Food Friday: Taj Cuisine of India
It’s always a good idea to step out of your box and try something new, so while driving around looking for something different to eat my husband suggested Taj Cuisine of India. I’ve only tried Indian food once before and liked it, so I was up for trying it again.
We stopped on Saturday night around 5p and the place was empty, but there was plenty to choose from on the buffet. I tried almost everything but only remember my favorites. The two most surprisingly good items they had were the vegetable spring rolls and spinach pakoda. The spring rolls were small but packed lots of flavor in them. Normally vegetable spring rolls just taste bland but these had a flavor that was unique to them. I can’t explain it but they were really good. The spinach pakoda was also a surprise in just how much I liked it. The leaves of spinach are covered in a chickpea flour and fried. It was like eating large spinach chips, crispy but good for you. They also serve onion pakoda, it was more of a flour ball with onion in it. Also good but didn’t excite me like the spinach pakoda. Their lemon rice was really good as well, basmati rice lots of different spices with just a touch of lemon. The chicken biriyani was another favorite, chicken cooked with basmati rice and different herbs. I also tried the chicken tikka masala, chicken in a tomato based sauce. I really tried to sample a bit of everything but I will not eat chicken still on the bone, so there were several chicken dishes I didn’t attempt. I also can’t remember the names of everything I did try, I did my best to remember what I liked best.
The service was great but since they were serving buffet, the employees had to handle all of the food. It is an odd experience to tell someone what you want and have them get it for you. I’m ready for buffets to be able to present food like normal. The only drinks were bottled water, so no soft drinks or anything. Now they were good about making sure you had plenty to drink but it was still odd. The downside was everything was served on styrofoam plates with plastic forks. I wasn’t a big fan of that either.
So overall I will give them 4 strips of bacon for the food. I’ll go back and when I can get my own food, I might up that rating.
Location: 1500 NW 23rd St., Oklahoma City.
As you’ve probably noticed by now, there are a lot of burger places in Oklahoma City. And if you’ve been reading my work, you know that I’ve been to about half of them. So today I’m going to tell you about The Garage, a local burger chain that popped up a few years ago.
Here is another restaurant my husband introduced me to- Nhinja. He actually learned about it from the owner, Kang Nhin. He always likes trying new places, so one night he took Mae with him for dinner. If she liked it then he knew I would like it. About a month later we went and even though I really like my Chinese food from a buffet, it wasn’t bad.
I love Italian food but it really can be hard to find a good Italian restaurant in Oklahoma City. A few years ago we found one right near our house. Located in the strip mall on the northwest corner of Northwest Highway and Council is Venezia Italian Ristorante. We had been hearing good things about it from friends and finally had a chance to stop in one night when we didn’t have a child with us.
I had seen gyro’s offered for years but never tried them until I met my husband. He introduced them to me on the first trip we made together to the Oklahoma State Fair. Once again, another wonderful food he had brought into my life. The only problem was for many years the only place I thought I could get them was at the fair. For some odd reason I just didn’t think you could get them anywhere else, so a few years ago while complaining that I wanted a gyro but it wasn’t fair season my husband spoke up, “You know there’s a gyro place down Northwest Highway, right?” Well no, I never realized that I had been driving right by Gyro City Café for years.
The Fat Okie 