Clay Pit

Have good things and weird things to say about this place.
First, according to The Independent, this place is related to the restaurant of the same name in Austin. While maybe by owner, that is the only relationship, as they are night and day different.
For anyone familiar with small town grills, the ones that have cheap hamburgers and home cooking, this is like that, but the homecooking is not Southern but rather Middle Eastern. There are still hamburgers, though.
Good things:
If you are Muslim, it is all halal.
Cheap burgers.
Kebabs.
Tasty spice combinations that I’ve never had.
Good sauces.
Friendly service.
Weird things:
Booths for women who wear burkas.
Very empty. Only two other customers when we went.
Lacks an identity.
Bad things:
Vegetable korma. Don’t do it.
If you want rice, order it separately. Won’t come with your order.
If you work in RTP, I’d give this place a try for lunch just for something different. Get one of the kebabs. Try a halal hamburger. But don’t get anything that you would normally see on an Indian buffet.

Popping in for dinner, there were two other tables occupied at 8:00 PM. I was a little overwhelmed by the very wide variety of items on posted menu, so I asked the server for her recommendations. She asked me how spicy (medium) and chicken or beef and then she brought me a sweet tea. (Other choices were Pepsi products.)
I was pleasantly surprised with chicken kebabs that were very flavorful and delicious. Served with a basket of naan bread (she had asked if I wanted bread or rice), a small salad and a small bowl of chutney, I really enjoyed the meal, cleaning my plate.
I also took her recommendation for dessert and had a piece of baklava. It was clearly handmade and it was good, but not as much as the chicken.
Even with dessert, the meal was less than $ 10. A great deal for yummy hand-​prepared food.
Would I return? Yes. I’d like to check out the lunch buffet. Though having read Ted’s review, perhaps not.

This place is rather odd. The sign out front reads, «Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Greek, and American food.» Huh? It occupies the former Los Paisanos and Gran Sabana restaurants in a strip mall on 55, near Jamaica Jamaica. Their claim to fame is being an all-​halal restaurant. I went in around 11:30am today and was the only person there (only one other showed up by the time I left at noon). They offer a small lunch buffet and what looks like a fair number of menu offerings, including many of the cuisines noted above. Arabic food is also offered on the menu, with items like hummus and shawerma.
The buffet itself was uninspiring, offering only 8 or so dishes, most of which were drenched in the same sauce. There was chana rice (rice + chick peas), vegetable biryani, chicken karahi, beef karahi, a mixed veggie dish, daal, aloo bhaji, and some sort of eggplant/​potato dish. I did like the flavor of the chicken karahi; the meat is on the bone, making it a bit more cumbersome, but probably more flavorful. I also liked the biryani and daal, which was the spiciest dish there. Otherwise most everything else was just so-​so. On the plus side, all dishes were very hot temperature-​wise. Fresh-​baked naan was brought out to the table and was great.
Unfortunately this restaurant just doesn’t measure up to other Indian restaurants in the area, like Spice and Curry, Tandoor, and Bombay Grille (though it is cheaper at $ 6.49). The interior décor also leaves much to be desired. The place is lit with retail-​style fluorescent lights, and very little investment has been put into sprucing the place up. There were even vertical blinds and mini-​blinds oddly surrounding a few of the booths along the walls. I might come back to this place to try out something off the menu for dinner, but I probably won’t be back for the lunch buffet.