The time was right before the touch of summer, in May, and my family, with my uncle's family, decided to go vacationing. Coincidentally, my dad's birthday fell on one of the days of this vacation. Being in an unknown state, we utilized Yelp to find a good Indian restaurant to celebrate his birthday at. Looking through about three restaurants, we found that a place called Taj put up the best reviews and location. When I say the reviews were outstanding, it is not an understatement; their comment section was practically flooding with good feedback. We were excited, reasonably.
The route to the restaurant itself was very creepy, with it being completely dark. As easy as it was to find the restaurant on the map, the same could not be said in real life. We were almost close to giving up, when we found the Taj, secluded, near the woods, giving off an unfavorable aura. Of course, there was no time to turn back - it was well past dinner time. We hopped out of the car. The air was humid, and there seemed to be many more mosquitoes, much larger than near our hotel. We all returned with giant bites, despite not getting any bites before the visit to the restaurant.
The entrance to the restaurant itself was flawed, causing the injury of my little cousin, who tumbled and hurt her knee badly. Loud crying then filled the restaurant, and I still remember the faces that greeted us - not happy, nor sad, but blank - and it was an entire family. A grandma, a husband, two kids. They were all dressed...badly, and it seemed like we were one of their few visitors judging from their reactions. So, my cousin needed attention. The owners bring out band aids, and the situation is resolved. Slightly. As soon as we sit down, the male owner proclaims we should order our food, else there will be too many people. There are no people in the restaurant currently, and judging from the looks, there won't be. This comment chills us to the core.
To add to the "greatness" of the restaurant, there are newspapers underneath the glass table, in which a journalist has written about the taste of the food. The place is almost abandoned looking, and there's a journalist writing about its awesomeness? It seemed unbelievable. So we do order rather quickly, and once in a while, we comment about the food. Like, "Where's the naan?" And then, the wife of the male owner, someone who wasn't present upon our first entrance, shows up with naan, creepily standing over us. The same occurs with, let's say, the rice. I jump at the sight of it, and it's just rice!
And let me tell you, the food was horrible. The butter chicken seemed canned, the paneer was not soft enough. So, despite all the reviews, this place was starting to seem horrible. We also happened to order tandoori sizzling chicken. My uncle started to go, somewhat crazy over it, and in its haste, grabbed the handle of the pan, which didn't have any cover over it. My uncle got burnt, and my mom reprimanded the owners hugely for their misstep. My aunt then went to the bathroom with my cousin, but returned, frightened, saying the door closed by itself when she went near.
We were all extremely frightened by this point, and decided to leave. As we got back in the car, my dad joked "What if we search up the place, and it's revealed it closed ten years ago, permenantly? That the owner and the family burned to death?" That introduced us to the chilling reality, and the question still haunts us today.
We do not know if what we experienced was a ghost or a haunting, but we can assure you of one thing: it still scares us. We refrain from searching the restaurant's name, though whenever we try, we never seem to get the correct results... The image is still ingrained in my head, of those people, of the restaurant, the old Bollywood songs they had playing on their TV ringing in my head...
Tell about your own "horror" stories in the comment section!
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