| rev:text
| - Mantra Masala is proof that I'm a bad girl and someone wants to punish me.
This is the only Indian option on my (southwest) side of town, and it's surely just about the only Indian restaurant without a buffet. The cruelty!
(They had a buffet for about five minutes a few summers ago. Eight dishes, heavy on the okra, heavy on the management's voiced opinion that it wasn't cost effective to run a buffet.)
For a long time I thought the lack of Indian buffet in my stretch of the valley was just meanness on the universe's part, even though the taste of Mantra Masala's food - be it dine-in or carry-out - was never really above three stars. I know they market themselves as "healthy" cuisine, and I suppose it shows.
But we finally called it quits on our frequent take-aways after paneer portions became more and more skimpy, naan often ended up kind of burned or tasteless, and we realized that there was a lot of "miss" and not really a single "hit" to justify being *that* lazy. Sometimes you just have to shrug and order a pizza instead.
I don't know how Mantra Masala has managed to survive - maybe they do because they're the only option out here - but if they're looking for more customers (and if the parking lot is any indication, surely they are), I beg them to consider the following:
1. Drop the healthy angle. It tastes weird.
2. Become a copycat of the successful Indian restaurants elsewhere in Las Vegas. I can't believe I'm advocating unoriginality, but at this point I just want to be able to get some solid, good Indian food near home. Being a copycat includes copying the proportions - no more skimping on paneer cubes!
3. Do a lunch buffet with some interesting angle. (This is where you should get creative.) Maybe a really wide range of desserts? No one else seems to play that up. Live music? Dance? Yeah, I know the old lunch buffet didn't work, and maybe it's because the population is more sparse out here, but it also was a boring buffet of limited items. (We looked over every dish, apologized, and left.) Maybe not every day, but at least run a buffet on weekends.
4. Cooking classes. DO THEM NOW. I have begged Indian restaurants across the valley to offer these and everyone just laughs politely and nothing happens. Here's a way to sell the buffet, too - as in, come for the buffet and get X amount off the cooking class immediately afterward. I know so many people who've expressed interest in learning how to cook Indian food, and at best we get the odd demo here and there. No one is doing this.
Offer hands-on classes on Saturday afternoons, just after the buffet, and change the topic every week. Gulab jamun class? I'm there. Naan in a home-oven class? Enrolled. Buttery paneer for the gringo soul? Let me BE the valedictorian!
(Note: Um, but you need to do steps 1 and 2 first, okay? I don't want to learn how to cook what you currently have going on.)
5. Explore the hipster space. Chutney tasting hour with matched cocktails? Bollywood pajama parties? Loaner saris at the door for those who want to get in the spirit?
6. Update your website. Turmeric has been the "Spice of the Moment" for, literally, years, and you don't even serve the kind of food where people are happy to walk away with turmeric-stained fingers. How about online ordering for take-away?
Mantra Masala, I'm sharing these ideas because I want some tasty Indian near my home. Right now you're providing meh food at ambitious prices. Please fix this. I want to cheer for the home team. RAH RAH RAH! GIMME KOR-MA!
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