Tikka Masala

Best chicken tikka masala I’ve ever had. The place is about the food, don’t expect to be treated like loyalty. The owner is very nice and the ingredients used for the food seemed to be of good quality.

Not only do I love this place, but this is literally home away from home.
Every single time I come here, I’m always torn between what to eat. Do I go for Palak Paneer? Do I choose the best dish, Chicken Tikka Masala? Do I pick Chicken Biryani? Do I pick spicy Chicken Karahi?
What do I choose?
In the end, I end up choosing some or all of them, depending on who I’m with.
Please, I want you to bear with me for a moment.
This place is not only Pakistan in a small restaurant, but it’s also a GREAT place with an AWESOME owner, who I am glad to say is quite the best person I’ve ever met in my life (lol… get it?)
Nicest man ever, very humble.
Did I forget to mention – they use organic produce?! It’s amazing! They also have amazing Pakistani shows and songs playing, and the food is so great, it is exactly like the food your mom makes you at home.
Let me tell you about the food I’ve eaten here that makes everything A1.
Chicken Karahi: ⁵⁄₅. You might want to ask to make it spicy if you eat spicy food. This place makes their food mild due to requests. It’s soft, moist chicken pieces coated in organic tomato based sauce, with various spices, along with fenugreek, and green chillies.
Palak Paneer (Spinach): ⁵⁄₅. Seriously. I actually don’t have a photo with me quite yet – but once I do, I will share it with you. Now, let me get started – paneer is s solid cheese curd that softens up once it’s cooked, but never melts. It’s kind of like tofu, but watch out, Vegans! It’s dairy-​based. It’s also a bit creamy, since Tikka Masala uses cream in some dishes to bring out the flavor.
Chicken Biryani: Can you believe that this biryani ACTUALLY tastes like Biryani? The taste of spices and the taste of the marinated and spicy chicken, and the taste of the soft grains of basmati are honestly a party in your mouth. Spicy if you want it. You can also get Sindhi Biryani and Vegetable Biryani if you’re a vegetarian. Mmmm.
Daal: ¹⁰⁰⁄₅. Peasant food? Pfft. Not even. It’s lentils that are cooked in chili powder, turmeric, garlic, and ginger. Once it’s all cooked, they put a Tarka, which is basically fried garlic and kari leaves mixed into it… how is that even considered peasant food when it resembles liquid gold and tastes like God’s love?
Chicken Tikka Masala: ¹⁰⁄₅. I’m dying, here. It’s literally the creamiest (and also heaviest), most delicious saucy dish you can order. There’s a reason why this is their signature dish, and it’s not only because the restaurant is called Tikka Masala…
Let me tell you how they prepare their chicken.
They marinate it in various spices and juices overnight, and let it roast in the tandoori (clay) oven until it’s done. God, I need to take a moment… My mouth is watering as we speak…
Anyway. They take the chicken, cut it into cubes, and mix it into their creamy sauce, and serve it on an oval bowl.
Best recommended with naan! These soft, pillowy flat breads are godly and soft, and so delicious. You could also have it with the basmati rice, which is very good and fresh!
I’m glad you’ve took your time to read this amazing review. I’d like for you to know a couple of things I also recommend to you:
Chana masala (vegetarian and vegan)
Goat Karahi (spicy and delicious)
Chapli Kabab (it’s a flattened version of Seikh Kabab, which is just as great, if not greater)
And soooo much more. Thank you for reading up to this. You’ve been rewarded with information on deliciousness. Now, go eat this for dinner! If you go on Thursdays, you’ll get to have their Hyderabad style biryani… But I’ll explain that in another post another time. :)

They refused to sell me naan unless i purchase more things. This was not a payment issue, this was an issue where they wanted more money.
Extremely displeased.

This has to be the worst Indian/​Pakistani place I’ve ever been to in San Francisco, and I visited a lot of them. Our group of four arrived there around 6PM, and there was almost no-​one there, except for one guy watching TV. There is no table service, you have to order at the front desk. The guy working there seemed like he’s being forced to serve us, totally uninterested and annoyed. They will bring the food to your table, but not the utensils, so you have to take those from some box by yourself (there was also guy there wiping them, didn’t even bother moving away so we could take them).
Our food was bland and tasteless. I ordered spicy Tikka Masala (their signature dish, you would expect they would do at least that one very well), but is was pretty bad. Chicken was overcooked, and the dish wasn’t spicy at all. The rest of my group also complained about their food (chicken vindaloo and chicken korma). Naan tasted like it was reheated in microwave. The portions were pretty small.
Once you leave this place (probably half hungry considering the quality of the food), you can enjoy not so nice view and smell of Tenderloin, dodging all the hobos trying to panhandle you.

