Cafe of India

Great Indian restaurant with an excellent lunch buffet.
I came here with family and friends for a late lunch on a Sunday. We were pleasantly surprised to find them still serving the buffet, which they kept fresh and hot to the end. They had excellent vegetarian options — mutter paneer (cheese cubes in a creamy tomato sauce), bhindi masala (spicy okra stir-​fried with onions), yellow dal/​lentils, and even mushroom manchurian, a Chinese-​Indian fusion dish of lightly fried mushrooms in a delightful chili sauce. They also had great options for meat eaters, as well as your standard rice, pakora (fried vegetables), and salad. They provide baskets of naan (bread) for each table, which included not only fresh plain naan, but also yummy cilantro-​flaked naan. The only dessert option was kheer (sweet rice pudding), but it was much better than your average buffet kheer.
It was quiet and calm on a Sunday afternoon, and has an elegant, though not necessarily formal, atmosphere. Our servers were friendly and attentive. A quick note: the Unilocal deal apparently doesn’t apply to the buffet. We will definitely return if we’re in the area!

There are lots of Indian restaurants in the DC Metro Area, and this one has been my least favorite. The service was slow, they had the fans on upstairs in the middle of winter (!), and the portions were very small (it was the first time I’ve ever been to an Indian restaurant and NOT had left overs). The cost is about par compared to other Indian restaurants in the area, so I’d recommend Mehak and Rasika in Chinatown, Zaika in Arlington, or Himalayan Heritage in Bethesda any day over this place.

I visited this place for the first time last week and I will have to say that the lunch buffet was amazing.

My fiancé and I have been going to café of India for about 2.5 years and the food has always been so delicious! The price, quality, and quantity is all so perfect. I’ve tried lots of dishes there, my favorite is the chicken tikka masala with garlic naan. The palak paneer is very good, as well as the chicken biriyani. Last time I went with the tandoori chicken for a healthier option and I thought it was great! Definitely come here for good Indian food.

Really good. I had better experience here than at Rasika. Get the chaat with sweet potatoes and avocado and coconut shrimp curry.

I’ve been to the Café of India now twice with for dinner with my family. Both times we left sated and happy. We especially liked the malai kofta. It’s a little pricey for a neighborhood Indian place but still a good value for the quality of the food.

Quiet atmosphere, fast service, menu reliable and food is always good. I come here for the masala which is one of the best in town.

Have been here twice with both times being pleasant, satiated meals. While on the expensive side, the food that was ordered was delicious. Much better than the majority of Indian restaurants in the DC area. Service is great and eating outside is a treat. Definitely suggest the aloo gobi.

Ambience was great but we’ve had better Indian food in the DMV area… we ordered cocktails which was a huge mistake… I don’t think we’ll go back!

FIrst timer tryng Indian food and I must say it was delicious, I went for lunch with the staff & Doctor. They have a lunch buffet which is great, the location is very convenient and the interior looks great. The food has an exquisite taste, the staff is very attentive (seated right away) and pretty serious not very talkative which is okay. The desserts were great and very fresh. I think I will be going back pretty soon.

Intimate, store front, neighborhood place. Offering a wonderful lunch buffet. A little bit of everything makes this a great choice for lunch. Attentive waitstaff. Colorful art work and a bit of elegance with a crystal chandelier provides a suitable place to bring clients or casual meal with friends. All at a reasonable prix fixe. And delicious too!

Food is really really good– we only had the buffet but planning on going back soon. the garlic naan bread is great and they some cauliflower with sauce that was great too. Flavourful, authentic and very good.
It was a shame that we were kicked out of the restaurant before 3 p.m. –Waiters turned off the lights and placed check on the table.

Liked the buffet and garlic bread! Tandoori chicken was my favorite from the buffet. Service was good, I am so full now.

