Arka

2 Stars for their service and 3 Stars for the food. Do not go here for dinner they’re extremely slow, I waited for 30 minutes for my food, and there were only 3 or 4 other people in there go figure. I would however recommend going during their lunch hours they have a nice buffet which helps take care off the long waits.

Horrible. Do not eat here. If I could give zero stars I would. Terrible restaurant from servers to food. I love and eat Indian food on a regular basis and this is the worst experience I have ever had.

The most challenging part with this restaurant is to figure out its timings. There have been several attempts by me around 2pm and they said the place was closed or they do not serve the buffet anymore as they have a group event. However if you manage to be get served, this place goes into the never ending list of average Indian food restaurants. I have been there only for the lunch buffet. There are not a lot of options to select from but I would say around 60% of the items they served was anywhere from good to okay. In my opinion if you have no place to go then come here and have your lunch and forget it as there is not a lot to talk about it.

We had just completed a 6 mile hike and so we were hungry. We drove all the way to Sunnyvale to partake in an Indian Buffet Lunch at Arka and was sorely disappointed as on their website they said they were open from 11:30−3pm. It was only 1pm. Not sure if they’re open at all but wow… what a way to really kill customers from ever coming back or at all.

Came here with a groupon for dinner for two including an appetizer, 2 salads or soups, 2 entrees and 2 drinks. The restaurant was quite large (seems to server mostly the lunch buffet crowds) and was pretty empty for a Friday night. The host welcomed us and sat us promptly. It was very considerate of him I noticed where the different diners were all spaced out reasonably in the restaurant so you could enjoy your dinner and conversation without being privy to the conversation next to you.
Appetizer — his majesty’s chicken. This was our favorite of the dishes, spicy and full of flavor, comes with onions and peppers. It was also a good sized amount of food and can stand alone as an appetizer.
Salads/​Soups — the watermelon salad was refreshing and complimented the strong meat dishes we ordered well.
Entrées — seafood curry and goat curry. The curry were strong and the sauce thick. The goat was very tender. The host did warn with the goat curry it’s more on the sour side because of the spices used, and I enjoyed it a lot.
We ordered fire nana and roti to go with the entrées. The fire naan tasted just like plain naan, with not much of the chili and cheese flavor coming through.
I did enjoy the Indian Pina Colada I got, which was like a mango lassi spin on te drink. One downside is definitely that the portions were small for the price. The pregroupon deal came to $ 71 for what we had. I would go again with the group on but would likely not go without.

I had their catered food once and it was very very spicy. If you are craving spicy food then you should definitely try this place out. Their chicken tikka and chicken curries are good, naan’s are fresh. In appetizers their samosas and pakora’s are good.
I have not visited their restaurant ever but have seen it from outside. Their ambience seems good. Not sure about their service and parking though.

Updating my previous review from 2 star to 1.
Went for the lunch buffet twice recently. One may ask why go the second time when you know the food sucks, well, I had a coupon which i had to use before it expires.
Limited options in the buffet unlike other indian places. Veggie options were very few. It seemed like the bought just two vegetables for a week and cooked dishes based on the two veggies they had. Baingan (brinjal) and broccoli were then one’s i got. And can you imagine an indian lunch buffet place without paneer? They had saag paneer though, ratio of 50:1. The pakoda were made of brinjal too, and dint seem fresh either.
I would surely not recommend this place to anyone.

Good dosas and other comfort foods. The décor is fun and modern and the restaurant has tons of room on the inside.
Food service is reliably bad — I stopped going because it always took me multiple hours to get in and get out. Once the food is at the table, they never return until you threaten to leave. Hope you had enough water before it arrived!

Arka catered lunch for my department today (80 people) and everything was great.
It was very easy to plan over email, from the menu selection to the scheduling and billing. Delivery was punctual and setup was quick and quiet. (Very important in a busy office!) Food was as delicious as expected, but the service was above and beyond. The two men that delivered the food were well dressed, and wiped down the sides of each tray after setting up. They even spooned some of the excess oil off of the tops of some of the dishes and discarded it. I was very impressed. Our team here enjoyed the food very much as well as the presentation.
Everything was perfect. It was a pleasure working with Ravi and the Arka team.

This place has a very good ambience. I ordered the Bombay Paneer Masala and Naan. It was very good.
The servers were friendly.

I was first doubtful of the quality of this place due to its 3 star rating in Unilocal.But guess what, I was proved totally wrong. I have since then visited this restaurant thrice, ordering different dishes each time (vegetarian) and every time I was given food that tasted good.
What I like more than their food is the ambience. The place is much much better compared to other places of same price. Their entrees cost ~$ 10 which is very very reasonable for the ambience and food quality.

This place has a very nice ambience and hospitality for their customers; to be particular, you are never out of place. For Indian Cusine I will definitely look to come here all the time. A place where time seems well spent.
Do try the rice, yellow tarka dal and tandoori pomfret. It’s delicious. Leave a nice tip! ;-) it’s worth…
Stars awarded on customer and order management, ambience, service, sanitation and efficiency.

BIG NO !!! I was already warned by my friends of experience at this nicely built ambience but poor food and service. But I sill went ahead for trying it once and I wasn’t disappointed… got poor service as expected.
Food that we ordered wasn’t available that day. My friend (who is a bartender himself) ordered a Manhattan Cocktail and we saw the bartender smashing oranges with his hands in the glass we thought it was for someone else. But wait, it was ours;) when my friend walked up to the bartender he said this is how it Is made. Finally the cocktail arrived and it had no alcohol and looked and tasted different. Figured that they don’t have any bartender and the manager makes cocktail. Really ??? Who serves alcohol without a professional bartender.
Good part: they waived off my food as they didn’t have what I first ordered and then they took off the cost of Manhattan.

