Gandhi’s: An East Indian Cafe

Love this place! Owner is super nice, and the portions are huge! One of my downtown staples!

This place is hands down my favorite place to go for Indian food. The staff remembers your name and your order. Chicken makhani to die for. Only open lunch hours Mon-​Fri but so worth it!

This is our go-​to-​place for fast and good Indian food. I’ve been going to this place since I started working in downtown Portland in 2002. Before my vegetarian days, I love to order the mild chicken masala. I thought it was perfect for the very spicy stewed red tomatoes. Fast forward and now that I’m a vegetarian, i usually order the spinach no spicy stewed tomatoes with extra rice. The owner knows my order that I didn’t have to tell him.

I just ate here a few days ago for the first time, and the Makhani was delicious. Like, the kind of delicious that has been haunting my taste buds, begging for more…

For those of you who are familiar with real Indian food– go somewhere else. The store bought pita from a bag served as «naan» is an indication of their authenticity.
If you want tons of cheap food and aren’t particularly picky, go for it!

This place has the best rice. I can’t even explain it. It’s just got the perfect texture. Great flavor. Just worth it. Great veggie options. Just all around good food. Good variety and great price for such quality.

A decent indian fast food restaurant. I tried the middle spicy chicken and chickpeas with mint chutney. It was very savory and I thought I’d feel upset but my stomach handled it pretty well.
I will come back to try the vindaloo.

If you’re a vegan working downtown — you know the dearth of decent, quick, cheap, non-​chain food options. This is one. Decent Indian food. Very quick on the day I went. $ 6 and change for 2 vegan dishes poured over rice (I had the chole and dal). And not a chain! I’ll definitely be coming back here.

The Chicken Vindaloo here is awesome. Spicy and full of flavor. Also, the vegetable sides are delicious — served with one side but I request two smaller vege sides and it’s not a problem. The speed of service is wonderful. The environment leaves little to be desired — it being a shared space with another vender probably keeps the food costs lower for the customers which I’m fine with. The portion size is pretty large for an $ 8 lunch. I’ve been here twice and order it to go with the intention to eat half and take the other half back to work but I’ve finished both time (uncomfortably full).

Ghandhi’s is pretty good, especially for a work-​lunch meal. Actually, I would go as far as to call it a treat if you’re having it for your work time lunch. The portions are very generous and the price is comparable to the area. I usually order some type of chicken and veggie curries that usually comes out to about $ 7.50. There are several other variations of meats and veggies you can order, and everything I’ve had there has been pretty good. I personally like the spinach and dal. The man who works there is extremely friendly and has forced (I use the term loosely) fed copious samples to me. I really liked the lamb and shrimp curry samples, but both are a couple dollars extra, and since I’m usually there for a weekday lunch, I like to keep it pretty simple and stick to chicken/​veggies. I don’t know if they serve anything besides curry and rice here, since that’s all I’ve ever had of theirs.
I would recommend Ghandhi’s to anyone craving an Indian curry lunch. It’ll be satisfying, but I wouldn’t go as far as to call it mind blowing.

Best Indian food I’ve had in a long time. The flavors are delicious, the portions generous. This guy is a genius.

Really good spicy chicken vindaloo lunch special. Great serving size for the price, this one goes in my favorites list. Just spicy enough not to kill your taste buds,

I go four times a week sometimes. They know my name. I love them, and the food is terrific. The place is an old Burger King and a total dump, but the food is good and clean and served and made with love. Thanks Dillon!

Iam surprised to see so many positive reviews for this place. To make sure i ate here twice in two weeks.
Now iam sad for all the people who line up here for their indian fix.
The food here is far from what you call real indian cusine. I agree that this had been customized for the american palate, still ido not agree.
Adding a little bit of turmeric, garam masala and cream does not make indian food. There is absolutely no indian flavour to the food. for this restaurant spicy means adding red chilli powder. you will understand once you taste the «spicy tomato curry» the man standing there tells…
Not again!

This is not good Indian food. I sympathize with the reviewer who says she has no idea what the other reviews are talking about. In a city with so few Indian options, maybe there’s just a lack of awareness about the possibilities of this cuisine?
I got channa and the aloo broccoli thing. Maybe they were just out of cauliflower, or broccoli is cheaper, or something. Broccoli has a strong flavor, so this tasted pretty much like broccoli. I like broccoli. The channa reminded me of the microwave-​in-​pouch Tasty Bite stuff.
The «naan» is store-​bought pita bread.
Still searching for good Indian food here. I chanced upon a place called India Oven on SE Belmont that was solid. Not really an option for a downtown lunch spot, but it’s odd that Unilocal is so much more enthusiastic about Gandhi’s.

