Namaste

I love indian food. I have tried multiple dishes there and although it may not be the best most authentic food its worth it nonetheless. It has its own flare and is much better than any other corporate chain crap around (and theres a lot of that). It takes a lot of guts to cook home-​made «ethnic» food in a not so diverse area. I appreciated the good and kind service and the fact that the food was not overly greasy (as a lot of «good» indian tends to be). My bowels agreed. The place is super clean and you can watch your cook prepare your food! Worth a visit and worth forming your own opinion.

This place is hidden in plain sight in what looks to be a former convenience store building on US-​1. This place looks so clean and new I assumed it just opened a couple of weeks ago, it was about the cleanest restaurant I’ve ever seen. The food was excellent, the regular and garlic naan (tastes a bit like Little Caesars Crazy Bread in a good way) was fresh and hot, the hummus was tasty, the rice was hot and fresh, and the okra and tomatoes was spot on. The portions were okay but not as quite large as you’d expect for the price. The service was very friendly and I’m thinking it must be a family owned and operated place.
This place is a little overpriced for a place off of the highway in St. Augustine. That being said, I’d be back here if I wanted Indian food in St. Augustine and would be interested to try their lunch buffet.

Great indian food. Was very happy with everything. Chicken tikka masala was out of this world and so was the lamb briyani. Mango lassi was great too as well as the sweet tea. Will be visiting more often. Very happy to have great indian food in St. Augustine!

Namaste is the same restaurant as Mediterranean Shish-​Kebab — it’s the same building and staff. While the latter did have some Indian dishes in the past, Namaste is an attempt at creating a full Indian menu. This was made possible by the recent addition of a tandoor, which is essential in Indian cooking to make bread (naan) and certain types of meat. When you enter you’ll have the option of the Namaste menu or the traditional menu, and there is a big new sign out front indicating the name Namaste. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to our review.
Namaste is a very strange restaurant. The first thing you will notice is that the Lunch Buffet only runs Monday to Friday, we tried to go on a Saturday and found ourselves out of luck. This is a curious business choice, as naturally the most business would be during the very busy St Augustine weekends, so that immediately threw me for a loop. Inside you will likely personally meet the Bengali chef, as it is short staffed and scarce of customers. We found the chef and one assistant when we arrived.
You will quickly notice that the place tries to sell itself as high end but has tacky paper covers on the tables, and very cheap flimsy wooden chairs. The prices on the menu are absurd, easily up to 30−50% more expensive than what you would find in superior Indian restaurants in Jacksonville. The serving sizes are not large — they are about medium to small. While the chicken pathi masala we ordered was probably medium sized, the naan that comes out is quite small. The food itself is probably the most troubling point. I should have known that it was going to be a problem when the chef himself somehow didn’t know what raita was (traditional Indian yogurt), a staple of good Indian food. The naan was flavorless and just had some butter smeared on it after the fact.
We ordered the masala stated before and an order of house special biryani rice. The masala was OK but lacking some of the traditional spices of Indian cuisine. IT was flavorful and sweet, but again, not worth the price tag, which was probably $ 3 – 4 more than a typical meat masala at a place in Jacksonville. It came with Mediterranean rice, not jasmine, and while flavorful, does not complement Indian currys. The biryani did not taste like traditional biryani, and like our masala, was composed of rice which was unsuitable for a biryani.
The recurring problem at Namaste is the owner’s decision to incorporate ingredients from his Mediterranean menu in the Indian menu. No, tzatziki is not a substitute for raita. No, mint yogurt sauce is not raita. These fine details were lost on the owner. No, you can’t use the same rice. No you can’t use the same spices. The food at Namaste is a hybrid of his regular menu essentially forced to be Indian. That being said while I am a big fan of «Fusion» foods –the food at Namaste is not an attempt at fusing Mediterranean and Indian, but rather fooling the customer into presenting it as Indian. The food was average but overpriced and I went here looking for a closer alternative than the 35 minute drive into Jacksonville.
Will I go back to Namaste? No. I rather make the drive, pay less and get better Indian food. For those reading this looking for an Indian place, India House, 5^th Element and Flavors are all good options. I really wanted a good Indian place closer to home but Namaste just doesn’t cut the mustard unfortunately.