Daawat Grill

This place is right across from the Seattle Convention Center, so central for people visiting Seattle. We had read rough stories about service, but found the service to be great when we visited. The food can be served mild, medium and spicy and we loved that the spicy was pretty darn spicy. It wasn’t the best indian food I’ve had, but a good option in the downtown core.

Ordered delivery and got the vindaloo. It didn’t taste like any vindaloo I’ve had anywhere else and not in a good way (I frequently eat Indian food). It’s not very flavorful or spicy. I’m sure this place has other redeeming Indian dishes but stay away from the vindaloo.

Awesome food! Even their simple hummus was so fresh and flavorful! Super friendly staff. They were so sweet to my 2 & 4 year old children (who I typically wouldn’t bring into a nicer restaurant like this) and even treated us to a slice of delicious chocolate cheesecake «on the house» at the end of our meal, which was great for the kids. Definitely will seek this restaurant out again next time I’m in the area and craving Indian food!

If I could I would give zero or negative rating for this place … I did not like the service here, food was okay. Waitress attitude was very bad when I asked for an extra napkins and fork. When I told there were no naans in the try. Her responses was so bad as If it is free food. I have been here twice with colleagues because they want to try Indian food. I had bad experience both times. I don’t recommend this place to any.

Came to Daawat during happy hour and was blown away by the beyond reasonably priced happy hour menu. Ordered fries, chicken, kofta and naan, they were all delicious!

Perfectly reasonable choice for Indian delivery: nothing too fancy, and nothing too bland. Convenient delivery options — eat24-​supported.
⁸⁄₁₀ Would order again.

Very tasty food. Being an indian myself… I am very picky about my food. I have come here twice now with family and friends. Each time the food quality and service was superb! A must try if you want tasty, fresh and authentic food.

Ok, I was out looking at a couple of new apartments and found this place next door. I was very hesitant to do Indian after my terrible experience at the Best (worst!!!) of India last week. Also, only one other diner was eating. I went in for the buffet, it was kind of late for lunch but everything was there. Get to the point: it was seriously good. Good variety of meat and veg options. Too bad it’s in an unfortunate foot traffic area. If you are around, give it a try. The mango lassi was really good and they actually made it to order. Great. I’ll be back!

Love this place! I’ve been looking for a decent Indian since moving from Australia and this is one of the better ones in Seattle. Friendly staff and decently spicy food which is great!
The service is sometimes a little slow but the free times that’s happened they’ve made up for it and it’s usually worth the wait anyway.

I was so happy we found this place. I may not be in town a lot. But please know, when I am, I will be adding this place to my list. I had a great time and the food was good as well. Daawat reminded me of why I fell in love with Indian food in the first place.

Ordered the butter masala chicken and the garlic naan bread and they were delicious! One order of the naan wasn’t enough.

Some peope can be pretty finicky about service. I’m not one of them and usually give it about 25% weight in my reviews. With that being said, it is very sad when you have that rare service experience that is –1 stars to bring the average down to 2 stars.
This was a Friday night, holiday season, at 6:30PM (which is still technically Happy Hour til 7) and we were surprised to see the restaurant was about ¹⁄₃ full. Maybe it’s the odd location on the border of where downtown stops and you’re in Capital hill when you walks a block across the freeway. Very convenient though to ACT Theater and Paramount. Just not a place with high foot traffic outside and that’s probably why they are running a
deal.
I’m not an Indian food expert but I would agree that the food overall is on the cusp of 4 stars — good decent Indian — nothing absolutely spectacular. The menu is vast and prices are higher than your average Indian place although not unresonable for downtown prices (happy hour prices are EXCELLENT with a good size menu.) Atmosphere is a bit ‘cavernous’ ‘plain’ with high ceilings and not many soft surfaces but pleasant and modern.
The service appeared that for the whole entire large restaurant, on a Friday evening, there was one middle aged lady serving and one young boy that was helping out too but he seemed more like an assistant server as he wasn’t our ‘primary server’ but ended up being so because there would be nearly 20 minutes at a time (no lie) before the lady would re-​visit our table. Everyone drink glasses bone dry. Errors made on the drink orders too.
Our play at the ACT 3 min around the corner wasn’t until 8. Now remember, we got there just before 6:30 (6:25). We ate appetizers between 6:40 and 6:50 and it wasn’t until 7:10 that anyone returned to take dinner orders and the entrees took almost a half hour to all come out. Again, at this point the restaurant was about HALF full.
For a middle-​tier Indian restaurant, you don’t expect family mexian restaurant speed in the kitechen but getting their an hour and a half before our performance seemed more than adequate for this type of establishment. It wasn’t, and we missed our play by 15 minutes even after ¾ into the meal I told them the situation. Probably should have told them from the get go but I had no clue this dinner for 4 was going to take nearly 2 hours due to the slow service. Unbelievable. But believe it. Sort of ruined our evening but we made the best of it and just went out for drinks elsewhere.
This would be a high 3 or low 4 stars with much better service which can vary so I wouldn’t disuade anyone at this point from trying the place.

