Tabla Fine Indian Cuisine

My husband and I both love Indian food. It has been very difficult to find good Indian food in Tampa. We were very pleasantly surprised to find this wonderful restaurant right in our neighborhood. The food is amazing! The garlic naan is to die for! Lovely décor. We highly recommend this jewel of a restaurant.

I am on business in the Tampa area weekly and make it a point to visit Tabla every week. Why? Because their food is THAT good! If you are looking for a quick bite though — relax. Everything takes time to make and is worth it! When you sit down they bring pappadum with spicy onions and a mint yogurt dipping sauce. I go with a co-​worker of mine who is from India (Delhi) and he always orders the best food! So far my favorites are butter chicken (of course!), chicken tikka masala with a velvety gravy that makes you just want more, and a lamb rogan josh which has always been my favorite. The Basmati rice is perfect to soap up the sauce, as is the Nann (plain buttered or garlic — we order both). Now I will show my lack of proper names — for appetizer we order a grilled paneer with a red marinade — the cottage cheese cubes melt in your mouth and are served with grilled onions and peppers — all on a sizzling plate. Samosas? Excellent. Idli? very different for me — little rice cakes (not like the ones you buy in the store) that are dipped. I can’t wait to sample some more excellent food at Tabla. Also –Miriam always leaves me a pitcher of water as I usually drink the whole thing!

So good! I had their paneer butter masala. It was delicious! I’ve found it difficult to cook this right, typically it’s too oily, but they made it perfect.
The rice was good… a little dry but the masala soaked right in. Nann was fantastic.
Veggie simosa was very good as well.
I’ll definitely be coming back!

Been here a few times and really enjoy the service and quality of the food. The cauliflower appetizer is outstanding as are all the entrees we’ve tried so far.

This was the first time I had ever eaten Indian cuisine and I just cant wait to go back! Everything we tried was fantastic and just the right amount of heat. The staff was welcoming and gracious and I would recommend this restaurant to anyone. I wish more people new about this place!

I LOVE this place! The food is fantastic. There is literally no other decent indian restaurant within 15 miles of this place. The staff is okay, very friendly.
Me and my wife have been here a few times, and every time we leave very satisfied. She loves lamb, and ordered a few different lamb dishes, and we were both quite impressed every time.
I love the Butter chicken!!!
Im no expert on Biryani, but it was delicious, but i dont really like bone-​in chicken in those types of dishes, maybe its more authentic like this, but I dont like it (maybe ill ask them to cook it boneless next time). Thats really the only thing I dont like about this place. Other than that, I love it.
I wish more people knew about it. Every time I go around 7 – 8 PM, its empty. For being the only indian restaurant in the area, id think it would be more popular. Is there another one nearby thats better? I wish someone would tell me.
Long story short, this place is the best indian food in the area, and did I mention how good their butter chicken is? If not, then let me say it again. Their butter chicken is from heaven.

Came to the lunch buffet here to try it out since it’s pretty close to home. I was surprised at how busy this place gets on a weekday during their lunch buffet hours. It speaks volumes to the quality and taste of their lunch offerings. This place is under new management and the interior appeared very sparse, but the owner let us know that he is planning on doing interior renovations within the next couple of weeks. The service was friendly and the buffet was well stocked with all of the vegetarian and non-​vegetarian options. So glad I have a nicer Indian spot so close to home!

Worst food, I found meat in my Veg biryani !! And waiter argued with me that it might not be and when asked why he said there is nothing he can do as it was late and manger and the chef had left to home! Forget courtesy he was arrogant on things, I have been around so many Indian places in the USA and this was the worst of all !!

Ate here for the first time the other night and had a wonderful experience. Our waiter was very attentive and friendly and the food was AMAZING! Portion size is fairly large and I was able to take home some leftovers for lunch the next day. Highly recommend this place to anyone looking for really good Indian cuisine. The butter chicken is to die for.

Was at this restaurant Sunday afternoon for buffet. Service was very poor. Biryani was probably the worst I ever had.

Poor service for the buffet, empty dishes. Took almost 20 min to wait for Naan. Biryani rice was stale.

Tabla catered my Indian wedding this past weekend and the food was a HUGE HIT! I’ve never heard so many guests comment on how much they love the dishes at any wedding, and was surprised how much I enjoyed each thing we ordered. The fish was especially loved, as well as the daal, and the chicken. The food was perfectly spiced, fresh, and the delivery was fast and the guys were really friendly. Will definitely be coming back for a regular dinner or if I need another event catered.

