Restaurant Review
Tandoori Grill- Indian Cuisine
(801) 769-8850
465 South University Ave., Provo, UT 84601
EDIT: This post got a lot of attention! For those of you coming in from Google, I'll note that the Tandoori Grill has had some good reviews recently from the local newspaper, and we've got actual people (in addition to our faithful spammers) reporting positive experiences in the comments. So go try it out for yourself! I've always been willing to admit we just had a bad experience, and I love to see good restaurants succeed!
And, for your entertainment, weigh your opinions of the following spam-war at Can you solve... The Mystery of the Tandoori Grill Spammers?
A new Indian restaurant opened in Provo last week-- stay away! I enjoy Indian food, but Tandoori Grill is the worst Indian I've ever had, and probably the worst food I've put in my mouth in years.
I tried three entrees from their buffet: chicken curry, chicken tikka masala, and beef curry (often not served in Indian restaurants). The chicken curry was very bad, but not as bad as the tikka masala (which left a horrid, gunky aftertaste) or the beef curry (nearly tasteless, as if someone used cheap beef and forgot to add any spices). The tandoori chicken looked unappetizing-- ordinary baked chicken with a bit of spices, lacking the yogurt and spice covering or distinctive red coloring common to tandoori chicken (usually only dye, but part of the presentation).
If you're looking for good Indian food, try the excellent India Palace on Center street instead, or the more expensive Bombay House on University.
57 comments:
I'm just curious, is this James or Denise talking?
It was James. This is Denise. The name's down at the bottom of each post.
I have eaten at Tandoori Grill at http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl . The food was great and very tastety.
See what other are saying on Google maps
Totally worth the lunch buffet. - tman - Jul 17, 2008
Lunch buffet is only 8.99 and it's totally worth it. I got the Aloo Gobi which I love, Tikka Masala, and Saag Aloo along with lentil soup. The ... More »
Lunch buffet is only 8.99 and it's totally worth it. I got the Aloo Gobi which I love, Tikka Masala, and Saag Aloo along with lentil soup. The soup was mediocre, but the rest was good. you have to remember it's a buffet... if you want expensive delicious Indian food made to your spice level, order from the menu, or go to one of the other Indian places around town... If you're cool with going to a new place and leaving stuffed for 8.99, than go here! You can always get more spice from the buffet to make your Pakora just as hot as you want. « Hide
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Mouth watering India food, Kid under 8... - benjamin - Jul 11, 2008
We had a great experience going to this restaurant which is very easy to find , the service was great and the food excellent, the food is in excess ... More »
We had a great experience going to this restaurant which is very easy to find , the service was great and the food excellent, the food is in excess cannot ask for more. « Hide
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I am glad I visited Tandoori Grill.
Thanks for the comment arizona! Hopefully they were just having a bad day when I went, and their food may have improved significantly since then. What are some of your favorite Provo restaurants?
How can that be in few weeks time the food menu got better I don't believe this, you are lying which is not fair, you are giving a wrong information to people
I have seen this review in google in favour of Tandoori Grill in provo
Shawn wrote at 11:30am on July 13th, 2008
everyone who loves indian food, go eat at tandoori grill (where wingers near east bay used to be)! .. so it doesn't go out of business :P cause it's delicious. thx
If you don't believe me then check out the link
My favorite Provo restaurants I like Chaka rama for Buffet, But I got to tell you check out Tandoori Grill at 465 S University Ave, the food is excellent and great, I have eaten at India Palace where the food is just third grade, Bombay house is just tooooo costly. Tandoori Grill tastes even better then Bombay house the flavor is just differrent.
ROFL, Benjamin, welcome to the internet -- it's a place where people are free to express their opinions, engage in lively debate, and every know and then, have a good laugh at the occasional raving troll such as yourself. In case you miss my subtlety: calling my veracious review a lie is a good way to get your comments moderated out of existence.
