in spicy hot) so the flavors came through very well. The lamb was tender. The chicken was a bit overdone but for a stewy type dish, I can look pass it. Saag paneer potion was generous with lots of paneer.
The rice was nice and clean with pronounced but not overwhelming cardamom flavor. We didn’t want garlic or butter on the naan. The plain one works well with the dishes.
I guess this is not a good visit to measure their service since no one else was there. The man (owner?) was nice and courteous. I have no complaint. The parking kinda suck but we went early enough to not have to worry about it.
Overall, it was definitely a good addition to the Indian restaurant list. But I’ll probably stick with lunch.

As Victoria S. stated, this restaurant is not vegan friendly. I saw that all rice had ghee in it so I ordered white rice. It turns out they put ghee in it. After one bite I could tell there was ghee and it tasted like I had just eaten a spoonful of Vaseline. I had that disguising taste in my mouth until the next morning! They categorize their restaurant as vegan, but if you cannot get rice without ghee then I question how vegan friendly they are. I hope there other dishes were not cooked with ghee.

Deserves zero stars. I’m from Cali and so unimpressed with Hawaiis restaurants. Poor parking and service here!!! I called and had my name on the wait list, We walked in Saturday 830pm and were asked to stand outside because all seating was full. Waited ten minutes and two tables were cleared yet we weren’t called in. I’m amazed by how these kinds of restaurants operate but I guess it’s an island and ppl can care less.

I developed a taste for Indian food when I lived in Japan. (Indian restaurants in Japan are terrific). I have been trying for years to find something close here. Café Maharani, Himalyan Kitchen and the like all have their merits, but usually not very good service.
Café Taj Mahal has good food and good service so I will be back. I had a naan, which seemed to be have been cooked properly in a proper Tandoor oven. It had the right balance of a little char and good chewiness. For curry, I had aloo gobi, a great mix of cauliflower, potato and spices. The aloo gobi was the best I have had in Hawaii.

Darcie and I really enjoy eating here over Himalayan, Maharani or India House. Parking is a pain sometimes, but it’s well worth it.
As with most Indian restaurants, food is made to order, but here it doesn’t seem to take too long for your food to come out. Also, they haven’t ever seemed so busy they you had to wait an absurd amount of time to get seated.
The staff members are really nice and they make you feel comfortable.
We almost always order the same things. I’ve never had the samosa. I don’t usually eat that. We like the Kashmiri naan and the coconut rice. I always have to have lamb vindaloo spicy. Then we might order a Korma or Tikka with what we’re feeling like; chicken or shrimp. Not so interested in the tandoori. I like the mango chutney and I wash it all down with a mango lassi.

This place is still my favorite Indian restaurant on island, although it does not have tough competition so that’s not saying much. I went here for dinner recently and got beef dahl. The food tastes a-​ok. The portion size was very generous and the waitstaff were very friendly. It seems that they recently redecorated and redid the menus. The main downside of the restaurant is the parking, I usually park across the street in the paid lot by City Mill for $ 5.

The roti roti was goody goody. Waiter waiter was cutie cutie.

We came here again recently, and the food continued to be excellent. I especially liked the lamb curry masala. The only reason I knocked off a star was that when we got the credit card draft, it had as a line item «Pre-​Tip Amt,» and then a line under it that read «Tip» with a line to write in your tip. It seemed a bit misleading, since a 20% gratuity was already included in «Pre-​Tip Amt,» because we were a party of six. Fortunately, my eagle-​eye wife looked over the bill carefully, and saw that a 20% tip was already included. You can bring in your own wine (which we did) and they charge $ 1 per wine glass as their corkage fee. Great place, but just pay attention to your final bill, unless, of course, money is no object!

The staff is very courteous. Parking really sucks here.
I been eating Indian food for a long time, and been traveling all over the states (and world) and trying out different Indian restaurant. This restaurant is the second worse I been to in term of taste. I know taste is subjective but this place food is full of greasy substance, the Tikka Masala is very… different for lack of better term, it just doesn’t taste good, the food will sit in your stomach all day, giving you a groggy feeling. On the good note, they are very generous with their portion however good portion can only carry you so far.

This is the placeto go if you want to eat the best curry in Honolulu. Their huge samosas are quite delicious and filling. The food here is a bit pricey. However, my wife and I don’t mind paying when the food is of high quality. The server is kind, unobtrusive and checks in every now and then. The restaurant is clean and has a nice ambience. Now, stop reading this review and go there to enjoy the best curry in town. I know, we did.

