India Palace

There are other restaurants that operate under this same name as this one but are not affiliated with this India Palace.
The number of positive reviews for this restaurant puzzled me at first, until I considered that this seems to be the only Indian restaurant in the area and many of the positive reviews conflict with reviewers who seem to actually have experience with authentic Indian food.
Before I get to my personal experience with this particular India Palace, I would recommend that you visit the India Palace reviews of Subhadip K., Taylor G., Raj J., Matt W., and Rachana P.
As my wife is Indian, we are more than casually familiar with Indian cuisine both with family and in restaurants.
This restaurant is located in the middle of a city block. As with most buildings in the area, this one was old and presented the characteristics that you might expect. There was and ever-​present damp smell in areas where not overtaken by the smell of food. The dining room was dimly lit and not particularly clean. The tables were too close together and the décor was dated.
We dropped in for lunch one afternoon and upon entering were not offered a menu or table, but directed to the buffet and told to seat ourselves. The food on the buffet appeared to be old and mushy. It reminded me of frozen food that had been defrosted to quickly in a microwave. We decided to have a seat and order from the menu.
The waitress that finally came to talk to us seemed offended that we asked to order from the menu and spoke to us rudely. She then dropped menus on the table and walked away. Faced with unappealing food and rude waitress, we decided to leave.

Speedy service and good food. You can definitely share a meal :] we had the paneer naan and aloo gobi with the hottest spices although it wasn’t as hot as I had hoped. Plenty of rice. Wish I would had room left for some Gulab Jamun — if I’m ever back in the area I would consider coming here again.

Delicious Indian food! I know a lot of elitist hipster know it alls will say otherwise, however excellent flavors, excellent lunch buffet. The tandoori chicken is cooked to perfection, meat falls off bone. I personally think their meatballs are delicious. Stack it on top of jasmine rice, slap some naan bread on top, pinch and devour!

Read the few poor reviews on this place, but I really enjoy Indian food and took a chance anyways. For dinner, I ordered pretty standard naan, a tikka masala plus basmati rice, spicy level hot. I thought it was quite good, plentiful potions, and quick service. I typically eat Indian food wherever I travel, both internationally and within the US and I think this place is pretty good. Maybe it’s just the lunch buffet meant to serve masses that isn’t so good.

I’m eager to get Indian cuisine when I travel because I don’t have the option at home. My local friend gave us a list of food options for dinner and we jumped at the chance to try it.
The exterior could use some TLC and the entryway wasn’t very nice, but the welcoming staff and appropriately decorated dining area (cloth napkins — nice, unique chairs) put us at ease.
We tried the curry, tandoori prawns, and shrimp saag. The waiter made a couple trips to the table to make sure he had our spice preference correct which was greatly appreciated. We’ve has experiences with overly spicy Indian before, it was nice they made the effort to get it right. Our food came very quickly with an over abundance of rice. We regretted ordering 2 orders of the garlic naan, it was just too much food. Each dish was enjoyable.
The cost was typical for Indian, about $ 15 – 19 per plate. The service was excellent.
Overall, this was not the best Indian cuisine we have had; however it was more than adequate and we would recommend dining here. We will certainly be back when we travel through Duluth again.

LOVE LOVE LOVE this place. Lots of Gluten free options. Tastes are exotic, but palatable to U.S. tastes, service is nice, lunch buffet is a good value IMO. Good for evening dates. 5-​stars!

I gave one star because i cannot give less than this. I have been to indian restaurants all over midwest, but this was the worst. First of all they dont even refill the containers of food. I wont suggest anyone to visit this place. If anyone likes this place, then they havent seen the better yet. This place is not run by indians. Believe whatever i ate is not really «Indian».

For a lunch buffet, this place is pretty good. I have now been here a few times (including today) and we have always been greeted promptly, had efficient service (water/​utensils brought right away, the bill was given to us and taken care of quickly, and the water is refilled often) and there is always fresh food in the buffet. The food itself is average. Nothing is particularly great, but it is all good enough and it is consistent. If you are in need of an Indian fix in Duluth, this will certainly do the trick. It is also a reliable place to have a quick lunch if you are pressed for time.

THIS PLACE IS A HEALTH HAZARD. We were served with foods having plastics. Food quality was terrible so as the owner. When we asked him about the plastic and the food quality he didn’t give enough importance. He simply asked us to pay and leave. If you are concerned about your health avoid this place.

