Eastern Flame

If you haven’t eaten at Eastern Flame then your missing out on a late night ann arbor staple… Try the chicken ticha roll, definitely a late night favorite on the weekend!!!

Food is amazing!!! It’s kind of like «street food» but with a place to sit. I say that with relish because it tastes better.
I’m in love with their Kati rolls which is apparently their speciality. In my opinion the best one is the Chicken Tikka Masala. I added an egg to mine too which just made it delicious. It’s a little spicy though but I enjoy it because it lets the favor linger in my mouth after it’s done. The owner was there cooking each time I went so he certainly ensured that the quality was great.
The seating is informal so there’s no waiter. Can accommodate large groups. Basically you come for the food not the ambiance.

great food great taste good price. you get excellent paratha roll for $ 3 smth. service is a little slow. but i can go n wait again for yummy samosas n baklaawa :))

Love that they are open late. Great place to go after a night of drinking. Gotta get the lamb roll

Get the Kati rolls. $ 3.75 each for a surprisingly filling food. Yummm.

LIKE EATING AT MY MOM’S FOOD. As an Indian guy, Eastern Flame is the ONLY place around where I can get AUTHENTIC Indian food. When I moved here in 2007, I thought I’d have to go home or to Chicago to get authentic food. All the other places here are catered to people who don’t know what authentic Indian food should taste like and are overpriced. This is the only place I can get the real flavors I grew up with.
This is the ONLY place you can get authentic styles of Biryani (and I’m speaking as a Hyderabadi who knows what it should taste like). You also can never go wrong here with any type of Kabob with Naan or Paratha bread. And of course their famous Kati roll are so addictive. The owner Farukh is hilarious and a true Detroiter, despite his Indian and Middle Eastern upbringing before he moved to Michigan (which explains his diverse menu!).

I love Eastern Flame because of the great hours and delicious, greasy food. I feel like they are one of the only Indian food places in Ann Arbor that actually make your food spicy when you request it spicy. For late night munchies, my favorite is chicken tikka masala with added paneer. There is a kind of ghetto feel to the place, especially at night, but that’s to be expected from a hole-​in-​the-​wall with late hours.

the hours are really the best part about this joint. I Will say that the food is pretty good, but the service tends to be lacking.
I’ve been there a few times in person and enjoyed the food but the people behind the counter just aren’t really «service» type people.
I ordered delivery and I am still waiting it for it (more than 2 hours later). DO NOT ORDER DELIVERY FROM THIS PLACE.
again, the food is decent, but the service is lacking. and their delivery service is awful.

Decent food, extremely bad service! I didn’t expect too much of a service from a place this, but it disappointed me beyond my lower expectations. Never go there late in the night, especially if you are sober.
So here’s the story: We ordered 6 wraps. 30 minutes later, when everyone else who ordered after us got their dish, I asked the cashier/​waiter. He said the order was probably missed by the chef and it would be prepared soon. I approached the same guy after another 20 minutes. Then he said that he couldn’t find my original order, and showed me his order book asking which one my order was! I was completely pissed. I showed my order, and the chef guy said he’d prepare my order in 10 mins. After 5 more mins, the cashier guy comes to us and says, three of the six items in our order were not available. I asked him to cancel the entire order and refund the money. He just walked away saying he wouldn’t do that and asked me to talk to the chef guy (because he messed up with the order it seems)! I had to raise my voice at both of them to cancel my order and get my cash back. And to top it all, they charged my credit card including the tip amount I originally added, while they refunded me in cash only the bill amount without gratuity. A net loss to me, as I didn’t care to go back to that place again to get back my $ 4.
Not giving 1 star coz of their tasty food. But I will never ever go again!

Not really a fan of the overuse of raw onions, but the lamb seekh (roll w/​egg) goes easy on them and is legit spicy. Great after a night of drinking. Not sure how I would feel about it sober.
I’m pretty sure I got overcharged the last time I was here ($ 6.17 for something that was $ 5 on the menu), paid with a $ 10 bill & only got $ 3.50 in change back. It’s only a $ 0.33 discrepancy, but I don’t appreciate feeling like I was just robbed… So… 2 stars.

Worst service I have ever experienced. We waited one hour for our meal, and when we asked waiters about it they purposefully ignored us and ran past. Another table that had been waiting left in complete frustration before they received any food! Absolute thieves! Stay away!

I went here because the line for Fleetwood was ridiculous. Honestly i don’t know what i ordered because i was drunk, but it was spicy and pretty good from what i recall.

Open very late. Good place to eat after a night at the bars.
Get khati rolls.
Sometimes you will find bone in your meat.
They will deliver to the hospital, unlike many other establishments

What do you do when it’s 11:45pm, you’re still recovering (and/​or drinking) after a UM football game, and you get a craving for falafel? Apparently you order from Eastern Flame, who will deliver until 12:45am!
I was happy to find this spot open, and even happier to see the variety on their menu. We ordered a couple of falafel plates, along with some other adventure items. Just after ordering, we got a call that the restaurant didn’t have enough falafel left — but they replaced the remainder with samosas. No problem, and at least they called to check…
Food arrived promptly and as promised. Falafel was pretty good to good, made with something green in it and served over salad (which I love). Did not really like whatever the dressing/​dip was (something bland and white) but luckily the falafel didn’t need it.
We also ordered jalapeño poppers which my guy buds devoured, and some kind of eggplant (achari eggplant) sandwichy-​roll-​up thing — this was delicious, warm, served with a green sauce and sauteed onions in a yummy warm, chewy pita. Last item was naan, which was garlicky but otherwise disappointing due to texture — too hard/​thick for what I’m used to.
Gourmet and amazing? Not so much. Great for late-​night cravings? Absolutely!