No, I'm not lying. Perhaps I'm just an astute critic of food, and, as such, recognized the lack of distinctive Indian spices and textures. I'll admit that my tastes are discerning -- my own wife calls me a 'food snob'! I'm not particularly fond of Chuck A Rama, though I know several people who find it quite delectable. Perhaps if your tastes run in that vein, Tandoori Grill is right up your alley. More power to you.
My comments about food improving, or the proprietors having a bad day, were meant to assuage my harsh criticism; one bad experience doesn't always indicate the overall quality of a restaurant. I'm confident that if my experience with Tandoori grill was an exception (and not indicative of a larger culinary catastrophe) word of mouth will repair any damage I've done.
Thanks for commenting on my blog!
Do you get the feeling that "Beautiful Southern Arizona" is actually connected somehow to the Tandoori Grill? Why else would he/she get so worked up and defensive about you not liking it?
Congratulations, by the way, on being much more polite to BSA than I was.
I'm not sure if BSA or benjamin are connected -- it would sure make sense. I find it ironic, however, that this blog traffic and cross-linking has propelled my review to the top of the Google charts. Google "tandoori grill provo" and the first thing you get is my scathing blog post. :D
BSA, if you ARE associated with Tandoori Grill, congratulations! Your ignorance of Google page ranking algorithms just made me an expert reviewer in the eyes of the all-mighty search engines.
BTW: that was me, not Denise, that made that last comment.
@ Arizona
"I got to tell you check out Tandoori Grill at 465 S University Ave, the food is excellent and great, I have eaten at India Palace where the food is just third grade"
Wow. I see that you have the taste buds of a third GRADER. I may not be an indian food connoisseur, but India Palace was way better. Tandori grill was tolerable, even for a bachelor like me who can survive off of canned chili for weeks. Its flavor was lacking, and Id eat there if it was the only place not full (which it wasnt) and was more like 5.99.
The smell of the flavors in Tandori grill was... wait... Did I smell anything? But at India Palace, the smells livened up the place, the atmosphere was not dark like Tandoori, and just one glance at the food you could tell the quality was there just by the time the chefs took to make a wonderful meal. And for 2-3 bucks more, you walked away with a freshly filled appetite.
Long story short, if I had to eat Indian food, I'd eat at India Palace. If I had to eat buffet food that had no flavor, Tandoori grill here I come!
Oh, and I had the buffet at India Palace as well.
BSA, your comment has been deleted for flagrant grammar violations and baseless ranting accusations. I am not connected to any restaurant; my integrity as an amateur connoisseur would allow no such conflict of interest.
You heard from the master chef huh?
I think it would be in your best interst to stop commenting on his blog BSA. As much as I've enjoyed laughing at this crazy back and forth, you should probably stop. If you are going to keep commenting, at least stop referenceing the restaurant so heavily. It's bad for your (Tandoori Grill's) business.
PS- I should really start proofreading my comments BEFORE I post them, huh? -referencing-
BSA's comments will pretty much be deleted from now on. BSA sure looks like a spam bot most of the time, with occasional human interjection to accuse of us lying.
Well I for one have it on good authority that BSA and Benjamin BOTH have NO ASSOCIATION to Tandoori....
I also happen to know that he/she might even be of Indian Descent and you should probably take his word over some overblown self professed "amateur" foodie...whos gives a crap what your wife calls you...shes your friggin wife...
Thanks for listening.
Wow, I vote that this thread be preserved as evidence that, regardless of the food, these guys have an annoying persistence warranting a boycott. :p
this only proves that when some are given even the LEAST amount of power they abuse it....
nothing like rights to free speech....
I thought this was the "internet" and people were free to express their opinions...
Guess that only applies to James.
SHEESH
As a blog administrator, I will delete obvious spam; BSA/annonymous has posted many comments with exactly the same propaganda text. That is spamming, not expressing your opinion.
thats fine.....ill bet you feel very powerful deleting peoples posts....
How is moms basement these days?
