India Palace

India Palace is an Indian restaurant in downtown Salem, Oregon.

Source: go here

India Palace basically serves your traditional Indian food. There is a lunch buffet, and if doing a take-out lunch, you have a choice of a small or large container. I also liked the decor of this place, and it has great ambiance for when you take a special someone out on a date (who hopefully loves Indian food).

The Tandoori chicken is pretty good, as is the Naan bread. The lamb vindaloo had OK flavor, but could have used more spices to add heat and flavor. Other butter chicken dishes (in a red, creamy sauce) were again good, but not great. The vegetable pakora was average...after sitting out in the buffet tray for a while, those fried veggies get less and less crunchy -- and therefore less appetizing.

I've also read several reviews on Yelp over the years criticizing India Palace for poor service and uncleanliness. There were even reviews in 2011 where reviewers complained of cockroaches on the tables and the servers not caring about it. If accurate, that is a major health code violation (shut the restaurant down immediately) and a huge black eye for the restaurant's reputation.

I'm happy to say that I've dined in for lunch at India Palace and have never had a bad experience with the service. However, seeing all these negative reviews does make me hesitate to go back. Especially when I now have another Indian restaurant closer to me (Taj Mahal), I can opt to go there instead. 3.75/10