Pongal

Great food and service! my waiter, tipu, was great! Overall excellent food and a great experience.

Amazing food, a very clean restaurant, and the staff is incredibly polite. The manager, Tipu, is always accommodating. We recommend the Mung Dal dosa, especially if you are a healthy eater.

Great for lovers of abuse. Food is OK but service is rude and abrasive. The waiter pressured our group to order the most expensive items on the menu. When he tossed the check on the table, he said, «Cash!» When we showed him the Visa sign on the wall, he said the internet was down. He also added an extra percentage to the mandatory gratuity. As we were leaving he asked where we were from. When I told him we lived in NYC, he suddenly got very apologetic for the «misunderstanding.» Tourists, beware!

I have been here twice with my friends it’s simply amazing. Taste was excellent… I recommend every one to try Dahi aloo poori and mung dal dosa. Best south India food in newyork with excellent service.

Damm good taste. Ate idli, vada, upma. Madras thali is ultimate. Chutney n sambar for idli and upma was tasting very much home made. Not very spacious but still good place. Need to mention this guy, Guna who speaks in Sri Lankan tamil. He is just awesome. Being a Tamilian, I got to speak with him in the native language and he felt so good. Orders were served within the mentioned span of time. Overall I would recommend this place for all south Indians foodie lovers and fellow madrasis.

This is the best Indian restaurant in New York City. Tipu our waiter gave us free dessert! Everyone go to this restaurant!!! Vegetarian kingdom… you don’t even know

I’ve been here a few times, and each time I find the food to be delicious. I like to order one of their combination plates so that I get to taste a variety of different foods. Great options for vegetarians, which is unusual. Definitely recommend this place.

Never had Hindi food before and came here to try it for the first time. The food was amazing, the service was very welcoming and amicable. The waiter who attended to my group was Sohid. Very nice and funny guy. The prices for the food were the best part. Affordable prices for high quality food. Definitely coming back!

A couple of friends and I came here for an early dinner this past Sunday. They picked the place and I had no idea what I was walking into except for that its my first restaurant in «Curry Hill»
And what an introduction! The interior is cute, lightly decorated. There is lots of seating. I especially enjoy the cushion against the wall, surprisingly comfortable.
The food here was literally amazing, probably the best Indian food I have ever had. They had such a selection, a bit overwhelming but they did a great job answering all of my questions and making suggestions. We ordered the sample appetizers and poori to start. All of the items from the sample platter were delicious, I wish I was able to identify and talk a bit more about the different items but I was too busy scarfing it down!
For the main course, we each ordered dosas: gigantic, regular and spicy. Each of the dosas were amazing in flavor and taste, this was my first time trying a dosa so I cannot compare it to another but I do know this was an amazing introduction. While, my friends on the other hand are dosa– professionals and it lived up to their standards. Also note the spicy dosa was not spicy at all.
Service was great! Everyone was attentive, and the busboy was great, he came out and saw me taking pictures of the food so he offered angle suggestions and took a group picture for us from so many angles! So fun.
Cannot wait to come back to this little joy :)

My girlfriend and I go here quite often. Food is pretty good, especially for vegetarians. Location is pretty good too, since you can go to another place instead…
Last time we went, we found the staff to be slightly rude. But that might have been just that day. Oh well!

INCREDIBLE FOOD! Shohid was our waiter and he was amazingly helpful! I recommend the Malay kufta #73! Thank you Shohid and all of the chefs for making this experience extraordinary

«What is your problem»?
These are the first words that the manager said to me on the phone regarding my canceled order.
In celebration of Diwali, my office was ordering Indian food. We have a sizable amount of employees that keep kosher. As a result, I needed to supplement our order with kosher options. One of my coworkers called to be sure the food was the correct certification of kosher, and it checked out. I placed an order. Another coworker conferred with that employee and realized that Pongal was not, in fact, the correct certification of kosher. He then called back and canceled the order.
«What is your problem?» said the manager as I picked up my phone. Confused, I asked who was calling. The man identified himself as the manager of Pongal. He asked why I canceled the order. I told him it was because it didn’t meet the kosher certification my coworkers needed. He defensively insisted that it was good for «all dietary needs.»
I should indicate that my only basis for knowledge is kosher ordering comes from my coworkers. I’ve learned in the past when ordering food for the company that «kosher» can mean a variety of different things. I have to trust that my coworkers know what they need.
I told the manager that I had to cancel the order because, even if it has every certification known to man, my coworkers would not eat it. «What is your problem? Is this a prank? Are you kidding me?» he yelled into the phone.
«Have you ever been to Pongal?»
No, I have not, nor will I, nor will any of my coworkers and friends.
My father owns a restaurant. I understand how things work, and I have tremendous respect for people working in the industry. I do not, however, have respect for industry employees intimidating customers when they cancel their orders – especially for legitimate reasons.

The food here is OK, even though most of the stuff is very dry and bland. The area is surrounded by some good indian places, so there is no reason to be back here for mediocre food. However, the service here is a bigger disaster.
The restaurant was near full but the wait staff was standing near the entrance staring into abyss, perhaps questioning the emptiness of their service. The waters were never refilled, the check had to be asked multiple times, and the food was served with missing side items. They were rude and unapologetic, because they tack on a mandatory 15% gratuity that lets them get away with this behavior.

