Sangam Indian Cuisine - Cornelius

So scrumptious! Chris was a great server and told us all about how the food is served in the markets and how the cuisine changes depending on North or South India. Garlic naan yogurt sauce were amazing as well as the Chicken Tika Massala and the Vegetable Cream Sauce entre. Meal type: Dinner Price per person: $20–30

Food was excellent and upon arriving the service was fairly nice. The only reason I gave this place 3 stars was because of how they handled taking payment. We went there for lunch and had just finished our first round of 2 or 3 trips to the buffet when a waiter started handing everyone around us the check. I have no issue with this especially because he said no rush at all and to pay whenever you 're ready which is fairly standard, especially during staff shift changes. The issue is, when the lady showed up as soon after we sat down with our second round plates and asked us to pay. I had a mouthful of samosa and I gestured that my mouth was full hoping she would pick up on that and walk away and come back but she didn 't. Once I swallowed I said I thought it wasn 't a rush and we could pay when we were ready (because I was a bit annoyed at the whole watching me chew and swallow my previous bite) and her response was you don 't want to pay? To which I immediately responded by saying its okay ill pay now. I paid and she didn 't say thank you or anything. When she left, the table next to me commented on how they witnessed the whole thing and that that is how they usually go about collecting payment. The gentleman at the table next to us was born and raised in India and said that its a cultural thing (that I was not aware of). He told me that when it comes to collecting money in india they are very aggressive and that in India people will eat and the try to negotiate the bill after the meal is over so servers restaurant owners from India are sometimes very defensive when it comes to payment. I totally understand different cultures and the impact they can play on our behavior but unfortunately that particular situation left me feeling almost ashamed to enjoy the rest of my meal which was unfortunate because the food was phenomenal and I had been craving Indian food since I moved here from NY about 2 years ago now. I 'd like to come back with my parents but I may ask to pay upfront to avoid the awkward money collection technique. Edit: decided to give this restaurant another chance and I was very disappointed for a couple of reasons. We got there at 1pm on a Saturday (Their lunch goes on until 3pm). There was almost no food left... no samosas, not a single piece of chicken in the Tikka Masala, and every other dish was pretty much the same. I asked the owner if they were gonna be making more and he said yes some of the items are being cooked now and they 'll be out soon. 25 minutes later and they started bringing some food out but it was too little too late. Some of the other guests left after seeing the buffet. The owner explained that they had been slow so far in the day so they didn 't make much. I understand not wanting to over prepare but if you keep your doors open you should be able to feed people, otherwise just close for the day and cut your losses. Very disappointed. I don 't think we will give it another try.

Food too bland! Meal type: Lunch Price per person: $10–20 Food: 3 Service: 3 Atmosphere: 4

Always great food and service! Food: 5 Service: 5 Atmosphere: 5

My favorite restaurant Food: 5 Service: 5 Atmosphere: 5