Joti Palace

Awesome food! Good service. Several items were yummy e.g. malai kofta, kabab, masala tea etc

I ordered a tandoori mixed grill which is a mixture of meats-​chicken, lamb, beef. I truly regret ordering from here. Nothing in my plate was really cooked. They gave me all drumsticks in my mixed grill and it was so raw that I couldn’t even eat it if I wanted to. The beef was extremely tough and chewy, and was such a small piece I could barely tell what it was. Overall everything in my plate just wasn’t cooked. The rice was ok. I’m glad they didn’t mess that up. Will not be ordering from here again.

Very mediocre food cooked with little effort. They are in busiest was only because there is no better restaurant within couple of miles of their radius. The owners are good people, they have good seating, buffet is average, e la carte is average to above average.

I only ordered some of the pakoras and snacks but everything was awesome!!! The dipping sauces and onion chutney are amazing. The delivery was an hour on the dot so plan accordingly. It was sooooooo goooood. Next I will try the main entrees.

We ordered chicken 65 and gobi 65. They looked very similar, couldn’t figure out the difference in taste and look from each other. They were completely bland and undercooked. We will never be ordering from this place again. I wish I could rate this place zero but that isn’t possible to post the review.

I ordered a delivery for 2 veg. thali and it was only one in the delivery and you guys charged full for the order. The food was also not that good. You guys should improve your service and make sure that you place full order for the customers before checkout.

I’ve ordered delivery from this place a handful of times. The guy who answers the phone is friendly & helpful.
*** It normally takes a good hour for the food to get to you, but the good food is worth the wait… so order it before you’re hungry… don’t order if you’re starving then get irritated by the wait.
I really wanted a vegetarian dish that wasn’t on the lunch menu, & the guy was kind enough to make it for me.
Another time I wasn’t in the mood for the rice, he threw in a couple Papadum wafers in for me, which was such a nice surprise!
I always order my dishes «Medium» heat… & they never fail to dissapoint… they make the food with a good amount of heat, but not so much that it blows out your palate… & the depth of flavors in the sauces are so amazing.
The Chicken Tikka Masala was good… they give you nice chunks of chicken, the Tikka sauce is so delicious. (like I said above) good heat, great flavors.
The Malai Kofta was incredible… the sauce is extraordinary, I could eat that by the gallon. They top it off with fresh parsley & sliced almonds. Great heat. complex flavors.
& the Onion Chutney is also incredible… again… nice heat but not overpowering…
If you’re in the mood for a little spice & really good Indian food — try Joti Palace.

Not sure if Chicken Kurma was a dessert or an entrée. We asked for a Spicy Kurma — mentioned ⁴⁄₅ stars for spiciness while ordering and we received a Kurma that was sweet. Last wish of the Chicken was not to end up in a Kurma like that.

I love the food here and the atmosphere. I really feel as if I’m dining with family.

I’ve been enamoured with goat meat since my recent trip to South Africa. Hoping to fill this void, I ordered the goat curry dish here. While there was certainly flavor and spice in the curry, I found there to be too many bones, fat, and other in-​edibles preventing me from enjoying each bite.

