Chennai Garden

10/10/09

This is a great restaurant!

by nycvegan at Citysearch

Please try this restaurant for yourself and don't be dissuaded by the negative reviews, which I find hard to understand. I've been a regular customer for years and this is one of my favorite restaurants. The food is delicious and prepared according to your specifications. The staff has always been friendly and professional. The menu denotes which items have dairy and which are dairy-free, and also tells you which items are spicy and non-spicy. The menu offers a wide selection.

• Pros: delicious food; friendly staff; menu notes dairy-free items
• Cons: No vegan desserts - but no one else has them either.

Vegetarian Indian food

by Keith Wagstaff at Citysearch

Known for its popular lunch buffet, this vegetarian Curry Hill restaurant serves Indian cuisine from all different regions of India.

01/01/09

Excellent food, horrifying service

by ee_me_me at Citysearch

I'm done with Chennai Garden. I love the food, but the service is so hostile. Something is seriously wrong at this place.

08/27/08

RUDE!

by bgbgbgbg at Citysearch

We just walked out of there after the waiter told us that our entrees would not be brought out until the appetizers were done with! that too very rudely! when we called the manager, he started to yell at us and told us that he had lived in NY for 27 years (huh?). We walked out... such attitude for someone that failed a health inspection

• Pros: plenty of other restaurants around
• Cons: this is one of them

03/11/08

Avoid this restaurant like the plague

by Girlygirl381 at Citysearch

I would never go here..the food was horrible. The service was lacking as well. On top of it the owner is so arrogant. My friend stopped by one day to ask about catering. Now all the good restaurants in Curry Hill are asking $12-15/pp, this dude has the audacity to ask $18-$25/pp for only 2 vegetarian dishes!!!!! Ridiculous!!! I can understand if you're asking for several dishes and meat, but 2 vegetarian items no appetizer...who does he think he is..and his food is not even that good.

Don't go here, go to any other restaurant on the block!

• Pros: Rude manager

11/30/07

Etiquette Trumps Food

by whatstherush at Citysearch

After this evening's treatment during my first dining experience at Chennai Garden, I have made it my primary mission to notify the whole universe of the restaurant's poor etiquette and audacious tactics. The evening started out pleasantly, with prompt seating and nice greeting. We were served our appetizers in record time, a definite plus. The interesting Behl Vada appetizer was so tasty and made the Assorted Appetizers platter pale in comparison. The servers were attentive but it got to a point of absolute rudeness when one tosses the check on the table and then each server comes by every 2 minutes constantly seeing if we forked over our cash already, even while we were enjoying our Chennai coffees (very good, by the way). There were tables open, the place was emptying, and no one was waiting. What's the rush? I thought about ordering some more food to go and contemplating a return visit but after witnessing how they kept trying to remove the check from our table (even though we didn't even sign the stupid credit card receipt yet), that was the last straw. The food service was good but I will never return or recommend this place.

06/27/07

Real ly Good South Indian food!!

by sindhya1 at Citysearch

Excellent!! Great sambar, dosas, vada, madras coffee.. I am South Indian so I have high standards for good South Indian food. The food here is just as good as a good restaurant in India or at my mom's! Yummy!!!

• Pros: the sambar, vadas, dosa, madras coffee

05/04/07

DONT WASTE ur MONEY

by authentic_crave at Citysearch

I am pure Indian... Born and raised in Indain. I think I know Indian food!!!! I have eaten in Asia, Europe, Africa. This place by far is the worst example of Indain food. I am sorry the service is like you just walked into MCdonalds and no one values your business.

Compling or requesting to rectify an issue regarding the food being so skimpy is a SIN in this place. They look at you like you are asking to visit GOD.

My girlfriend and myself made a special trip to this restaurant since its a block away from out favorite (Chinese Mirch). She was craving SouthIndian food and I was craving something different!

We got to the place and she ordered Cheese Dosa(typical South Indian Dish), its a stuffed flour wrap.. Usually stuffed with potato and spices. We requested cheese Dosa, since it was marked as special on the menu.

The Dosa looked awfully thin, so we opened the wrap and it barely had any cheese or anything. It was like someone just had cheese and sneezed on the dosa and whatever fell out was all we got..(imagine that). So i asked the server his opinion on the stuffing. He looked at me like I was speaking english and not his language. So we asked for regular potato dosa instead.... Guess what !!! same thing.... At this point complaining was useless, so we ate the dough and left for a better meal.

Sorry DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME & MONEY. Make a trip to Jackson Heights and get some real Indian food.

• Pros: place to sit
• Cons: everything

03/25/07

Noisiest atmosphere and rude manager( good food)

by najaruna at Citysearch

Horrible management! I met with a group of people for lunch on the weekend. It was loud from customers. The table was shaky. I asked the manager for a table that was not shaky,he said not to worry---he could not move it. Loud disco style/modern indian musak---made conversation impossible. The food was good however. This was the noisiest restaurant and rudest management I've come across.

• Pros: Good food,average price
• Cons: Extremely noisy, rude management

03/18/07

Mom's cookin'

by shrads at Citysearch

So I'm from Chennai, whatever that's worth. I don't cook traditional Chennai food, but this place tastes just like my mom's cooking. Their dosas are phenomenal, the rasam vadai was so traditional and delicious, and the sambar was SO much better than those in other south Indian places. It had a vegetable that we call drumstick, I'm not sure what it's called in America, but that's a super-traditional addition to sambar. The idli was not soggy like it usually is at restaurants and they even give you chili powder to dip it in (if you ask for it). Don't go here if you're looking for phenomenal service. I haven't had a bad experience with the service, but it's not great. They are also a better-decorated Indian place. I've seen very large parties seated without any hassle on a Friday night.

• Pros: Home style Indian food, decor, location
• Cons: Small space