Masala

Love, love, love this buffet! It’s a great GF meal if you avoid the obvious naan and gooey donut hole things! They have never glutened me! :)

Food is not bad, but the service was horrible! The waiter was talking to me about how dumb other customers are! The place looked dirty with water dripping from the AC system on the ceiling all over the floors. Maybe it was a one time thing, but I don’t think I’ll ever go there again.

My husband and I come to this restaurant only for it’s lunch buffet because it provides enough of a variety to satisfy our indian food cravings and it’s dinner menu is too pricey. The lunch buffet always seems to have Chicken Tikka Masala, which is what I order most of the time anyways, plenty of naan, and Tandoori Chicken.
As some people mentioned in their reviews, the service is not the best but if you go during the lunch time, not having immediate service doesn’t really matter since it’s a help yourself buffet. Often times there is an older Indian woman who works for the weekend lunches and she’s really nice and good with refilling drinks when you get up to get more food.
Their lunch menu is not the best Indian food I’ve had, but it’s really good for the price and good enough to satisfy my Indian food cravings.

My mother took me out here for dinner one night. She loves Indian food and we both like to try it in every city we go to, so we considered it a bit of an adventure to see what Kentucky would have to offer.
We both really were happy with the food. Our appetizer perhaps could have been better (I think it was one of the tandoori appetizers if I remember right), but both of our dishes (the chicken tikka masala and palak paneer) were perfectly spiced, served very hot, and tasted great.
Unfortunately we hit it after the alcohol license apparently had expired, so we were disappointed we couldn’t get drinks, but the service was very friendly and the food was good, so that wasn’t too big of a deal. Our waiter gave us our dessert on the house — we’re not quite sure why, but we ordered kheer and it was pretty good.
It’s definitely not cheap, but most Indian restaurants I’ve been too aren’t.

My fiancé and I were super excited to use our Groupon yesterday for a Saturday evening date night. We arrived at Masala restaurant and it took 5 minutes for someone to greet us. And he was on his cell phone and didn’t even care we were there. Finally we sat down and waited for our server. There’s only a few customers in here and they looked like they have been waiting a long period of time too. It’s been 15 minutes still no service. So my fiancé uses the restroom while we’re waiting and he was totally disgusted with how filthy the restrooms were. The whole restaurant was not in a clean state and it was so hot inside it felt like 100 degrees. I was extremely disappointed so after 20 minutes of waiting and seeing no one to help us, we decided to leave.

I can’t say the food is ad as I was ever served. I went in and asked if I could place a take out order and was instructed to I could do so at the bar. After 10 – 15 minutes of waiting, someone finally took my order. After taking my order, I was told it would be 30 minutes before I would get my food. I asked if that would be the case if I were sitting at a table and was told it would be the same regardless as they were «very busy» which apparently means there are 6 tables sat and only 2 servers and one manager to take are of them. If Masala can’t cover 6 tables, some of which already had food, without being so busy as to require 30 minutes to handle an order, patrons are in for some long waits. Giving 2 stars as I’m glad they warned me about the wait.

After reading all of Misti Y’s Indian restaurant reviews, I was craving some Indian food.
Walking in, the paint scheme is a little dark: black and red. The layout is a little funky as well. Not sure but I think this used to be a night club or bar of some sort and hastily converted to a restaurant. The restaurant was mostly empty (bad sign) at 12:00, except for a large party of Indian women (good sign). I asked to see the buffett which included: onion chtney, tamarind sauce, onion cucumber salad, rice, aloo beans, chicken curry, tandoori chicken, cauliflower, sweet rice pudding, gulab jamun, naan, and a few others I forget. Everything looked hot and freshly laid out so I decided to try it.
Thankfully, I was right. Everything was hot and fresh and tasted delicious. The best part was the large group of Indian women, after they swept through the buffett, the naan was all gone forcing the owners to quickly bake more naan, so there was plenty of hot, fresh naan! It was crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, an excellent complement to all the other dishes!
Had the large group of women not been there, I do not know if the turn over of the food would have been as frequent, that is why only three stars. Otherwise, service was decent, my ice tea was filled somewhat regularly and the price, with tax and tip, came out to be about $ 12.
Based on the other reviews, I guess the original restaurant does a better job, but this one is not bad especially, if you follow a large party into the restaurant.

I’ve only been here for their lunch buffet. Nice staff and good food. The buffet is good place to start if you’re not sure what indian food you like and what you don’t. I have not had a bad experience here.

My husband and I usually go the Masala in Beaumont Center. We wanted to try this location because it’s closer to our house. The atmosphere was nice however, the taste and quality of the food wasn’t the same the Masala in Beaumont.

Initial expectation exceeded by this restaurant. The interior surely belongs to a previous tenant that offered good times to all, but the food is the star. Had the chicken curry and it was excellent. Nan bread with lamb and spices also tasty. Excellent service for a place you wouldn’t expect in Lexington. This place would welcome any good Indian food lover. Give these guys a shot.

My friends and I went here for dinner the other week. The best part of this place is the naan. IT was DELICIOUS! :) I had the chicken vindaloo which was great but a tad saltier than i would like. I tasted some of my friend’s saag paneer which was good but too salty.
The service is good and the waiters are attentive but not too overwhelming.

