Having never tasted the fare from the rebranded Tikka Korner (TK), which used to be El Sombrero Taquería (commonly known as “Mexican/Pakistani/Indian”), we eagerly awaited our chance. How wrong we were to hold out hope: buffet only ($7)! This did not bode well, considering the one-samosa rating of the previously reviewed, buffet-only Punjabi by Nature (PbN). Chat recalled that when he ate at El Sombrero years before, while the Mexican food was abysmal, the à la carte Indian was perfectly acceptable. Alas, those days are gone.
Let us begin at the start of the PbN-esque, self-serve buffet line, where we found watery chai, plastic silverware, and a “salad bar” with carrots so desiccated that they may well have been unearthed with King Tut’s mummified remains. The buffet was little better, and was made worse by the fact that some of the unidentifiable vats of food-matter there either had no label, or the food was mislabeled, causing problems for the vegetarians in attendance. To compound the confusion, the waiter was unable to identify at least one of the dishes in the buffet. And the food itself, even once identified, was atrocious: the papad was inedible, the lamb curry was somehow below room temperature, the mango lassi appeared to be carbonated (which presumably meant it was fermented and/or rotten), the squash tasted like fish, the chicken was gristly, the chicken tikka masala appeared to be spiked with tofu, the rice pudding tasted like perfume, and the spinach had an unnerving layer of oxidation on its surface.
While paying (at the broken cash register), Chat was greeted by the waiter and called “boss,” just like in a Bollywood movie. That was pleasant, but not enough to make up for the absolutely pestilent food that may well have made one of the attendees sick the following day. The bottom line: one samosa (▲), one rupee ( ₨ ), ratio of 1.0. TK joins the ranks of PbN as the lowest of the low, which begs the question, How on earth can these places survive? As we dig into the seedy depths of the restaurants barely recognized by Google Maps, we hope to shed light on this mystery…
Name: Tikka Korner
Address: 2101 University Ave. (at Shattuck)
Website: http://tikkakorner.com/
Phone: 510-981-1734
Our Yelp Review
Delivery: No
Masala Chaat 
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