Madras Mahal

Have always loved the place. Good food and fresh food. The lady is gujrati I believe and very friendly team. From what I recollect it’s kosher vegetarian too. Try their aloo.

Friendly staff, tasty food, and very easy menu to navigate if you’re vegan.
When I went there it had been a while since I’d had Indian, so I completely overdid it and ordered enough food for five. We were two. There were leftovers for lunch, and then dinner, and then lunch again.
For starters we ordered papadam and bhel puri, always a favorite. At Madras Mahal it was nice and fresh and crispy, as it should be. If you haven’t had it, it defies description, but it’s definitely something to try. We also ordered a Mysore Masala Dosa, which was very good. Great texture of the dosa, and the stuffing was tasty.
For mains (and of course by now we were completely full), we ordered a Chana Masala and a vegan Vegetable Vindaloo, both very good. And a puri, because hey, we weren’t stuffed enough.
Overall it’s great to have vegan versions of the great (but often over-​gheed!) Indian dishes. Definitely worth checking out if you love Indian food but the ghee doesn’t love you back.

A friend brought me here when I first moved to NYC in 1999. She had been taken there earlier by a friend who is a family member of the Indian monarchy in India, I suppose in name only at this point. Anyway, you gotta figure a member of the Indian monarchy knows his native cuisine. Personally, I’ve been to Indian restaurants all over the city, and maybe a handful in the world (sadly, I confess, I’ve not been to India… yet). I have never had better Indian food. Never. I have probably been here more times than any other restaurant. Indian food is my absolute favorite. The owners, a lovely Indian couple, tell me it is the oldest Southern Indian kosher restaurant in the country. And it’s veggie! The only criticism I have of the place is the décor is a little spartan, but all the best ethnic restaurants I’ve ever been to suffer the same, and frankly, I’ve seen it way worse in other places compared to Madras Mahal.
The rasam soup is amazeballs! Spicy, but not like a hot flame. It works on you. A few sips in, you’ll have a very satisfying sweat goin’ on. The shahi paneer is another fave, but the dosai are definitely not to be ignored. They really are beautiful. But I’ve never had a bad dish here. Seriously folks, this place is a little diamond in the rough of all the other Indian restaurants in the area.
Awesome flavor, very reasonable, Indian beer, gracious owners. Support places like this, be it at a table or takeout. It’s really delicious.

I had a
gift card. I called a week in advance and spoke to the manager, who assured me I could use the card with the lunch buffet. The manager went so far as to enquire about the amont of my gift card to ensure I had enough to cover the buffet cost.
I knew this restaurant was vegetarian-​friendly, but I did not know it was strictly vegetarian. I would not have taken my date here if I had known, as my date will not eat a meal without chicken tikka masala.
When I arrived at the restaurant, 3 or 4 waiters swarmed the table where I was seated and told me I could not use the certificate. I insisted that I had cleared it with management the week before. They seemed to be bullying me, so we got up and left. I wasted an entire Saturday afternoon getting here, and $ 10 for two round-​trip subway tickets to walk out empty-​handed and empty-​stomached. Was looking forward to those South Indian breads, definitely would have spent beyond the gift certificate amount had our original agreement been honored.

Note: I came to Madras Mahal after trying few other good South Indian places such as Tiffin Wallah, Pongal, Kokum, and Sarvana Bhavan on that same block, mainly focusing on who makes the best DOSA (south indian food).
What you need to know about Madras Mahal :
— Conveniently located right in the curry hill area
— Reasonably priced menu
— Clean bathrooms
— BYOB
— Their Dosa texture compared to Sarvana bhavan and Tiffin Wallah isn’t too crispy all around b/​c they don’t cook it long enough, but they do serve Paav Bhaji Dosa which the other guys don’t in curry hill. Here is the reason why you MUST try Madras Mahal at least ONCE! Get the Paav Bhaji Dosa!
— Everything comes mild so ask for Spicy if you prefer some heat
Def coming back to try something else next time :) Cant wait!

Orederd masala dosa. After 20min it came, the dosa was very sour. I don’t know why. I get dosas all the time but this one was the worst I ever had. It felt like old ingredients were used. Not going back

Never go there when you are really hungry.
I went in with the big menu displayed outside. Am pretty sure half of food items were not prepared for fresh.
I barely had anything.
Order to eat food was Ok.
Buffet is always a NO GOoooOO

Read my earlier reviews.
Very spotty place … sometimes very good — sometimes not so good. Every visit here feels like the first time.
Just had a horrible experience with a Groupon here…

Madras Mahal is immaculately clean, has excellent service and serves truly delicious food. I cannot get enough of their Palak Paneer and naan stuffed with potatoes. The waiters are sweet, friendly and attentive. I have only had wonderful experiences at Madras and will continue to eat there as my regular Indian spot!

Rude behavior. I don’t find them approachable while ordering for home delivery. They were asking for a minimum $ 60 order … Where ever in seamless they said $ 10. Never going to order from them again.

Everything was horrible. Menu is deceiving. We ordered a dosa which said «crispy onions», but what we got was just regular onions. On asking the staff, they said it is what it is, we cant do anything. Ambience was cheap. I think the entire indoor decoration must have taken them less that $ 500. The music was the worst of Bollywood music, which made me feel like throwing up. The should perhaps learn something from Sarvana Bhawan. So, in the end, even with the groupon deal, we got ripped off.

Food is truly amazing! I love their brunches options, always different and fun things to try. The service isn’t anything to brag about or complain, but at a place with such spicy food you’d think they would refill your water more often. Regardless I am going to continue to frequent this place whenever I get the chance and have a craving for some delicious Indian food.
I’d say check out the weekend brunch first and find out what you like that they make before sitting down for dinner another night. They have some really good eats.

