Mantra Indian Cuisine
| Address: | 27645 Jefferson Ave, Temecula, CA 92590, USA |
| Phone: | +1 951-506-1800 |
| Site: | mantrarestaurants.com |
| Rating: | 4.3 |
| Working: | 11AM–3PM 11AM–3PM 11AM–3PM 11AM–3PM 11AM–3PM 11AM–3PM 11AM–3PM |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 6
JA
Jason Karuza
Summary: Great quality. Excellent flavors. Attentive service. Reasonable prices for quantity of food. Plenty of parking. Lots of variety. AND...they made it spicy when we asked for it :) My wife and I came here on a Sunday afternoon with a couple of Vegan friends after a full day of wine tasting. We arrived just before the restaurant opened at 5pm, so we had no problem being seated. Funny enough, though, there were two other groups already at the restaurant when we went inside. The restaurant is pretty large and has the usual style and decorations that one would expect. After the other two groups were seated, a host came to greet us and escort us to a table. We were handed the menus and began to peruse. As an FYI, they have a number of very reasonably priced wines by the glass and the pours are very full. Surprisingly full. Very generous. They also have a larger than normal Indian beer list, including the infamous 8% ABV Old Monk (fantastic)! So naturally, after a long day of consuming large quantities of wine, we ordered more wine and beer :) We also figured out which dishes we were going to order and when asked how hot my wife and I wanted ours we replied "hot", to which the server replied "on a scale from 1 to 10...?", and we instantly replied "10!" At that point, the usual reaction we get is a facial expression that reads "these crazy people clearly have no idea what their doing". But our friends quickly chimed in with a very confident "they can handle it" and the server seemed satisfied (though we were still skeptical of what would actually be given to us). Some papadams were brought out to start with, along with our drinks. We sat and talked for about 20 minutes, then our food was delivered and the table was filled with 7 dishes, rice, and naan. My wife and I will attest, they gave us a heat level 10. The spiciness was strong and enjoyable. The flavors were a little chili powder heavy, but still very good. The dishes are smaller than our usual place in Torrance, but they are also cheaper, so the balance is still maintained. My wife and I got the chicken tikka masala, shrimp curry, aloo gobi, rice and garlic naan. Everything was well prepared with excellent sauces and quality ingredients. The textures were all spot on and we really enjoyed the food. The total bill came to $96 for everything, which is pretty amazing, and we even had a little left for leftovers the next night. Throughout the meal, we were attended to with water refills, inquiries about the food meeting our expectations, etc. It was a great experience and the reviews definitely do the place justice.
TO
Todd Aglialoro
Went to Mantra 8/10/15 for dinner with my wife. We were seated immediately in the mostly empty dining area, in low-sunk booths with a glass-covered table, and given menus. We were then ignored for about ten minutes. Meanwhile, the couple at the table next to us -- an Indian man and his non-Indian girlfriend or wife -- were being constantly attended to by one, two, sometimes three fawning waiters/staffers. They joked and laughed; brought drinks, desserts, and doggy bags; conversed back and forth about the different kinds of food. Finally I caught the attention of one of them and said we were ready to order. He looked surprised and a little annoyed, then walked away for another minute before returning with a yellow legal pad. We placed our orders. Our appetizer arrived fast enough, along with my drink. A few minutes later our entrees -- lamb vindaloo for me, chicken curry for my wife -- arrived, but not our naan. We sat staring at our cooling food for another five minutes before the naan arrived and we were able to begin eating. I finished my bottle of beer shortly after the entrees arrived. Not once thereafter, though, did a waiter stop by our table: not to ask if I wanted another drink or anything else to eat, not to check on how we were doing generally. We sat and ate and continued to watch the wait staff chit-chat with the couple at the next table. Eventually we were done, and sat ignored for another couple of minutes. Finally a busboy arrived, silently took our plates, then returned a minute later to plop down the bill, again without a word. My wife and I agreed that the food was good. Decent portions, moderately priced, nice balance of spices. Not the deal of the century, but passable for Temecula Indian food. However, the appallingly indifferent service guaranteed I will never come back. In fact, it inspired my first-ever Google restaurant review.
AL
Alexandria Zoenell
1 STAR. Horrible service! I have been a loyal customer to Mantra since 2012 when the food quality and service was at five stars. Sadly, the food quality and service has declined significantly. Today my family and I visited the brunch buffet and we were very dissatisfied. We patrons waited nearly 35 minutes for basmati rice to be served. We had to seat ourselves as no host was available to seat us. The waiter attended to us nearly 10 minutes later and served us warmer water mind you it was 100 degrees outside. By the time the rice was brought out, our family had finished our luke warm meals. The chicken tikka masala flavor and quality is not the same as it was over a year ago. The service continues to decline. I recommend traveling to the city of Riverside for high quality, authentic and excellent customer service. Hope this helps!
SA
Sarah Savage
Maybe we were unlucky with the staff as I see others have had great service. From the time we walked in.. no greeting, stood at the counter and two people walked up and left without saying a thing. When our table was ready the man walked us around the corner and pointed out our table (didnt walk us to it like any other restaurant). The whole dining experience continued on the same way. No one asked what we wanted to drink we had to ask them. We had to flag them down when we were ready to order. Im not even sure if we had a server since we had to stop someone different each time. They messed up our order and never came back to check on us after the food was brought out. The simplest things! Im really bummed because the food was good! We wont be back, I felt too much like a bother and inconvenience to them while we were there.
JO
Jose Ramirez
Well, this place was recommended to me by a few people after I bagged about the Naan Cafe in Redlands so I have it a try, the food was average. The tikka massala was just OK and the Naan bread did not meet the hype. Now the service, the service is horrible here, you dont have an assigned waiter so there is random people coming to your table and disrupting your meal. The staff is not very friendly, It felt like they were new at their job, all of them. Going back to the multiple waiters, I ordered a second order on Naan bread and they brought me something completely wrong them a different dude picked it up and brought me the check but the Naan never arrived. It was strange. Dont go there
PA
Parmjeit Janjua
Visiting from Colorado. We thought we would try this place. We were celebrating my brothers graduation. We left disappointed. My brother warned us. The food and service was horrible. We got burnt naan, not once but twice. When we asked for naan we were given a bad attitude. Im indian we love roti and naan. Not only this, no water was given to us, unless we asked. No, refills were given on our drinks. Every time we asked the guy with the glasses, he snaped at us. The girl waitress was giving us a horrible attitude. This was our first and only visit. Please, give your customers better service. I will never recommend this place to tourist, coming to Cali from Colorado.
