taj mahal recently opened a location in independence, mo. we've been eyeing it from the outside for a couple months, and finally decided to give it a try when we had planned to meet my family for a movie in the area. this review is based on the independence location only, since i've not visited the kansas city one yet. if i do, i will update this review.
i was... surprised. it's in a strip mall, but the inside certainly does not feel that way all. very clean, a great menu and service, and it definitely had fine dining appeal. and like any good indian restaurant worth it's curry, they started us off with some yummy papadums. i couldn't place the flavour, which killed me, but they were some of the best i've had. the only downturn came when i was trying to order something without ghee, cream or yogurt, which seemed to present a little bit of a problem. i'm guessing they don't have too many vegans coming through. after being told they couldn't make any of the first three dishes i wanted, i finally settled on baingan bharta (eggplant). to be fair, there were a number of other dishes that they suggested for me - mostly lentil and chickpea dishes. i guess i just get burnt out on lentils and chickpeas because i make them so much at home. the husband got something with paneer - i can't rightly remember because the paneer chunks were like the size of my head! it looked really good! we also got some roasted garlic naan (specified no butter) that was drool worthy as well.
all in all, a good indian restaurant. vegans will face a lot of the same dishes they can normally eat, so nothing above and beyond in that respect (at least at the independence location). however, the food was super delicious, service was good, they did have at least four or five vegan dishes and you'll be dreaming about the garlic naan for days. i'm not sure how friendly their buffet is (lunches), so this review is based on dinner only. not too shabby for the suburbs of the midwest heartland (which can often be a vegan wasteland).
no website
locations (2):
independence
19210 e 39th st
independence, mo
816.795.0001
kansas city
7521 wornall rd
kc, mo
816.361.1722
