Taj Restaurant

Name: Taj Restaurant
Location: 59 Main St., Binghamton, NY 13905
Phone: (607) 723-6454
Cuisine: Indian/American
Price: About $10 per person

Review:
Taj is located on Main St. on Binghamton's West Side, near Binghamton High School and not far from downtown. It represents the third and final installment in my tour of local Indian restaurants. The first I reviewed, Moghul, I found to have great ambiance and very good food, but regretted that they decided to stop their lunch buffet. My second Indian stop was at Curry's of India, which had virtually no ambiance but good food, and I thought their $6 lunch buffet represented great value. I thought the food at Curry's could benefit from more spice. I have been curious about Taj for awhile now, having read some very good things about it and I had heard they, like Curry's, had a lunch buffet that was pretty good. Today, I went to check it out.

I arrived at Taj and found it to have a somewhat rundown, mildly dirty atmosphere. Not exactly the most appetizing of places to eat, but as always, I come for the food first and foremost. After all, Curry's didn't exactly wow me with ambiance or pristine cleanliness, but I liked it well enough. What bugged me is that despite signage declaring that the "buffet (is) served every day," the buffet was not going on at this time. So that was a bummer. In lieu of the buffet I decided to do take out and began a thorough scan of the menu. And what a weird menu it is, with American cuisine like burgers and Greek favorites like gyros tossed in amongst the usual curry dishes that comprise the bulk of the menu.

At any rate, I think the owner mistook my perusal of the menu for being a novice to Indian cuisine and he was quick on the trigger to offer a suggestion. He recommended that I try the Chicken Biryani, and promised that I would love it. Sounded good to me, so I decided to give it a shot. A short 10-minute wait later, and my order was ready. The owner gave me three different sauces to try with the biryani: a yogurt sauce similar to tzatziki, a mildly spicy tomato-based sauce, and a spicy chili paste. He recommended I try the various sauces with the Biryani, in that order. I found his customer service to be good-natured and efficient, if perhaps a bit unintentionally patronizing. Before leaving I asked when the buffet would be going on again, and he replied that once the Binghamton University fall semester starts up, they'll probably start it up. So much for "every day."

$10 later, I headed home to give this Indian meal a try. As it turned out, I really did not care for it. The chicken in the dish was mostly fat and bones, with very few bites yielding any actual meat. What was there was not particularly tasty. That leaves the rice, which looked and tasted like it had been sitting around awhile. It had some good seasoning to it: I could pick out the flavors of cardamom, coriander, mint, and caraway. But it was all stuck together and dried out. The sauces were just OK. The yogurt sauce was very similar to Greek tzatziki (it very well may have been). The tomato sauce was my favorite of the three, and I ended up dumping it on the rice to give it some extra flavor. It had the subtle spiciness that I have grown to associate with Indian cuisine. The chili paste was OK, I guess, but I didn't think it was a very good match for the dish I ordered. To each his own, I reckon.

I do not recommend a trip to Taj. The restaurant has little atmosphere and borders on filthy. I did not care for the food, nor its preparation, a shame especially given that I have enjoyed practically every Indian meal I've ever had before this one. I also didn't think that it really represented good value, and I didn't appreciate the false advertising of a buffet when they did not offer one. I did think the customer service was good, but even that rubbed me the wrong way a little bit. Head the extra quarter mile over the bridge into downtown and hit up Curry's of India if you're looking for inexpensive Indian food, or if you have a few extra dollars head out the Vestal Parkway and try Moghul, home to one of the area's best restaurant atmospheres. It's perfectly possible that I caught Taj on a bad day, but I wouldn't expect a future visit to yield anything much better.

Grade: D

Curry's of India

Name: Curry's of India
Location: 45 Court St #2, Binghamton, NY 13901
Phone: (607) 722-8181
Cuisine: Indian
Attire: Casual
Price: $6 for lunch buffet per person

Review:
I finally made it to Curry's of India for the lunch buffet today. I'd tried to go a few weeks back but went on a Monday without realizing they were closed Mondays, and ended up at the Old World Deli instead. I'd been to Curry's once many, many years ago (10+) and pretty much forgot about it. Even though it's on Court St. right in the heart of downtown, it's not really all that noticeable unless you're looking for it. Anyhow, I made it today and was happy with most aspects of the meal, but not blown away.

Upon walking into Curry's I was greeted by an older woman, presumably one of the owners. There are two rows of small tables on either side of the VERY small space, and the buffet was set up toward the back of the restaurant by the kitchen. I will note that there is absolutely zero ambiance to this restaurant with very little by way of decor...it's very bare-bones in terms of presentation.

On today's buffet there was a reasonable array of foods: rice, lentils, chickpea masala, beef curry, peas and mushrooms, rice pudding, and the Indian staple bread, naan. I sampled a bit of everything and was pleased with most. The chickpea masala in particular was noteworthy and had a nice sweet, mildly spicy flavor. The beef curry was also good and kind of like an Indian version of Swedish meatballs. The rice pudding dessert didn't really do anything for me (disclaimer: I have never really cared much for rice pudding, Indian or otherwise), and the peas/mushrooms constituted an amorphous mass of slop that didn't really have much flavor.

