Masala Bar and Grill

The food here is great! The bartender, Frankie, is my favorite! I’m sad they’re closing their doors though and it’s going to be an Italian restaurant. They have another Indian restaurant in North Gate but I can’t remember what it’s called… it’s by the new 24hour fitness though.

Very nice place for Indian food. The food taste and quality is very nice. they have a great lunch buffet for $ 8. They always offer me a complimentary dessert or a after food drink. i have heard the belle dancing show they have in evenings til late midnight are really good. The bar looks reallycool. T=You do not want to mis sthi splace :)

Lovely place. Very spacious and very nice waiters. The buffet is good but I wish that they had more variety with their food. But I will say that the naan bread is some of the best I’ve eaten!
Also they have plenty of belly dance shows all the time! I’ve danced there many times and I can say that the shows are fantastic!
I just with the prices weren’t so high and that Masala’s wasn’t hiding away from an easy-​find area ;)

Extra fantastic service. Delicious mango lassi. Kashmiri chicken was off the hook. Garlic naan, can’t go wrong. BIG restaurant, nice atmosphere.
I wish this restaurant wasn’t tucked away in Bothell as I’d love to visit it more often but being near so many Indian restaurants, I can’t guarantee it.
The big question: If this restaurant wasn’t on the «PRIME» card, would we go there? Yes, I do think so.

I was impressed by my first visit at night. Their naan was… inexplicably authentic. It felt like they put real work in making it. Most of the other naans you find in Seattle are lumps of flour heated a little.
Tried the buffet the 2^nd time. It was really really good, but nothing spectacular. Their yellow daal and chawal cinched the deal!

And now I have my favorite Indian restaurant! This review is based on 3 – 4 experiences in the bar with Frankie (who makes a killer mango mojito; this is coming from someone who dislikes mojitos!)
I’ve been skeptical about walking into an Indian restaurant for anything other than a lunch buffet simply because I’m no connoisseur of Indian food. But we braved it out and went and have been completely blown away. Our visits were all within 1.5 weeks.
They have an extensive variety of naan and are reasonably priced with good portions. Their dishes are also reasonably priced. We’ve had the saag paneer, chicken tikka masala, lamb tikka masala?, and the butter chicken. They are all served with a generous helping of basmati rice. Not sure if its typical at Indian restaurants, but the dishes are served in cute little heating trays!
We’ve never sat in the dining area, but there always seems to be a family dinner there. Probably weirds some people out, but I’ve seen it all before.
This is definitely our go-​to place for Indian food… we’re fans!

Cam and I went here last night and all I can say is YUM!
They have different drink specials every day of the week, and last night they had double wells for $ 4.25! One was enough for me…
Cam ordered the chicken tiki masala with garlic paneer naan, and I originally ordered the fish tiki masala, but the waiter (who I think is the owner as well?) suggested that I get the tandoori fish with masala sauce on the side. Mmmmm! I’m glad I took his suggestion because it was awesome! It was cooked in a clay oven with different spices and then put on a iron skillet with onions and peppers. I also had garlic basil naan.
As is most Indian cuisine, they are a bit spendy, but things like the daily drink specials make it a great place to go have happy hour or just stop in and share an entrée with two people. Our bill came out to be about $ 50 after tip.
We will be back!

By far the most amazing Indian food in the greater Seattle area… and I can’t believe itLs here in lil’ olé Bothell. I’ve been coming here for over two years and its high time I give them a 5 star review. I come here as much as possible.
Their lunch buffet is 2^nd to none and their dinner menu is full of fresh dishes. Viyay makes you feel so taken care of and pampered. He’s always there to get you whatever you need, and he’s the friendliest host/​waiter around! Can’t recommend this place highly enough!

This is the best Indian buffet in Bothell or Seattle Area i would say. I have tried a few indian restaurants here and have been dissapointed. I am an East Indian Punjabi so i know how our traditional food should taste like.
Masala Bar & Grill has the best indian food i had, its very close to eating a home cooked indian meal.
I have gone to their buffet a few times and the food has been consistently delicious. The deserts are also very good, they are not too sweet but perfect!
I would recommend this place!!!