I LOVE Indian food.
I visited Café India on a Saturday night with a friend on her birthday.
The atmosphere was just lovely, soft light, simple décor and a beautiful mural on the wall. Its a very intimate setting perfect for a date night. (reason for 2 stars)
The service was great, even when the place got busy they paid attention to us.
Now to the main point. IF YOU WANT FLAVORFUL, AUTHENTIC, INDIAN FOOD GO SOMEWHERE ELSE.
I was soooo disappointed in the taste of the food.
BLAND, BLAND, BLAND.
We ordered
Ginger chili shrimp (NO FLAVOR WHATSOEVER, needed some salt. 6 pieces of shrimp, came with a dipping sauce that was entirely too sweet.)
Samosa chaat (The only decent thing we had. The flavors worked well together)
Garlic Naan (I mean its naan, it was good. Also naan at an Indian restaurant should be complimentary. just saying)
Dal Makani (BLANDDDDD, I literally ate a scoopful. The stuff I get in a pouch at the store tastes better)
Chicken Vindaloo (bland and not «very spicy» as described)
Lastly, to top it off, we asked the server if there was a complimentary birthday dessert. He literally chuckled and said no (ok watevs. we were ready to leave by that point anyway).
Surprisingly the place was PACKED through out the night so I guess others really enjoy their food. Maybe I just have a sophisticated palate but the food for me left much to be desired.

I am seldom so impressed on a first time visit as I was at Café of India. Service, quality, freshness, ambiance, and choices. This was the best Indian food experience for me so far. I can’t wait to return.
Thank you, Tony… We really enjoyed our experience.

Decent lunch buffet, decent amount of options, and great price for DC. Our favorite was the garlic Naan bread. The setup of the restaurant is really classy. I’ve only had Indian a few times and I’m not into the spiciness, so the buffet was fine for me (just maybe a little too lacking in flavor but was still decent). Overall decent place and decent food.

The nice thing about this little stretch of restaurants between Tenleytown and Friendship Heights is that you can actually park here easily and without paying. Unusual, to say the least.
Unilocal says this is my 13^th Indian restaurant review in the District alone, so that’s what I lead with at this point. The menu is pretty standard on the entrée side, but their appetizers are a little more diverse (and expensive) than many, including, to my delight, the classic masala dosa. That being said, the dosa was decent but no better than that, being crispy and more than a tad greasy, and the accompanying sambar was radically salty. The mini samosas were fine, but simply seemed to be an excuse to do less samosa for more money. Entrees, including paneer in tomato cream sauce and a basic chickpea curry were likewise fine, but by no means great.
The setting is quite pleasant; it really does feel like a café in being small and open. The view is only of a relatively quiet stretch of Wisconsin Avenue, but I happen to like watching this city. It bears mentioning that the Unilocal checkin deal is a pretty good one (free appetizer, and these are some big apps). At the end of the day, it’s quite typical for an Indian restaurant in the city, and I’d return but not go way out of my way for it. Probably a 2.5, rounded up to 3 because it’s a nice place to eat.

First visit, we’ll be back! The crackling
spinach appetizer is a definite keeper. The tandoori dishes were not dry and well seasoned, particularly the salmon. Give this little gem a try.

We got a groupon not knowing. We have had some bad luck with groupons and food. But this one was delicious. Everything was perfect. We got there immediately greeted the café was full. All the good came in a timely amber and everything I mean everything was delightful and tasty. We definitely are coming back here next time we are n friendship heights. It’s only a few blocks from the metro. Everything was decently priced especially for dc.
We order mini samosas, punjabi chicken curry, garlic naan, and lamb briyani. And to top it off we got a delicious and creamy mango lassi. Everything was so good!!! Tell your friends and cone try this place. Especially if you want some good Indian food. :)

You get what you pay for.
We came here for lunch last Saturday and while I have no major complaints there’s nothing that really wowed me enough to want to come back. The buffet is $ 10 on weekends compared to other places in the area which charge $ 15 (part of why I wanted to try this place). And while I appreciated saving the extra $ 5, the lack of choices left me feeling like I should have paid the extra money and gone somewhere else. The saag paneer, usually one of my favorite dishes was pretty bland and no flavor really stood out. Though the aloo peas was very tasty.
The saving grace to this place that I really appreciate is that the restaurant let’s you choose between plain naan or garlic naan. I think that’s fantastic considering how many restaurants want to charge you extra money for a little garlic added to the bread.