Great lunch special. For ~$13 (+/- $1-2 depending on your protein) you get: Soup or salad + Appetizer + Bread or rice + Entree curry read more

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I came here last weekend with a few family members and by far this was the best Indian Food I've had in a while! I swear to you I've never had butter chicken as tender in my life! The service was amazing with the staff being very patient and responsive when it came to us asking about how the dishes we ordered were prepared and even gave us very good recommendations. The location is kinda small but, nonetheless very inviting and cozy which is perfect for a date or, outing with friends or family. I very much look forward to coming back and, i highly recommend coming here!! read more

Warm, attentive service. Delicious dishes. Very affordable. We'll definitely go again! read more

Tandoori Chef 2 - Inside - absolutely beautiful decor! - Indian Near Me - Maplewood, New Jersey

Pretty good Indian food, definitely the brightest I've been too which is nice and inviting. The dining area is spacious with sort of a two tier set up. The menu had my curry favorites like Tikka Masala and Vindaloo but some that I'm eager to go back and try like mango and Hyderabadi curries. I thought I'd venture out of curry for once though and went with the mixed grill - a little of everything for the meat lover in me. Chicken, shrimp, salmon, lamb all cooked tandoori style. The flavor was great with the grilled and spiced taste but it was also dry after the first few pieces. As you're eating it you start to wish for some curry or some sort of sauce but all that can be offered is the little chutney sauce that is with the complimentary lentil crisp thingys. It occurred to me that this is probably meant to be a shared platter of sorts and not a meal for one. With that said it's this is one of the better Indian spots I've been to and would like to try again. read more

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loved the food - service is great - i order on Uber and picked up so many time - one of my family members favorite restaurant

Y'all can't fathom how good this food is. I could EASILY live off all the chicken dishes. The sauces are out of this world, and whenever I feel down I rely on this food to lift me up. Five stars forevah! read more

Awesome food, great service! We've started coming about once a week always trying something different every time and everything has been absolutely delicious! Highly recommended. read more

This place has become a regular spot for my family. Excellent food and service. Our favorites are the garlic naan, chicken tikka masala, shrimp vindaloo and all the chutneys. read more

Ordered last week. Great butter chicken, naan bread was soft and warm. Tika tika chicken was also delicious. Can't lose.

Just yesterday ordered for pick up and Aman amazed me with his hospitality. Food was piping hot and ready for pick up which was delivered to the pick up area very kindly with his mask on.My family enjoyed the delicious food specially the rice prepared outside the regular menu.Thank you for going an extra mile to please your customers! read more

Taste of the food was very lackluster. Both the chicken tandoori and the garlic naan needs help. I wont be eating from this restaurant again

This is my usual go to spot for Indian takeout in the Maplewood/South Orange area. It's consistently good and ready on time. Their prices are kind of high, but they really don't have a lot of competition around here and the quality of food is worth it. My favorite combination is the chicken korma curry with peshwari naan. The curry has a slightly sweet and spicy element to it and the naan is sweet so they pair perfectly together. read more

Was very excited to try this restaurant as it looks fabulous and had good reviews, unfortunately we were left very disappointed i ordered a Pineapple chicken and mango chicken and both dishes were bland with no taste at all our order was $47 and it definitely wasn't worth that. To top it off we ordered this for my husbands 30th birthday he was so disappointed. read more

A friend recommended this place and I took my friend out for a celebratory birthday dinner. Not only was the service superior and friendly but the food was absolutely delicious. They went above and beyond to celebrate my friend's birthday as well. They just reopened for indoor dining and the place was clean, they wore masks and socially distant. I observed that there were also many delivery orders while I was there. It's worth it and this will be on my list of fave go to restaurants. Did I say that the food was so good! read more

I dined here about a week ago. I am an elderly lady and unfortunately dined by myself. I ordered 2 big the most expensive plates to take out for my family. When I asked for the bill multiple times, the manager, who served me would not bring the bill to the table and dragged me to his front desk. I paid over $70, he gave me a take-out bag and I left. When I came home (1-hour drive) I found some cheap soup in my package. I called the manager he told me to come back. It was late, he knew that I lived far away. He refused to give me credit on my card and told me to come back. The next day I drove for 2 hours, he gave me my food but I demanded a refund. I did not want the old food. He gave me a partial refund, took the food that I brought, and put it back in the kitchen for sale. I believe he is an extremely dishonest, abusive person. He told me he always helps old ladies (trying to steal money from them). read more

