Nikki’s Chaat Cafe

Average. I don’t trust their food and mediocre service.
I have to write more to fill space so …

Bad service and bad food. Ambience is very ordinary and the quality of food was even worse. One star is because they cook food for you.

Mediocre food. A group of us had just returned from a long backpacking trip in desolation wilderness, and came here for post hike food. Everything in the buffet was mediocre and we left the place highly unsatisfied.

It’s not indian in anyway, chicken biryani taste not even a percent like India food and veg biryani was very bland, I would pass this any day for other restaurants

We ordered chicken biryani and it was rice with some vegetables in it — basically a badly cooked pulao.
When we tried to bring this to the attention of the owner, he replied with this is how our food is.

You must visit this place if you are Indian food lover.
Nice place. Great food quality.

The buffet was plain terrible and they charged 18 $ per person on the long weekend.
I really detested eating at this indian place.
Giving them three stars for being the only indian place in tahoe

Average Indian food. Quality does not match the price. Had idli, vada and uttapam for breakfast here and the taste was below average. Aloo parata was thick and was served without raita or yogurt. Chutney was not fresh and could clearly make out it was just out of the refrigerator from previous day.

Worst food ever, so scared that I’m going to get sick. They have paper plates, plastic utensils and bottled water. No flavor to their food, 3 – 4 of the buffet trays were empty when we got there. I reallllyyyy regret eating there. So gross!!!

Food is not delicious, not prepared well, and very expensive. Most items are just cooked without proper Indian spices.

Plastic spoons, plastic bottles of water, and I would rather eat out of a garbage can. Food was absolutely repulsive. I feel miserable and I am slowly dying.

I never write a bad review ever! Even if the food is not good or the service isn’t great, I ignore and never come on Unilocal to give the business a bad review because I imagine running a restaurant is hard and I feel bad to give a bad rating. However, Nikki’s is an exception. Here is what happened with us.
After a long tiring day, we reached Nikki’s at 7:15pm on a Saturday night and at the time only 2 other tables were occupied. They had a buffet but we chose to opt for ala carte. We ordered the chicken wrap and chole bhature. Then the wait started. The owner came to our table 20 minutes later and said they were preparing our order and it shouldn’t be much longer. We kept waiting and waiting and then we finally asked a waiter how much longer it would be. His response was — we are busy with another order so you need to wait. Next the owner’s wife walked up to us and in a very rude (not pleasant neither apologetic) tone asked «what did you order?» and we responded to which she said let me go check. 10 mins later she still did not return to us with an answer. At this point, we called the waiter and asked if they had even started preparing our order and if not we would like to cancel it. He went in to the kitchen and came back saying it is fine if we want to cancel it. By then it had been a total of 50 mins wait! We were starving! We decided to cancel and leave. As we were walking out the door, the owner was standing right there and yet he never bothered to apologize.
My point is I understand you were having a busy night (although as I mentioned, when we walked in there were only 2 other tables occupied and they were eating the buffet) but at least let us know that we would need to wait for a long time. They could’ve come to our table after 15 mins or so to let us know that the wait would be awfully long and we could opt for the buffet instead. Or offer to give a free drink for the wait. Nothing! I am really sorry but you guys just ruined our evening. We came here starving and 50 mins later we left without eating. That without an apology is just plain unacceptable to me.

Easily the worst Indian restaurant I have tried in terms of test. Quality and hygiene. not worth a single visit

Never will we go back! This place is an insult to what Indian food really is. Poor quality of food. Dirty looking inside. Overpriced! Horrible customer service. Take yourself to another joint instead of here!

Really bad Indian food, specially paneer had a burner gas smell to it. When I pointed it out, the manager did nothing other than saying that they have been very busy and the food smells fine. Rest of the stuff was ok. I guess it’s the only Indian restaurant in town and they really don’t care about the customers.