I love my food I love Indian food and love eating at Tandoori Grill at Tandoori Grill- Indian Cuisine
(801) 769-8850
465 South University Ave., Provo, UT 84601
The last time I went to Tandoori Grill I was served fresh Tandoori Grill chicken, fresh Nan and Mango Chicken by far which has excellent flavor I heard from Master Chef that the chicken is marinated and served fresh which is great. I love to share this experience with all Utahans who are so eager to try out diff foods.
Hm, I think I'll leave the last link up; not only is it an excellent copy of BSA's deleted spam posts, which must have taken many seconds to copy and paste, but it will also increase my google page ranking in association with the restaurant.
C'mon guys, you have to understand that the more you do this, the more people will see my review whenever they Google you. I intended my review for a small audience of about 4 other families. Now, I'm #1 on google for "tandoori grill provo" -- higher than your actual restaurant website! You're sinking your own ship here.
yeah ill say it again....BSA, Benjamin and myself HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH TANDOORI...I promise you this....
seem that it really riles you up though you know what ASSUMING does right?...do you feel even more powerful now that you're blog is atop even the establishment itself in google searches?
relish in the celebrity....you can always tell people how it was your blog that singlehandedly took down someones livelihood.
Occam's_Razor: "All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best."
When you start getting someone creating different blogger profiles and posting the same spam for the same restaurant, the simplest explanation is that BSA is somehow connected.
How can you have it on "good authority" that these people have 'nothing to do with tandoori grill' -- unless you are either know the proprietor of Tandoori (violating your assertion that you have nothing to do with tandoori grill), or know them personally?
If this was Wikipedia, I'd put a [citation needed] around your 'good authority' -- please let us know what authority you speak with!
Please. Matthew, get a grip.
1. BSA has nothing to do with Tandoori Grill, eh? Look above. Either Tandoori Grill is copying and pasting her comments (without attribution, I might add), or she is posting as Tandoori Grill.
2. You yourself said that the internet is all about freedom of speech. Does that only apply to you? James merely posted his opinion of a restaurant-- it was benjamin and BSA who started the nastiness. The post would have gone unnoticed except for them.
3. This is the United States of America, and the economy, with several exceptions, generally runs on free market principles. Should the Tandoori Grill go under, the owners and employees are free to learn from their mistakes and try again. That's the beauty of capitalism in a free country. Nevertheless, James was certainly not... how did you put it? Ah, yes: "...Singlehandedly [taking] down someones [SIC] livelihood." You can blame BSA (whoever that is) for that.
4. Proper use of capitalization and punctuation might buy you a little more credibility.
5. Personal insults are a classic hallmark of trolls. Had any billy goats lately? Watch out for the fur between your teeth-- I've heard it'll get you every time.
Hey, if you click the Tandoori Grill poster's name a few comments up, you go to their website. Now, I knew that I was #1 on Google, but that website doesn't currently appear anywhere in the top 60 google results for "tandoori grill provo". I got tired of looking after that. Google hasn't cached it yet either, so I imagine that it's a pretty new website. Don't worry though; this blog is probably going to help them get their page ranking higher. Single-handedly destroying someone's livelihood? More like, the only way people can find your website right now...
Speaking of that website, I wonder where BSA got the link (since she isn't associated with the place) and you can't find it easily on Google now)?
thanks Denise for your valuable insight...no go back in your hole....
this is a stupid blog not a master thesis Eff punctuation and eff what you thinks makes one "credible"....
Oh yeah..and I know he has nothing to do with Tandoori cause he sits right next to me in an office building doing NOTHING related to restaurants.
hows that for "good authority"
there you all go ASSuming again....
Honestly I just came into this blog to mess with yet another blog admin that thinks hes "the man behind the curtain"
Its still censorship even on the internet!!!!
I know James...and ive found every restaurant i like on the internet. PLEASE....
They dont count on butts in the seats from their websites, restaurants in general that is...