I was disappointed by a recent trip to Sona (Maplewood). We knew it was going to be a mediocre when the Kuchumber Salad was brought out and the dressing was Hidden Valley Ranch. Not kidding. The Saag Paneer was good in the same way that Boston Market creamed spinach is good. The Shrimp Korma was not offensive but there was no complexity or really any flavor. The biggest let down of the night was the Chicken Vindaloo. It was very mild and had a lot of potatoes... not exactly traditional, which is fine, but they did not add much to the dish. The garlic naan was a highlight, and the raita was nice. The service was friendly and, other than the food, the dining experience was very pleasant. Sona is BYOB which is another positive. I think Sona has some potential to take things up a notch. It was difficult to tell if the mediocre product was the result of the chef "dumbing" down / de-spicing dishes; or whether the ability to put out a first-rate product isn't there. It is not likely we will be back again anytime soon to test this out, but if we do I will update this review. read more

I have been to Tandoori Chef in Maplewood few times now and I have been to their Hackensack location quite a few times as well. It's a nice size restaurant that is a little hard to find since it is tucked away from the main street. Parking isn't the best, but still ok. Overall the food is an improvement over Sona(the previous Indian restaurant at this location). But, still not able to compete with some of the better restaurants in the area, unless they offer an enticing deal. The place is always empty with no more than 5 to 8 people eating there at any given time. It is very difficult to choose what dishes to order since they don't offer any combination deals(I'll go into more detail below); but I have tried quite a few of their vegetarian, chicken, and lamb dishes. I was excited to taste that their dal tadka was a mix of masoor and moong dals. The palaak paneer was also tasty and I like that the palaak still had some leafy texture and it wasn't a fine watery paste drowned in heavy cream as many places do. The meats tend to be dry, but are still tasty. The portion sizes are better for the vegetarian food than the meats since you get a lot of gravy but not a lot of actual meat. My biggest complaint and their biggest missed opportunity is that the menu does not have any dinner thalis or simple to go dinner specials like a kati-roll, dosa with sambar, or kabobs and rice / chicken and rice. Every good restaurant in the area has dinner specials as an option. It would also ensure that I would be back once a week or so. I live in Millburn, 5 min away from Tandoori Chef; however, I'm more inclined to drive all the way to Parsippany to get Indian food from my favourite restaurants Chand Palace or Mehndi in Morristown. I like variety, and get bored and frustrated when I'm forced to pick just 1 or 2 dishes to enjoy for dinner. My recommendation are: -1. Non-Veg Thali: Choice of 1 meat and 2 vegetables and includes 1 yellow dal for $14.99. -2. Veg Thali: Choice of 2 vegetables plus the dal for $9.99. -3. Chicken&Rice / Kabobs&Rice / Dosa & Sambar / or Kati Roll for $.6.99 (Like the NYC Food Trucks) Both Thalis would include rice, and 1/2 a naan, and raita. It does not need to include an appetizer or dessert. For every additional meat they could charge $4.99, and every additional vegetable could be $2.99. They should at least offer this thali option Monday through Thursday dinner, if they don't want this option on the weekends. They could also limit the thali selections to the most popular dishes like chicken tikka masala, palaak paneer, navratan veg korma, aloo gobi, and bhindi, etc. for economies of scale. I hope they take my idea seriously. Otherwise for me, they can't compete with my other weekday dinner options in the area of Thai and Japanese, or Ethiopian which all offer fantastic dinner combo deals for around $15 -everyday. They are totally missing out on the sales to Seton Hall Students and young professionals who are forced to go to Neelam in South Orange for food that isn't really good. Overall, I like going back there. But I only go with 3 or more people so that we can share the food and get some variety, and only each pay like $15. I will be excited if my idea is taken seriously! :) I've called and given them my suggestions in person at least 3 or 4 times now, they don't seem to listen! I wonder if they even read the reviews here or on TripAdvisor? read more

