Sher-E-Panjab

We were near Arlington for an errand and decided to stop by here for some Indian food. Being a Punjabi, craving for Indian food made us drive 20 miles to this place.
First of all, parking is pretty non-​existent. There is only enough space for two or three cars near the restaurant. But we didn’t have to worry since there was hardly anyone (just one couple) when we went on a Saturday afternoon.
We ordered Tandoori Chicken, Black daal and Kabuli chicken with Tandoori roti. Unfortunately, the food wasn’t great. The Tandoori chicken was awfully dry and looked like something cooked in an electric oven not a Tandoor. It was mostly bland too and had a hard chewy crust. Black daal seemed surprisingly full of garlic and turmeric. Kabuli chicken was also bland but more edible than the other two items we ordered. The last of the items, the tandoori rotis were too dry and hard (and this is after we asked the server to put ghee (butter) on them.
The total came out to be around $ 59 including tip for two people. Definitely pricey and less than mediocre food.
The only saving grace is that most of the customers (judging from Unilocal reviews) are Americans and this food caters to their tastes. But if you are Indian (and from Punjab), you won’t get home food-​like tasting food here.

Haven’t had Indian food this tasty in years! Delicious! So glad it’s not too far so I can enjoy it frequently. Highly recommend the garlic basil naan, tandoori chicken Caesar, tikka masala, and lamb medallions.

I can’t enough of the food here!!! So delicious! And feels like authentic home food. The service is great, the make us feel home! Love it here.

This place is my favorite local restaurant!!! Amazing and consistent food. Authentic. Great delivery service from friendly people.
Try the garlic basil naan, the matter mushrooms, gill’s special sauce, bindhi masala and pretty much everything. You will be happy you did.

I was more than pleased with the menu, the food, the service, the atmosphere, the wait. I’ll be back every time I can visit Anacortes.

Great food! I hope they stay in town. I never tried them as a delivery option since the first time. But as a fine-​in or take out, they are outstanding!

What a pleasant surprise that we found this restaurant in Anacortes. From the welcome, service, food, and atmosphere everything we ate and experienced was top notch. EVERYTHING was tasty. I’m not a connoisseur of Indian food, but I enjoyed every bite. The next time we are in town we will definitely eat here again!

I am an Indian and I have to say the food was fantastic. Absolutely loved the pakoras, curry and naan that I ordered. It lives up to its Unilocal ratings!

The second I walked in this restaurant I felt transported back home to my nana’s kitchen. The smell of all the different Indian spices made my mouth water instantly.
I ordered some samosas and yellow lentils and they tasted almost as good as my grandmothers (no one can beat out her food in my eyes haha). I will definitely be coming back to try out more of their amazing Indian cuisine.

My wife and I just got done whale watching, and we were hungry. Unilocal gave this place 4.5 stars so we decided to give it a try.
We had salty lasses, tikka masala with chicken, saag paneer, naan and assorted pickle. It also came with rice. There was a bit of a wait, but when the food arrived and we tasted it, it was obvious that it was all cooked fresh. Absolutely delicious.
The service was great as well. I nice end to a nice day.

My family and I came here for lunch and decided to order off the menu instead of pick from the lunch buffet. I’m glad we did! There was. Good selection in the buffet though.
We ordered the mixed appetizer, garlic and rosemary naan, mixed pickles, mixed grill, eggplant bharta, karahi sauce with chicken and Gills’ special sauce with lamb. I don’t even know where to start. Every dish was wonderfully unique and delightful. I recommend every one of these dishes. My favorite was eggplant. The fresh spices and ingredients made this a wonderful culinary journey through India. For some of the dishes you choose the spice on a scale of 1 – 6. We chose 3 for all and it was a good amount of spice.
If you enjoy Indian cuisine this is the restaurant for you! You will not be disappointed.

