The NYC Indian Grill on Main Street in Stroudsburg, PA is an Indian-food takeout place masquerading as a restaurant. It's comparable to a Chinese-food takeout place, but the prices are a bit more expensive -- in line with that of a reasonable sit-down diner. It's a new establishment in town. So, on Sunday evening of October 26, 2025, my partner and I decided to try it out.
Looking at the place from the sidewalk, the first thing you notice is several rows of bright, ornate chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, giving the impression of a restaurant. The front door opens to a large, open dining area furnished with several tables supplied with condiments and napkin dispensers, lit overhead by the ornate chandeliers and attended by a young waitress, all of which gives the impression of an actual sit-down restaurant or diner. We sat at a table and the waitress came over to take our orders. She was friendly and helpful, but clearly inexperienced. She did not start by asking what we would like to drink, so we asked for a couple of glasses of water. She told us that they do not serve water, but we could purchase a plastic bottle of water from the soft-drink refrigerator located near the cash-register area in the rear of the room. That was the first indication that we were not in an actual restaurant. The waitress took our food orders and, after several minutes, delivered our food in Styrofoam containers, along with cheap plastic forks, spoons and Styrofoam plates, confirming the masquerade. The plastic spoons virtually melted when we used them to dish portions of the hot food from the containers onto the plates, and the forks did likewise when using them to eat. The food portions were generous and the quality was good, but not great -- again, on par with a typical takeout place, and significantly less spicy than what we ordered. The waitress did come back to our table to ask if everything was OK and if we needed anything else, in keeping with the illusion that we were in an actual restaurant. Upon finishing our meals, we went to the register and paid our bills.
I'd sum up our experience by saying it's all about meeting expectations. By all appearances, the establishment leads you to expect to be dining at a restaurant, but you end up eating at a table in a take-out place. Even the lowliest of diners offer free water and serve food on real plates with real cutlery. The price of the food was comparable to that of a reasonable sit-down diner, but the quality of the food -- and the overall experience -- was that of takeout. And by those measures, it didn't meet our expectations.
So don't be fooled by the tables, the condiments, the napkin dispensers, the ornate chandeliers and the waitress. This is not a restaurant. It's a takeout place masquerading as one. Nevertheless, if you want Indian food to take home, it's a bit pricey for takeout, but the NYC Indian Grill on Main Street in Stroudsburg, PA might be worth trying. read more