Marigold Indian Bistro

My husband and I go there at least 3 times a month, and are treated like family. I always try to order something different, but everything is so delicious I always get what I ordered the last time I was there!
The Moroccan Iced tea is delicious, I highly recommend this restaurant. Don’t pay attention to the bad reviews, they are new, and improving all the time.

We go to a restaurant for two things; food and ambience. This is a place where not only food is not so good but also, as a guest you don’t feel like welcomed.
There has been a change of owner recently. The current owner was very apologetic about the behavior of her staff and explained that it’s hard for her to get decent staff who are trained to be in hospitality industry. Nevertheless, I am not here to solve her problems nor to be dis-​respected by her staff.
Paid for the full bill and came without eating anything. Whole atmosphere was appalling.

Great food. Great staff. They greet us by name and know what our favorite dishes are. Fast service. Polite. Tasty. Wonderful. We try to eat here at least once a month. We would do more but there are so many awesome places in Sonoma county. Try their signature dishes. You won’t be disappointed.

My husband and I have eaten at Marigold several times and each time have really enjoy the food. Ingredients are fresh and a live tasting, service is friendly and engaging and prices are fair and moderate. I do not hesitate to recommend this restaurant for people who enjoy Indian food or are willing to try it. Very nice family-​owned restaurant.

I first visited Marigold for dinner over a year ago, and I remember them being good– not excellent, but certainly adequate. Food was tasty, restaurant was warm, and servers were pleasant.
Turns out they’re rather inconsistent; I recently invited a friend there for lunch and felt silly for having done so because the quality of everything had drastically dropped. The restaurant was freezing cold, food was problematic, and service was deadpan.
My lunch companion and I both ordered vegetable curry which comes with rice (basmati or brown), salad, and naan. He stated that he didn’t want the naan, so I requested that they give me his portion. We were served dahl soup as a starter, which, although in scanty amounts, had lovely flavor.
There was disappointment on both sides of the table when our main meals arrived. The vegetable curry simply wasn’t good. The spices were… off. It was medium spicy as I’d wanted, but it was bitter and utterly lacking any richness or sweetness. This was surprising considering that the chana masala I’d had there previously was perfectly delicious. The salad was severely under-​dressed, so much so that I was glad I’d asked for chutneys; I ended up using them as supplemental dressing. The naan was fine but they neglected to bring me my friend’s portion; I didn’t think it was an unreasonable request considering they ended up charging him the usual price.
Luckily, it was not an expensive meal; $ 10 for all that is a bargain in Sebastopol. I just wish it had been more enjoyable, and I likely won’t be returning.

Absolutely love this place! I’ve lived in sebastopol my entire life and have never previously enjoyed a resturaunt as much as this one. The TIKI MASALA and VINDALOO are to die for. Along with some NAAN bread (I prefer the cheesy naan) is wonderful. Don’t forget to try their MANGO LASSY it is to die for (if you’re not lactose intolerant as it is yogurt).
Of all this i have to mention the service is wonderful. Always beautifully nice and remember my return. The resturaunt is a bit small but the space is beautiful and located not clear from main street sebastopol. It has a great location and consistent service however I’ve never had to wait for a table. Everything is clean, neat and organized. If parking is an issue I recommend the parkinglot to the right of the building as it is usually empty.

I prefer this spot over the Himalayan spot in Sebastopol although they do have very nice service there. The food here is lighter and tastes healthier. Their mint and tamarind chutney that come with the samosas are some of my favorite flavors I’ve had in any Indian restaurant. I had a piece of fish there one meal that was so freakin good! The portions are on the small side but the taste sensations are massive. Naan does not come with entrees but costs extra. Not sure about the rice but they do offer basmati and brown rice. I dream about the food here. I like them too because today I called in a to go order 6 minutes before they closed and they said, «No problem»

Took a good friend to Marigold for her Birthday dinner, it was our first time there. Excellent food! Great wine list and lovely ambiance. The service was superb. I will be going back.

Went there for a friend’s birthday dinner. They have a smaller room where we were able to comfortably have a table for eight. I had the tikka masala and we tried each of the appetizers. Everyone in my party enjoyed what they ordered. Wait staff was attentive and the atmosphere was pleasant. I just felt it was a bit overpriced compared to other Indian restaurants in the area.

Not the best Indian food I’ve eaten but it’s not terrible. The portions seemed kind of small. The chicken chunks in the tika masala were too big for my mouth. It had good flavor. We ordered two portions of nan but were served two half-​pieces and they were cold and bland. The basmati rice had peas in it that tasted frozen. Some were cold. The saag was was not good and tasted too much like spinach without flavor. The worst part was finding a hair in it. Yuck.

