Tandoori Chef
258 Main St, Hackensack, NJ
Rachel and I recently re-visited Tandoori Chef, which has been under new ownership for 3 years. Tandoori Chef used to be part of the same restaurant group as the now closed Indian Chef in the International Food Warehouse in Lodi, but has since undergone significant changes, including the re-branding of the cafe space that it owns next door, which used to be Veggie Express but is now Madras Bistro. It should also be noted that Tandoori Chef has recently lowered the price of its lunch buffet to under $10 a person, and we intend on checking that out soon.
Indian Chef and Madras Bistro in Hackensack are serving some of the best North Indian and South Indian Food in Bergen County.
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As with the prior incarnation of the restaurants, Tandoori Chef (left) is a fine dining restaurant with meat and North Indian dishes and Madras Bistro (right) is a fast food vegetarian restaurant which specializes in chaat an other South Indian foods such as dosas. It is possible to order dishes from the Vegetarian restaurant and eat them in the nicer dining room but there is a $2 surcharge per dish.
Table Chutneys, served with Papadums. The onion one (front) is my favorite.
Rachel ordered a very nice tomato shorba soup, which we thought was excellent.
This chicken soup contains pieces of tandoori chicken and is flavored with ginger. I liked it a lot.
Madras Bistro makes excellent dosas (lentil crepes stuffed with a variety of spiced vegetable fillings) and it comes with a spicy sambhar soup as well as tomato and coconut chutneys.
Saag Kofta. These are balls of spinach and cheese in a creamy tomato sauce. This was actually ordered by accident, thinking it was Kofta (cheese balls) in a spinach curry, which is usually what you get when you order something “Saag” or “Saagwala” on a North Indian/Punjabi menu. But it was very good nonetheless.
Garlic Naan Bread, one of the several types of tandoor breads available.
Deluxe Tandoori, a sampler platter of Tandoor kebabs. We especially liked the two types of chicken, the fish and the Seekh Kebab. The Shrimp was a bit too salty.
Kashmiri Chicken curry (right) with nuts and raisins, and Bhindi Masala (okra) in the background. We thought both were very good.
Curry closeup.
Off The Broiler 
[…] NJ Dining: Indian Chef Restaurant Group (CLOSED) February 2010 update: Indian Chef and Veggie Express have both closed. Tandoori Chef has been under new ownership for the last 3 years, and we did a recent re-visit here. […]
madras bistro sounds great~ and close! my chat/dosa cravings are fierce and have only been satisfied by a trek to Edison…will be checking this place out soon…thanks for the tip
You really need to try Mantra on Route 4 in Paramus. The dinner menu is upscale Indian, pricey but worth it. However, the lunch buffet is absolutely breathtaking, featuring different dishes almost every day, including Indo-Chinese favorites like Chili Chicken. Oh man.
We’ll definitely check out the lunch buffet.
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