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| - For all the people stating that this is the best Indian food in Madison, I can only assume that they have not ever been to Maharaja. Or Swagat. Maharaja is the best Indian restaurant in Madison, and we have been going there for years. But to keep an open mind, we have tried Dhaba twice in the past month.
First of all, the place itself is nicely decorated, and the service is excellent. The waitstaff are polite and attentive, and there are plenty of them. But the food is just not that good (other than the Naan).
Every entree comes with either soup or salad. We have gotten their lentil soup both times, which is buttery, thin, and tastes very little like lentils. However, it's not bad, just not very interesting or lentil-y.
For main courses, we have had the Chicken Shahikorma and the Chicken Tikka Masala, as well as the Spinach (ie Palak) Paneer (a combo of spinach and farmer's cheese-like cubes) and Spinach Aloo (spinach with potatoes).
The first time we tried the Chicken Shahikorma, I was suspicious that the base of it was actually canned tomato soup with a few spices added. Seriously. It was a very thin sauce, with cut up chunks of nicely cooked chicken breast in it. But the sauce was not like any shahikorma I've ever had, and it was not interesting. The second time we came we had the Chicken Tikka Masala, and strangely enough, it had the exact same sauce as the shahikorma. The two dishes should not, repeat not, have the same sauce. And the Chicken Tikka should have been made with chicken cooked in the Tandoor oven, but there was no evidence that it had been. We felt a little ripped off that the two dishes use the same sauce. They should not.
The spinach dishes were ok, except the potatoes in the Spinach Aloo were undercooked - as in crunchy. I didn't eat them.
The Naan is great, I admit. But the rest just is not that good. Seriously, if folks want really good Indian, go to Maharaja and get the Chicken Shahikorma or Tikka there.
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