Cheap Eats: Tun-Du-Ree

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Tun-Du-Ree

Tun-Du-Ree

The menu at Tun-Du-Ree is very extensive with lots of...

Since its humble beginnings just a few short years ago, Tun-Du-Ree has grown to become a local Tampa restaurant icon. Praised by most of the local press from newspapers to Restaurant Blogs, Tun-Du-Ree has made a significant impact on the community.

Famous for their fast casual Indian dishes they offer a variety of choices from Curries to Wraps, Salads and Snacks. Tun-Du-Ree began by serving their food from a trailer off of the side of the road in Tampa, since then they have now moved to a permanent location in a plaza off of Kennedy Blvd close to downtown.

With all of the hype surrounding Tun-Du-Ree I decided it was time to give their “magic of the Indian grill a try” so I stopped by for lunch last week.

Indian style food has just recently started to become more mainstream, in part due to restaurants like Tun-Du-Ree’s pushing of the envelope and determination to serve Indian food to the masses. Although I don’t eat Indian food on a regular basis I am vaguely familiar with the concept from my recent experience at Green Chili in downtown St. Petersburg. Green Chili offers more of a cafeteria style atmosphere where you walk down the line and they build your meal in front of you. Tun-Du-Ree however is much different. They prepare your food in the back and call your name when it’s ready.

From my visit, here’s what else I found.

The Atmosphere: Tun-Du-Ree offers a rich atmosphere with vibrant orange and green walls, comfy leather couches and high table top seating areas. The walls are decorated with reviews from the local press and you have the option to write your own review and stick it up on the wall. An added bonus is that they offer free Wi-Fi and outside patio seating.

The Service: The menu at Tun-Du-Ree is very extensive with lots of choices. The employee at the cash register was extremely friendly, kind and willing to take the time to help me make my decision about what to order. The time she spent with me was not something you would normally expect from a fast casual/fast food restaurant. After much debate however I finally made my decision.

The Food: Although famous for their variety of curries, I wanted to try another one of their famous and original dishes…

Traditional Tun-Du-Ree Chicken: Succulent chicken fillets marinated in spices and yogurt for over 15 hours and grilled to perfection. Served on a bed of salad with spicy mint sauce ($7.99).

For $1 extra, I upgraded to their Garlic Tun-Du-Ree Naan, Indian flat bread with garlic and cilantro topping baked in the tunduree oven and finished with a glaze of butter.

Although the atmosphere was nice and the employees we’re very friendly the food wasn’t very impressive. Maybe I ordered the wrong thing or maybe it’s because I took my food to go, but whatever the case it just wasn’t what I was expecting.

The marinated chicken was very, very dry. I covered it in the mint sauce provided on the side and made my own sandwich by putting it on the garlic bread. Even then, for being marinated for 15 hours I couldn’t believe how dry it was. The chicken wasn’t juicy and it was far from succulent.

The salad that came with the chicken was also less than impressive it was warm and the combination with the dry chicken simply didn’t work. Trust me….I expected this experience to be outstanding…especially after everything I have read in the press about Tun-Du-Ree. However it was very disappointing. Not to mention the total cost of my meal with a drink and tax was almost $11…..which is a lot for the amount of food I received.

If everyone had the experience I did, I doubt that Tun-Du-Ree would still be in business. Maybe they were just having a bad day when I was there. In any case, if you have an itching for Indian food, Tun-Du-Ree is probably worth a try. I would just stay far away from the Traditional Tun-Du-Ree Chicken.

Tun-Du-Ree is located at 1506 W Kennedy Blvd, Tampa or more info visit tunduree.com.

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