I've been quite well reminded as of late that I've become lax in Yelping. Indeed, this is true. My focus has been on my duties as a Midtownlunch.com contributor, but I cannot allow Jersey to falter. Nay, I see the great Garden State as Rob't E. Lee did his native Virginia. As such I owe it to continue this. As such I owe it to Sona for being the best damn Indian joint within a few minutes of where I live. Having done a year or two in the New Brunswick metro area, I'm no stranger to the best of Little India in Jersey. It's hard to replicate or hold to the same standard, but Sona comes pretty close. It's definitely leaps and bounds above Star of India in Kenilworth, which I'd previously reviewed. Sona has some variation to their curries, not just a rehash of the same curry or sauce with different meats or veggies. The palak paneer is among the singular best I have had, suffering only for a few chunks less of paneer that I would have liked. Other Sona reviewers have dashed them for skimping on meat in curries. I do like metric tons of paneer but the spinach itself was perfect enough - not too creamy, plenty of balance between flavor spicy and heat spicy, and quite tasty. The bhindi aloo is basically bhindi masala with potatoes, and this is a good thing. They didn't skimp on anything, and while I like mine a little hotter, it was still delicious. We also ordered seekh kebab to put to the test minimal meating. We got a pretty darn decent container full of meat over some peppers and onions, and I really really liked it. My wife thought the meat was ground a little too thin, but I thought the kebab had a nice meltiness to it, not too fatty but not too lean and dry either. Why the four stars, other than a staggering desire to only give perfection where perfection sits? Quite honestly, this was kinda pricey. Three dishes for $32 before tip. I dunno. It did seem kinda expensive. The rice was thrown in for free, which is a plus - some places might charge extra for it. It's a shame the place was stark raving empty at 6:30 PM on a Friday night. There were about four or five take-out orders on the shelf waiting for pickup, though, but I attribute the dropoff to the place being hard as hell to find. Look to the right of the Mexican restaurant and it'll be there, set about five yards behind the sidewalk. I will say this: compared to the competition, Sona is the singular best Indian restaurant if you live in Union. Schlep not the Parkway to get to Star of India anymore. No, it is not Rasoi - but it's right here and in lovely Maplewood, you can do a lot worse for a lot more costly. read more

Love this place. Great. Indian food , great service. Very reasonable price. Clean and quite diner stop. The Daal Palak is amazing. Gluten free options And many vegetarian options. Check it out. I eat there at least once a week read more

In short, the food is good to very good, but the service is almost nonexistent. The waiters seem to hear very selectively (like every fourth request) and seem to be automatons who have no ability to understand the most innocuous requests for variations on spice-heat levels, etc. The food also takes FOREVER to appear, and that is after it takes 15-20 minutes for the waiter to finally come to take the order. In a recovering economy, most restaurants go out of their way to provide superior service. The Tuesday night we visited Sona in late December was a busy one for Maplewood restaurants. We settled on Sona because it was cold out and there were empty tables. Now we know why. That said, the food was tasty and well-prepared, and a decent value, although the chicken and meat dishes were long on sauce and a bit stingy on the protein. I think any repeat business I give them would be of the takeout variety. read more

The best samosa ever !! The chef is amazing!! Def will eat here again !!! Very authentic food and clean atmosphere. Great service & great prices . You must try this place out . read more

Great food, great service, and nice atmosphere. I highly recommend it as a great neighborhood spot.

This place is like a 2.5 for me. Food was mediocre at best. They stated they had a vegan menu but that was only for entrees. I had the alu ghobi. It was okay. Not bad. Nothing spectacular. My partner had the buttered chicken. It only came with 6 small pieces of chicken and lacked spice. The mango chutney tasted store bought. The water they gave us tasted pretty bad, too. This gets an "eh" in my taste-o-meter. read more

Had the dinner buffet here. Everything was delicious and well presented. The naan was so good! They bring it to your table fresh and right out of the oven. Place was relatively empty when we went so we basically had the whole buffet to ourselves! Will be back! read more

Tandoori Chef 2 - Indian Near Me - Maplewood, New Jersey

In a town with only 10 food options and only ONE Indian restaurant, there's a real opportunity to corner the market - some suggestions/thoughts: Amazing location, could do so much more with the outside seating area - new vibrant lights, comfortable seating (current chairs and cushions are old and tired and not comfortable) maybe a fire pit, hanging plants, palm trees in the summer could all make a world of difference. At minimum, the area should be kept spotless and gated off so you don't feel like you're actually sitting in a parking lot, which you kind of are. The bathroom should be monitored more frequently, when I went in, it was not clean. The interior decor is very aged, some new paint, drapes, some natural light, plants would all make the place feel a lot more homey and comfortable. The food and menu (and the physical menus should be reprinted, they're all old and discolored) need to be updated or perhaps include a chefs recco of the day/tasting menu could really help since the majority of restaurant goers are only familiar with a few popular Indian dishes. The wait staff needs to be better trained - they all seemed very new to food service. I go out to eat A LOT so these are things I notice right off the bat, I realize running a restaurant is incredibly expensive and difficult but you have to develop and pay for quality food in order to maintain a customer base - everything else will fall into place. Rebrand the restaurant and the name, put some TLC into it and I believe there could be a bright future right around the corner. Good luck. read more