Judge for yourselves, people. Judge for yourselves.
Well, you can tell BSA to keep having fun spamming family blogs. You should lecture him though, not me; his conduct has reflected quite poorly on that restaurant. I could delete his comments so it doesn't reflect so poorly on the restaurant, but that would be more 'censorship', right?
I think what we need is a public apology from BSA. Perhaps some explanation of why he felt it necessary to spam other people's blogs (not just mine) over a single restaurant review. Is he a trolling jerk, or just ignorant about how to express an opinion without copy/pasting the same poorly punctuated review? How did he know the website for the restaurant, when it is very difficult to find on google? Where do you work? How did you get involved in this? Do you feel morally obligated to insult us, and take on all forms of internet censorship? If so, why?
You accuse us of assuming too much, and censoring you -- so go ahead and give us the whole story. So far, all I've had is a bunch of insulting comments, unverifiable statements, and spammed comments. I'd love to have the real story. Enlighten us.
TANDOORI RULES...
Possibly the best indian food this side of INDIA!!!!!
Good food...great atmosphere and pleasant staff.
Please keep these local businesses going by bringing your money there...
Thanks for not responding to my last comment. Maybe you already answered everything earlier:
"Honestly I just came into this blog to mess with yet another blog admin that thinks hes "the man behind the curtain""
Hey, guess what... I am the man behind the curtain! I am all for intelligent discussion, but a thread degenerates into name calling and insults, I can decide that it's not the direction I want this website to go. Pretty much all community forums have some form of self-censorship, and right now, this community is pretty tired of all this.
If all you want to add to this thread is "messing with us," feel free; I'll just delete your comments as another form of irrelevant spam and let you cry censorship. I'm sorry I wasted my time attempting to be courteous to you.
Public apology should actually come from you, I guess you know now that people's voice does count, you cannot post wrong statements about a business that gives such a excellent service to its customers, I personally been to Tandoor grill and enjoyed their excellent A+ service which includes their fresh Indian cusine. Check out their site athttp://restauranttandoorigrill.com/
James ...where do you work???? Cmon man...like im going to tell you that...am i an idiot? All i can tell you is that i dont work for a restaurant or even a company that does business with restaurants.
I can also tell you that no matter how you feel what you're doing is censorship. How do I know you arent removing others posts that say good things about Tandoori? You're setting a bad precedent here.
In the interest of free speech you should just leave them up and let the people decide.
Every message board ive been on has a degree of "noise" most will ignore it unless it gets wildly out of hand. I dont see that as the case here, but since you're "the man behind the curtain" go ahead and do what you want...
Long live communism.
You see, for this community, this is wildly out of hand. Community censorship isn't a feature of blogger, though it is in places like digg or reddit; the community can bury irrelevant comments into oblivion. I'm sure that would happen if we gave our blog readers a chance. Since we can't do that, I just delete the obviously inflammatory/spam posts. Problem solved. All forums have noise, but they all have moderation too. I warned BSA and benjamin, and then deleted posts as appropriate. That's pretty standard for even large moderated sites.
Many people don't understand 'free speech' -- I haven't taken away anyone's right to free speech. BSA can spam google reviews, or create other blogs promoting tandoori grill (which he has, since this debacle started -- BSA even copied parts of this thread into a new blog). I am, however, upholding the general rules of our blog to be civil.
Since many of our readers may find the whole censorship debate interesting, here's a great short article on the subject of internet moderation:
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/moderated-ng-faq/section-11.html
And now, I think it's time for our readers to chime in. Who is really associated with Tandoori grill? Why is someone spamming us with Tandoori links? We've heard Matthew's story. Now, go look at tandoori's website, BSA's profile and other blogs.
It's like Clue: can you unravel the mystery of the BSA spammer and the Tandoori Grill?
How can one not understand free speech. Aside from threats to the president you're allowed to say whatever the hell you feel like.
Thats "FREE SPEECH" nothing more to understand. We can even burn flags if we so choose.