Gandhi’s is an all-​star in the crowded league of $ 8 lunches from the Asian subcontinent. The combination plate is a great way to try four different dishes for $ 8. It permits two chicken dishes and two vegetarian dishes. I elected for the spicy and medium chicken curries. Rounding out the foursome were the chickpeas and the saag paneer (creamed spinach). For the amount of square footage, there’s a large amount of dishes to choose from. Also, they have some of the best portion sizes in the crowded realm of cheap lunchtime fare.
The flavors at Gandhis are not radical. The chicken is tender and juicy. They’re smooth, subtle, and delicious. A beginner’s guide to Indian food. Heck, you don’t even have to like Indian food or know anything about it to have a wonderful lunch.
Definitely say yes to all the extra fixins’. Just when you think you can’t possibly heap any more generous mounds of goodness on your plate he will ask you if you want cilantro, yogurt, and a crimson spicy sauce. Say yes to all the above. The more sauces you add to your plate, the more delicious the flavors will become as they meld together.
By two o’clock a few of their dishes were scraped dry and they were naan-​less. Go early for more options. But go too early and you’ll do battle with the lines. I think there’s a sweet spot around 1:30 ish.
Gandhi’s earns five stars for it’s reasonable prices, eye-​popping portions, larger-​than-​expected selection, quirky food court atmosphere, and overall deliciousness.
P. S. Be warned. There’s always a ton of flies guarding the water cooler.

This place has consistently AMAZING Indian food. You can choose your spicyness level and side dishes. The food is definitely spicy but in a yummy, I can’t believe how good this is kind of way. The prices are reasonable and the owner is super nice and friendly. It’s super casual and easy to get your meal to go. I’d highly recommend this place and eat there every chance I get.

I was intrigued and a little intimidated by the line for lunch here, but it moved very quickly and in about 6 minutes I had a huge plate of delicious chicken vindaloo and mixed veggies. The service was fast and friendly and the food tasty and very affordable.
One tiiiiiny improvement could be made on the naan, which was a bit small and dry, but it really didn’t matter too much. The rest of the meal was excellent!

If I were a meat-​eater, this would be a 5-​star review.
Very few situations make me feel sad about not eating meat, but this is one of them.
There’s something about makhani sauce that just gets to me. The creamy, tomatoey, savory goodness pierces to the very core of my soul. The dead fowl found swimming in it today, however, left me feeling dejected.
I’ve been working downtown lately with some kids with very good taste. My final day at 4^th & Taylor, I decided that it was time to try this oft-​recommended mecca of spice and delight. So over I trudged through cold drizzle, and in snaking line I stood for like 12 – 14 minutes, give or take.
They advertise at least 7 vegan/​vegetarian entrees per day, but don’t really specify anywhere what they are until you’e breathing heavily at the plexiglass that is protecting those vats of deliciousness from your germs. So I picked up my coworker’s combo platter ($ 8 for a massive pile of rice and chickens and two veggies — excellent value), and then had to choose for myself between the unlabeled buckets of vegetarian options. There were potatoes, soupy spinach, drippy looking lentil soup (dal?) or a tomatoey stew as the choices of the day. Nothing really hearty like a paneer makhani that I was so craving.
I got the veggie options and trudged back through the rain to have our little festive picnicky last-​day-​of-​schooly lunch. The food was hot, the rice was very nice and fluffy and moist, but something was really missing. It was probably the pure heavy cream that I’m used to with paneer masala or paneer korma at home. It was authentic. It was a lot of food for cheap. But my coworker’s dead animal platter made me sad and a little jealous.
3.666 stars.

CHEAP EATS DOWNTOWN
There might be one or two places that may serve better Indian cuisine, but when time and money is a factor, you can not go wrong with this indoor Indian food cart. I tried their Chef’s Special for $ 8.25 which includes a choice of lamb or shrimp, chicken entrée, two vegetables plus a can of soda.
If you can not decide, complimentary samples of each of the meats are provided. Ended up going with lamb, chicken, mix vegetables and chick peas. There’s plenty of tables and chairs
The entrees were mildly spicy and very authentic. It’s not eating at the Taj, but it sure beats standing and eating on the streets.