I love this place. I go there often. I usually get the Tandoori Salmon if they have it. It’s delicious. The food is fresh and the produce is local, and organic chicken. I like that they put a few peas on top of the brown rice. They have pride in the service and the food. Also once I ordered the wrong thing and they checked in with me and corrected it to what I wanted.
This is more like home cooked indian than the greasy fast food version. I like both, but this one is much healthier. I’m glad because I eat it all the time.
The soup and salad included with certain meals are delicious. And the raita is amazing.

I went for lunch with my sister and this place is very cute, great location, parking spaces available vs having to look for street parking, and we had an overall good experience.
THE FOOD was good we order chicken tikka masala and chicken curry. The curry is very spicy if you order it spicy and the Chicken tikka needed a bit more seasoning. My favorite part of the dishes was that they were great portions and great variety for a great price. The dishes came with Naan bread, salad, and lentil soup aside from the usual rice and entrée.
So there you have it folks!

After reading mixed reviews, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this little Indian place, but I’m so glad I checked it out. The service was great. Very sweet people running the place who were very attentive and made my friend and I feel right at home. We sat outside because it was a tad warm inside when we arrived for dinner one Thursday after work. We ordered some samosas which were excellent. We also decided to try the iced tea they make… I believe it was a Moroccan style iced tea that they created. Whatever it was was magic in a glass. It was soooo tasty and refreshing, we couldn’t believe it! For our entrée, I ordered the Tandori grill hot platter (not sure if that’s what it’s called on the menu but you’ll know what I’m talking about) that came with a few prawns, lamb and chicken… with some brown rice on the side and some naan. My friend decided to try the apricot chicken curry dish. Both dishes were very flavorful and delicious, and cooked perfectly. The only reason they aren’t getting the 5 star rating is because the portions were rather small and the prices a bit steep, but I will be back to try other things on the menu that piqued my interest. Great new addition to Sebastopol. Give ‘em a try!

Food was solid. Nothing like crazy blow your socks off good. But would probably go back. The thing that bothered me the most was the prices. This place was $$$ for what you get. Good for them for having decent food. But tone it down with cost.

Place is clean and authentic, so is the food. A great ethnic food in a place like Sebastopol.

The chutney was good. Small portions high prices and kind of blah.
The regional iced tea was good and so was the nan. We had the eggplant and it seemed lackluster. Being vegetarians we were limited in what we could order

We ate in the restaurant late last night (it closes at 9:00 on Fri). We were unsuccessful in making a reservation online. «Later», we were told.
The northern India menu is just deadly dull. There isn’t one — not even one — dish I haven’t had dozens of times at uncreative Indian restaurants across the US. I could have told you what was on it before I even opened it. A few dishes from different regions would have been so welcome.
I ordered the lamb saagwala. My husband ordered the chicken curry. We were asked «mild, medium or spicy?». We both like hot and spicy food. As it was our first time, though, we played it conservatively and ordered our food «medium». It was not spicy at all. But for this, it was flavorful. The prices were modest; so also were the portions. Half portion versus full portion options might be a good way to go instead. We ordered the «Tea leaf salad». I have no idea why it’s called this. It’s just a baby-​lettuces-​from-​the-​bag salad, an awkward pinwheel slice of tomato and a dressing with chunks of fruit in it, too sweet to eat. The samosas were fine. The onion kulcha was superior.
After the salad and appetizers, plates and bowls were collected. As you sometimes hear in mediocre restaurants, I was invited to hang onto my «dirty» utensils. Mine were especially «dirty», and I wasn’t ready to lick them clean, especially the knife. I got my napkin filthy wiping them clean. I asked if I could have another one. I got a little giggle and never saw another one until I was desperate for another and repeated my request.
With soft drinks, our 2-​person dinner came to $ 53 excluding tip. As I said, we did not eat the salad, but had ordered enough other food to be comfortably full anyway.
My biggest complaint was the door from the kitchen which dominates dining room. Take a table far away from it if you can. The kitchen is blindingly bright and very noisy as they often are. The problem was that, not unsurprisingly, it was opened and closed constantly. The owner on several occasions held it open wide and shouted orders from the dining from through it. I’m not sure how to improve this problem given the floor plan.
Marigold opened relatively recently, so glitches are to be expected. Happily, the staff are friendly. So, in the hope that some of these issues get favorably resolved, we’ll certainly give it another try.