My first review on Yelp. I really disliked the food here. We ordered a naan basket, saag panner, vegetable khadai and panner pakorda. The service was decent. They took a while to take our order, barley noticed the empty glass of water and I could hear the main waiter yelling at their staff. They brought out our food first and then brought the naan out five minutes later. This resulted in us waited for the naan to come out before we eat and the food gets cold. The naan was decent, we asked for it to be buttered and there was barley any butter on the naans. The panner pakorda was decent. It was different from the ones I tasted before since it was breaded and stuffed with I think potatoes in between slices of panner. The vegetable kadhai was just vegetables and some tomato sauce. There was barley any gravy or any taste mind you. The saag panner was just even worse. It had no taste whatsoever. We asked for medium spicy but this dish basically was no spice at all. It had a very bland taste. In the end, I had ton of left over food (which I refused to take home) and a hungry stomach. In the end, I realized that if you are the only Indian people inside an Indian restaurant then red flags should go up. The owner did come by and ask if everything was okay and I'm not the type to tell him his food was bad but he stood there for a few minutes while we eat and I had to let him know the food lacked flavor. He explained to me that when you really ask for "medium spicy" it means no spice and if you ask for "spicy" there is some spice while extra extra spicy means it'll be too hot to handle. He did ask if we wanted him to redo the food but we declined since it wouldn't really improve anything. I would not go back to this place nor would I recommend it. It's defiantly not a true authentic Indian taste. If you want good authentic Indian food for the same price range - I would recommend going to Rasoi 2 in Edison. read more

What is going on with this place? Is anyone else having problems getting thru and placing an order. This was my favorite place and for the past couple months, anytime I called the phone would be constantly busy or constantly rings and no one picks up? I love their food and prefer them over Raagini but I guess I will have to go back to Raagini, at least they answer the phone. read more

Just had lunch, the food was very good. No buffet here. Chai tea and food appeared to be authentic. Ours was a med. heat, request less if needed. Definitely put this place on your list of places to eat. read more

We ordered delivery from here and it was excellent. I ordered the Malai Kofta. I'd had it once before from another restaurant and it was disgusting, but I wanted to give it another try because their description--Soft potato and cheese dumplings cooked in an almond butter cream sauce--sounded oh-so-good. It was excellent! We had to hit $30 on grubhub so in addition to BF's chicken something, we got samosas. This will happen again. read more

This review is going to be split into two parts. The food and the service. The food is great! The flavors are on point and the dishes were very good. The service, however, was really bad. First, we tried calling in take out but the woman who answered the phone was unfamiliar with any of the dishes we tried to order (including naan and chicken tikka masala). We decide then to go in, instead, to avoid confusion. Upon arrival, the place was about 3/4 full but the wait staff seemed overwhelmed and disorganized. It took a while for anyone to bring us a menu. There were a lot of staff members but they seemed to be frantic and confused. When we got our food, it came out in a random order with the appetizer coming with the main meal. Still we gave them the benefit of the doubt because everyone was really nice. When it came time for dessert, we were asked 3 times whether we wanted it to stay or to go, and we said to go. Then they still brought it for there. We asked for it wrapped. They gave us (and everyone else in the restaurant) a discount for "taking too long" but I don't even feel the meal took long. It was more-so the lack of organization of all of the staff. I wouldn't go back here, because although the food was tasty, the staff seems confused with the menu and the entire experience. When we did get our dessert it was cold. read more

Ordered chicken tikka masala, samosas & naan. They forgot the naan. The samosas were super salty. The masala had little flavor and had 5 pieces of chicken breast (at $16!). Over priced and underwhelming food = never returning here again. read more

So good! I was beyond impressed with the food here. Everything we ordered was packed full of flavor. We had the veggie samosas, garlic naan, saag paneer and mango chicken. All very good. read more