So a little over a year later, and I’m back at one of my favorite Indian restaurants — Café Taj Mahal.
I was so hungry today… because as I was working on Maui yesterday, I did not have anytime to eat any lunch… my whole day of food consisted of a banana (that I ate when I got up in the morning), 4 cups of coffee, and 4 packets of Hawaiian Airlines airplane snacks in the lounge (when I was waiting for my flight to Maui). That’s all I had the entire day!
When dinner came around, and I had to meet up with my friend Jules Y. at Café Taj Mahal… And I had to remind myself to show some restraint, because when I’m real hungry, I can be a beast at the table and eat like an animal! (My close friends know what I’m talkin’ about!).
It’s not good to go into a restaurant super hungry, as your eyes always gets bigger than your stomach!
For last night’s dinner, we ordered a combination dinner for two ($ 42.50), where you get the following items —
1.Two pieces vegetable samosa appetizer.
2. A choice of two house curries.
For our 2 choices of House Curries, we picked the following —
A. Karahi (Sizzling) — chopped and grilled bell pepper, onion, and tomato served on a sizzling platter, and we took it with Lamb.
B. Dopiaza — garlic, onion, ginger and tomato based curry with cilantro and green onion, and we took it with the Shrimp.
We also got a basket of Garlic Naan, and some Rice Polau.
What can I say about the grub-​a-​dub-​dub?
The Vegetable Samosa is killer! A crispy pastry on the outside, and inside is filled with a vegetable mash (see pic). They do make the Samosa with various meats, but may I suggest you try the veggie, because it’s real good!
As for the curries…
The Karahi (Sizzling Plate) was outstanding! I love the curry that is mixed with the grilled red bell peppers, onions, & tomatoes. We picked the Lamb ($ 4.00 extra) for our meat for this dish, and I must say, the lamb was done perfectly!
The lamb was soft & flavorful… normally I am not a big fan of lamb, but this dish… I would definitely eat it again!
The Dopiaza curry… another great curry… a little heavier like a stew, and we took shrimp for our meat ($ 4.00 extra). The shrimp was plump, and pretty BIG! It’s the perfect item to put over rice, or to fold into your naan.
The Rice Polau… all I can say is, rice is rice! A good item to have with curries.
And then we come down to my favorite Indian food… the famous Naan!
Naan Naan Naaaaaaan Naan, Naan Naan Naaaaaaaaan Naan, hey hey hey!!! Good eats! Lol!
Well, Café Taj Mahal makes several types of Naan, but I ended up picking the Garlic Naan. Okay folks… if you pick the Garlic Naan, may I suggest to at least have gum, or some kind of breath mint after, because the garlic is pretty strong! In fact, I was still tasting the Garlic Naan several hours after I had eaten… but I gotta tell you… it was soooooooooooo gooooooooood! Noms! Just a tip gang… don’t breath on your date… you don’t want to knock anyone out with that «Garlic death breath!» Lol!
Service was excellent! Our waitress was very helpful in making suggestions on the menu, and she was very attentive to our needs (waters will filled regularly, and extra napkins were delivered right away when asked).
Parking here is very limited, but not to worry… if you cannot find parking in the little private parking lot, there is pay parking across the street by the City Mill parking lot for $ 5.00, Just pay at the kiosk, and put your ticket on your dashboard.

This a humble restaurant with vibrant colors and personalities of the staff. Great humble quiet service, very different from the explosive flavors and spices of the food. They do a great job in making you feel you’re in India. There’s Bollywood music and videos as you eat.
Food portions is huge and just right. Try the garlic Naan and the Chicken Korma. The best India food I’ve had in such a while.
We’ll come again.

After spending our morning attending to appointments in the Honolulu-​St. Louis Heights area, we decided to have lunch at our favorite Indian restaurant, Café Taj Mahal. We were fortunate to find a parking space in the normally busy and narrow lot. The parking lot gets really crowded because it services several restaurants such as Café Taj Mahal, Sabrina Italian, SushiMan, The Fat Greek and newly opened Frankly Fresh.
When we entered, we were immediately greeted and recognized by the owner. We also noticed that they had updated or at least done a mini-​makeover in the dining area. There still were 2 flat screen monitors playing exotic Bollywood-​esque music videos with modern and lively background music. The décor is a bit more chic while still nicely air conditioned and clean.
The lunch menu is limited. You can select up to three entrées (thali) which include freshly made naan (garlic or buttered is available at an additional cost) or rice that ranged in price from $ 10 to $ 22. There were chicken, lamb and vegetarian entrées on the menu as well as some desserts.
We began our meal with an order of Pakora which were 6 rice flour fritters of diced onions and cilantro. They were served with mint-​coriander and tamarind chutney. These crispy fritters came out hot from the frying pan and were mildly spicy. As appetizers, the pakoras did their «job» of encouraging our appetites and tastebuds!
I ordered the chicken Korma with one naan while my husband ordered his favorite chicken Saag with one naan. Both chicken dishes featured tender boneless chicken. The Korma is a yogurt based curry and Saag is a creamy spiced curry. Our entrées were flavorful, satisfying and comforting and only cost us $ 10 per person.
Service was friendly, attentive and well-​paced for lunchtime. There were other patrons dining who didn’t seem to be in any rush to return to work or go about their day. Everyone seemed to bask in the exotic décor and music.