I am sure anybody who eats at this place says OMG what does just happen lol…
Well you drive to south Lake Tahoe to have good time and then you have their food, there is nothing else to say then omg .
Worst food worst management …
Get subway or taco bell, at least they not gonna spoil your mood …

My mom and I came here to Tahoe for a couple days after attending a wedding in Sacramento. We searched for Indian food near our hotel and nothing came up. So we said lets just grab something quick like fast food even though we were craving some hot Indian food. As we were driving to Taco Bell I noticed in my peripheral vision an Indian restaurant next to CVS off the main road. I said to my mom lets check it out. I said let me check the reviews first because nothing came up when I searched for «Indian food» in Unilocal.I guess you have to search for «Indian cuisine». We noticed the restaurant had 3 out of 5 stars which was okay rating (not great but not terrible). So I decided to read the reviews. The «non-​Indian» people gave good ratings but the «Indian» people gave it bad reviews so we almost didn’t come in x My mom said lets just try one dish and if it’s not good we will leave. We ordered the masala dosa to start to see if it’ll be good. It was definitely tasty. It was a bit thicker like uthpum but it tasted good. Nice spices and dosa filled good with aloo (potatoes). Since we both liked it we ordered iddli vada combo. While we waited we spoke to the owner and said we almost didn’t come in because of the reviews on Unilocal.I said the price comments didn’t make sense to me because we are in Tahoe and not LA or New Jersey however not everyone has common sense and don’t compare apples to apples. He said same thing and explained that he doesn’t get deliveries from the distributors here in Tahoe and he has to drive an hour to go get the supplies to make the food for the restaurant. So when I read those I ignored them because people don’t think about those things. I was more concerned about the food quality and taste! I’m a foodie and I want good food regardless. Visiting from Chicago we have decent Indian food (not as good as NYC/​NJ or LA/​San Fran) but still want my tasty Indian food. So by this point the vada iddli came. We asked for vada and iddli separate from the sambar so we could dip and eat for ourselves. The vada was nice and crispy and the iddli was softy and tasty as it should be. We were getting full at this point and decided lets just get one more thing and share. So we got dal tadka (spicy) and small cup of rice and some onion/​chili and onion kulcha (naan). My mom and I said this is good Indian food and doesn’t make sense why people are complaining! We didn’t try the Indian buffet which is believe they said during lunch is $ 12.99 so cannot comment which others did but the experience we had with the food and service was great. The head girl server who works with the owner is great. We had a chance to spoke to her as well and has worked for him for many years. It just shows it’s an family type atmosphere. So don’t ignore this place! Try it and judge for yourself. I’m glad I came and it satisfied my Punjabi appetite (even though we are mostly South Indian) it was great and will come back either before we leave or next time we visit Tahoe.
And as to why we gave it 5 stars because we realize we are Tahoe so I rated it for the experience and taste in this city. Is it 5 stars like india or NYC! No. But it’s on par with local restaurants I eat in Chicago which I would give 4 stars too. I think 5 stars because it’s family run, fresh ingredients, good quantity of food and and most of all tasty!

Super oily food that lacked flavour and prices that are a total rip off!
Was looking for a late Saturday afternoon lunch at an indian restaurant. Buffet here had a large number of items but most of them had no flavour. Food was very spicy and greasy. It looked like the food had been sitting on the buffet table for a long time and most items were either cold or at room temperature. Staff was running hither tether but it took forever to get the naan out. While the Manager and staff was courteous, the run down buffet priced at $ 15 + tax was a total disappointment. Won’t come back.

The main reason I’m giving them 5 stars is their customer service. They are always super nice and easy going! They definitely make customers feel welcome. This is one of the few restaurants I like to frequent because of that.
Their food is good (not outstanding, but pretty good), but I wouldn’t recommend the lunch buffet. I have found that ordering off the menu proves much more flavorful than the buffet items.
In general, I always come out satisfied. I definitely recommend this as your go-​to Indian place (if there is even any other Indian cuisine in Tahoe).

Hot damn that was delicious. And the music is awesome. And the service is good. The prices are slightly high (veggie curry $ 11, dosa $ 10), but portions were huge and if you want my opinion: it’s fully worth it, friend. When we walked in, the place looked pretty sparse and strange. But like a funny looking person who you love who becomes beautiful, so does the décor. Super good.