Dropped in on a hungry whim which you should never do when you’re in a foreign area and on a budget. My better senses should have told me that just because one person is eating there doesn’t make it okay.
But I journeyed down the stairs to a not so sterile cafeteria set up where you don’t know the source of the water in the pitchers and a hot buffet line. Grime is on the floors and walls. I did not trust the bathroom.
To my surprise, the food was edible. It was even good. I had stewed cabbages, some chickpeas, lentil dahl, and the basmati rice and I was contended. The naan was a little dry, but we came right as they were closing. As we were eating, the busboy was cleaning out the buffet but was courteous enough to ask if we were going to have anything he was going to remove.
Would I go back? Not really since there are other cleaner restaurants in the area. But as circumstances were, this place was ok.

There are many nice vegetarian indian restaurants very nearby, but these guys are the best. The buffet is plentiful and authentic and includes many things other places don’t, like idlis and dosas included for free.
Definitely the best of the best!

The food is okayish however the owner is a weird lady who kept yelling at her employees for no fault of theirs and even a customer who just walked in to use the rest room by asking one of her employees. I have never seen someone rude than this. One of the waiters was so dumb that he couldn’t even ask anything. He almost touched me at wrong places while serving water and he didn’t have any training on how to serve water he would serve you by keeping the glass where it is even if its at the farthest distance from him. The other waiter was nice and friendly and smart. This place had the worst ambience because of the owner. Food is okay.

This is my all-​time favorite vegetarian Indian buffet. Vah, vah!!!
In Manhattan proper, there are few if any remaining $ 10 all-​you-​can-​eat buffets. That said, Tiffin Wallah is far from this quality.
First of all, there are both perfectly crispy plain dosas on the buffet and available from the waiters walking around. On the buffet last Thursday, there were also 2 kinds of rice, salad, pickles and chutneys (including coconut and tomato), sambar, idli, vegetable upma, aloo saag, matar paneer, and a cabbage pooriyal as well as some roti and a sweet: semolina halwa.
This sounds like standard buffet fare. .but the preparation was top notch. Aloo saag packed in such rich flavor that I even ate about half of the potatoes in it (the ones that were tiny enough to soak it up). This is a big deal: I am no potato lover.
Matar paneer came in a delightfully balanced, creamy-​but-​not-​oily sauce with a mix of tofu and paneer. Madras Mahal, both my tastebuds and my arteries thank you.
Upmas were so chock full of veggies I wonder how they held together. Chutneys were all perfect in consistency and taste. I ate some of the coconut straight up, with a spoon. Sambar tasted as zingy as it should had so many vegetables bobbing in it! Halwa was lightly sweet, not cloying, so the taste of real ghee shone through.
But best of all was the poriyal… that cabbage was THE BEST PORIYAL I HAVE EVER HAD, even better than all the varieties I’ve tasted at Mirchi and Taste of Cochin. I must have eaten a whole cabbage. I saw so many types of dal and whole spices in it that I lost count, and the toasted red chillies infused the proper kind of heat, not the watered down, Americanized kind of spiciness other places around use.
This is worth many more revisits!

ATTENTION EVERYONE
This place is phenomenal. Just phenomenal. A friend recommended it to me a few weeks ago, and I just went today for the $ 10 all-​you-​can-​eat lunch buffet. Oh my word. Everything was so delicious and the flavors were so balanced. I felt so happy and satisfied and happy. My word.

I’ve run into the arms of another since Tiffan Wallah let me down.
This place is a nice second for a good vegetarian buffet.
Everything in the buffet was very Thali — like and so good. I especially loved the single serving portions of dosas and poori (my favorite).
The sever was super attentive and really nice. I’d come back for dinner for sure.

Individual, South Indian dishes are supeb! Buffet is all right.
The range of dosas and idli/​wada options are excellent and easily the best on curry hill. My favorites are the rava masala (ask for the ‘masala’ or potato subji on the side, so that it keeps your dosa crisp), and idli/​wada combo in sambhar bowl.
It is fairly spicy, though not as much as Saravana Bhavan and not tasteless like the stuff at Chennai Garden.
The buffet contains dishes from all over India and can be a little oily and not as tasty as the stand alone South Indian dishes, IMO. Give it a miss and stick to the above.
One point to note — the owners do not hand over the tips to the waiters. If you feel like over-​paying the owners, go ahead and leave a tip. Otherwise, eat your fill and ensure you put «0.0» in the tip column of your check. This one factor is why I knocked off one star from what would have been a five-​star review otherwise.

If time truly heals all wounds, then it has nearly healed mine here at Madras Mahal. I was pretty irritated my first couple of times here, with what I considered false advertising because I was too hell bent on my meaty ways. Now as a seasoned Indian food vet and the progressive veggie loving fiend, I can give this place my thumbs up.
Things have changed for the better. They’ve adjusted the layout to make their lunchtime buffet more free flowing (instead of the awkward mess it once was) and some of their more well known food options have improved over time. Décor is clean and more inviting than its previous look and the service has remained its old cheerful self. The quality of the fried pakoras has improved — not nearly as dry and definitely on the tastier side.
I was such a meat hugger (#1) for so long, that the idea of veggie Indian food was a cop out cheap-​o option. Then after many more years «settling» for veggie options and a trip to the mother country itself, I almost prefer veggie Indian overall and am down for sag paneer, keema aloo, and their wonderful dosas.
In terms of incredible Indian fare it is not, but at least among the cheaper and healthier spots in the growing Curry Hill. At least now, I’ve made my peace with the establishment and ready to give them more business, as long as they feed me more spinach.
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(#1) Actual term. I just invented it. :Googles: Apparently so did a bunch of others. *doh