Mint

Summary: This is the worst and most expensive Indian buffet I have eaten in the triangle area. Customer service is also the worst I have ever seen, not exaggerating a little bit. Would never recommend this restaurant to anyone. Details: I went to this buffet with two friends a few days back. I generally never write this long a review but you can take a guess about what a horrible experience we had from the detailed review below. I would honestly give it less than one start if that was possible. See below for our experience: Price: The buffet is only available during the weekend (I have no complaints for that). However, even considering a weekend price, the price of the buffet was $19.34 including tax which is the highest among all the Indian buffets I have eaten in this area. Customer service: There was literally one single person/waitress on the front desk who was managing the customers and seemed to have the least experience. She greeted us when we entered, but did not take us to our table. She gave us a jug of water only after each of us had finished one plate of food. Nobody took away our dirty plates after we finished food. We had a stack of dirty plates in front of us by the end of the buffet, when finally someone took that stack away. The waitress never checked on us if everything is good. She did not know whether mimosa is included in the menu (see later in the "Drinks" section for interesting details). When we paid for the buffet, she gave us the customer copy to sign and let us take the merchant's copy (which we realized later). Ambience: The AC was not working, there was a single stand fan inside the restaurant which was trying to make up for that, but in vain. The TV had YouTube on, where songs were playing from a terrible mash up of Hindi songs sung by some random singer. Food variety: I am ready to pay the price if it's a good buffet; but alas, Mint does not have one. There were chicken tandoori and vegetable fritters for appetizer. For the main course, there were naan, jeera rice, chicken tandoori, kadai chicken, chicken tikka masala, chana masala, vegetable fritters, a gobi curry. For the dessert, there were watermelons, gulab jamun, salad, raita, tamarind and green chutneys. There was no red meat or biryani. Moreover, there was small quantity of everything and they took a lot of time to refill. See below for the horrible food quality. Food quality: The naans were terribly dry, the rice was okay. Chicken tikka masala, gobi curry, chicken tandoori, and gulab jamun were relatively better than other items. Kadai chicken was dry, chana masala had no taste, vegetable fritters were so so. The chutneys and raita were far from what they are supposed to taste like. Overall, the quality of food was below average. And they took a lot of time to refill chicken tandoori and gulab jamun. Drinks: I don't go to Indian buffet for drinks but Mint particularly announces their unlimited mimosa as a mandatory part of the buffet (and when I called them before going, they justified the price of the buffet by mentioning mimosa). However, the mimosa was a joke in the disguise of a horrible orange juice with negligible alcohol in it. Nobody served it to us and the waitress initially had no idea that it was part of the buffet when my friend asked her where it is (she still did not serve it to us). Overall, this is an over priced buffet with bad quality of food and a far worse customer service. I would never recommend this place to anyone.

Mint is one of the best places on West Franklin street for Indian cuisine. We have been here before on several occasions both during a weekday or during weekend for buffet and 'Mint' maintains a good standards when it comes to the quality of food they serve. Weekend buffets are more special with on the spot 'hot kadai' for samosa chats or similar dishes and free champagne. Last but not least, the manager is AWESOME and he accommodates your requests; my wife doesn't eat meat certain days of the week and she felt like there were not many vegetarian 'curry/ saucey dish' options for her on the buffet that day and the manager accommodated her by making a paneer dish for her. So nice of him... and we like it a lot for the ambience as well. We recommend this place for friends and family who would like to have a good Indian food on West Franklin or a place to go to from UNC.