Great place to go if don't really want great food. We asked for a little more bread/crackers and the server picked up the basket and never came back. To say the least about the communication skills, right? None!! read more

Totally unacceptable. Placed a delivery order at 6:20pm and was quoted 45-60 minutes delivery time. After 1 hour and 10 minutes, we checked the status of the order and were told it was on its way and would arrive in 5-10 minutes. 30 minutes later, called to check again and was told it would be there within 10 minutes. Did not arrive until 8:20pm, two hours after we placed the order. It arrived cold because they had sent the driver out with four orders to deliver which took him over 45 minutes. The people answering the phone are rude and I was told there would be no manager on duty until Sunday evening. What kind of restaurant doesn't have a manager on duty on Friday or Saturday night? The guy said the only thing he could offer was a tiny discount off our next order as consolation. That won't do me any good since we won't be going there or ordering delivery again. read more

This is my go to place for Indian food, but the service was TERRIBLE today. Not only did we wait what felt like 60 minutes for our food to come, but once it did come, the waiter took away the appetizer plates and said he would bring us dinner plates. 10 minutes pass and there's no sight of him. I literally had to get up, walk to the back, and get my own plates. The waiter saw me, but didn't even realize that he had forgotten about us. I think it was a bad night overall. They were giving people drinks and stuff on the house left and right. They gave us 10% off of our bill, but still. They need to figure out how to juggle everything, because the restaurant wasn't even full! There were 7 tables of people, not even 1/3 full! read more

Went there for lunch and opted for the buffet. Rice was stale, was cracking in my mouth. Food looked horrible- no presentation. No name tags on dishes, was just guessing what was what. Called for the check after taking two bites of the food and walked further down to Curry Up Now for a great experience. Never coming back again. read more

Cozy ambiance, good service, delicious food--I would really recommend giving this place a try! I often eat at their lunch buffet. It is a very good deal. I suggest coming hungry because there is a lot of food to try. The waiters are always friendly, even when they are busy and flustered. I will definitely come again. No questions asked. read more

We really like Clay Oven. It is our regular Indian restaurant. We used to go to Bombay Garden, made the switch and have never looked back. Other Indian restaurants we like are Amber and Daprakash, but this is our local. The atmosphere is refined and comfortable: napery, candle light, etc. Romantic even. I think it could be suitable for groups or dates, and families too, although not for young kids. We love their tandoori -- flavourful and moist. Lamb Korma, Chicken Tikka Masala are also hits. We love their cauliflower dish and the Saag Paneer. Interestingly, they have the best, and freshest tasting, Mango Lassi around. The service is fantastic, warm and attentive. They get to know their customers. They are great guys (only guys we have seen so far). Definitely recommended. read more

This place is run by a bunch of crooks. We hosted a party and ordered food from this place. We agreed to 300$ for 50 people for 4 dishes. The guy caters. What we got on the D-day was nothing like what we sampled. The food was crap. But wait there's more! These guys billed for 20$ more, a number I noticed when the credit card bill arrived. I called up the owner (one Siddiqqui or somebody) and he agreed to look into this. I even met this guy in person and he seemed decent enough. That was the last semblance of decency from this guy. He has been punting me between people and my 20$ is as good as gone. Obviously, this guy does not believe in repeat business. Long story short, check your credit card receipts. They may be siphoning off money. read more

This is my first review! I just had to sign up for yelp! so I could write a review for this restaurant. I took my family of five out for dinner this evening, and we LOVED this restaurant. I first tried this out last week with my son, because we had a coupon from the Entertainment book. We really enjoyed it then, as well, but tonight, because we had five people, we tried more dishes, we were blown away. The restaurant is casual/semi-elegant. Extremely clean and a lot of attention to detail. Very nice for a date or business. You will not be disappointed! This is going to be our NEW favorite Indian restaurant in San Mateo! read more

