Tandoor Indian Cuisine

Many consider the Mission Valley area North of the 8 Freeway stretching from Fenton Parkway until Old Town to be Chain Restaurant and Fast Food Hell. In fact, Ed from Yuma in one of His most inspired moments described a certain area of Mission Valley this way; "From a chowhound standpoint, Hotel Circle may as well be one of Dante's circles of Hell." Has to be one of the best lines I've heard. At first glance all you see is PF Chang's, California Pizza Kitchen, Cheesecake Factory, Carl's Jr, Bennigan's, Fuddruckers, and the Food Courts from the 2 shopping centers that occupy a large portion of the valley. But there are a few interesting choices in Mission Valley. Tandoor Indian Cuisine, formerly KC's Tandoor, is located in the Ralph's and Long's strip mall bordered by Mission Center Road and Friars Road.

In fact, this was the restaurant that made the Tandoori Chicken that the Missus was so infatuated with, and eventually burned-out on that I mentioned in an earlier post. Now, with Indian food back in our rotation, we finally paid a return visit to the latest incarnation of this Indian Restaurant. Tandoor Indian Cuisine, is one of several little restaurants huddled together forming a "food court" of sorts in the middle of this strip mall. As a matter of fact, a new location of El Portal is a few doors down from Tandoor.

Though the ownership of the restaurant had changed, other then an expanded menu, just about everything else seemed the same. Unfortunately, this includes the aloof and sometimes downright rude service. As in: "can you hurry up and make up your mind and order", when there's no other customer in the restaurant except me. I guess it's "Mission Valley Burnout" caused by crazy lunch hour traffic. "Don't go away mad; just go away...." You know, I rather enjoy eating meat, but don't take pleasure being treated like a piece of it!

On this visit I had 4 piece Tandoori Chicken Combination($7.99), with Rice Pulao(Basmati Rice), and Dal as my side orders:

All combination plates also include a piece of Naan. There were 2 small thighs and 2 small drumsticks, that were moist and tender and cooked in the tandoor located on one side of the restaurant.(White meat .75 more each piece) Today, the slightly charred areas of the chicken tasted good (cancer be damned!!!), though the overall flavoring of the chicken was somewhat bland, and not as good as we recalled. The distinct mildly smokey taste we remembered was missing. As the Tandoori chicken here has never been especially spicy nor herbaceous, any missing flavor component was especially evident. The rice was dry, and the Dal, was well dull, just overly watery.

The Missus ordered the Lamb Curry Plate($6.79):

Along with the Lamb, the plate included Naan, Rice, Dal, and Raita(yogurt and cucumber dip). The lamb was very soft and tender, the Missus enjoyed the flavor of the lamb and curry, which I thought was a bit on the watery side and found the tomato based curry a bit odd.

The hit of the day was the Garlic Naan($1.99), which we ordered in addition to the Naan included in the plates:

The Naan was rolled out and cooked in the Tandoor to order and you get it hot and crusty. It also helps that there is always a generous amount of garlic and herbs on the naan. I usually enjoy watching the Naan cook in the Tandoor, but this time the Cook gave me an annoyed look when I moved over to watch him. I guess the attitude was transferred along with the ownership of the restaurant. We probably won't be back, at least until we're prepared to deal with the attitude again, which may be a while.

Some Notes: Tandoor is not a sit-down restaurant, but closer to a "fast-casual" style eatery. There's a Saturday Dinner Buffet and Sunday Brunch for $7.99. The menu is quite extensive with over 70 items. The strip mall that Tandoor is located in can be a real zoo during lunch hours and during holiday season. Getting back to Friars Road from the parking lot can also be somewhat frustrating at times.

Tandoor Indian Cuisine
5608 Mission Center Road
San Diego, CA 92108

Open Daily 11:00 AM to 9:30 PM

Comments

[Jack]

KC's Tandoor use to cater our work holiday party every year, bringing a tandoor oven on-site. It was great having as much naan as you like right out of the oven. I've only been to this restaurant a few times since they changed ownership and have gotten the same attitude that you have...although have never gotten the tandoor chef stink-eye!

[GK]

I have had the great fortune of eating real tandoori chicken in Dehli, India and close enough in a few die hard eateries catering to NYC Indian/Pakistani cab drivers.

That stuff doesn't look the same and according to your description, probably doesn't taste the same either. As soon as my Indian friend sees red food coloring, she pincer grabs me by the fleshy part of my upper arm and drags me away. I know what good Indian food tastes like. She was a very harsh task master. But I am strictly forbidden from cooking it. I think it was the undercooked mung beans in the atrocity I called a dal. She still holds it over my head years later.

I don't have a recommendation for your neck of the woods but should you ever be in NYC, try Kebab King in Jackson Heights. You can google it. There are 2 locations within blocks of each other. One is better than the other. I just don't remember the street addy.

Sincerely,

GK

PS I love your blog.

[howie]

I used to go here a lot about a year ago, but I think I stopped because I *hate* Mission Valley. I didn't realize that ownership changed. I remember liking a number of dishes there: baigan bharta (eggplant), the tandoori chicken, the makhini chicken. It was a nice place to get a quick Indian fix on the cheap.