Ordered delivery for a Sunday night family dinner. We ordered samosas, masala dosa, dal makhani, and paneer butter masala. Out of these, the restaurant called us twice (through the delivery vendor, Mobile Meals) to tell us first, they were unable to make the masala dosa. Twenty minutes later, we received another call informing us the dal makhani could not be made. At that point out of frustration, I called the restaurant directly and the manager assumed I was calling from Mobile Meals, not realizing that I was the customer. His initial response was not very nice and when he realized after 5 minutes of my attempts to tell him I was the customer, he finally apologized. Although I cannot speak to the quality of the food, the fact that a business does not have proper ingredients or functioning machines to make the food that is advertised on their menus already makes a huge statement regarding the type of business practices being implemented.
Safe to say I will be returning to Saffron to satisfy my Indian food cravings in the New Tampa area.

OMG.
I cannot express the amount of stress I went through today (Sunday) afternoon for my lunch. I had received few good reviews from a couple of my colleagues for this place and wanted to give it a try for Sunday lunch with my wife. I had to drive 30 min to get there, I am not complaining here on the drive but want to emphasize the expectation i was setting.
I arrive at restaurant and there is no one to ask me to my table. I moved around to find on my own after a couple of minutes of wait time and got 3 empty places. All were really dirty so I went to the reception to find a guy who can get me a seat. He seemed hardly interested in the customers and after a few min he cleaned the table. There were rice and other food stuffs on the chair but he did not bother to clean them up. I had to ask him twice and expected to move on and enjoy the food.
To let you know I love to eat non-​veg but for current period of 10 days (Navratri) I am only on veggies. The buffet had 5 types of chicken but could not find anything interesting in vegetarian dishes. Paneer and Dal were kinda dry and did not appeal. Samosa chaat was out of stock and Vada did not so good either by looking at it. Presentation was not good but I was expecting good food and moved on.
Would not take much time explaining as I could hardly eat most of the food I took in my plate.
I conveyed my concern to the owner and he tried to make up for my pain so far. He got chaat, mango lassi and Potato fry for us and I wanted to appreciate his effort. Neither of the food were near good or say eatable. Chola was no where it’s supposed to taste like, tasted more of tomato soup with too much of salt. Potato was uncooked and above all the lassi was Sugar Syrup. Talking to my wife during this time was the only thing from not saying anything to them again. We were still hungry and decided to get out of the place.
To hit me harder the guy (same guy who cleaned the table for me) charged me for my complementary lassi. Can you believe this.
Anyway I am never going back again and neither anyone of my friends.
Hope you guys have better food and hospitality.
Thanks

Came here back in January when my friends and I decided to make a trip through Florida. Definitely got our indian food fix here. We came for the lunch buffet and the food was delicious! Loved the chicken tikka masala. From what I remember, the price was about $ 10/​person since we came on a weekday. I think it’s about $ 12/​person on the weekends. Still worth it in my opinion. My friends and I left with happy, satisfied tummies.

The food at tabla, is a very unique experience. It manages to capture the feel of authentic Indian cuisine, it’s how I imagine a Indian grandmother would make her food. Now I don’t claim to be a authority on Indian food, but I have to say this is one of the best meals I have ever eaten. I asked the waiter what his favorite meal was he told me that it was the goat masala. So, I told him I would try it. And I must say, I was not disappointed. The meat was tender and melt in your mouth delicious, the naan bread was also exquisite light and fluffy in places and crispy where it needs to be, it was fresh baked in a clay oven. The basmati rice was also delicious. I cannot rate this place high enough for anyone who enjoys Indian food. Is an absolute 10 out of 10, and I intend to drag everyone I know to this restaurant.

The first thing that struck me when my husband and I walked in was the large expanse of the empty space. Tabla is one big room. The fact that very few people were dining when I was there made me feel a little uneasy. The staff was a group of men standing around talking. When one of them came over and took our orders I felt a bit more comfortable. I had Palak Paneer, which compared well with other places where I’ve had it. My husband had Chicken Korma, he asked for mild and it came out with a bit more heat than he likes but he found the dish to his liking and all was well. On the side we had a very good Raita as well as Naan.
The food is quite good but the ambiance needs a woman’s touch.

Went last night. Order the same dishes. The chicken vindaloo and Vegetable biriyani are yummy!
Mango Lassi drink is sweet and perfect for the meals.

Very clean, great atmosphere, kid friendly. Their lunch buffet is fresh and very good!

A star is born?
Went there for the lunch buffet. Great and friendly service, a great change from the rather snobbish and obnoxious previous owners…
Chicken Biriyani was very good. Butter chicken excellent. Nans very good. The goat curry and the chicken curry were good too!
Keep it up, people– we need some good Indian food in the area!