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| - I have already been to India Oven many times since I moved to Arizona. My initial reaction to having their food was, "it's just OK". It started off with being average SUPER spicy food, even to me and I do enjoy a nice kick to my food but that deterred me from returning back for a while. With few Indian restaurants in the valley, I returned a few more times to give this place another try, hoping that I will change my mind and enjoy the food more but it was still just OK. The only time I kind of thought the food might actually be getting better was a few months ago when I went with my husband for dinner. I decided to only pick the dairy free options and it turned out to be a better experience so I decided to return again on Friday hoping for the best. Unfortunately, my experience was disappointing.
So we arrived at 5:30pm for dinner on a Friday night. They open at 5:00pm so I was hoping I was gonna get fresh food having arrived at the beginning of the dinner buffet but the exact opposite happened. Everything was just warm, some of the food in the buffet was even cold! My thoughts: is this the lunch buffet leftovers?!
I started with a samosa and some pakoda. The samosa dough was made perfectly, but the potato filling didn't have flavor. Pakoras were just ok too, nothing special. I then went for the main dishes. I had some plain rice and had the dhal makhani, the lamb vindaloo, chicken curry and chicken tikka masala and a bit of the chicken and veggie biryani. Everything was average, warm to cold and believe it or not, not spicy at all! What ever happened to the SUPER spicy food?! I understand that they may want to cater to the bigger population here and tone it down a little (and toning it down a little would have been great) but to get rid of the heat altogether I think is a mistake! I'm sure a lot of people come to Indian restaurants particularly to enjoy the flavors and the spice! This was what an Indian would call, "bland"!
With my food, I also had the mango lassi. Normally, this would be the most delicious drink you could order at an Indian restaurant. This tasted like melted mango ice cream & it wasn't even cold.
After I finished my dish, I decided not to go for seconds and just went for dessert. The first problem I had here was the bowls! I picked up one and it was sticky on the bottom, when I flipped it, it was dirty! I had to go through at least 3-4 bowls before I found a couple which were not too bad! I tried the mango custard and the kheer as well as the gulab jamun. The custard which is usually good had a bitter after taste so I decided not to eat it. The kheer had a piece of lettuce in it so I removed it and still had it; it was OK but there was no taste of cardamom which is what makes the kheer special. The gulab jamun was also ok, not warm enough though.
I thought I would finish my meal with tea. It unfortunately did not have much flavor and it was was just warm. I don't like warm tea, it has to be hot for me to enjoy it so I only had a couple of sips.
People may question my review because I am not Indian but I am someone who was brought up in Dubai where more than half the population is Indian and we had Indian restaurants or cafeterias at every corner, we had Indian neighbors, colleagues, friends, you name it so I am someone who grew up eating Indian food at restaurants and in people's homes from my early childhood and for over 33 years and I used to love it!!!
This meal has unfortunately disappointed both myself and my husband. They get 1 star for food and 3 or more stars for service but service alone is not enough to make us return to India Oven again.
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