I could not believe this place had less than 4 star reviews. While my wife and I have not been to the Beaumont location, we can definitely highly recommend the Nicholasville Road store. We have eaten here 5 times and have had nothing but flawless food and flawless service each time. The staff is now starting to recognize us as «regulars» and are so attentive and good to us. The last couple of times I have ordered Chicken Rogan Josh, which is not actually on the menu (Lamb Rogan Josh is). They are happy to make the dish and it is oh– so-​tasty. We’ve eaten at a couple of the other Indian restaurants in town, and nothing holds a candle to Masala. Not even close. The portions are ENORMOUS, as well. My wife and I each get about 3 meals out of each of our dishes. (And I eat a lot!) I simply cannot recommend this place enough. It is one of my favorite restaurants in any place I have ever lived. It is just THAT good.

I was totally surprised to read a negative review of this place, because we’ve come here a dozen times and never had anything less than excellent service.
We like to come here for the lunch buffet, because they have a huge selection of items, with plenty of vegetarian options, and they also change out the choices, so there’s always something new to try. My favorite dish is the chicken tikka masala, but I think this is the first Indian place we’ve been to that’s had gajar halwa on the buffet, which is one of my favorite desserts! (They also have more typical dessert choices such as gulab jamin.) I like that there’s a wide variety of things to try. I think Bombay Brassiere has slightly better food, but you really can’t beat the price of this place.

We had a horrible experience at the Masala off Nicholasville Road and were sorely disappointed, especially considering how much we love the Masala in Beaumont.
The food was good except that the naan was stale (even when we requested fresh naan after the first), and the service was a joke.
We arrived around 9:30 (they are open until 10:30 on Saturday evenings), and near the end of our meal they turned on very loud dance music, and the servers began dancing through the restaurant and neglecting their responsibilities.
We had to get the attention of our server away from her dancing, and she came over to our table and said «do you need something?»
Terrible. I had a horrible image of taking family out to this restaurant for a great meal and conversation and having this happen again. Nothing they serve could possibly make it worth it.
Masala serves great food, but unless you want to join the unannounced disco party, the one on Beaumont is a far more predictably enjoyable meal.

The Masala on Fieldstone/​Harrodsburg Road is far superior to this Masala located on Nicholasville Road. The food at the Nicholasville Road Masala is much more bland than at the original location. The décor inside is much nicer, but I would rather have tastier food than a pretty interior any day. I have only ever come for dinner service at the Nicholasville Road Masala.
For a comparison between this Masala and the original Masala, I usually order the chicken patia and garlic/​paneer naan at both places. While the naan is about the same, the patia has much less flavor at this Masala. It lacked the many large chunks of ginger I always find in the Fieldstone Masala, and the sauce was *very* watery at this Masala. When I poured the sauce on my rice, I ended up with pretty much straight water pooling around my plate; it was very diluted.

Good food but it could use some work on the décor and the location.
The food is good and they can make it really hot if you like that kind of thing. This food is great for a hangover.

This is the sister restaurant of the Masala in the Beaumont center (We call it Masala 2: the sequel). For Lexingtonians familiar with the area, this is the former «Lexington Hot Moon» building, somewhat behind Bella Note.
Compared to the Beaumont Masala, this one has two unique features: ambiance and dosas!
Ambiance in that the whole place is painted a sultry crimson, with black velvet curtains hanging over all the windows, and some of the walls to create private areas. The look is dramatic, and in places its painted with murals or scroll work.
There is a full bar and specialty cocktails, as well has a vast selection of Indian beers, and a very respectable wine list. There is a flat screen at the bar that is usually showing Indian music videos– always entertaining!
This is definitely the location, of the two, to come for a date or to bring out of town guests who want to go somewhere nice. The plates are square and very modern, and the Indian dishes are served in hammered copper bowls.
The menu here is largely the same as the Beaumont Masala, and just as extraordinary, but with some additions. Here, they have a dosa menu («Masala’s Dosa Hut»). A dosa is a rice and lentil crêpe filled with (depending on variety) chicken, lamb, spiced potatoes, etc. It’s meant to be eaten out of hand, you tear off chunks of the crêpe to scoop up the filling inside. It’s served with two house made chutneys, coconut and tomato, as well as a bowl of sambar for dipping.
To me, the dosas are what keep us coming back to this location. The Rawa Masala Dosa is my favorite by far.
Unique to this location is a kebab menu as well. The building came furnished with a huge grill and Sunny, the owner, has really put it to work. There are all kinds of lamb, chicken, and fish kebabs, which make for a nice change of pace, or a great addition to their other wonderful dishes.
This location also has several very private dining areas for parties and are equipped with flat screen TVs for business lunches to use for presentations, etc. There is a lunch buffet, which is replenished often and always fresh.
So, to make a quick note of the menu (though reviews of the other location cover it pretty well), everything here is made from scratch, to order. Sunny, the owner, takes great pride in his food and menus and I have never had anything mediocre here, everything is always over the top in terms of flavor and freshness.
Please be sure to try a lamb dish, I think lamb is a particular specialty here, always meltingly tender.
Another plus is the huge selection of vegetarian options; they are also accommodating of vegan requests and can cook with oil and coconut milk instead of butter/​dairy if you let them know about your needs.
We eat here very regularly, next time I will go with a camera and post some pix soon!