Julian Waters
Google
Appealing interior decorations and fast food service don’t make up for non-personnable service and uninspiring cuisine.
India Palace has a prime location on Center Street, and judging by other reviews and signage at the front door has garnered an avid following from local restaurant-goers.
We were seated quickly and presented with menus, which is composed of what you’d normally expect from an Indian restaurant. Having selected a couple of curries we admired the interior, which is aging but fairly well-kept and fits the theme of the restaurant well.
The food arrived quickly and the rice and naan provided were plentiful, though the ratio of curries to rice was lacking. The portions of curries were a tad smaller than I would have expected for the price point, and the flavors showed certain American influences. The Chicken Tiki Masala, for example, came in a sauce with significant notes of tomato, which dominated the flavor profile and obscured whatever other traditional spices may have been used. The two other curries that we got seemed equally Americanized; they were both good (though the meat varied, one curry had drier meat while another was appropriately moist, YMMV) but just about average; nothing particular special and nothing particularly detrimental.
The service, though attentive, is severely lacking in giving customers any kind of personal connection to the server or establishment. Our server seemed to rush through interactions with us and created a sense of pressure in the ordering process, deferring us hurriedly to the three or four most commonly-known Indian curries when asked about his personal favorite dishes from the menu and then immediately asking which of them we would be ordering.
All of these factors combine to a rating of three stars. Not great, not awful, but nothing exceptionally impactful either.
(Price range indicated includes final costs after taxes and gratuity)