Delicious! Obviously, you don’t come here for ambience, but the food is more than good enough, and the prices reasonable. Highly recommend the lamb korma and the onion naan.

I ordered two chicken tiki masalas at the same time. One got there after a very lengthy 45 minutes. So I sat there waiting for the other. Another hour and 45 minutes full of «sorry take some free chai» passed. I left without asking for a refund.

I sincerely hope it was just the dish I ordered (Chicken Vindaloo), and that the quality of the other dishes are better, but what I ate was quite possibly the worst rendition of anything resembling South Asian cuisine that I have ever experienced.
I’d say what I ended up with most closely resembled buffalo wings in curry sauce. Clearly not cooked fresh at all. The rice was equivalent to the last hot dog on the roller; sitting out all day, crusty, and lukewarm.
I’ll give them a nod for the free chai. Guess you can’t really screw that up though…

If you are in search for authentic Indian cuisine, this is not the place to be. I tried Tikka (boti) kebab and Sindhi Biryani. Tikka was not very well marinated and it tasted more like rubber. The Biryani was more like Khichdi than Biryani.

This place is incredible. The food is always great and the people there are always delighted you came.
There isn’t much décor, but the flavors of the food more than makes up for it, like being transported to Pakistani-​Indian region while you’re there.
It’s in a funky neighborhood in the Tenderloin, it’s getting better, but be alert while walking through there.

First of all totally f**** up food, area and service. Use your money for something else before you go there. Very bad smelling atmosphere. All furniture is broke. Roofs were leaking etc. please highly recommended not to go there.

They are always so friendly here. The chicken masala is my favorite and I go about every week to get it although I do live across the street

Losing patience.
Incorrect menu: Mango chutney and wheat naan were both unavailable.
Missing paper towels: Not sure how one is supposed to dry their hands in the bathroom. At least there was a roll in the dining area where you order. Or maybe not so good.
Delayed change: Owed $ 0.25 from the bill. Took asking five times (on principle) to get it.
Extended wait for food: Numerous customers had their orders before me. Gentleman cooking assured me it was because everything was from scratch. Not so sure.
Did appreciate the offer of a salad to tide me over. They at least tried.
Make it this far with patience intact and you’ll be rewarded with something good. Juicy and flavorful chicken boti (spiced boneless breast cooked over charcoal) did not disappoint.
Just wish everything was as on point as the food.

You can’t go to tikka masala and don’t order the chicken tikka masala, I love it. Even if you are by yourself it still better than ordering a sandwich to go

OK Unilocal’ers. I’m giving it up. My super secret Indian spot. Holy crap is this food delicious ! Yes it is in a horrible part of town with a very ‘colorful’ walk to get your food. But if you only get one bullet wound to/​from with your food, it’s a success and worth the price of admission.
A place like this you don’t go for it’s service, you don’t go for it’s interior design, you go for some damn good fresh food. I’ve probably been here a couple times and I have not been disappointed. Friends that I bring are blown away by how flavorful food can be here.
Malik is helpful with the service and explains the food. Be ware though, this place can sometimes take a while to serve your food. Sometimes that’s the price of fresh n’ delicious food.

I love chicken korma… let’s just get that on the table. I LOVE CHICKEN KORMA. I have loved it hundreds of times all over the city.
So, I called Tikka Masala.
1. I called three times. Two of those times, the phone kicked me into a voicemail box and then hung up on me. I should have just stopped there.
Ordered chicken korma, two naan and some rice. On the menu, it said chicken korma was 5.99, naan $ 1/​pc and rice was 1.99. So, all told, we’re looking at around $ 11 with tax.
2. Got to the restaurant and the door is locked. Weird, but this nice gentleman comes up and unlocks it and starts talking really fast about how my food is getting cold, and he had to use the bathroom, so he locked the door. Mostly, I just smiled and nodded. There’s no one in the restaurant.
3. He says that the… thing…that they cook the naan in wasn’t getting hot enough so, he can’t give me the naan. Okay, I think… I should eat less bread anyway. Then… he motions for me to come back to the kitchen and actually shows me the sad little naan ball that has fallen into a pit of ash. At which point, I note that my food is simmering warmly in a pan.
4. He trys to offer me double rice instead of naan… but…um…that’s a lot of rice. So I just say, let’s nix the naan, and I’ll just have the korma and one rice. Okay… Okay, he says. Then he rings me up. 11.75, he says. Wait, what?
I manage to haggle him down to $ 10 for a meal I should only be paying about $ 8 for.
5. Try to leave the restaurant, but now I’m locked in. He mumbles something about bakeries and cakes (this is not a bakery) and unlocks the door.
6. Go back to work to eat my food. I want to be clear about something else… I will eat just about anything, particularly when I’ve overpayed for it. My mother rambling about cleaning my plate and starving children doesn’t usually give me many other options. But my chicken korma… my beloved creamy curry deliciousness… Not chicken korma… not even close. I got some chicken bones in greasy tomato sauce and some stale rice. So gross I couldn’t eat it.

