Punjabi Tadka

A place with no ethical values is not worth visiting.
Had a groupon which clearly stated that the restaurant is closed on Sunday and monday & a reservation is required to use groupon. Called them today (Saturday) for reservation, but was told that they do not accept groupons on saturday. Called groupon and they confirmed that no such condition exists. They did give me an option to follow up with restaurant, but I wasn’t interested.. Cancelled the groupon and asked for an refund.

It’s been nearly 10 years since I first stepped in to try the food at Punjabi Tadka (boy, I’m gettin’ OLD!). As I live literally across the street and LOVE Indian food, this was my go-​to place in the neighborhood for years. I even hosted a couple parties there with the NYC Arabic Meetup club. Here’s a link to one of them:
However, times change, sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse. Punjabi Tadka has gone through a few different owners and chefs, and unfortunately their current cuisine isn’t as good as it once was. I’m not being nostalgic or reminiscent about the past here. I’m only stating my opinion that their food just isn’t as tasty as it used to be. I just had lunch there for their $ 8 lunch buffet special. The special is three choices from their buffet, which comes with rice. I chose their cauliflower, spinach and tofu, and chicken tikka masala.
The cauliflower was mushy and spiceless, and I know my Indian cauliflower dishes, as I Always order it when I go out for Indian as I LOVE cauliflower. Their chicken tikka masala wasn’t much better, as it lacked the flavor that I accustom to a good masala. Their spinach and tofu, however, was pretty good. The portions were smaller than I remember them being before, and I honestly left still a bit hungry.
For a much better Indian experience, I highly recommend walking just 2 blocks uptown to the Desi Deli on 50^th Street. I’m not the only one either. If you go you’ll always find cabs double-​parked outside. No, I’m not trying to play to the stereotype that many Indians and Pakistanis are cab drivers, I’m just saying…
I hope that Punjabi Tadka can get their act together, as I’d like to be able to go back to my favorite old Indian joint in Hell’s Kitchen, but, until then, I’ll keep my plate at Desi’s.

I ordered for pickup on seamless. After only a few minutes later, I received a phone call from them saying my order was ready. At around 6:30pm, I arrived at the restaurant for pickup and there wasn’t a single customer in there. Only one guy behind the counter and the kitchen lights were turned off. The man had the bag of food ready for me and everything seemed fine till I got home.
*All of the food that I ordered was leftover from a previous day. It was placed in small individual plastic containers and clearly microwaved till it was all piping hot. The food tasted like it’s been reheated 4 times and then thrown back in a fridge for the next guy.
**These people are definitely microwaving their week-​long buffet food and serving it to people.
I’ve ordered take out from this place approximately 10 times and have thoroughly enjoyed their food in the past. It’s quite a shame how terrible my last experience was and will never return. I’m not sure why, but quality control has definitely become subpar.
**For your health, I strongly recommend you do not eat here.

This review is about their Chicken Tikka Masala. Its as good as it gets and ive eaten at tons of places that serve awesome Indian food. This is my first comment Unilocal and ive eaten here a bunch of times already. The presentation is wonderful, nice ambiance, good for low key casual date and also family friendly. I would only recommend ordering from the menu. They have a lunch buffet, which ive tried and wasn’t satisfied in the least. i could take off points for that but i feel that that should be a whole different review, given their consistency of menu items (particularly their family recipe type authentic sauces. ex (curry, vindaloo, masala). Nann is very expensive here at 2.99 but its worth it for me because i like to dunk in the sauce and make mini sandwiches. Every time its $ 16 for me but it fills me up for the rest of the night without fail. portions are on point. definitely recommend

After a long day of sight seeing in New York, we found this wonderful restaurant .we ordered chicken curry and yellow dal tadka .both were delicious, spicy and fragrant !!
Food tasted just like home made .the owners were nice too!
Keep up the good work !!

Quaint atmosphere. NY Indian food. Broad menu. Polite family staff. Great vegetarian options! Get the samosas! Medium priced but portions are enough for a healthy sized meal and a little extra for you to take home. It was empty when my boyfriend and I went on a Wednesday night which was the perfect setting for an casual intimate date. Go now!

BF and I picked up an order of chicken tikka masala, paneer masala, and poori here as takeout before an outdoor movie in the park. The food was great. The staffperson asked how spicy I wanted my order, and «spicy» turned out to be peeeerrrrfffect. Definitely felt the heat but didn’t have to chug water to enjoy the meal. Poori was savory. Overall, the price was a very good value for the quality of the food. Doesn’t get five stars though for being a little light on the rice provided compared to other establishments. Would definitely go back here.

This place was good. It’s not 5 stars, and probably not 4, but it’s a solid 3.5 for food quality.
The couple working there (I’m assuming owners) were kind and had a decent selection of food for the lunch «buffet» —- not an all you can eat buffet, just a pick 3 things buffet (and they can’t all be the meat dish, you get 1 meat 1 lentil and 1 vegetarian from what I can tell) naan was good.
We went here right before waiting in line for the daily show. Very convenient, pretty cheap and didn’t make us sick
I probably wouldn’t go again with all NYC has to offer, but it’s nice if you want hot food quickly.
Oh yeah and THE BATHROOMS ARE TINY.