This place still rocks! Lunch specials are the best. and you get a good variety of different items. Try the chicken jalfrezzi. Good flavor and spices

Cozy restaurant with Bollywood music and videos on in the back, nice Taj Mahal painting on the wall and a few cool photos. Our server was friendly and attentive and checked up on us a couple times.
Got the combination dinner for 3 people, Assorted Veggie Appetizer with samosas, baked herb Cracker & something similar to falafel. Lamb vindaloo, Butter chicken, Lamb masala curry, Garlic Nan & Chesse Nan, Rice Pudding with raisins. Quite a lot of food!
Our food took about 20 – 25 minutes to come out, it felt a bit long of a wait considering that there were only a few people Dining.
The food itself was okay. Everything was all the same note not much variation of flavors and not much spice. With 3 different entrees the flavor profiles were pretty much the same in each one which was a little disappointing. Butter chicken was my favorite out of all 3 curries. I liked the Nan Bread & the Warm Rice pudding better than the actual meal.
Price of everything together including Tip: $ 91.00.

Very small restaurant found on Waialae. Parking is very tight so if you are lucky you will find a good parking and I recommend carpooling. We came here for my brother’s birthday since he wanted to try Indian Curry. We called in to put a reservation and were seated shortly after we arrived. Everything on the menu is pretty much served family style although I think each dish serves about 2 people (this is my opinion as I saw everyone take home leftovers). It took about 30 – 45 minutes to get what we ordered. We decided to get the following:
–Assorted Platter (2 pieces of samosas, chicken and onion pakora): we got the lamb samosa although you can choose between chicken and beef as well. The chicken and onion pakora remind me of the bloomin onion breading taste at Outback. Samosas were fresh. Pakora items were juicy and goes great with the chutney and yogurt.
–Chicken Curry Masala: mild spice, chicken is tender and soft. Goes well with Naan bread or rice.
–Chicken Korma Curry: mild and on the sweeter tasting side. This was okay to me but my siblings enjoyed it with rice.
–Mama’s Spicy Shrimp Curry: if you like spicy, this is spicy. My brother’s were sweating in minutes after eating this.
–Naan bread with butter and Garlic: pretty simple yet delicious. Good to dip win the curry.
–Lamb Stuffed Naan Bread: AMAZING. This was my favorite next to the chicken marsala curry. Reminded me of a quesadilla. I think there was garlic on top the bread but I am not too sure.
–Assorted kebab platter. Mixture of beef and lamb. Platter had salad and regular naan bread. I liked the minced lamb from this platter.
–Rice Polau: rice pilaf type. Goes well with the curries.
–Lassie drinks: my younger bro got the mango and my older bro got the lemon lime. Tasted both and it wasnt my thing but they enjoyed it.
We did leave full. And for all of our dishes plus gratuity it came out to $ 140. The food was great. Wish it was bigger in size but I guess it depends on your party and appetite. We were the only ones who didnt have a take home container. We were also the first party to order seconds according to one of the employees there. Definitely would come here again.

Great meal, we were not disappointed! Service was perfect. All the staff attended to all the tables, so every need was anticipated and taken care of promptly. Décor is cute and clean. We were one of four or five couples waiting for them to open for dinner, a good sign. Our Chicken tikki masala was delicious, our potato spinach dish was a bit bland but still very good. It was worth the 2mile walk to get here and now we have a 2 mile walk back to burn the calories.
We will be back!

After watching «The 100 Foot Journey» — which btw is a great movie especially if you love food — I had a craving for Indian food and Café Taj Mahal absolutely hit the spot!
Taking cues from our wonderful Unilocal community, I made reservations in advance (tho if your party is less than 4, no need) and got there early for best parking in the tiny lot that also serves Sabrina’s and The Fat Greek.
Here you’ll find familiar favorites from samosas to curries, laden with the deep aromatic spices — tumeric, cumin, garam masala — and rich vibrant colors (golden yellows and bold reds) so distinctly Indian.
Of all the dishes, the stand out was the samosas — these golden triangle puffs were both densely rich in filling yet crunchy light in texture. Served with a sauce or alone, one samosa alone can easily fill you up.
The chicken tikka masala was well executed — spicy yet with a mild heat for the timid palate like mines. If it’s too hot you can’t enjoy the flavors… But that’s just me. I think Fran C. can take it flaming hot!
The restaurant was very warm inside so luckily I was there early enough to snag us seats near the hard working A/​C. Service was very hospitable, and we left feeling happily satiated. I will be back!