I have to update and downgrade. As one of the other reviewers mentioned they also «forgot» about us! We sat for 20 minutes before we had to get up and let them know they had not yet taken our order. They did not apologize. We will try them again one day… but not when we have our little one with us. Way too slow… Once the food did arrive and we ate (quickly) we had spent almost 2 hours there.

They forgot about me!
I went to Marigold on a weekday night. The restaurant was about 50% occupied and there seemed to be plenty of staff. I placed my order at the register and was then invited to sit at an empty table, directly across from the register.
After 60 minutes (exactly), I asked how much longer my order would be. «Your order?», they asked. They then set about to find the slip they had written my order on. When they could not find it, they took my order again. No apology. No offer of water, tea or even a small snack as I waited… for another 30+ minutes.
When I got the food home to my family and guests, it was stone cold. I only live a few blocks away, so how is this even possible? Having paid more that $ 100 for this terrible takeout experience, I am left with a very sour taste in my mouth.
I hope that they are reading and responding to these reviews. And, I hope that they improve. The other Indian restaurant in town isn’t that great, either.
Namaste!

Unfortunately, the MariGOLD Indian Bistro didn’t win any GOLD medals for two reasons… First, portion sizes, but mostly because the host laughed at a very simple request, and reacted as though I had asked she include a side of GOLD with my meal… Allow me to explain…
(And yeah, I’m gonna use the «gold» thing as much as possible… But maybe there’s a pot at the end of this criticism rainbow, if MIB (OH MY GOD MEN IN BLACK… that’s a fun one too…) takes some friendly advice.)
We ordered takeout on a chilly Sebastapol afternoon because we had to stay at work, but wanted some delicious Indian food while we slaved away. I placed the order and then ran over to snag the much needed sustenance.
When I got there the place was fine, not much to look at in terms of décor or ambiance, but that doesn’t matter if the food is delicious, and especially when one is ordering takeout. The host was courteous enough and I waited a completely reasonable amount of time as they finished packing up the order.
As I was about to leave I peeked in the bag and, not seeing them, asked if they had included the traditional sauces one finds on the table, usually a mint chutney, a sweet tamarind sauce and a type of relish. She looked at me with confusion and asked if I meant the raita? I said «No, I mean the three sauces… you know, mint, the sweet tamarind one and that other one?»
«Oh, no… you only get those if you eat in.» Whaaaaa?
A) I’ve never been to an Indian restaurant that didn’t include those in the takeaway bag.
B) Even if it’s not typically included, perhaps, if asked for, the protocol should be to say, «Certainly!»
C) Whaaaa?
«Hmm, those are usually included. You don’t include those?»
«What do you put them on? The lamb biriyani?» She asked, in a tone that indicated this couldn’t possibly be the case…
Fully aware that this would probably not be the «right» answer, I responded honestly, «I put all of them on everything. And then I put raita on too.» She laughed at this as though it were preposterous, pursed her lips and said, «Let me go ask.»
I waited while she hustled back into the kitchen and could see through the small window as she and the cook gestured and spoke. I was causing quite a hubub, with my disgusting love of Indian sauces.
She came back with one, ONE, of those small, clear plastic, 1 oz. containers filled about ¹⁄₃ of the way with tamarind sauce. I mean, what is this stuff, I thought to myself…
(wait for it…
wait for it…
wait…for…it…)
GOLD?!!
(told ya I’d bring it back around!)
I took the single sauce, which we would have had to split between the three of us using a MIB phasometer (which is a made up instrument I’m imagining the MIB use to measure alien phases and/​or weight) and hustled back to work.
In addition to feeling mocked and gypped of those sauces (I know that’s not a PC term, but I’m too lazy to look up an alternative), when we opened our lamb biriyani and chicken tikka masala, there were six pieces of chicken and six pieces of lamb, probably totaling about 6 oz of protein for both of the main dishes combined, surrounded by a load of rice and sauce. We felt a bit like prospectors digging for GOLD in them thar hills of rice ‘n sauce…(Ha)
To be fair, it must be said that the chicken tikka masala sauce was DELICIOUS and perfectly spiced. It had just the right amount of heat, with a lovely richness. With a bit more meat the dish could be good as GOLD. (Ha) Also, the lamb biriyani had a nice flavor profile and I very much enjoyed the sweetness added by the raisins.
So that’s why MIB doesn’t live up to the GOLD standard. (Ha) But I urge them to take some criticism from some of these Unilocalers, who are offering a GOLDmine of information…(Ha) and I hope they are able to address some of these issues. I’d like to see them strike GOLD here in Sebastapol and I still think they can…
In other words, (can’t resist), go for the GOLD MariGOLD Indian Bistro!
The Loving Critic