While I liked the food, there was something notably absent from the mix: the heat! I like my Indian food spicy and the dishes at Curry's, ironically, are lacking in that department. Granted, the dishes for the buffet are probably cooked so as to appeal to the most people possible, and hence are designed not to be overly spicy. I would imagine that if you order from their main menu, you could order your entree to your specifications. For the buffet, the dishes were more sweet than spicy, which was fine, just different from my usual preference.

Curry's represents a solid lunch option in downtown Binghamton. Do not expect anything at all by way of ambiance; do expect good authentic Indian food served by a family who I sense truly takes pride in their product. For $6, the lunch buffet represents good value. Despite some minor flaws, Curry's fills the void in my dining exploits vacated when Moghul stopped doing their lunch buffet, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for an inexpensive Indian meal.

Grade: B

Moghul Fine Indian Cuisine & Tapas Bar

Name: Moghul Fine Indian Cuisine & Tapas Bar
Location: 4700 Vestal Parkway East, Vestal, NY 13850
Phone: (607) 729-2266
Cuisine: Indian
Attire: Casual to Business Casual
Price: $50+ for dinner for two

Review:
Moghul is located in University Plaza on the Vestal Parkway, in the same strip mall where Mediterranean Gyro is located. I have been to Moghul many times over the past few years, sometimes for lunch, sometimes for dinner, and yet other times to sit at the bar after work on Friday and have a drink, or two, or ten. All things considered, I'd say that Moghul stands among my favorite places to go in the area.

After entering Moghul you'll notice the bar off to the left and the dining room to the right. It's really an excellent layout because it's pretty much two different experiences depending on whether you are there to go to the bar or there to eat a more formal lunch or dinner. I used to love going there for lunch when they had a lunch buffet. It gave me the opportunity to try all sorts of Indian foods that I never would have tried otherwise. Plus, it was only about $10, so it represented really good value. About a year ago they decided to discontinue the lunch buffet. I would imagine it resulted in a lot of wasted food and I perceived that it wasn't a popular lunch spot for many people. Binghamtonians and their shoddy palates be damned! It would be really awesome if they got the buffet back up and running because it really was excellent.

The menu is pretty diverse and has all sorts of traditional Indian appetizers, soups, and entrees. I've had the vegetable and chicken pakoras and found them to be pretty tasty. The mulligatawny (lentil soup) is good and has a nice kick to it. An added bonus is that it comes complimentary with every entree.


Doesn't look like much (nor does most Indian food, really) but it's always a nice start to the meal.

Back in the days of the buffet I was able to try all sorts of yummy stuff. Some I liked quite a bit (Paneer Tikka Masala, Tandoori Chicken, Chicken Saag, Rogan Josh), others I did not care for too much (Matter Mushroom, Gobi Lezeez). These days, with the buffet no longer in existence, I usually stick with the same two entrees, the Chicken Tikka Masala or the Chicken Vindaloo. For those uninitiated to the charms of Indian cuisine, Chicken Tikka Masala consists of chicken which has been roasted in a clay oven topped with a tomato curry sauce. It's simultaneously sweet and spicy and is delicious. It can be VERY spicy, but the staff at Moghul is excellent at giving it to you however you want it. If you like it really spicy, you can get it that way, and if you prefer it mild with barely any spice, you can get it that way too.



That's what it looks like. Again, not much to look at, but this is easily one of my favorite five things to eat in the Southern Tier. It's served with basmati rice, and I highly recommend getting a side order of naan (bread) to eat it with. Vindaloo is somewhat similar but contains potatoes and a vinegar-based sauce. It too can be extremely spicy, even spicier than the Tikka Masala. Lucky for me, I happen to like it that way! Both of these entrees are excellent. I highly recommend that if you have little to no experience with Indian food that you give the Tikka Masala a shot. It just may convert you.

It's probably worth talking a little bit about the bar at Moghul. Draft beer is really cheap but they are plagued by having a pretty bad selection. The best you can do is either the Magic Hat #9 or the Sam Adams Seasonal, but most things are around $3. On Friday they have a happy hour special where they bring out some kind of free appetizer that you can try while having some drinks. It's usually pretty good and you can't go wrong with trying some free Indian food. The bar has a pretty relaxed atmosphere and is devoid of fratty undergrads, which is always a plus. It's a nice place to end the work week and get the weekend underway.

Moghul can be a little on the expensive side for the food (probably too expensive), so be prepared to drop some coin, but it's mostly worth it. The service is always top-notch and the servers are extremely knowledgeable on all the dishes and will do their best to ensure they are made to your specifications. I've always enjoyed what I've had to eat there and it's a cool place to hang out on a Friday night, certainly superior to Tully's, which is right around the corner. I really wish they still had the lunch buffet, but I can't complain too much. I still really need to try some of the other Indian restaurants in the area, but if you like Indian food, I think you will find Moghul to be quite good. If you are uninitiated to the world of Indian cuisine, Moghul would be an fine place to remedy that.

Grade: B+