Best Punjabi chai tea here - I've been to many Indian restaurants and none are as good as this one so far. Good balance of sweetness and spices. I also love the chicken tikka masala here as well, using the naan or basmati rice to soak up the sauce. If you're new to Indian food or want to try a whole bunch of dishes at once, come for the Indian buffet at lunch time, which is at 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm. For the price (think it's around $11), it's well worth it than ordering individual dishes and you can eat as much as you want! Plus unlimited chai tea and naan! Well, until they have to refill it. My favorite Indian restaurant in San Mateo! The chicken can be a bit dry sometimes but that's a given if it has been sitting there a bit - just use the sauce with it! read more

The lunch buffet is disgusting. Beware. It's limited and really bad Indian good. My coke came with pieces of plastic in it. I doubt the kitchen is very hygienic. Stay away. read more

It's my favorite restaurant good food ,good taste,fresh food ..chicken tikka masala is super tasty..saag paneer,mango lassi,baigan bharta and aslo fantastic service from the staff very friendly and reasonably priced read more

My family and I love coming here! You can't beat the buffet lunch, which includes their amazing chai tea and desert. The food is really delicious :) read more

The best Indian food and service in the bay area have been coming here with my daughter for about 10 years, waiters are very friendly make you feel at home and food is excellent Always fresh. read more

I am a regular reader of yelp. And I am going to write my first review on yelp. Usually we used to go in Bombay Garden ( a good restaurant in San Mateo ). we wanna try in Clay Oven. we made a reservation for 3 for 7:00 pm. our table was close to window...... we say wow... we can enjoy football too ....... TV was in sport bar cross street..... we miss sound only...... but it was cool. The decoration of the restaurant was very good. red table cloth with white paper on top, white plates and red napkins..... red rose on white flower base...... and also red candle. For us the dinner environment was excellent. We start with Indian beer from tap (KING FISHER) very testy beer. for apt. we order chicken wings tandoori and veg. samosas. The apt was really good. chicken wings come in hot sizzling plate..... wow..... For dinner we order lamb chops, chicken tika masala, prown coconut ,saag paneer, garlic nan and nan. All food was really good. we enjoyed . that dinner was our best dinner we ever had. The service was very good and price also good, not sooo expensive like other resaturant. we will come back again. and clay over deserve 5 star. read more

Haters are going to hate. But I lived with an Indian for a year and I have eaten at Indian restaurants all over the bay. This restaurant has the most delicious tender Chicken Tandoori. The Naan is always warm and fresh and you can't beat a $10 buffet with delicious quality ingredients. Sure you can go down the block and get more variety; but if you want quality for the price! Clay oven everytime. read more

The food is average, but much better can be found at nearby Indian restaurants. And if you plan on ordering delivery, I highly recommend against it. Took nearly an hour and 45 minutes to get my order when 30-45 was quoted. Order from somewhere else! Trust me. read more

Eating in is really good, but DO NOT ORDER FOR DELIVERY!!!! The guy on the phone was super rude and barely spoke English, yet he was acting like that was my problem when I couldn't understand him. They put me on hold for 15 mins until I called back again to place an order. His response was, "well I had you on hold because I was opening up the restaurant'. Why wouldn't you tell me that when putting me on hold or help me first before doing that. Any who, they said it would be delivered in 45 mins max and it took over an hour. I had called to let them know it wasn't here yet and, ONCE AGAIN, they gave me attitude saying, "well he already left so I don't know what to tell you". Overall, this is an ok place since they do great when dinning in but horrible when getting delivery. read more

Their chicken tikka massala is addictive. It should be a controlled substance. The recent remodel is very nice, too. Great tasting food, for sure. Allow extra time for parking. Downtown San Mateo has what seems like 300 Asian fast food soup places, so a good Indian restaurant is a nice change of pace. read more

My wife wanted to eat Indian food and selected this place as it was on our GPS. It looked nice when we walked in. It was quiet and tablecloth. When it was time to eat (I am vegetarian)....the selection was very limited and no names to define what I would be eating. Everything tasted very bland, no taste, no spice, no texture...it was really terrible...I will not go there again even if it was free....then they cranked up the Bollywood Music which was horrible! read more

