My Urban Tandoor in Colorado Springs Review

Urban Tandoor in Colorado Springs opened on July 8th, 2019, and we were there. Indian restaurants in the Springs are limited to Mirch Masala, Little Nepal, and India Palace, so hearing of a new Indian restaurant was quite exciting.

We got there opening day at 9:45AM, and waited for it to open at 11AM (hours during the week are 11-2:30PM, and 5-10PM. Weekends they are open all day). There were fewer people than I was expecting there (about 15) by the time the doors opened.

The interior is quite large (it used to be a Denny's), and there are a couple large flat screen TV's that loop Indian music videos. While you're waiting for your food, if you watch enough of these, you'll discover that there's always a couple that breakdances together. He pursues, she retreats, then she reveals herself and he goes to get her, all while doing some sort of energetic dancing. And that's the whole story of every Indian pop music video. You're welcome.

chicken biryani, naan bread, and gulab jamun (cheese balls in rose syrup and honey)

We got the buffet option, so that we could sample a lot more of the food they make at once. Once we were seated is when people started coming in in droves. The line for the buffet ended up being all the way to the front doors within 15 minutes.

For my buffet, I got chicken tandoori, chili chicken, and aloo gobi, samosa chat, as well as a few other random things.

I was surprisingly disappointed in the offerings for opening day. There was an overabundance of fried food options, and I was hoping for a chicken biryani on opening day as well (the picture above was on our third trip here).

Taste of food was so-so for me. It wasn't enough to convince me to ditch my favorite restaurant, Mirch Masala, and perhaps I hyped up the greatness of what Urban Tandoor could be.

We tried Urban Tandoor a second time a few weeks later, and went with the dinner options of chicken tikka masala, and tandoori chicken. I liked the tandoori chicken, but the tikka was just so-so for me.

I don't have pictures for you of the first and second times we went to Urban Tandoor, as I didn't have this blog or a reason to take pictures, unfortunately.

chicken biryani, lamb roganjosh, and paneer tikka masala

We tried Urban Tandoor a third time a month or so later, and went with the buffet option again. Seriously, the Indian restaurant buffets are generally better than any other buffet-style restaurant. And I felt I might have been unfair on my opinion since it was opening day.

My main go-to's this time around were the chicken biryani (they had it this time!), paneer tikka masala (cottage cheese cubes in tikka sauce), and chicken tikka masala. This time there was no tandoori on the buffet.

The chicken biryani was delectable. I like Mirch Masala's chicken tikka masala better, but am not against Urban's tikka. The paneer tikka was pretty good! The gulab jamun (cheese balls in rose syrup and honey were scrumptious, and their naan bread tasted good as expected.

Our service was available and attentive. I was happy with the service at Urban!

Overall, if I had never been to another Indian restaurant, I would have generally liked Urban Tandoor, but my wife and I agree there are more tasty Indian restaurants in Colorado Springs.

There is an open area like a lounge. Plenty of space for hanging out for a while and getting some drinks.

My wife's additional notes for Urban Tandoor: she wasn't particularly pleased with the price, particularly on a buffet; it was not competitive. She feels the chili chicken and other menu items were more of a fusion of Asian/Indian food. There also wasn't tandoori chicken on the buffet, which was disappointing, especially since it's in Urban Tandoor's name!

Urban Tandoor is located at 8125 N Academy Blvd, Colorado Springs, CO 80920.