Apna Taj

Apna Taj is closed… it’s now called Kiran something. The buffet seems the way to go, but it’s just ok. Kind of blah in every way. For $ 12 it might be worth it, though I won’t be back. The food is lacking flavor and tepid, the buffet lacks variety. Everything looks like it was made yesterday. Maybe if you order take out it will arrive fresh. The staff was nice, but good food is a pre req to caring about service.

Stopped in here and hit the buffer for a to-​go plate. Normally buffets are lame about how much you can take to go, but the owner encouraged me to take more of everything. Na’an and chutneys at no extra charge. The food was flavorful and delicious. All for 12 bucks! Go, eat, and enter a solid food coma afterwards.

First review on Unilocal…
I had the dinner buffet at this restaurant…
Pricing is excellent and fair…
I really like Indian food so I may be biased, but for the location I think this is an excellent value. The buffet has a number of choices, all very good. Naan is great as well…
Only complaint was that the actual temperature inside the restaurant was much too high and I found myself sweating while eating which was uncomfortable.
⁸⁄₁₀

For $ 11, the dinner buffet is damn good.

Came here because we bought a coupon from
. When we arrived, there was only a single person in the restaurant. So we were wondering if the place was just simply bad. However, we figured we had the coupon, and how bad could it be… so we sat down and braced ourselves for the worst.
However, food was decent. We ordered samosa and some kind of naan stuffed with paneer (Indian cheese). The crispy chips (I forgot the name) came complementary. For entrees, we had palak paneer and chicken vindaloo with basmati rice. It was good but not breathtaking. However, we enjoyed our time. The owner was extremely nice, gave us free desert from the buffet in the end.
Next time we’d try the buffet, it looked quite good, and couldn’t be beat for $ 10.95 for dinner ($ 9.95 for lunch).

$ 10.95 for dinner buffet? That’s good.
Hot damn.
Toss in friendly owner and staff and some tasty naan and I’m sold. Veggie korma and chicken tikka masala are my recommendations on the buffet.

I tried their lunch special and liked it a lot. Quantity was fair and price was best in NYC. just a $ 8.99. can’t beat it. lol…

The owner/​manager was hovering around us the whole time, listening in on our conversations. We went for the dinner buffet and had a
certificate. The certificate does not say no buffet but he refused to allow us to use the certificate. This irked me since he obviously started to make his own rules.
The buffet food was sub-​par. They kept running out of items. The food did not seem fresh; although most buffet items are not always fresh (except for the goat meat). The rice was raw, the vegetables were very bland. The tandoori chicken was good but they did not bring out any more; they only had 2 pieces left in a bed of onions which looked old. The cilantro chutney was OK but the mango chutney was horrible. The manager did bring out fresh nan and tried to accommodating us (even though he was creepy).
The Indian version of Fruit punch was not good. It tasted more like pina coloda more than fruit punch. The mango lassi was good.
The price was very good for a dinner buffet. It was $ 10.95 per person which is very good for a dinner buffet, especially the city.

This is my first review becuase I’ve never felt the urge to comment that badly.
I went to this place on Sat eve for the dinner buffet for $ 10.95. When my friends and I first walked in, it seemed like a nice place, but we soon discovered it was a big mistake.
–There were very few options for the buffet.
–The pots were almost empty, making you feel like you’re taking too much.
–The owner (or manager) stands at the counter staring at you the whole time. You feel like he’s monitoring how much you eat.
–Drinks are not included. He charged us $ 2.45 for fountain drinks. No free refills! For a coffee he charged over $ 3
The food, however, was not that bad, especially if you’re into Indian food.
My friends and I dine out often, and this was by far one of the worst experiences ever.

Well priced Indian buffet for dinner at $ 10.95. Beer was cheap too with a reg bottle being $ 2.95 and a large (not sure of the exact amount but i would say 2.5 beers) being $ 5.95.
The service was very good, they are all over you with water but not hovering and the owner was very kind to everyone and took seperate checks for a large group without anyone requesting it.
The food was nothing special but it was def good for the price and is white person friendly (i.e. nothing too spicy or exotic). They had Chicken Tikka Masa, Lamb Curry, Paneer & Spinach, vegetable curry, rice pudding, and a couple other things i didnt remember.
The naan was good and plentiful and the rice was white basmati with nothing extra done to it.

In from out of town with two kids, baby, wife and au pair. Finding an affordable buffet to satisfy two vegetarians and 3 omnivores; $ 10.95. Finding a wide selection, attentive staff, an intimate space and a parking spot directly across the street on a 20 degree night; priceless.