Another reason that I stopped going was because I started working right next to the Scranton Food Court where KC's had a little shop. This one changed ownership too. I think it's called Sitar now. I still like it though it might not be anything like GK had in Delhi.

[Kirk]

Hi Jack - At KC's Tandoor there used to be a really nasty "Guy", I think His spirit lives on here! But now everyone has the same attitude!

Hi GK - Thank You for stopping by and commenting! I'm sure that much(maybe everything) of the Indian Food we have in San Diego could not measure up to Dehli, or even New York! You've been truly blessed to have experienced it, and have friends as you have. Thanks again for your comments and recommendations.

Hi Howie - Funny, I was going to do a bunch of posts called "5 days in the Valley" and do a whole week on posts on "one of Dante's circles of Hell." But I've been rethinking that! LOL! I wonder what happened to "KC"?

[Rachel]

Hmm its funny how bad service can make a good to moderate meal unejoyable. Also, good service can make a average meal good! How on earth can someone go into the food business not knowing the number one rule : If you don't take care of your customers... someone else will!

[Bandini]

that tandoori chicken looks so good I could almost taste it on my screen

[Kirk]

Hi Rachel - You hit it right on the button!

Hi Bandini - I thought the red food coloring kinda made the chicken photo look out of this worldish!!!

[liver bomb]

Dudes, you must try Punjabi Tandoor in miramar area (activity road). Their website is punjabitandoor.com. Stratospherically better than Tandoor.

[Kirk]

Hi liver bomb - Thanks for the recommendation. This Dude & His "Dudette" will put it on our list.

[Reid]

Hi Kirk,

Sorry you had to endure such poor service. For me, I usually encounter poor service in Cantonese restaurants/dim sum restaurants for some reason.

The best Indian food that I've had recently was in Singapore. Aside from that, the Indian food in New York used to all be concentrated in the East Village and was quite good, but nothing really beat what you could get in London. *sigh*

[Kirk]

Hi Reid - I usually have the same experience as you back home as well. We're thinking about a trip to NY maybe this year.

[Karl]

I'll second the vote for Punjabi Tandor in Miramar. It's outrageously good and insanely cheap. Hard to find good Indian grub in SD, even harder to find it at rock bottom prices. Try the pun once and you will always come back.

[Graham]

Hey Cathy-

I was just messing around looking at things in Chowhound.com and someone mentioned your blog being good for reviews of food places in the San Diego Area. I'm moving to San Diego in 2 weeks and have been skimming through your blog and love it! I'm so happy to have a guide to the great places to eat.

I've come down to visit my friend quite a few times and have found some yummy food places myself.

Indian is my favorite, so this particular entry caught my attention.

I went to a place Downtown for their Indian Buffet, it was amazing, thought I'd let you know. I think it was called Waterfall something, or Rain something, I don't know, something that had to do with water falling out of something.

It was a little pricier than most of the lunchtime Indian Buffets that I go to, but completely worth every penny ($14 if I remember).

One of the things that I liked best was that when you are seated, a server comes over and asks what kind of Naan you would like and then bring it out completely freshly made! It was probably the best Naan I've ever had. Plus the buffet is huge and everything was delicious and creative. They had lots of yummy starter like samosas and they're pakora was outstanding. They choose one vegetable instead of doing it mixed in a ball and you don't know what you're getting. That day was fresh spinach. It was great. Also one of their more creative dishes was a Corn Curry. Done just like a regular vegetable curry, but only with corn. I thought it was an interesting idea, it was only mediocre though.

OH! And the desserts were wonderful too! There was 2 choices, I of course sampled both, both were very well prepared and garnished in nice little bowls. One was Keer, which was good, but didn't stand out among others that I have had. They definately did use rosewater in it which was great. Then the one that i really enjoyed was a mango mouse. It was great, light and refreshing, with a peice of fresh mango and a fanned strawberry garish.

Anyways, give them a try sometime if you haven't already, totally worth it!

Again, love your blog, can't wait to read more and go to all these yummy places!

-Graham

[Cathy]

Hello, Graham- This is a great place to live; I haven't had to own a lawnmower or snow shovel in my entire adult life. Your memory of agreat meal is fantastic! I have been hanging around downtown a lot more lately and will look into the Indian places down there. The 'real' area of town (that has Indian markets and some more 'mom and pop' type of Indian restaurants) is on Black Mountain Road, Closer to Miramar Road and the Marine Corps Air Station. Thanks for taking the time to comment and feel free to ask questions.

[Justin O'Neill]

My wife and I just tried Punjabi Tandoor after seeing your guys comments. Absolutely DELICIOUS. And CHEAP.

I am a vegatarian and they had plenty of options.

Thanks so much for the info guys!

[Cathy]

Um, thanks Justin, but Kirk didn't blog about Punjabi Tandoor, at Black Mountain Road; this was the Tandoor Indian on Mission Gorge/Mission Center Road. In any case, I'm glad you had a great meal wherever...and that you read our blog.