My boyfriend and I were so happy to find a second location of the Hackensack branch that we used to go to when we lived in Bergen County! We always order the Chicken Tikka Masala or Butter Chicken and Chicken Korma with 2 orders of naan. The naan was extremely nice and fluffy. Rice is included with the curries. Quality is good and the prices are pretty much the same as other Indian places in the area. For us both we spent around $50 with tip. * FREE mango lassi with yelp check in! read more

We've had several meals here since the name change to Tandoori Chef 2 and the food has been consistently excellent, the staff extremely attentive and pleasant, constantly refilling water glasses, answered questions about ingredients, etc. Our favorites are the tandoori mushroom appetizer, saag paneer and chana masala. We also like the tandoori salmon appetizer and several of the other vegetarian entrees. We like things spicy and the dishes are not super hot on the spice scale but definitely flavorful. We predominately eat vegetarian and this is probably one of the best local spots for vegetarians, especially if you want more than a salad. Also, plenty of gluten free options if you avoid most of the fried appetizers and naan, of course. read more

We planned on meeting up with my GF's family in Maplewood, NJ and picked this Indian restaurant due to the free desert for yelpers. Also, this place is BYOB which was a bonus, so we brought some South African wines. Not being able to pick an appetizer for 6 people, the waiter suggested a platter. While this was a tasty assortment of various kebabs, pakoras, etc it was quite expensive at the nearly 20$ price tag. Think there would have been more food if we just ordered 3 regular appetizers. It was also odd that this platter was not on the menu. The dinner items were about 2$+ more expensive than similar entries at other locations. This would have been 'OK' had I not received mostly potatoes (rather than lamb) in my Lamb Vindaloo. I had also asked the waiter to ensure it was spicy, however, it was mild at best. When I order Vindaloo, I expect to be weeping. Luckily the Vegetable Biryani I split with my GF was made spicy to our satisfaction. Finally, our desert was the Yelp special. We received 5 deserts for 6 people which was an assortment of all available desert items expect for the ice creams. When we first showed the waiter the iPhone with the Yelp special, there was some confusion and he walked away. Without coming back to tell us 'OK' or anything, the deserts just arrived. This was a little suspenseful and odd. Water service was very good. Waiters did a good job of not 'getting in the way'. This happens a lot at many other Indian restaurants where they keep trying to get you to order liquor and Lassi beverages. In summary, this Indian restaurant provides a very enjoyable atmosphere with good service. However, without the BYOB or the free desert, it would be quite on the expensive side. read more

Vegetable Sheek Kabab appetizer was the dinner's highlight. The rest - Aloo Gobi, Vegetable Biryani and Peshawari Naan were Ok. Biryani at Karma Cafe in Hoboken is much better, has more ingredients and spices. The place itself appears a little run down, with dim lighting used to cover dusty floor and walls needing fresh paint. In the middle of the restaurant they have the service desk, manager standing tall, constantly calculating something and taking phone orders. It's as if he is there - in the center - supervising the staff and us, customers. I found this uncomfortable. Service was slow and not welcoming. It seemed as if no one was happy working at this place. Our waiter wasn't knowledgeable about the menu. read more

We love Tandoori Chef 2! All of the menu items we have tried are delicious - worth the short trip from Jersey City. We really like the chicken tikka masala and chicken hyderabadi. Garlic naan is also excellent. Highly recommended. read more

I don't even know where to start. Terrible, horrible food. We ordered from yelp food delivered no rice and my vanilla milk shake was half glass. I called the restaurant they sent out a delivery with the rice and another 1/2 glass of vanilla milk shake. The second delivery of the milk shake we had to throw as it was salty funny very terrible taste (its not yogurt) the first vanilla milk shake we throw as it was just milk and sugar horrible. The seasoning herbs its the worst I have ever had for an Indian restaurant and I am Indian. No one should waste there time pls money on this over priced restaurant. They don't even deserve a star. read more

We had a great time here! The food was the best Indian food we've had in NJ. Atmosphere is great and we had good service. No one else came in on a rainy Wednesday night, but we don't really care about that. If you're in the area and want some delicious Indian, come here. read more

First timer to this restaurant and since I've moved from near the Edison, NJ area recently (Indian food central) this place has pretty good food, higher prices, smaller portions, very nice service, palak paneer is good, lamb samosas and pakora could've been warmer. I'm spoiled from living in such an amazing area for that culture filled with options. I'm coming back to try more. Only place I've found in the area and I have so much more to try! read more