Mughlai Indian Cuisine

Exquisite. I had the best northern Indian dinner I have ever had here. The service was formal and attentive and kind. The atmosphere is beautiful and the decor is lovely and comfortable. Just perfect.
I have tried the sheekh kabob and some salmon dish here and both were so delicious that I must go back to have them again!! One caveat: some dishes are fairly hot here so let the waiter know if you can not eat very hot dishes. They seemed very accomodating when I was there. You may not have known that Indian food could be this delicious!! A very warm and wonderful dining experience.

It isn't often that I have Indian food. It's in a great location. Saturday afternoons are dead. The Naan was very good. I can't spell or pronounce what we had, but I'm happy to say it was all very good.

It was a vegetarian day, so my lunch mate and I had some sort of potato, crust-enclosed appetizer. It was a little spicy, but pleasant.
We also had lemon rice (very good) and a vegetable entree w/ potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, etc...nice salmon-colored sauce.
I wish I could remember the names of all of these...

Anyway, it was an enjoyable experience. It is a little over-priced, but the entree and rice was large enough to share, so it came to $15. per person, not including tip and beverage.

I like the environment and the service is pretty fast. Food is good but kind of pricey.
I go there every once in a while.

I love that you can look into the kitchen and watch the cook doing what he does best: make yummy Indian food!
We had a very nice, funny and attentive waiter who clearly wanted me to have the best experience possible ("First you dip it in that, take a bite, and then a sip of that... magnificent"! The food was very tasty, I had the jumbo (JUMBO!!) shrimp from the clay oven, and my boyfriend got the chicken from the clay oven. We shared some delicious yoghurt-ish dressing that went very well with both the shrimp and the chicken. Overall, a good experience, we'll be back when we feel like having some spicy Indian comfort food.

Awful service. Shockingly rude, the absolute antithesis of 'the customer is always right mentality'. Our server was a jerk and blamed us getting the wrong food on our pronunciation (bitch, please, I've been ordering palak paneer for 10 years- don't blame this on me not being Indian. Take some responsibility and be cool). Then, after my boyfriend and I were clearly irked by his behavior, the server grabbed my bag(!?) and moved it. Who touches people's stuff? Especially when they obviously don't like you? It just seemed like he wanted to pee on something.

The manager did attempt to correct the mistake, but he did a half-assed job, offering me a mango lassi when I just wanted to GET OUT of that bad energy vortex. I do not complain to get free food, but in this case I should have been comped. I paid $50 for one of the worst, most uncomfortable dining experiences of my life.

The staff at this restaurant are Indian loathing Indians. I've been here a few times, have been sat in the back corner, pretty much every time I've gone. Let it be noted, the white people who come in after me are promptly seated in the front near the large glass windows. The last time I went, my mom insisted that we were to be seated near the windows (where there were empty seats) and not in the back corner. Staff said said they were "reserved". A white family, of the same size, walks in without a reservation right behind us and is seated by the windows. My mom walked out the door and suddenly they were able to accommodate us in the front. Don't believe me? Walk by and peer in the windows.

I've been there a few times, and have had great experiences with the food, but find it incredibly inconsistent. Dishes I've liked before end up tasting off the next time I try it and the service leaves a ton to be desired. My roommates also won't frequent this place anymore because they serve her food with nuts when she specifically asks for her dishes without them, as she is allergic. dangerous.

The service at this restaurant is terrible and the food only slightly better.

A major con is that you have to order the rice extra. Okay, fine. So I ordered the palak paneer with the saffron rice, which in the menu is "basmati rice cooked with aromatic spices, peas and saffron". To my surprise, the rice came with something odd mixed in. At first sight there was something red on top...a maraschino cherry?...oh yuck...ok, move that to the side. Then when I tasted the rice itself... pineapple, diced peaches?! What? Did they make this saffron rice with canned fruit cocktail?! Seriously?! And it wasn't even listed in the menu! If I had known, I would not have ordered it because I don't like fruit cocktail to begin with and I certainly don't want it with my savory rice, spinach and cheese cubes.

One pro is that the portions are decent and my actual palak paneer without the rice was fine. Okay, but I couldn't finish my meal, being put off by the fruit cocktail saffron rice and all. So I decide to have the rest of my palak paneer packed up to take home. First they bring me my food in plastic containers inside a wet plastic bag. Ummm, yeah. I had to ask the waiter, "May I have a plastic bag that's not wet?" He looks at me resentfully because he really doesn't want to do anything more for me...and obtains a new, dry plastic bag. Fast forward a couple hours. I get home and even though my plastic bag was dry on the outside, the food had leaked on the inside because apparently they also don't know how to properly close containers.

There are just too many headaches associated with this place for me now. Not going back.

Well, what to begin...

The service here was terrible (I know, I know, that's what everyone says).

My Pakistani friend and I were running at Central Park on Friday evening and we got hungry so went here. I know we totally forgot to wear our Brooks Brothers blazers and Ralph Lauren chinos before leaving for a run, but I was pretty sure this place was "casual" so we thought it was fine.

Nope.

We were standing at the entrance. A few waiters gave us glances, but they decided to ignore us because we were so poorly dressed. Super sad :'(

So we had to ask to be seated.

After we were seated, basically no waiters came to us for like 5 min.

So we had to ask for menus.
I have never asked for menus in my life (except when I wanted to make extra orders).

It's not like the restaurant was busy. Basically no one was there.
The waiters were constantly asking if everything was alright to those well-dressed folks but never came to us. I guess we were not worthy enough to get their attention?

I saw them shaking hands with those well-dressed folks when they walked out, but how about when we walked out? They didn't care so much.


Anyway.

The food was okay. Similar to those cheap Indian lunch buffet. Nothing special.
Oh, the paneer appetizer was pretty unique: it was incredibly salty.

Mughlai makes a pretty tasty Chicken Tikka Masala. Nice and rich, although not particularly spicy which is unfortunate. Then again, I have that gripe 'bout a lot of Indian places. Maybe I should just tell them I can handle the heat so they take the kid gloves off and pump it up. *Shrugs.*

The portion was good and filling - I couldn't finish it, but I think that has more to do with the fact that I wasn't starving. My inability to finish may also have to do with the fact that eating curry while wearing a white tennis sweater is poor, poor planning on my part. I was preoccupied with avoiding getting it on me the entire time. Damn fashion (I was cold in there, otherwise I would've taken it off).

The service was a little awkward in their overeager attentiveness. Perhaps this was because it was slow when my then-girlfriend and I were there. Attentive waiters are always appreciated, but they made me nervous. Not a big deal.

In any case, everything was fine to good, and considering the dearth of Indian food options (at least to my knowledge - I haven't Yelp searched it yet) in the neighborhood, you could do a heckuva lot worse. I'd come back.

Mughlai was a much needed respite after an extensive and slightly overwhelming bout of thrifting at Housing Works down the street. One will become a bit peckish after witnessing a couple of small dog fights, not to mention some larger cat fights (this time referring to some of the human clientele), all in the name of treasure hunting for a good cause on the Upper West Side.

The lunch special is a bountiful thali plate, vegetarian, vegan, or meat/chicken oriented, depending upon your preference. It runs around $9.99 and is available until 4PM. This is much fancier than fast food, but not so intimidating that you couldn't just drop in from off the street. Reasonable prices, quiet atmosphere, free wi-fi, and fun people watching if you happen to sit next to the windows.