I really like Masala. I’ve never been to their lunch buffet, but their dinner menu is excellent.
This isn’t a perfect restaurant; the waitstaff are either overly attentive or completely absent. The restaurant is always pretty vacant at dinnertime, so sometimes it’s easier to sit in the bar so you don’t feel so… lonely. The ambiance in the restaurant portion is nice, but super awkward when it’s empty, and annoying when there are screaming children (which there always seem to be). It’s easy to overlook all these issues once you get your food, though. It’s so delicious! The bar and its drink selections are nice, too. My favorite is the mango mojito. The flavors of their drinks are amazing, but they’re not too strong – I’m not a fan of strong drinks, but hey, if I’m going to pay $ 8 for a drink, I want to be able to tell that I’m drinking alcohol.
Like all Indian restaurants, you need to come here expecting to spend a fair amount. It’s worth it though, the portions are big and Indian food makes for great leftovers.

I really like this place. I only come for the buffet but I have never been disappointed.
The service has always been really good even when they have been busy and you can’t beat the price.

This is one of the best places for Indian buffet that I have been to. I will make a note that I haven’t been to too many Indian places, but of the places I have been to, I have been really impressed by Masala Bar and Grill.
I ended up going for lunch on Saturday around 1PM. It wasn’t too busy during that time. I called ahead of time to see if they have the 7.99 all you can eat buffet. Being a meat eater, I enjoyed eating their tandori chicken and their butter chicken. One of the most memorable things their was their nan. Even though this place is a buffet, they make the nan fresh for you so that it’s nice and crispy, and not soggy from the steam from a heat plate.
I was also very impressed by the service that was provided here. We were promptly greeted, and while we were there, the water was always full and I never had to ask the server for anything.
I was also impressed by how clean the place was. The table clothes were clean, and every thing was very neat.
I think I’ve found myself a new favorite Indian food buffet!

I have had consistently good food at Masala. When I moved into my new neighborhood, my challenge was finding good authentic food that was nearby. As luck turned out, shortly after I moved, Masala took over a location and opened! I generally go for their lunch buffet. as I like to try lots of things. It is clean, flavorful, and they are really nice there.
In response to Morgan L… The reason it was pretty empty. is because it is pretty new. People know about the location near Northgate mall, but not this one. It’s a privately owned specialty restaurant, not a McDonalds. It takes time for people to realize a new gem in their neighborhood and for clientele to grow.

Oh Valpak, how useful you sometimes can be.
I received one of the BOGO coupons for Masala in my local Valpak and decided to give it a go tonight with my roommates. I’ll admit I was a tad hesitant, I mean… look at some of the other Unilocal reviews and also when I first walked in I noticed only one other customer eating there…
But I’m glad I gave Masala a chance.
We ordered the Garlic Paneer Naan and the Lamb Naan. Both were incredibly friggin delicious. So very very tasty.
For my entrée I got the Lamb Goa Curry, which is a coconut curry base. One roommate got the Lamb Kharma, which looked like a creamy spicy sauce, and then the other roommate got the Butter Lamb, which is phenomenal. They all were soooo good and so very yummy when the sauce is mixed with the seasoned rice!
They also have nightly drink specials, one of us got the Long Island Iced Tea for a mere $ 4.50 for a quite hefty glass. It was pretty good, and the waitress even admitted to it being her second time making it :)
I will definitely come back here, the food is great and I would almost say it is comparable to Cedars in Seattle.

Just wanted to update this since I finally went when it wasn’t buffet time. I highly recommend getting one star less than you get elsewhere. I thought I was going to die from spice burns. It was still really good, I just need to know to be more careful next time :)

If you want an entire restaurant to yourself… visit this place at 4pm on a weekday.
My boyfriend and I came here to grab a quick drink and check it out. It was completely empty.
There was a lot of confusion though… the bartender that poured our drinks was nice but showed us a happy hour menu that wasn’t in effect yet. Which we didn’t really know what to do with… but then he said he would let us order off of it and charge us the prices listed (happy hour). We agreed on what to try and ordered. We got our tandoori chicken and vegetable samosa and they both were pretty good.
THEN, the bartenders changed and the new bartender told us he can’t show us that menu and we are going to be charged regular price off the dinner menu. Even when we explained, he said no. This confused us! They had a happy hour sign outside with the times and days, but NO happy hour going on!
They weren’t organized at all, and honestly the second bartender just plain sucked. There are a ton of other places around bothell and mill creek we would go to instead of here.

