Mantra India Mountain View

Good food and service. Unfortunately, they stopped their Thali.

Absolutely fantastic food friendly staff must check it out

Tried mantra mango 4/5. Kashmiri dum aloo 5/5 (totally loved it) jeera rice and naan. Overall a really good place, took alot of time to get the food though but was worth it in the end.

This is one of the great restaurants along the famed Castro St at downtown Mountain View. I have been to Sakoon previously but I liked this one better. It's recommended to get a reservation before heading out there since it gets really crowded around the weekend nights. This review is for a dinner and not the lunch buffet. I reserved a table for 2 on a Friday evening at 8. After reaching there, it takes a while to find parking. Street parking on Castro itself is extremely rare to find. The surface parking lots on the neighboring streets are almost always full. However there are multiple parking lots nearby which are free and it's easier to find parking at the higher levels. We reached the restaurant and waited for 5-10 minutes to get a table in spite of having a reservations (to be fair we were offered a table right in front of the entrance which we declined). We got a table soon after and got seated. A Yelp check-in got us a Mango Lassi and it was perfectly textured with the right amount of viscosity and sweetness. We ordered chicken 65 as our appetizer and chicken 25 and Kashmiri Rogan Josh as our entrees. Since the entrees don't come with rice, we ordered a basil pesto naan and a keema naan to go with it. The chicken 65 came within 10-15 minutes. Firstly it was quite spicy which was perfect for our palate and second it differed from the usual dry and fried taste of chicken 65. This dish was juicy and infused with the right amount of aroma. People with preference for lower spice level may choose either to tone down the hotness or try different appetizer items. The entree dishes were equally mouth-watering and perfectly cooked. The lamb pieces in the Rogan Josh were one of the most succulent and tender pieces of red meat I have tasted. The gravy was also delicious with the right amount of yogurt and the spices of cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and bay leaves. Most often, the dishes in other restaurants mess up the proportion and the taste veer off to either too much of the aromatic spices or the yogurty flavor. This dish was cooked in the perfect taste that I expected. In comparison, the chicken 25 is a new dish that I have not found anywhere else. This dish was described as chicken cooked with 25 herbs and spices in a tomato fenugreek sauce. The dish was surprisingly delectable with a great-tasting gravy and the large potato pieces. The chicken pieces were small, soft and well-cooked. Both the dishes go extremely well with both rice and naan. We loved the keema naan with its minced meat stuffing within the naan but the basil pesto naan was too much mushy and I think we could have done without it. The interior of the restaurant has great ambiance and decoration. The portion sizes are commensurate with the price and we ended up packing some of the leftover food in to-go boxes. Overall, this has been a great dining experience and I will definitely be coming back in the future.

Nice Indian restaurant with nice decor and an elaborate buffet