I have visited Sher-​E-​Panjab exactly three times, and exactly three times I have been seated at the same exact table. Coincidence? Perhaps, but my wife and I had a chuckle with that on our latest visit. I would like to think they remember us, but we are infrequent visitors!
Every time, I have enjoyed their entrée’s, specifically, I have ordered Gil’s Special Sauce with Lamb, and an order of Naan. My wife will change things up a bit each visit, but every time I have left there with a full belly and leftovers.
The food is excellent. The mixed grill sampler plate for an appetizer is excellent. We have tried all the Naan’s that they serve, except for the stuffed crust variety, and the rosemary Naan is my personal favorite. We have had their calamari as well, also wonderful and not too much of a coating.
The only reason for not giving the restaurant five stars is the service can be a little slow, particularly with refilling water glasses, and even when there are not many other guest there. When you order a «5» and there is some heat, I tend to go through glasses a little quicker. a «1″-“5» scale is used for the heat of your meals. A «3» has been somewhat inconsistent with our visits, as this time it wasn’t hot at all (IMHO) but my wife felt a slight burn with her «3». The last time I had a «3» it required a lot more water than was coming around to the table.
(Disclaimer: I am aware that eating the Naan would have helped. I drink a lot of water regardless).
The entire family is extremely pleasant and polite. I know that there are other Indian restaurants in the area, but we have been more than happy with the three visits that we have had here that we don’t see the need to check out the others, and the reviews speak for themselves. We (the wife and I) recommend Sher-​E-​Panjab if you are looking for great food, and get your values worth with wonderful cuisine.
Oh, and they have always had a cricket game on the TV! We look forward to our next visit, back to our same spot!

Oh yum. We recently spent a rainy evening at the Islands Inn and were craving some Indian takeout.
We ordered the Tikka masala and Chicken korma as well as some veggie samosas and pakora (all for only $ 45). Each came with to-​go chutneys, etc. I guess since our local place we go to for Indian food has tiny portions, we were cautious and ended up over-​ordering here. The samosas are enormous and we ended up leaving a decent portion of food in the hotel fridge.
The takeout took a little longer than they estimated, so when I picked it up I ended up waiting inside for 15 – 20 minutes — they did make me feel welcome by offering me some water and a seat at the bar.
It ended up being a perfect meal and I would definitely come here again!

This restaurant serves perhaps the best Indian food north of Seattle in Washington. When I visited, the restaurant was swamped with customers — probably from the Anacortes Arts Festival — so the service was slow, but it was worth the wait. Everyone in my party shared our dishes, and we were happy with everything. (I particularly liked the saag paneer.)
Worth traveling a ways just to eat here.

Being Indian and having tasted quite a variety of restaurants in North America, I am very picky about my choice if Asian restaurants. So when I looked up the reviews on Unilocal of an Indian restaurant all the way in Anacortes, I assumed that it got good ratings simply because they are the only Indian restaurant in the place.
I was wrong. Let me sum it up and tell you why.
It’s a whole family run affair — first sign that this is authentic and chances of the food being legitimately tasty is very high. The older grandma walked around and worked constantly while we sat there and ordered. She has the sweetest smile, energy of a 30 year old and was quite lovely. The service was fast and efficient.
I usually never order seafood from an Indian restaurant since most places would probably not know how to clean them, but gave this one a shot.
The mussels in curry wine sauce was outstanding — it blew us away. The sauce had some well developed flavor, not the swimming watery masala goo you get in buffets. We lapped it up with the garlic/​basil naan, which was really tasty. I only wished that they had used fresh basil in the naan.
The lamb with the Gil’s special curry was very good. I did a spice level of 4 which was just right. The spinach naan was abundant in the leafy goodness and hot from the tandoori.
We are thinking of making it a staple choice for dinner/​lunch everytime we pass by Anacortes now. It’s not only an amazing Indian restaurant for the locals but a must try for tourists passing by the town or on their way to the ferry — this place will not disappoint.

This place is average, I have had much better, more tastier Indian food in my life. But, for the area this is a good choice since it’s the only one in Anacortes. The décor, service, and cleanliness of the place gets 5 stars. But, food is average and did not leave me wanting more. I will not be going back. We started off with mixed platter as appetizers, then had the chicken masala and lamb masala with a #2−3 spice. They were both okay but, a lot of the food was very salty. In fact I tasted more salt than curry, garlic, cumin and other savory aromatic spices that you normally get with Great Indian food.
I will make the 60 mile journey to Vancouver to get my next Indian food fix, or cook my own. I wanted to like this place because of all the great reviews, but it turned out to be a miss for both of us.