To me removing posts only makes me think others may be removed if you dont agree with them.
I dont frequent heavily moderated site for the above reason alone.
I don't delete people's comments because of 'opinions' -- just if they violate the general rules of decency and civility that I want to prevail on this blog.
In fact, I haven't removed your comments yet, though you said I lived in my mother's basement, told my wife to crawl into a hole, and practically dropped the f-bomb quite a bit. Men have come to blows over less - which I suppose was a way people moderated discussions in the past. If you got way out of line, you got pummeled by the community in the town square. Now, you just have your comments deleted. Much more civilized, right?
With that said... I would be fully justified if I deleted a lot of comments after all the weirdness around here -- this is supposed to be a nice, calm, family-oriented blog, after all -- but this whole thing has been way too much fun.
Go read up on censorship and moderation on the internet. As far as I'm concerned, I will censor this blog as necessary, and what I deem necessary is pretty subjective, but fair.
Yes! Perfect example of something to censor! The previous post was something called slander, and accused India Palace of having roaches in the kitchen, as well as links to pictures of roaches.
In fact, Annonymous comments are getting turned off so we dont' get QUITE so much spam.
This exactly shows you are connected to India Palace, you want to show Perfect example of censor well why don't you look at your blog at the beginning you are accusing Tandoori Grill this is so unfair but I guess you can go ahead and delete this review also, you have the power to delete and I have the power to insert on behalf of the people of UTAH.
BSA has started copying this post to other posts; sigh, now I have to clean up BSA's spam again.
James, this comment board is rather funny. I like how you defend yourself about free speech. I would reemphisize that IT IS YOUR BLOG! A good example, in my opinion, of this kind of censorship would be if someone spray painted my house and I painted over it. It is MY HOUSE! I don't want ___ comment on it, so I take it down. Is it censorship, heck yes, I censor what I don't want people to read on my domain.
Also, matthew doesn't know much about freedom of speech. There are many more instances of censorship than that.
I have never eaten at Tandoori grill. But I do trust James' taste of food as I have eaten many fine meals with him many times. In fact, he made some incredible steak burritos the other day. He is incredibly good at steak rubs. But the funny thing with people's tastes are that they are personal. I think James would acknowledge this. It is his blog, he said "I don't like it." Intelligent people can decide if they want to eat it themselves. He just let people know his opinion. He was telling his friends, who value his opinion on food, what he thought about the establishment. If the bloggers had tact they would have simply left a comment saying that they liked the food. James would have responded kindly (like he did) and then people could draw their own conclusions. But then it became mean spirited. Did James instigate this . . . nope.
P.S. In fairness, you did mispell now above James. In your second comment you wrote know when you meant to write now. I, however, don't think blogs require good spelling. It would be a rather elitist world if only people who can spell or write well could comment on issues. That would separate the haves from the have-nots even more. But, sadly, it does hurt an arguement when people have poor grammer even though we don't want it to be that way. We are, probably above all things, critical (myself included).
Hey, I clicked on BSA's name and it showed that one of his blogs are Tandoori Grill.
Hmmmmmm ?
Thats because I love tandoori Grill Indian food, why not have a blog for the restaurant over all the blog does not cost a dime
TL;DR
Long story short. Its a review. Some people like some stuff, others hate it and like something else. I didnt much care for it, other people do, la dee da.
And not to push this argument over how one can control comments on thier blogs, but seriously, matthew. Do YOU feel powerful right now? That you're making everyone irritated by you? I think you need a hug from mommy. Either that or you just want to win an argument so you can gloat about it to your friends.
Let me sum up my feelings with a classic picture.
http://photos1.blogger.com/photoInclude/blogger/4772/1767/1600/arguing.jpg
Not to keep this going past the point of ridiculous that it is already at but... does anyone else find it interesting that people who say their location is Hereford, Arizona are so passionate about a Provo, Utah restaurant? Since I am adding I might as well finish what is on my mind.. Freedom of speech is not so free as you can say anything that you want except to threaten the President. Have you heard of defamation, sedition, causing panic? Even some forms of profanity are against the rules! Heard of tv censors? Newspaper editors decide which letters to the editor run, it is just normal day to day business. James has every right to edit his blog, it is after all HIS blog.