Friends of mine were coming up from Philly to meet in the city with 2 of them being vegetarians so my husband got Pongal as a recommendation from vegetarians he knew. First all of us love Indian food so its not that we didn’t like it because of that. We sat all the way in the back across from the register and all servers skipped our table for a good 30 minutes. Then one came and said he was going to take our drink order, walked away and we didn’t seem him again for awhile. So next time we made sure we got everything in with the waiter; drinks, apps, bread and entrees. Food was ok. I say this because I get shahi paneer or ask I call it paneer tikki masla all the time, I like it better than chicken. What was sad for me is the dish I got here wasn’t as good as the times I get it a meat friendly restaurants. I thought for sure since its a vegetarian dish, that the vegetarian Indian restaurant would bring its A+ game.
So while the food was ok, a really weird thing happened to really bother my whole group although we laugh about it. We were sitting across from the cash register. Some guy who had placed an order for take out comes and sits right next to my friend on the banquette in the spot that give space between our table and the next table. We ask him what is he doing and he says «just waiting for my food». He basically just sat at our table pretty much and had no clue that it was not ok.

I should preface this by saying that I love South Indian food. It is one of my absolute favorite cuisines — dosa, idli, uttapam, curd rice, and tamarind rice are alone of my favorite dishes! I am sorely disappointed by Pongal. I did read many of the reviews so j was aware that it’s been received in a mixed manner. However, I didn’t realize how bad the place actually is.
Firstly, my party of two arrived on the Sunday evening of Labor Day weekend. The place was admittedly packed, mostly with a western crowd but enough Indians to give me the impression that the food is the real deal. Shortly after being seated and placing our order, we were informed that the restaurant is cash only. What? The sign on the door indicates that several credit cards are accepted but the staff refused to accept credit cards from every party around us. Indeed, one young couple only had $ 2 cash and the staff was forced to call the credit card authorization line because they couldn’t pay otherwise. In all honesty, I know it’s tough to maintain working machines at all hours but this is really unacceptable when a quick and simple fix would have been to place a sign on the front door indicating that for the time being only cash would be accepted for payment purposes.
Next, the service was subpar. We had to ask for water refills and the seating was super uncomfortable. We also had to ask to be seated away from the door because of the hot air being blown in every time the door opened. I’m not sure why the staff didn’t think about this, especially considering that there was plenty of seating toward the back register.
Finally, the food. I ordered one of the Thalis and it looked great (picture posted)! However, the food itself was dry and inedible in some instances. My husband ordered the cheese spring dosa. The staff didn’t even know why type of cheese was being used (and didn’t bother asking the chef!) and the vegetables were a total mess. They used roughly chopped lettuce and big chunks of tomatoes and onions. This is an inappropriate way to prepare vegetables for a dosa and the fact that iceberg lettuce was used is just laziness. Here is a tip in case someone from the restaurant is reading, a spring dosa should consist or cabbage NOT lettuce and all the vegetables should be finely chopped.
I do NOT recommend this terrible restaurant. There are several Indian restaurants nearby or you can buy perfectly delicious frozen South Indian food at the Indian grocery store.

Hi
This is my first review. Recently i came to this restaurant with my friends. As we are hungry we ordered the appatizer dahi aloo puri it was so good. From the main course we ordered pondicherry dosa, palak paneer, malai kofta and Royal thai. As the waiter told the thali was good we took it was superb. We had chapathi and alu parata. Alu parata is spicy and very delicious. And coming to dessert we had a special dessert which is not in the menu i. e, chocolate dosa. Believe me it is awsome. We never had the dosa like this. Talking about the price. It is the cheapest restaurant the entire line of 28^st.
Finally the service is very good. They recieved very politely and gave the food quickly. Service is good Food is good.
I recomend you to vist PONGAL.
Guyss you rock.

This time, –food remains great– our party of four was asked to leave after paying the bill, as people were waiting. We understood,. but the manner was rude. After saying «Please leave,» the waiter then said hastily, «Shalom, shalom!»
Sorry we had already paid a tip (again, the bill permitted double tipping).

I haven’t actually dined at this place so my review is not entirely complete. But we dropped in here for a quick Indian dessert treat and ended up ordering Pista Kulfi. The taste was average but the presentation was gud. Will definitely give their food a try as well.

We were in the mood for Indian food and decided to try this restaurant out of the other 20 or so Indian restaurants in the area. The food came out quick and was pretty good. We ordered the tomato soup appetizer, the samosa chaat, the Indian version of a crêpe (a dosai maybe?), and baingan bhartha.
Food was good, but nothing to write home about. The service was good as well. But one waiter in particular was either having a bad day or hating life. He was not friendly at all — didn’t make eye contact, smile, or acknowledge when you said something. Kinda weird.
I’d probably try other restaurants in the area before coming back to this one.

This review is for their take-​out meal only, via Seamless.
It’s a solid restaurant in Curry Hill and their specialty is more in South Indian dishes (dosa, idli, utthappam, etc.), but I got more of a ‘northern’ dish, so I’ll have to come back and try a southern dish.
Their shahi paneer is pretty good — I was craving Indian food and wanted paneer, and this definitely satisfied my craving. I was a little underwhelmed on the amount they gave me, as I was expecting more food (which is crazy, I know), but in hindsight, I was happy that I didn’t eat more. I’ve ordered from here before and remember it being decent, but forgot to write a review — so at least they’re consistent with their quality.