Apna Taj is the kind of place you want to give your business to.
Food is good (I’m not an expert on Indian food, but I enjoyed everything we ordered.)
Service was very good… attentive, not hovering, and genuinely nice. We went before closing on a rainy/​snowy night and were literally the only table.
Fried cheese filled with mint sauce for appetizer, goat curry & some vindaloo for dinner and 2 bottles of large beer (1pt, 6 oz… in case you were wondering) later, the waiter insisted on giving us a little rice pudding to round off the evening. And it was very good.
I’ll be back.

Most other reviewers have already mentioned this but the buffet deals at Apna Taj are incredible, in NYC no less! The buffet was only 10.95 and it was very large with a great amount of options — more options then every other Indian buffet I’ve had. So after I venture down the tables and see all the options, I come to the end and what do I see? Unlimited Gulab Jamen. The food is average but I get into these moods where I dig quantity over quality sometimes.

I enjoyed their dinner buffet. It’s only $ 10.95! I haven’t been for lunch, but they also serve lunch buffet. There were probably around 8 kinds of Indian food you can try. All food were delicious and service was good as well.

I have known the owner from another restaurant and for years so I was excited when I bumped into him on the subway and heard he opened his own restaurant. I had to go and try and bring some friends! He brought with him his ever welcoming presence, good food and the BEST hands down BEST naan you will ever eat!
I come here alone or with friends. and am always satisfied.

Love their lunch buffet, and the staff is oh so nice! They have vegetarian options, as well!

My friend and I were hunting around for a place to eat when we walked past this place. We glanced at the front window, kept walking, froze, then backtracked. Indian buffet for about $ 10 in Manhattan?!
We had a great time in there. The service was great and the food was delicious. I grabbed a menu on the way out to remember to bring other people here in the future. Much loves.

I spent about 40 minutes at Apna Taj, during which time there were a number of people coming in to get the lunch buffet to go plus a few other people eating at the restaurant. They checked the food levels often, bringing out more food as needed. Also they were prompt to fill up my water before I even drank half of it.
There were four tables for four people and five tables for two people. Of course they could be moved around but the maximum occupancy would be 26. The mellow music was set to a very nice level: not too loud for conversation but still giving some good background noise. The temperature was comfortable. They are open seven days a week.
Price: The lunch buffet is $ 9.95 ($ 10.34 with tax) if you eat on location. If you get it to-​go it is $ 8.95 for the full spread or $ 7.95 for just the vegetarian dishes. The dinner buffet is $ 10.95. Beer and wine aren’t that expensive at $ 2.95. Unfortunately the Lassi cost nearly $ 5 so I didn’t try it.
FOOD
I went for the lunch buffet. There were 11 dishes available to choose from; seven of which were vegetarian:
salad: iceberg lettuce, tomato and cucumber
white rice
veg momo: little dumplings filled with pureed vegetables
palak paneer: a spinach based curry dish with cubes of tofu and the delightfully surprising occasional bite of ginger.
aloo gobi: cauliflower and potato dish
veg biryani: rice dish with mixed veggies and spices
tandori chicken: whole pieces of chicken seasoned to have a red color.
chicken keema mattar: ground chicken with peas
chicken tikka masala: chicken in a red curry creamy sauce
lamb kadai: lamb in a brown sauce.
dessert — gajar halwa: sweet, warm, cooked carrots.
There were four sauces and one chutney to choose from. I thought the chutney was pretty tasty. Not sure what the sauces were made from but there was a white one, a brown one, a green one and one that was diced white onion in a light red sauce.
Also they bring fresh hot naan to your table.
I did not eat any of the meat dishes so I can’t say much for those. I am a big fan of saag so I like the palak paneer; the aloo gobi was good too. Overall the food was decent for a buffet. I like my Indian food more on the spicy side but other than lacking a bit of hotness the flavors were there. I have had better naan but it wasn’t bad by any means.
The people who worked there were attentive, helpful and accommodating. I would go back again.

They have a great variety of vegetarian dishes in their lunch buffet (non-​vegetarian too), and yummy naan is included. They have pretty good prices and tasty food!

Great Indian restaurant. Cozy atmosphere, more extensive menu than other Indian places I have been to. I’m a vegetarian, and they had a more diverse group of dishes to choose from then I am used to. The owner came out to say hello and gave us free rice pudding with our dinner. Reasonably priced. I highly recommend it.