No clue how this place doesn’t have higher ratings or a line out the door. Literally the best Indian restaurant me and my bf have ever been to. The concept and set up here is unbelievable sure to impress anyone your being here. Atmosphere is incomparable to any other. Then the menu is unbelievably detailed and accommodating. Found this place on groupon which is usually a bust but wow did we score. The service is impeccable and the food/​drinks exceptional. Seriously can’t wait to come back on an anniversary with my love. If there’s an advice I could give to someone reading this it would be to come here and give this place a try.

This review is for the buffet only, FYI.
My wife bought a groupon for the all you can eat buffet so we ventured out on an early Sunday afternoon. The selections are a bit more limited. I’ve been to multiple Indian buffets all throughout the bay area and this one is okay. One sour note was that the tandori chicken was lukewarm at best and didn’t have the best flavors. They did offer a few unique soups, which I enjoyed.
I think based on the smaller selection of food as well as some hit or miss items, along with a price tag that should be a little lower in my eyes, I’ll stick with 3 stars. If you want a great buffet, go to the establishment in downtown Sunnyvale or the Bombay Garden (cusp of santa clara/​sunnyvale).

Nothing against this place. The place is clean and comfy, the food is prepared quick and tastes fresh, drink menu is extensive with imports, and prices are decent.
First off the masala chai is fresh and milky. Great for $ 2.5 with unlimited refills. The garlic naan is fresh and crispy with a light taste of garlic. The pesto naan isn’t over powering and has a good amount of pesto. I enjoyed the Punugulu which are stuffed jalapeños with potato type fillings. This is pairs well with the sweet tamarind sauce. The Paneer Pakora were like fried potato balls that had chutney hints. Great for dipping in the cilantro sauce.
Overall this place isn’t too busy but is well kept. The service is good! They are on top of refills and orders. I will def be coming back for happy hr and lots more chai time!

Some things that stand out here are the watermelon salad and the mojitos.
The tomato pineapple soup is really good too.
I think I got here to close to opening because they werent really ready for me but its all good because once they were, their customer service was excellent.
Such great portions I’ve got enough to last all day the next day.
Prices aren’t to bad either

NOTE — this is based on a catering done for our office.
Arka folks came by my office to advertise that they deliver and caterer lunch. I like to try to support local businesses, so I decided to give them a try. They arrived on time, but they did not have a cart to bring the food into the office. They had to borrow ours (not a BIG deal). Midway unloading our lunch, the guy took a call and talked loud enough that the whole office could hear. He spoke with his back facing me for at least two minutes while i just stood there and waited for him. When he finished talking and unloading, he just left the cart in our kitchen covered in OIL (BIG DEAL).
Now for the food… the food was better than expected, But that’s not saying much cuz it was still NOT good. The nann was doughy, they use bay shrimps in their shrimp curry (we had to fish around to make sure there actually was shrimp inside) and they use SOOO MUCH OIL! (I extracted two 4 oz cups of oil).
no good.

For me, Arka teeters between 3 and 4 stars. I WANT to give them a 4, buuuut… There were just a few inconsistencies in the service that they might be able to make up on another trip.
The ambiance is pretty great. They have some outdoor seating for nice weather. They have bar seating. They have a main dining area. And then they have a larger area in the back that can be reserved for private events. I saw the staff preparing for a private event the night we were there for dinner, and they took meticulous care of the set-​up. The main dining area is dim and contemporary, which is relaxing.
I love how their menus are set up. They very clearly label what is gluten free and vegan, which saved me from the normal pestering I have to give to the wait staff. Their drink menu is also pretty fun. Good beer and cocktail selection. We ordered a wine flight (2 out of 3 were delish).
The appetizers were beautifully displayed. They weren’t bad, but also seemed a bit more «canned». As if the food is made in bulk or not in a very passionate way, if that makes sense.
The main courses were not as lovely, but had a little more spot-​on flavor.
Just a few minor set backs: the waitress, as lovely as she was, didn’t know the pricing on their wine flights or if any of the breads were vegan. No biggie. Ya learn as you go. But it caused a minor delay. The first appetizer they brought us was one we didn’t order. Woopsie. And the waitress forgot to subtract our Groupon from the bill. The manager was happy to fix the transaction without any fuss. Just another minor delay.
For the food:
Fried plantain and spinach fritters: beautiful looking. They should warn you to toss out the fork and use your hands. It was tasty with the plum sauce, but awkward to eat with a fork.
Potato cakes with garbanzo beans: my partner really liked these. I gobbled up the potatoes, but the garbanzos were actually too spicy for me to eat.
Tomato and pineapple soup: had to try it just because it seemed so odd. And it was very good, refreshing.
Pumpkin dosa: this is a HUGE piece of dough, filled with pumpkin, and fried. I feel like they should work on making this more… accessible. The dosa was twice the size of the plate, falling over the sides. But the filling was very good.
I think if they put a bit more passion into the cooking and get the staff a little more familiar with their offerings, they could potentially be in the top restaurants of Silicon Valley’s Indian food. It just needs a bit more.

A friend of mine had a baby shower here recently on a weekend. They reserved the private room in the back and it was decorated beautifully. The flat screen provided was a nice feature for them to show off their videos.
This time around, I was able to experience the buffet since I’m a HUGE fan of Indian buffets. I was not disappointed and enjoyed the food very much. It was spicy but that’s how I like it! The chicken biryani, aloo gobi, naan, etc., was all good and fresh. I will definitely be coming back here in the future and get in the buffet line.