We ordered the Saag Paneer and Aloo Gobi. The food was good and cheap. The reason I did not rate this restaurant higher was because half way through our meal, people came into the restaurant with power tools and started drilling near where we were sitting and cleaning out the place they were drilling. That was an unpleasant surprise.

gross. let a friend convince me to try it instead of my fav pakwaan. rubbery lamb chops. the curry had all fat and no real meat. biryani was stale and cold. never again.
long live pakwan!

I’d say this is a 4.5 star establishment, but reading through the reviews, someone needs to make up for the people who are 1) rating the neighborhood and 2) rating the lack of ambiance.
This is a hole-​in-​the-​wall place in the Tenderloin people! What are you expecting? Stepping over syringes to get there and hobnobbing with taxi-​drivers watching al jazeera IS 5-​star-​level ambiance for a place like this. Hands down.
Additionally…
— The owner (Malik?) was super nice and explained how everything is made fresh. He even told us he had a lamb shank that was the best thing in the kitchen that day, which we obviously ordered
— All the food was great, especially the naan
— Free chai
The portions weren’t huge, but 3 dishes and 3 pieces of naan were perfect for the 3 of us, and it was pretty cheap.
NOTE: This place was recommended as the best Pakistani food in the city by a friend of a friend of a friend from Karachi

This has been my go-​to place for North Indian/​Pakistani food for several years. I was there again last night and looked at the restuarant’s Unilocal reviews during the short wait between ordering and arrival of fabulous fare at the table. I knew, once the food arrived, all bets were off, nothing else would matter!
While looking at the reviews, I could not believe there is any sentient human being who would give this amazing gem of a gift of dining anything less than a 5-​Star review! I really wondered, «What the hell is wrong with these people?! Do they really expect it could eve get better than this??» The only problem with Tikka Masala is that is has ruined me for life: I have never been able to enjoy any other attempts by any other restaurant throughout the greater Bay Area to provide delicious Pakistani food. Tikka Masala has set the bar too high, no one can even come close.
I have eaten here scores of times and never, not once, did the food disappoint. Always piping hot, fresh dishes that are obviously made with the freshest and finest of ingredients. Dishes you can find everywhere else are presented with such authenticity, they take on a whole new character. Additionally, there are offerings I have never seen anywhere else, in over 20 years of eating this type of food in all parts of the world (save Pakistan itself). Be sure to ask for the daily specials, which are not posted anywhere but offered each night of the week: They deserve the moniker «special» because they are unique, novel offerings, most of which I have never encountered and a thrill to anyone with a lust for outstanding dining.
There is nothing on the menu I can especially recommend: It is ALL spectactular.
The location is right where it should be for authentic and scrumptious Pakistani fare in San Francisco, heart of the Tenderloin. Don’t be too haughty nor shy: Despite appearances, the neighborhood is safe, unless you also intend to engage in the activities of the stree, then you are on your own. Otherwise, the walk from car to Tikka Masala’s front door can be considered «colorful»; I have endured much worse to get at superior eats.
Any review of Tikka Masala would not be fair without mention of the proprietor and his staff, «Malik». He is a god among men or, as my people might say, a mensch! Everyone is greeted with by Malik with genuine warmth and welcome. If you can ‘read’ people, it is immediately apparent, upon your first visit, Malik is a special man entirely devoted to making sure you have an amazing dining experience. He is kind, caring and attentive. The same can be said of anyone working with him in the restaurant. From the time you walk to the counter to start considering what to order until you are ready to leave, Malik is always there with a sole desire to make sure you feel welcome, happy and enjoy the best possible meal. It is obvious he has a passion for his restaurant and living his personal dream of offering the Bay Area a very special culinary insight in to the foods of his home of origin.
If you follow my advice, try Tikka Masala just once, and are not fully satisfied, get a hold of me, I will refund your money (and probably advise you will be best served by only eating at home because, clearly, there is something wrong with you).
Tikka Masala is open late, each night of the week, so fabulous for those early morning cravings and hunger pangs. Just can’t tell all the wonderful things about this place. Now, if I ever go and have to wait for a table or something because the place becomes «too known», I will have screwed myself. Damn internet!

Sure it’s located in TL…
Sure the food takes a while sometimes… (although its come out fairly quickly the last few times I’ve been there)
but DAMN their lamb biryani is the bomb diggity. lamb tikka masala and naan are solid as well!