All right, so I’ve read some not-​so-​swell reviews of this joint, partially why I’ve lived in the area for years and never really got ’round to it. Though, there’s a certain appeal to the variety of options here — veg and nonveg, plus more than one ethnicity of cuisine. Well, I’m a massive fan of curry and Indian food, whereas I have friends and relatives who aren’t as much. However, at Eastern Flame, this isn’t an issue because they also do Mediterranean/​Middle Eastern food, too!
So, hey, popped by here a few weeks back with my father and sister to have a family bonding sort of outing. Walked in, was a bit nervous — the place was completely customer-​less, and two casual, informal guys were standing around behind the far walk-​up-​and-​order counter chatting. But, we pressed on, put in our respective orders (difficult, considering the variety of choices), paid, and sat down at a table of our choosing.
The food came at staggered intervals, as the chef prepared each and sent it out upon completion. But you know what? Every single thing was delicious. Not only absolutely delicious, everything was tastefully and impressively displayed, as if we were eating at a higher-​end establishment. That guy, whoever he is, knows how to prepare food. We were astounded by the surprisingly good food. He even threw in a free dessert at the end, just because. We’re definitely going back — food this good at such reasonable prices? Yeah, good choice. Give them a shot!

I order from here regularly… very good food. There’s too many dishes that I love to list here, but I always order a kati roll to save for later. I like the mango lassi too.
During Ramadan their delivery times are pretty slow around iftar but they usually deliver in decent time. I can’t speak to the atmosphere as I’ve only gotten delivery, but the food is exceptional.

Wow, is all I can say. I saw the lackluster reviews on Unilocal and almost gave it a pass. I am glad I did not. I ended up using a $ 25 certificate from
that I bought for $ 10. I had the Indian Combination, Shahi Paneer, mango lassi, vegetarian samosa, half humus plate, and a lamb kati roll, not sure which kati roll, I asked for the most popular.
We arrived around 7pm on a Wednesday night and the place was dead, there were a couple of dirty tables but most were open and clean. My 2 year old and 4 year old loved having the place to themselves. They really loved the lassi, rice and humus.
The Shahi Paneer has the great cheese we know and love, but was with the tika masala sauce instead of the normal green Palakk Paneer (spinach). There was TONS of cheese and the sauce had a nice kick, spicy and delicious.
The indian combination plate came with a chicken curry, lamb curry and tandoori chicken. The tandoori chicken was awesome, very hot, very spicy. The lamb curry was great, very flavorful and nice pieces of meat. The chicken curry was meh, but two out of three ain’t bad (yes I said ain’t, deal with it).
The service was great, two more families came while we were there, but our food came out as it was ready, so it was a nice steady stream of fresh, great tasting food.
My kids DESTROYED the place, but the staff was very cool. I offered to sweep up, but they would not let me.
We finished with Baklava and some other indian desert that the kids loved.
Highlights — Kati rolls, Shahi Paneer and Mango Lassis (Best price in AA, $ 2.75 for a shake sized cup)
Con — looked a bit run down, bathrooms had that calcutta slum feel– high chairs were sticky
Would recommend to anyone!!!
Oh and it is NOT in Kerrytown… at all… is in OLD TOWN

Kati rolls are DELICIOUS and reasonably priced. Plenty of seating for big groups, but the place is very understaffed (which is why some other Unilocalers have had bad experiences with long wait time).
I went on a Sunday for lunch around 12:30PM and had a wonderful time in an empty restaurant getting friendly service from the owner (who also made great recommendations about eateries in Detroit). Sunday Special = 2 Kati rolls for $ 6. Great deal :)

I’m still giving 2 stars, because I like ordering from this place but I am really not sure if they deserve it. The food, yes, still pretty good and cheap. They definitely get the flavor profiles right for Indian street/​snack food (I say this as a Delhi native), and that’s enough for me to stick by them.
It’s still too, too spicy for me, but I can deal. It clears up my sinuses/​is hopefully rebuilding my spice tolerance so I can have my Indian street crd back.
But, oh god, the service is so unbelievably atrocious (–ly inconsistent). There was the time I got a chicken roll instead of paneer roll, so I ate the bread and threw away the chicken (I’m vegetarian but not fastidious about it). There were the two times they told me they didn’t have something, but willingly substituted it for something else, so I didn’t really mind.
But then, there was tonight.
I try to not get angry at service people, but this delivery person was something else. He failed at locating the Lawyers Club, didn’t understand what an arch was, and then shouted at me for not directing him properly. The cheek! Too bad I’d already paid $ 1.50 for delivery and $ 2.50 tip on a $ 12 order, because he deserved negative tip or something. I did call the manager and he was very nice about it, but honestly the only way to deal with a delivery this incompetent AND rude is to fire him. There’re plenty of unemployed people who can understand basic English and directions who would want his job.

Ann Arbor, I’m angry with you. You didn’t rate Eastern Flame highly and so it took me three years to get there. And when I got there, my god, was it good. The deliciousness of the food, though, was mixed with my sadness over three years of Ann Arbor living without that very food. The lamb schawarma was tender and tasty, the shahi paneer warm and spiced to the max. The pita was delicious, the water cold/​free/​plentiful, the fries waffly and cooked just right. And a full meal for under $ 10. This gets, for me, a rare 5-​star rating.