Five years ago I moved to London having never tasted Indian food. I spent the next five years eating a lot of Indian takeaway in London. I’ve just repatriated to the US and, well, what I can say? I’ve been back for roughly six weeks and our take-​away meal tonight from Daawat Grill was the best meal I’ve had in Seattle. And I’ve been around the block eating my face off since returning stateside.
Yum. Even the high maintenance husband who has been to India multiple times said the meal was delicious.
I ordered the jalfrazie with chicken which reminded me a lot like the entrée (murg bhuna) I used to get at my favourite Indian take-​away joint in London. I ordered it mild and it had a good amount of spice for me since I can look at a jalapeño and get heartburn. The curry was rich and tomato’y and not at all creamy. The chicken was mostly dark meat which I’d normally not be happy with but it contained very little fat and mixed in well with the green and red peppers, onions and chunks of ginger. I very much enjoyed it.
In addition to the jalfrazie, we ordered two other mains (not commenting since I did not try them), garlic naan and plain naan. The naan was far more doughy than naan I am used to but I still enjoyed it. We don’t need two orders of naan next time since it was so filling.
The only downside was that we didn’t receive any complimentary papadums like we used to in London. The dog was really upset by this — papadums are his favourite!

I can’t believe I ate 4 plates. The variety here is really nice, more entrees than little sweet desserts than most places, and I liked that they have lots of staff, always smiling and taking our plates, and the décor and design is very easy on the eyes with high ceilings, modern chairs and tables. Right by the convention center so you can look for parking there or do as we did and find something on the street by the Paramount.

We got food catered for our party from these guys. They were a charm to work with. They were courteous, responsive and even threw in a free salad, paper plates etc. We felt we got a good deal and the food was delicious. Everyone especially loved the samosas. Super legit. They did give a lot of food, so we had leftovers (which I don’t mind!). Will use them again and highly recommended for your next party catering.

On a couple of occasions I had only taken naans and rotis to-​go from here because they are spectacular. Yesterday my wife and I finally decided to get dinner at Daawat. We were warmly welcomed and seated immediately despite the friday night rush. The owners run the front of the house along with their wait staff and the service is impeccable and extremely friendly.
The menu is honestly the only thing I didn’t quite like about this restaurant. It is simply too large. There are unnecessary sections for American and Mediterranean food. Most of the negative Unilocal reviews are for items from these sections. The owners might want to just scrap those and stick to being a great Indian restaurant. Sometimes, less is more.
We ordered a Tandoori roti, a plain naan and a butter chicken. The roti and naan here are absolutely perfect and take me back to India. They are huge so do not over-​order. Easily the best in Seattle. The Butter Chicken itself was not too bad. It was still not the authentic dish we grew up eating and it had the creamy American «chicken tikka masala» twist to it but was still really tasty. The chicken was cooked beautifully and was juicy. In most other restaurants around it is usually dry from freezing and re-​heating. The freshness came through here. The food is served with some onions, chillies and lemon on the side which I was thrilled to see.
We decided to skip dessert since we were really full but the owner brought us a rasmalai on the house anyways. It was absolutely delicious. They make their sweets fresh in-​house which was evident.
This is not the first time the owner has brought out something complimentary. On a previous occasion I just needed to get a roti to go and he refused to charge for it. We also noticed him bringing other tables some complimentary desserts. This really speaks volumes about the food and the attitude. The folks at the restaurant are clearly very hard working and rightfully proud of their food. They are willing to go that extra mile to make your experience complete and special. Such small gestures are always very highly appreciated and I do wish them success. We really need a good Indian restaurant in Seattle and I hope Daawat Grill fills that void.
Food — 5
Service — 5
Cleanliness — 5
Menu — 3
Overall the food was great and the experience fantastic. I will definitely be going back here often with friends and colleagues. Looking forward to trying more from the menu.