Went to Masala for the lunch buffet today. Overall I had a good impression with the place. Decent selection of vegetarian dishes and the lamb curry was excellent. The butter zucchini showed that you don’t need meat to make this dish shine.
The service was prompt, friendly and attentive.
Will be going back and trying dinner to see how that goes.

I went here once for dinner and left disappointed, but hopeful that the place could at least be salvaged as a happy hour destination. A few weeks later I left my attempt at happy hour saying I won’t be back even for the cheap drinks.
I was sad to see Priya go a few months ago, but hopeful when I saw the renovations going on and seeing that the building was still going to be an Indian restaurant. When I finally made it there to try the food, it was clear that they worked much harder on the atmosphere than they did on the menu and cooking. The menu had a limit on what you could order Thali style, and the food was mediocre at best. Also, the manager gave me kind of a weird pushy sales vibe. I don’t really want to be up-​sold at a restaurant.

I went to their Grand Opening last week and though the food was pretty decent, I have to say that the overall experience wasn’t really all that great.
They had a free buffet for the celebration and it was packed. Since we were sitting in the bar, the bartender had to give me a receipt so I could get in the buffet line. He took my card and gave me a receipt to use but kept my tab open, which I thought was nice so I didn’t have to have 2 receipts. There was a big to-​do right after this and he got in trouble for not ringing up the drink and was told to ring the card through for the buffet receipt first and then open a tab. I thought this whole exchange was a little weird since they already had my card AND I could hear them.
It left the impression that the owner/​manager thought that I personally was there to put on a scam for free food. Making your customer feel like a criminal and then scolding an employee who is doing a great job at customer service in front of a bar packed with customers? Not good for P.R., folks!
The extremely long buffet line wound around the restaurant and took about 25 minutes to get through which means we were standing over and around these poor customers *trying* to enjoy their meals. There was no organization to where the line was forming at all. One poor family had the line wrap around three sides of their table! I stood over them while I was in line for about 10 minutes. Can you say AWKWARD?
I’d also just like to take this opportunity to say thanks to the pushy lady behind me in line who was literally reaching over me to scoop food I hadn’t even gotten to yet! Thanks for touching my butt with your leg (or whatever that was) and rushing me through the line, perfect stranger! Next time, crack open a Snickers before you hit the buffet so you don’t have to molest unsuspecting patrons in your hurry for food! I feel so violated.
The nice part of the buffet was that you could sample several dishes — the butter chicken (my favorite, for sure), garbanzo bean dish and the eggplant were fantastic. The «green salad» had nice flavor but had more red onions that greens in it. In fact, way too many onions and then, the inevitable fire breath the rest of the night.
The dessert.. . well.. . ew.. . not so much. Maybe it’s my American taste buds, but they had these small spherical yellow balls that looked kind of like angel food cake poop. It was a good thing they had a sign that said «Dessert» because I would never have guessed it. If I had to liken the taste to something I recognize, I would say that you could ball up some wonder bread, add some yellow food coloring and then pour some sugar water over it to get the same dish. Ick!
The bartender was funny, attentive and great — I gave him a huge tip. We actually had a lot of fun drinking, listening to the band and dancing.. . and then for some reason, the younger owner/​manager guy went up to the band and cut the live music short at about 10:45.
Then they turned on 93.3 KUBE, commercials and all. I thought it was really weird because people seemed to be dancing and enjoying the band and they decided to stop live music in favor of the radio? Weird. In any case, quite a few people left after they did that, including me and the people I was with! I would have stayed longer had the live music continued. Personally, I’m not a KUBE fan — I’m a live music fan!
All in all: MOST of the food was good. Even the ambiance was pretty good (despite pushy groper lady in the buffet line) but the management seems like they need to learn how to better deal with their diverse mix of customers. Not sure I’ll go back.. .

Came today.
Positive:
Much better décor than Priya’s and of course new friendly people.
Has a bar section with two big screens and it looks like Chili’s
Bathrooms are beautiful
7.95 for the buffet
Food was tasty
Negative:
Charged my 4 year old child 4.99 for the buffet
They are very pushy for you to buy a drink.
They were very attentive, not much variety in the buffet but for 7.95 we thought it was nice. The naan is small and flat and toasted, I did not like it at all. We ordered mango lassi and is a big glass and they kept asking if we wanted another one. Come on. If I say no thank you, why you keep asking me? Caramba!
I think the Naan in Mayuri is better,