If you eat in the restaurant, the food is decent. But this review is for their awful delivery service. I ordered at 9am online through their website for 11:45am delivery for a 10-person lunch meeting. Once 11:45 came and passed, I placed a call to see whether the food had left the restaurant yet. Not only had they NOT started on the order, but the man on the phone had the nerve to be rude to me about it! Not one "sorry for the mix-up" to be heard. He said when placing an order larger than 4 menu items, I need to call them to confirm the order. Firstly, nowhere on the site does it say to call them to confirm online orders. Secondly, how is it the customer's responsibility to ensure the restaurant workers do their job properly by checking for online orders? An hour AFTER the requested delivery time, we are still waiting for the food, which I expect will be cold when it arrives. read more

Made this account just to post this review - so you can see how not happy I am. Used to place pick up orders almost every week. Used to get bad stuff every so often but these days it has hit a new low where they not only send you bad old food but also send it about 60 minutes later than the time they promise delivery. Hopefully this review gets vision and these guys get their shit together. read more

We were walking and stumbled upon this restaurant. It seemed empty but we were craving samosas so we ended up going in. First of all the place looked cozy and the staff was friendly. So we ordered samosas right off the back. Two piece came in an order. Wasn't to pleased with them. They tasted old and stale. On to the curries. We ordered chicken tikka masala and lamb Briyani. Mediocre at best. Won't be returning soon as there are many other good places out here in San Mateo. -3 stars for food. 2 stars for the service read more

Below average. Coming from New York/NJ area and experienced many restaurants, I found this experience unpleasant, by food as well as the treatment I got. Bhindi-Bhaji (Okra with onion and tomato) - was almost raw. Difficult to find any tomatoes and onion in the mix. Okra, if not cooked well, it will be sticky like a school-glue. Okras were not tender, hard and fibrous (plastic like texture). Order 6-Naans, one without butter. It came only one-with butter and everything else without. Everything was in small quantities. After taking order, no one cared to ask if everything good. Although, we order Spicy-Hot, most of the items were low to medium hot. I am disappointed with the ZAGAT rating and not sure I can trust it any more. Will not visit this chain again. read more

I've never rated any restaurant before but this one is worth to waste a little bit of my time to write about it because it's not even worth to pass by it ,very rude service and I'm not Indian to understand the menu so for sure i have to ask about couple stuff in it and i was surprised how rude and how mad he got when i asked him about it and in the end gave me a wrong plate and i asked for mild food and i got it hella spicy and it took another 20 minutes to get the plate again and it was nightmare and I won't go back or thinking of this restaurant again ... read more

Good, but average indian food. Typical indian restaurant inside, good service, food was pretty good. I had a prawn dish, which i liked. The saag paneer was good, and i forget what my date had, oh chicken, good too. They were supposed to be spicy but weren't all that spicy. I thought that the prices were a bit steeper than they ought to have been, espcially for the thali sampler dishes. It's not expensive at all, but i think that usually a place like this would be cheaper, especially since it's not even in the city. They have a lunch buffet during the day, which i didn't have since we were there for dinner, but i'd come back for that. So - good, filling, nothing special. read more

I paid $14 to eat at a mediocre lunch buffet. Outrageous!!!!

Nice little hole in the wall for cheap eats. I've gone here a few times during lunch with the lady and she seems to like it. The naan is nice and warm and the buffet has enough spice to get me excited. The wait staff are attentive at the beginning and don't seem to mind when asking for refills and such. Would probably go back and snack on some naan and spread. Got sick once like another reviewer stated, so get ready for some stomach rumbling and grumbling when you leave. read more

Dinner for two there is amazing. We couldn't finish it all and we were too people over 180 lbs who was starving. It's so worth it. GOOD quality food with great service. Ohhh yahlll its so good. Get it Spicy and DAMN! So good. read more