Its one of the best indian resturant… every foodwas excellent. ecspecialy dhal was amaizing.

I work in the area and started coming here for lunch every once in awhile. The buffet is not a real buffet where you can get unlimited food. You can choose 1 meat dish with two sides and their naan bread is free for 8 bucks. Not bad ! I always get the chicken tikka masala which is delicious. The vegetable sides are flavorful and seem freshly prepared. However, I’ve noticed the amount of heat differs from day to day. Sometimes the chicken will be mild and other days extra spicy. I wish they would cook more consistently. Overall this place is a great find and I will certainly be going back !

I go here a lot at every single time they mess up my order either take out or dine in. When you get delivery they alway forget to give u the green sauce and onions even if u specifically asked for it. They even forgot my rice. I will admit though the food is tasty that’s y I constantly go back, but the service is awful. I thought one or twice it’s ok but they have messed up every order. Therefore now I just go there instead of takeout. The buffet is horrible. It is no buffet it is a platter for $ 10 which is not worth it. They should not call it buffet instead platter.

Ordered on grubhub. Was over an hour late. Gave no excuse or apology.

Very bad food. They claim to have buffet but actually they don’t. Paper plates and cheapest possible plastic cutlery. The plastic for is so bendy, you actually cannot use it as a fork.

The buffet plate served here gives you a choice of three items and rice for about $ 10. The owner took the time to explain every item on the steam table and tell me how hot each one was. On that score he was righteous and what he said was mild, medium, and hot turned out to be exactly that way. I ended up choosing a cauliflower dish, a chickpea dish, and goat curry. All were tasty but the goat was especially fine, fall off the bone. The owner came by more than once to ask how everything was. The restaurant itself is a bit basic, and the utensils are plastic. But we’re talking Hell’s Kitchen, 10^th Avenue here, so let’s not be deterred by that. For your neighborhood Indian joint (especially after drinking), this place will do fine. And I love the name – Punjabi Tadka.

Excellent Food, great price, and the mango lassi was on point :)
Would definitely eat here again. $ 10 dinner buffet can’t beat it!

You know when you let your stomach do the decision making and you ignore the facts in front of you? I may have done that here. (bodega Indian, sound like a good idea?)
I was under the impression that Punjabi was a buffet, at $ 10 a pop. Why would I think that? Well besides the Unilocalers stating it’s a buffet, I called to confirm. Once I got there, I was informed it was $ 10 a plate and you get 3 dishes… HOLD UP, I did not realize I needed to clarify on the all you can eat aspect of buffet. If by buffet I meant food that has been sitting out for hours and is not limitless, I would have said just that.
Punjabi was a comedy of errors when I arrived. The two people behind the counter were not Indian, they could not explain what the dishes were, there were only two meat options, heavy on the sauce, light on the meat, the food was served in Styrofoam plates, and there was no goat. But worst of all, I had to watch two boys skip out on their bill. All in all, it got uncomfortable real quick… the only redeeming trait was the deliciousness of the Naan.

Currently having the lunch buffet and they have chicken curry and egg curry, good flavor but many bones, excellent naan.

After entering my order through Eat24, I would get a call a while later asking me for my address. The delivery person told me that they didn’t have it (lie). I told him where I was and he said he was there and that there was nothing there — just an empty parking lot. I’m literally 3 blocks away from this place, I have never ordered from them before and will never order from them again. After the delivery guy gave me an address that sounded wrong, I tried to correct him, suddenly his English wasn’t good enough to communicate with me efficiently.
After several phone calls telling me that he was here and discovering that this was not the case, they finally managed to find my office building. The food came with no utensils, napkins, or containers conducive to eating when at work. The food was lousy, the chicken tikka masala was watered down and flavorless. Between the quality of the food and experience of trying to navigate a delivery person a whopping 3 blocks, I wouldn’t order from here again.

I (obviously) did not really enjoy my experience here. Mostly based on what I have become accustomed and used to from Indian Cuisine. Had dinner here, and the Saag was watery, and bland… The Naan bread was crisp (not a good thing) almost like a lavash bread. The Tandoori chicken was very… Tandoori-​y (?) and was bland too…
Pro was that it was affordable…

Their chicken tikka masala is delicious!!! It’s totally become my guilty pleasure, and I love ordering it on the weekends while I relax and watch some TV.
I’m also an odd duck and order chicken tikka masala with less meat. I love the eat the sauce more. The first time I asked for it, I completely confused them… but since then, they’ve been good about only having 2 – 3 pieces of chicken in the dish.
Chana saag (chickpeas + spinach) is also good. I didn’t care for the dal makhani. There were different spices in it that I found offputting. Also the gulab jamun was dry, so I won’t order it again.
As you can tell, the service is great. I forgot to tip the delivery man one night, so I added his tip to my next order. Something was lost in translation because they didn’t know what I was trying to do. I ordered right before going into the subway, but when I got out… I had a VM from the owner of PT asking if everything was alright. I’m always happy when restaurants distinguish themselves based on service.
I highly recommend it for the FOOD & SERVICE. Delivery time is average. I usually get the food within 30 min.