I think my favorite of his comments was "...since you're "the man behind the curtain" go ahead and do what you want... Long live communism." That just doesn't make sense! I'm assuming that "the man behind the curtain", in this context, is supposed to reference the IRON Curtain, but the sad truth is that that is and ONLY is a Wizard of Oz allusion, which has nothing to do with Communism. Naziism, maybe. MAYBE.
That whole "Communism" statement is just ludicrous. I love it. Thanks Matthew.
No, I'm pretty sure the wizard was a communist. Just look at the way he had things set up: a fire breathing stage, munchkins, hot air balloons coming out of nowhere, a bag full of hearts and ribbons, etc.
Matthew is obviously far more advanced intellectually then the rest of us; if he wouldn't have made the comment the truth never would have surfaced. The wizard was a clear supporter of Trotskyism.
Here are my guesses.
I think BSA is actually Kim Jong-il; Matthew is Jon Huntsman; and Tandoori Grill is actually Sarah Connor, from the future, and her messages are encoded with the secret to finding and eliminating Skynet before it's too late.
Hence the horrifically incoherent grammar usage and repeats of the same message, over and over again.
May Allah have mercy...
What a ridiculous exchange - not much about the restaurant. Anyway, I just got takeout - 10/3/08, and it was really good. Not the best I’ve ever had, but in the top of the list. And I’ve eaten Indian Food in many places, and had an Indian housemate who made excellent dishes. I also cook many dishes myself.
I can’t find their menu online so the exact names of the dishes I had are no longer in my memory - and I ordered things I have not tried before. One, an ‘appetizer,’ was a cold shrimp and vegetable dish, in a cilantro tinged sauce with citrus, tomato, and a bit of yogurt. It did not have enough shrimp, but it had chickpeas, potatoes, peppers, onions, and a few other veges as well. I wonder if it’s a dish of Southern India (tandoor cooking is Northern - but is popular all over) The sauce was spicy - a mixture I could not really pin down - but nothing overpowered. It was very good. I would actually eat it as a main dish with rice - especially in the summer. The other dish I ordered was Tandoori Lamb in Saag - but they had another name for it. It was really tasty. I ordered hot, and it was - but not incendiary - but hotter than most Utah restaurants give you when you say hot. The lamb was smokey and roasted nicely. The sauce was a bit different from other Saag - at least at the other Provo places. It had more onions and tomatoes, and was not as rich - and I liked this version a bit better. Then I ordered an onion paratha (again they had another name for it) - a grilled flat bread stuffed with onions. It was flaky, and a bit charred from the hot grill (maybe the tandoor? - but it was not Nan). Very nice. Then the rice that came with the meal was good too - with a hint of cumin and I think some Ajwain (Carom seed) and maybe others - just enough to make it interesting.
I think maybe the original post spoke too soon - and showed up on a bad night. Most of the comments were simply not true as far as my food was concerned. Especially the one about tastelessness - they definitely knew how to use spices in the dishes I tasted. Maybe try it again. I liked it a bit better than the India Palace a few weeks ago with several friends - and I tried about 7 dishes - they were more bland, seemed to all taste the same, and hot was definitely not! But I would still say it was pretty good too.
Yeah, that exchange was pretty crazy. I expected only a handful of people to read this blog, and apparently I was mistaken!
The Daily Herald has a good review now as well; it's quite likely they had a bad afternoon when I went (I don't even think they had been open for a week). If I was still in Provo, I'd try again, but we're in Seattle now. Maybe the Brooke family (http://mrsbrooke.blogspot.com/ -- regular blog readers) can give it a try and weigh in for us.
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