I have no idea what these other people are talking about. This place is terrible. I went for the lunch buffet and tried every dish available. They were all either bad or kinda bad. They had one dish that seemed to be those simek’s meatballs you buy frozen at the grocery store. They were in, what seemed to be a can of tomato sauce with garam masala added. Also everything seemed really sweet. The chicken makhani was the least bad thing. It also was bland and sweet but not as much so as the other dishes. We are from Minneapolis where there are some pretty legit Indian spots. It’s not like it’s f$#king Mumbai but it’s better than those meatballs.

Amazing lunch buffet. Good combinations of vegetarian and non-​vegetarian dishes. Very friendly staffs. Would love to visit this place again.

Decent variety of great tasting Indian food, pleasant atmosphere and friendly staff. I really enjoyed my visit to India palace. Is there a better Indian restaurant in Duluth? I never found one.

This place isn’t bad by any means it’s just not the quality of Indian food I crave. I wouldn’t hurry back and would probably cook my own Indian food next time I have the craving. The naan wasn’t even buttery garlic naan! Three stars because service was great, price was right, and buffet had decent variety.

Great food. Authentic Indian. Great service, very friendly people! A very pleasant and yummy experience!

I live in North Central MN and have lived all around the country. As restaurant Indian food goes, it is on par with most places I have eaten; except the restaurants in the East Village; hard to beat them! The food is spicy enough for most Minnesotans, though next time I am going to ask if they can bump it up a notch. We ordered off the menu since the buffet was pretty bare when we got there just about the time they were closing it down. Not to bad for Northern MN., I have had better; but this is pretty good for this part of the world. I will definitely go back again. I am glad I found a good restaurant so I don’t always have to cook my own indian food! 200% better than the one in Fargo.

This place has always been one if my favorites to eat at! The atmosphere is really quite charming (though it can get a bit noisy), and the service has never disappointed me or my family. The food is really quite delicious especially considering it is the only Indian place in Duluth, MN! I would highly recommend!

Considering this is the only Indian place in duluth, and the pretty bad (albeit outdated & mostly about the buffet) reviews here, I was pleasantly surprised. The menu is typical northern Indian fare. We’re mostly vegetarian — had baingan bharta (smokey, creamy given that there’s no cream– quite good), dal (oddily orange but also good), and the channa masala (pretty good, my husband & 2 yo’s favorite), plus onion naan. Came w basmati. I think everyone else was having the lunch buffet– which had a few veggie options (veg korma, saag paneer, tofu jhalfrezi). Price was a bit but since there isn’t a lunch menu given the buffet, it seemed typical for duluth ethnic restaurants…
Ordered medium spice (waiter seemed surprised) — it was pretty mild for Indian medium but definitely had a little (little) kick. Probably about my 2 yo’s threshold.
We’ll be back.

I’ve been to a few Indian Buffets throughout the Midwest and this is by far my least favorite.
The food is very bland and «Minnesota Hot» meaning not at all. The options in the buffet were very limited and left me unsatisfied.
Very disappointed that the restaurant sacrificed authenticity in exchange for toning down the spices to appease the Minnesotans

First off, India Palace isn’t even run by Indian folks. Hmong folks run the place. The way Indians make their rice, is a little firm, the rice we had with our curry was good & cooked perfectly, but not the Indian way. The curry was good, but not at the spice level we wanted, it was not even spicy. I guess they wanna appeal to the majority-​Caucasians who aren’t used to Asian spice. The food was good yes, but, when I go to an Indian place, I want it run by Indian folks.

Well, it’s Indian food in Duluth so what do you expect? This place has always been very mediocre in terms of worthy Indian cuisine. If you’ve never had «Indian Food», give it a shot, maybe try the lunch buffet. If you’re craving Tikka Masala, Kofta, Tandoori Chicken, Naan, or those odd little sweet milk ball sponges, it’s probably worth a visit 2x per year. Other than that, it’s overpriced and underflavored.
Had the app sampler yesterday; it was terrible and a waste of $ 8. The chai tea was spot-​on. The kofta was decent, but the chicken is always too tough and the portions are too small. Plenty of white rice though… yee hah! The naan is certainly below average also. $ 44 before tip? That’s absurd.
On top of everything else, we had a Chinese-​American dude and a Mexican-​Amercian fella, cooking and serving, our very American-​Indian food.