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Moksha NYC Indian Restaurant
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Address: Moksha
18 Murray StNew York, NY 10007 Closed Other NYC Indian/Pakistani Restaurants |
 Closed |
Moksha NYC Review: Bland Food; Poor Service
Our quest for tasty food at Moksha Indian restaurant in downtown Manhattan was like the futile search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.In both cases, the search ended in dismal failure. A catastrophe.
Moksha in the Hindi language means liberation or deliverance from the cycle of birth and death.
But after our dinner at Moksha, we were pleading with the Almighty for deliverance from such spiceless, bland Indian restaurants in Manhattan.
Neither the service nor the food stands out in a positive way at this restaurant on Murray Street in downtown New York.
It was a muggy New York evening when we entered Moksha. But the air conditioning was less than effective at this dimly-lit restaurant. When we asked about the weak AC, our waiter Ram Sarma indifferently mentioned that we must be feeling hot because we'd just come in from outside. By the end of our meal, we were sweating!
When we asked to be moved to a different table because ours was wobbly, our waiter was most reluctant and suggested that he'd get some paper to put under the legs of the table. We politely insisted on a different table because we didn't want our dinner landing on the floor. Also, the restaurant was mostly empty anyway.
If Moksha's service put us off, its food put us in a high dudgeon.
One letdown followed upon another in a series of merciless assaults on our tastebuds.
Khasta Baingan was far from crispy and even with the accompanying sauce just a flavorless mess of an appetizer.
Kasturi Murg looked interesting on the menu but turned out to be a disaster on the table. Described as Tandoori Chicken breast with ginger, garlic and fenugreek, Kasturi Murg conjured up images of a mouthwatering dish.
Hopelessly bland, the Kasturi Murg ($17.00) had none of the promised ginger and garlic flavor.
In many decades of eating out, Dalcha Palak Gosht (lamb cubes with lentil and spinach) was one of the most lifeless, tasteless dishes we've had the misfortune of eating.
Must be our Bad Karma. Must be our Bad Karma.
Our vegetarian pick also turned out to be disappointing. Kurkuri Bhindi (Okra stuffed with Potato in masala sauce) was a little on the salty side and gave us no comfort.
As for the Dal, don't get us started on this flavorless abomination.
Garlic Naan ($4.00) was so low on the Garlic flavor that it'd be more apt to call it Plain Naan.
What's wrong with Moksha?
We felt the culprit was the chef's stingy hand with the spices (which is what give Indian food their magical taste).
Although we'd expressed our preference for the food to be spicy, it fell on deaf ears!
We were near despair when we turned our attention to desserts.
But neither the Rasmalai ($7.00) nor the Strawberry ice Cream ($5.00) restored the smiles with which we had entered this restaurant with much anticipation.
After the really lousy meal at Moksha, our Manhattan friend hit the nail on the head when he said - the only authentic Indian thing here is the King Fisher beer ($5.00 for a small bottle).
The food at Moksha was so bad that we had to apologize to our friend for subjecting him to such agony.
It takes a great deal of chutzpah to call Moksha an Indian restaurant. - © NYIndia.us
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Moksha Restaurant responds on August 4, 2007 to NYIndia.us review:
Hi,
....I beg the reviewers pardon, but since when did we start serving Strawberry Ice-cream and Rasmalai for the prices mentioned on the review, when our pastry-chef is on leave since the last couple of months and WE HAVE BEEN ENDING DINNERS SANS a DESSERT MENU, awaiting his comeback....Your's truly is incharge of floor operations, and a self-confessed gastronome. - Sameer Baxi
NYIndia.us response to above comment from Moksha:
Sir, thank you for your e-mail.
Your note, particularly by the use of upper case letters, seems to question whether we were served desserts at all at your restaurant Moksha for dinner. You are implying we made up the desserts part.
We are surprised - make that shocked - that the floor operations boss of Moksha does not know what is being served in his restaurant.
If your Pastry Chef (your note suggests he's also the Desserts Chef) has been on leave for the last couple of months, were we then served 42-days-old Rasmalai and Strawberry Ice Cream when we had dinner at Moksha in July?
If we were indeed served 42-days-old desserts, then Moksha is a far worse restaurant than we realized.
Our Moksha dinner receipt clearly says RESMALAI (a misspelling, of course) and Ice Cream. As noted in our review above, the prices are $7 and $5 for the Rasmalai and Strawberry Ice Cream respectively.
May we add that both the Rasmalai and Strawberry Ice Cream were lousy.
You wrote in your e-mail: "Your's truly is incharge of floor operations."
Forgive us if we now harbor serious doubts that Moksha restaurant has anyone incharge at all. - © NYIndia.us