Didn't expect reggae music but it was pretty chill. Good chicken tikka masala and vegetable korma with a nicely spiced curry sauce. Solid chai, comfy seats/pillows :) read more

Nothing quite beats Pakwan or Shalimar on a good night for me, but this place consistently comes close. They give you the choice of spiciness levels (mild, med, or hot) and the dishes are consistently good. Thank God we have at least one good Indian food place downtown. It remains one of our go-to places. read more

WE love ordering take-out from this place! The lamb Naan is fab-o. The chicken tikki masala has great flavor. My bf likes the chicken vindaloo. read more

Loved their lunch buffet with its plentiful, delicious vegetarian and non-vegetarian fare. Dessert is varied and yummy. Service is prompt.

Things have definitely improved at Clay Oven over the past few years. My favorite dish these days is the Prawn Korma. with stuffed naan. SO good!!! Still a nice, close place to stop by when I'm in the mood for North Indian cuisine and a nice change considering there isn't a lot of variety in downtown San Mateo. read more

Reviewing for Lunch Buffet: The food is terrible. Pakode along with other food was cold. Dal Makhani was very bad. Gajar ka Halwa had no taste. Chicken dish was ok. Naan was just ok. I am very curious how they got a top zagat rating. read more

The food sucks!!! YOU HAVE TO TELL THEM TO BRING YOU NAAN over and over again wheb your basket runs out. The employee had the nerve to ask me if i was done eating, while i was still eating!!!!! There are many employees, but they dont bother to ask you if u need more water!!!! I was highly dissatisfied with the treatment as well as the lack of basic water and tea beverages. The tea had run out and nobody bothered to refill my water glass!!! This is a horrible excuse of a Buffett. There was no Samosas nor was there any dessert besides a disgusting lumpy old milk used in a rice pudding. One of the employees asked me if I was indian. He stated he was from Nepal. In which I do not care, im married and 7 months pregnant!!! DO NOT WASTE YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY AT THIS POOR EXCUSE OF A INDIAN BUFFET RESTAURANT!!!!!!!! read more

I am mostly giving this five stars for the food. The food was terrific. There the huge crackers that were first got I forgot what it was called but it came with four sauces , It was really good. THen the Naan bread omg omg it was sooooooo good. The music definitly fit the environment too, I was really feeling it. It made the vibe right. I liked how clean the plates were. The plates, glasses, and utensils were really shiny. You can tell they cleaned them well. The rice was hella good omg. I got the buttered chicken and I also got the mango chicken. They were both soo good I couldn't tell which was better. They were both fantastic yo. The bathrooms were really cleaned too. I loved it and I loved this place. Its also connected to a bar to if you wanna go next door for a drink. Theres a bar door right by the cash register and one on your way to the restroom. Two options for the bar entrance!! read more

I have been coming in this restaurant for almost five years..seekh kabab here is excellent.kashmiri chicken is top of the world..a very iconic dish which only clay oven offers..the people who work over there are very friendly...i recommend everyone to go over there and try the delicious food which clay oven has to offer...clay oven is a very hospitable restaurant with a deep cultural roots..its an awesome restaurant to go and hangout.. read more

We're at the beloved Clay Oven yet again. I've never had anything here that wasn't good, but I particularly like the onion bhaji, dal soup and most of all the Kashmiri fish. The service is always good. There's a waiter whose name sounds similar to Janye who is particularly attentive and friendly. I definitely recommend Clay Oven read more

The garlic naan was too thick, cold and had no taste what so ever. I also ordered my food medium spicy and it tasted so bland so will try spicy if I try again. Hard to find good Indian food. read more

Service was fantastic...except that when I went it was during the heat wave (where it was still in the 80s at night) and they didn't have the AC on. Spicy food plus hot and humid weather isn't the best combo, the least they could've done is crank up the AC. Well, the food was average. Don't get the mild, the mild is more like tomato sauce (for the lamb curry), and even the medium was barely detectable. Garlic naan was good, but the portions were a little small. I think there are better places in the peninsula... read more