Ajanta

I like this restaurant pretty much, which is a surprise, although there are almost no people inside, the dishes are pretty good, the taste is great, and there are a lot of choices, it’s really a good place for Indian food lovers!

This food tastes disgusting and the service is bad, do not go there!!!

I come here with my girlfriend Ioana all the time. The waiters are so nice (we love their humor and sarcasm!) and we feel very at home. I usually have the chicken tandoori and she has the paneer makhni. Both are delicious. The cheese naan is also great. This is an honest, welcoming and affordable restaurant: a welcome change from the stuffy restaurants around here!

Fairly typically ramshackle, crumbling Columbia-​area ethnic restaurant. Service was all right, but the rogan josh I ordered was nothing of the sort. I cook this dish and have eaten it on three different continents, so I know what it’s supposed to be — a rich, red sauce for a start. Instead, I got lamb in some watery gravy with a ton of near-​raw onion ladeled on top, which made my breath smell terrible for hours afterwards! It tasted reasonable, but was definitely not as it should be. Not recommended at all.

First and foremost, I would like to start by stating I normally don’t write Unilocal reviews. However, this place is worth my time. The lunch specials are amazing and a bang for your buck. The portions are perfect and the quality of the food is exceptional. Wine and beer is a decent price as well. The service is PHENOMENAL! They always give me a free dessert and take care of my needs before I even think to ask. The staff is personable and caring. I wish more establishments would reflect this type of professionalism.

Awful, awful, awful.
I came in for the lunch special, which was advertised as $ 6.95 — and up – on the reader board outside. «And up» would prove a prescient phrase.
There were only two vegetable options, unlike many places where all curries are available in lunch form. The guy recommended garlic naan, so I went ahead and got it.
The food came out fast, and there was lots of rice. But the dish itself was verifiably tiny, hardly half a cup.
And it, quite literally, had no flavor. It was especially watery and the chickpeas and spinach were completely flavorless. No spice, no texture, nothing but shape to differentiate one component from another, all mushy and imperceptible. I ended up eating plain rice, my vegetables gone. Not that it made much difference when the entire dish tasted the same.
More than the terrible food, what frustrated me was the hidden charge. At no point did they disclose that the garlic naan was not included, and would be an additional $ 2.60! They explicitly pushed me toward that and made no mention of such an important fact. Whether they intended to mislead or not, failure to disclose charges for goods you push on customers is unethical.
The total bill for my $ 6.95 lunch special? $ 10.55.
This, folks, is a great case study for when you withhold a tip.

We ate at Ajanta twice and both times we had a great experience. The service was very friendly and the food was amazing! The Paneer Makhni in particular was a standout, but all the dishes were good and tasted fresh. Make no mistake: this is by no means a fancy place. The décor is old and not great looking. But it is definitely worth going for the food, the cheap drinks (good wine at really low prices!) and the relaxed atmosphere. We almost didn’t try out this place just based on the negative reviews. But we are so glad we did! Give it a chance and you will have an amazing meal at a very reasonable price!

Every food item was bad: naan, rice, vegetables! It was made worse by the fact I had recently eaten at India Place in Brooklyn which is amazing, so the whole time I was wishing I was there!!!

Service is amazing, really friendly people. My favorite is Murge Morich with Paratha. If you are a student at columbia, you should definitely try $ 7 lunch special (you do get multiple options in that too).
Dessert: Try Mango lassi and Firni, its really amazing.
Food is really good and definitely better than overly-​spiced indian food what other hotels sell.