Happy hour fabulousness :-) This is likely a 3.5 to 4 star experience on a regular basis, but our first try here was impressive.
We came at 5:30 during happy hour and they said it lasted til 7, so we small plated it and ordered exclusively from the happy hour menu: Chicken Tikka, Greek Plate with gyro meat, hummus, and pita (yes there is a Greek influence here as well as some Americana), Dawatt Salad, Dynamite Shrimp (Americana), Lamb Samosas, and Garlic Naan.
Tastiness was a 5. The Lamb Samosas were freakin delicious, spicy and generously stuffed. Chicken Tikka came out not as steaming hot as we would have liked, but it was tender and moist and well portioned. Greek Plate’s hummus’ was creamy and the pita fresh. The Dynamite Shrimp were the bomb…7 medium sized for 6.99. Salad was generously portioned and fresh with romaine, walnuts, red onion, carrot, and olive but all the «small» plates came on a bed of romaine so we had plenty of salad already. (We eat the garnishes :-) Naan was not as garlicky as I’d like but it was also a generous portion and flaky and tasty.
We threw in a Mango Lassi and the total happy hour bill was $ 37 and change. Sweet. Top that off with a
gift certificate and we were swimming happy.
What really made our nite 5 star was the service. Very attentive and pleasant, good eye contact, wanting to please.
Lunch Buffett is 9.99. Right downtown. Cheap happy hour drinks too.

Ok ladies and gentlemen I think my search is over! I’ve been hunting for my «go-​to» Indian spot for a while now and I think this one is my favorite so far! First of all they have a happy hour menu. Even on weekends! I ordered lamb stuffed samosas (on HH $ 2.25/ order!) and I gotta say they were delicious! Also they have yummy complimentary chai tea so bonus points for that. The plain naan we had could’ve used a pinch more of salt but it was still a nice fluffy naan just as I like it. Vegetable kofta was very good — tomato sauce perfect amount of creaminess. I will be coming back again. Ya know just to confirm I really have found my favorite Indian joint ;)

This place opened not that long ago (under a year, I think) under the name Masala Grill and now has a new name but the menu is the same. Does it have a new owner or something to justify a new name and Unilocal page?
I came here hoping for better Indian food than what I received when they were called Masala Grill and was very disappointed. It is the same mediocre food. I added a star because the waitress was very nice and our pakora appetizer was decent.
They have a giant menu that includes non-​Indian foods like falafel and burgers. I really wanted to try a burger or the fettuccine alfredo because maybe it would be really good but I didn’t. Instead I kept to Indian and it was just mediocre. I won’t be going back. I had the mango curry and it was too creamy/​saucy and unlike any other Indian food I’ve ever had. I wonder if it is a made-​up dish for Americans. I forgot to take pics but if you look at the pics here on Unilocal,you’ll see that the dishes have way more sauce (and it’s thin) than it does chunks of meat or veggies. The good Indian restaurants have thicker sauces and a good balance of sauce/​meat/​veggies. The naan was fine if you like to eat a hugely carb-​y side dish but it was no better/​worse than any other Indian place.

Not the best Indian food but far from the worst. The service here was great and most of my reason to go back.
Tried the veggie samosa: good– crispy and filled with potato goodness… not spicy (green chutney is good!)
Chicken tikka masala: medium spice isn’t spicy so next time I’ll order hot, chicken pieces are tender but I wasn’t blown away with the sauce.
Garlic naan: highly recommend, just good stuff
Rice: meh, glad I got the naan!
$ 1 off apps during happy hour + drink specials.