text: I love Indian food. There, I said it. The problem? There just aren't that many great places here in Phoenix to get it. So when I saw a new Indian place open and get such rave reviews, I was excited. My mom and I decided to meet here for lunch last week. This place was a little hard to find, but it is on the NE corner of Tatum and Cactus (I went to like every other shopping center first... *palm to forehead*) and it faces cactus (by the Olive Garden sort of). When we entered, my first thought was, oh cute... my second thought was... this place is owned by Roka Akor's restaurant group... that's...weird. Anyway, the owner greeted us and that is when things started to get weird. The owner is a talker... he said so himself... and the things he talked about were a little off putting for a restaurant owner... he talked about politics... people walking by the restaurant.... his old chef who stole from him.... karma...you name the awkward conversation topic to have with a stranger, he probably talked about it. I would say this isn't advisable for a restaurant owner... it's not like we came here to hang out with him, we came here to eat.\n\n Speaking of eating, my mom and I shared a Thali and an order of samosas. I was excited they had Thalis (not many places that I've been here do). The thali is like going to an Indian buffet when you are on a serious diet... you get to taste many items, but just a small amount of each. The Thali consists of 3 'main' dishes - you pick the protein for 2 of them and the third is a mixed veggie curry. They allowed us to mix the lamb vindaloo with the chicken masala (after a little nudging from me and agreeing to pay the higher price - 14$). The lamb was very good, tender, just the right amount of spice. The chicken was also tender, but kind of bland for Indian food.... I guess at dinner you can choose your spice level, but not the case at lunch. The veggies were alright... nothing great, nothing bad. It also came with salad (meh.. salad is salad), two scrawny pieces of plain naan (again... nothing special), rice, and a fried dough ball soaked in sweet syrup (I was kind of sad since reports on here said it used to come with rice pudding... I love rice pudding, the dough ball is just ok). The real star of our meal were the samosas... these things were hot, crispy, and well seasoned. \n\n\nWill I be back? Eh, maybe if I were in the area, my mom really enjoyed it, but overall I thought it was just ok and far more expensive (and less delicious) than some of the lunch buffets out there.