Firstly I am an Indian, so my standards are high when it comes to Indian food. Ajanta wasn’t bad after all but that’s about it. It’s priced accordingly and that’s good. I had Chicken curry and rice and they were barely any restaurant quality. I liked the service though and tipped well.

the food is 2 start, «meh, i’ve experienced better», but the service is –1 stars. they are obviously trying to squeeze every dollar out of a customer. we ordered our lunch and then.
«did you want naan bread?»
«no thank you»
«are you sure? you usually eat that with naan bread»
«no, i’m okay with just the rice»
«do you like bread though? because if you do we have many kinds of naan»
«no»
“okay“
then once the food comes out
«are you sure you don’t want naan with that?»
«yes, i’m fine»
«if you like bread you’ll like naan bread»
«i’m fine»
I DON’T WANT YOUR OVERPRICED NAAN BREAD.
then we’re paying our $ 36 check with a credit card
«do you have cash? we prefer cash»
«sorry, no we don’t»
«can you check?»
(look at each other) «uh, no. we don’t have cash»
(annoyed look) «ok»
ridiculous. no wonder it’s empty.

This is place is disgusting! I ordered chicken vindaloo and got a dry chunk of I-don’t-know-what in some very watery soup. The rice was super hard. The naan I purchased was just a piece of old bread shaped in a circle. It seriously crumbled like a week-​old Wonder bread loaf.
At least the Vindaloo was super spicy, though that’s probably just to divert my attention from all the nastiness around me. And for the record, it didn’t even taste like vindaloo. Ew ew ew.

Service: Excellent; our waiter was incredibly friendly, nice, and made suggestions.
Food: Bland; a friend and I ordered Paneer Mahkni and a chicken dish. We also ordered garlic naan that was only flavored by garlic powder. Everything we ordered lacked spice despite our requests for spicy dishes. I was incredibly disappointed by the lack of flavor in general. Sadly, our meals were overall disappointing.

I came here with friends a week ago and we loved it! The service was amazing and the staff was very attentive. The waiter helped us order and explained the dishes to us which I really appreciated. The food was amazing as well. Everything was flavorful and on point. I would definitely recommend this restaurant.

Ordered dinner from here once. Very quick delivery-​perfect coz we were starving! Ordered the eggplant pakora, vegetable biryani, vegetable kurma and Rotis all of which eventually left us starving anyway.
Just a bite of pakora would tell you that the oil was weeks old. No spice or salt whatsoever in Biryani and it had a really weird mix of vegetables.
I couldn’t bear to take a second bite of roti with the kurma– both were just really bad. You can tell after a meal if the problem was with a single dish or the overall quality itself and this restaurant just lacks quality.
I usually don’t have very high expectations of these generic Indian restaurants but this was just a major let down after an overall 3 rating on Unilocal.
Will never ever go back there. Just no.

This is probably the closest Indian place to where I live. The food can be exceptional on a few days and disappointing on others. It seems like that they don’t have a constant chef. Despite that if you order the basic curry rice naan then you should be fine. The price during lunch is extremely good as they run a promotion. They also have student discounts. The service is not anything exceptional.

Dissapointingly weak indian food, especially because of te quality in the region. There are about 5 restaurants better that deliver for similar prices between 110 and 100 street. It is the indian place the highest in manhattan that I know of, so perhaps go there if you’re craving indian and the others are too far away.

If I had the option, this would be a 4.5 star review, but I’m happy to round up.
I can’t understand for the life of me why the reviews here are overwhelmingly low ones. I came for the first time tonight after a late class and ordered Chicken Tikka Masala for takeout (trying the staple first; next time, I will be a little more adventurous).
The chicken was tender and flavorful, the rice was good, the daal that came with it was just fine. My only complaints: could use a little more chicken in the CTM — there is a lot more rice than CTM — but it was solid, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
While I waited I had a good conversation with two of the men who work there. They seem like nice people, so I’m not sure what the fuss is about regarding service.
I’ll be back for a different dish soon!

I was giving this restaurant a chance since it’s only 2.5 star on Unilocal but I should trust Unilocal instead. I don’t have the right to talk about the service there since I choose to go. The curry I could say it’s the worst I ate in my life. As result, I didn’t finish it at all. The owner should seriously consider fire the chief or whoever in charge of food making.

We’ve had food from this place a bunch of times and it’s always been great. They have some good staples like chicken tikka masala and biriyani — always flavorful. The staff here is great too. Always welcoming and friendly.
Definitely give this place a try if you’re in the area and in the mood for indian food. :)