7÷4÷15: overhauling my review to make it more cohesive and readable, and to include menu items we’ve tried since the original review. we’ve ordered from here three times now and it gets better each time, i think.
i would say if you’re not really into indian food or haven’t tried much, this would be more like four stars, but having had some really great indian, i just can’t honestly give this more than the «yeah, it was fine» three stars review. as others have mentioned, delivery time is LONG. it is usually estimated an hour and they take probably an hour & fifteen or so. that being said, they come to chelsea all the way from malden and delivery is free and the food is always hot so you really can’t complain. but just plan accordingly. the delivery guy is friendly enough, but one thing that really bugs me is that i take the time to write instructions on the delivery receipt — twice. in capital letters. so please stop calling me to ask what the house looks like and which door you should use when you have the answer right there in your hand. come on guys, not that hard.
condiments/​sides/​etc:
mango lassi — they forgot this the first time we ordered but we’ve had no order items missing in the two orders since. delicious & very thick but they also tend to pack this with the hot food (why!) so i usually pour mine into a glass with lots of ice and let it cool down/​dilute a little.
sweet lassi, sodas — good, standard
salty lassi — J ordered this on a whim, we thought it would be like a plain yogurt drink with a little salty flavor. instead it was full of seeds and spices and man… we just did not like this. J described the flavor as «a liquefied bread» and i can’t disagree. all the bits made for an unpleasant texture, and the lukewarm temperature didn’t help.
mango chutney — salty and more jam than chutney, but i can’t stop ordering it for some reason. i like to spread it on the garlic naan and then top with chickpeas and onion chutney.
onion chutney — pretty standard, but i wish they would add this as a pay-​for menu item. i always ask for them to send at least two containers, but it’s hit or miss whether they follow through.
tamarind sauce — really thin and sour. i usually like this condiment from other indian places but not here.
mint chutney — never seen any!
regular menu items:
samosas chaat — never had this dish before so i don’t have much of a point of comparison. i thought it was quite good. i’ve ordered it each time and it just gets better. the last time i got it it had a really nice spice to it, too. finally! for an indian place the food is decidedly not that spicy. this is also a huge portion. it’s listed as a cold appetizer but it is a hot dish, and i usually get it for my main and can barely make a dent in it.
chicken tikka — this is the appetizer, not the chicken tikka masala dinner. i did not eat much of this and would not order it again. i expected skewered marinated chicken, like thai style, but instead got a little styrofoam box of chicken chunks covered in overcooked sad looking pepper and onion strings with a few dehydrated lime wedges. like bad mexican. my biggest issue was the texture of the chicken. it just seemed… not right. spongey. you ever get food and just get that gut feeling you shouldn’t eat it? yeah.
gobi pakora — deep fried spicy cauliflower. another item i haven’t tried elsewhere, but it has piqued my interest for awhile. finally got this in our last order and i’m glad i did. these were so tasty! plus they give you about a dozen of them, too. the only thing i wish is that the batter was a bit crispier as opposed to soft, but maybe this isn’t realistic for food that has to travel awhile, esp in styrofoam. still totally gonna get these little snacks again.
chicken curry — J always gets this and finishes the whole thing — never seen him do that with any other indian food and he’s never inclined to try anything else. he loves it.
chicken vindaloo — this was just okay. the flavor was good — it was a tasty dish, but to me it just wasn’t vindaloo. it wasn’t spicy at all. also, both chicken dishes contain both white and dark meat, even though the menu says white meat. not a big issue for me, but ymmv. the curry and vindaloo also both come with a nice portion of rice.
garlic naan — this is so good! i can never stop eating this.
aloo (potato) naan — never had this before either, but i liked it. nice flavor. just got out-naan’d by the garlic one.
overall we’ll keep this as our go-​to indian delivery place, but if you’re in the mood to travel i’d recommend any of the places in cambridge or anmol in beverly if you’re out that way. but for us over here in chelsea/​everett, we’re making it work.

The 1^st time we ordered from their it was not the best but it was eatable and it was on par with the reviews. (Not the best) but we decided to give them a 2^nd try and we ordered chicken masala, meat samosas, garlic nan, and it came with rice which I didn’t order not sureif they charged me for it and we got papadum too.
Everything was tasty we were super surprised it was really good. We were impressed with the amount and quality. It was like night and day from the first time. We’ve only gotten take out and I have not seen the buffet yet which i want to go back and check out. We will be giving them a 3^rd chance to keep us as customers. And we live down the street so i do pick up and the ladies have alway been really nice.

Not sure if they intentionally screwed the order or if thats how they cook. I ordered chicken biryani n chicken tikka and this is my opinion.
Chicken biryani — had green peas and green peppers in it, no basmati rice, no flavor. In what world does a biryani recipe contain peas n peppers. No indian cooks biryani like this.
Chicken tikka — Huge chunks of chicken with no flavor at the middle. Do you guys know what marination is? And the chicken was old, am guessing they just reheated an old chicken and made my order. I am an ardent chicken eater and I know when a chicken has gone bad.
Had to throw my order. Thanks for wasting my $ 25.

Food is ok, but not very special at all. The atmosphere is very depressing.

Came here for lunch. A good value, and the food was pretty good. We came a bit late though, and the tandoori didn’t have quite the «tandoori fresh out the oven» taste.

Joti Palace is the worst, they took over an hour for delivery. I made the order just after 6 pm and now it is 8:01 and my food just got here and it is cold! I am told that it should be excused because there is only one driver. This is unacceptable business practice! I will never order from Joti Palace again

Do not go here. This was the worst Indian food I ever ate. The only thing fresh was the naan. Each meat entry we had smelled. It was so significant we couldn’t even eat another bite. Also– the biryani here is not biryani! Biryani is a fragrant dish that is full of flavor what we got was colored rice and peas with disgusting chicken gravy. Stay away from this place someone is going to get really sick!

My initial review was only about dining in, but I’ve gotten delivery from here several times and it’s always been a good experience. The food is consistently delicious and the delivery is timely.

I was let down by the quality and quantity of food that I ordered.
Lamb Biryani — watery/​lacking lamb
Shrimp Curry– bland/​watery/​lacking shrimp
Chicken Tikka Masala– flavorful/​but dry
Mango Chutney– very good
Beef Samosas– very good
$ 47.85 before tax and tip and delivery fee… expectations are high.

I had some dishes at Joti yesterday for the first time. And they were fantastic. I’ve tried the lamb stuff before in Rhode Island and couldn’t even finish a piece, I thought Indian food wouldn’t pleasure my taste. However, this place is just a bomb!!!
Fast service. Friendly servers. Love love love the food!!!