Top 5: Indian Restaurants

• i am pani puri chaat and sweet chaf i am indian i warking singapore my expirians15 eyar

• Not sure I'd call Indika Indian. Mogul on the other hand is the real Patel.

• rather easily, since it's been closed a while

• How can you leave out Pavani?

• But foreigners brought India vindaloo, tikki masala, and chicken 65.

• I agree Randy, I've been going to that place since 1990 and they still have the best food in town. They recently added butter chicken to the menu and it's to die for! Also check out their samosas and gulab jamans! We always get our Monthly meetings catered by them.

• My favorite on Hillcroft is the original Raja Sweets! No one can beat their prices...quantity...and quick service!

• forever blond?

• alone, too

• Forever alon, with a south Asian twist

• Maybe this part? 'A recent article by Vir Sanghvi, India’s most influential food critic sparked off this storm in a curry pot. The conclusion of his lengthy article in Brunch magazine was that "No cuisine can advance on the basis of food made for foreigners, so the real evolution must happen in India and it must appeal to Indians."

• which points in the article do you agree with, or reject?

• Indias does a great buffet. Also sadly missing is Narin's. The customer service at Indian restaurants is always more on the polite, but not friendly side, but the Narins folks really go out of their way to make you feel welcome.

• Find me a one restaurant in town where the chef knows how to throw a real roti prata Singapore style and I'll be there tomorrow for lunch!

• Anyone wanting to get into the authentic versus nonauthentic discussion would do well to read this very interesting article first: http://networkedblogs.com/fz05N

• You know what I mean though. Since a lot of the dishes are heavily sauce-based, it's one of the few categories of food that can appear on a buffet and retain most of its quality. Not to say I don't prefer to get dinner at an Indian place ordering individual dishes. When that stops being a main feature of Indian restaurants, they will stop being judged with that as the baseline.

• Fascinating that Indian cuisine is so judged in Houston by a de rigeur buffet. Not by the care of a chaat presentation. I personally see the skill of the Indian chef in the tricky delivery of a pani puri or dahi puri or dhokla.

• The trick to getting good service at Shiva is to go there with your sexy Indian girlfriend. That way the service is great because the owner keeps coming over to try to flirt with her. And to wonder what a beautiful maharani such as herself is doing with a Wonderbread white guy.

• The food is slightly above average most of the time, but the service is so severely lacking, I can't bring myself to go there much anymore.

• Yes I had one Friday. Delicious!

• .....wrong.......

• comparing Indika to the typical Indian buffet places is apples and oranges, which is probably the point being made. it would be like doing a Top 5 pub food list and putting Feast on the top.

• So many good memories at Mogul. I got engaged there in 2006. Didn't work out, but it's still my fave Indian place.

• Not exactly with the onion and burger thing...it would be more like calling a Cajun place here French.

• That's incorrect. How much life they still have in them is a burning topic, however.

• Indika is slipping. When they first started they were perhaps the best in the country. Anita was always there and it was fresh and imaginative. Now it seems lazier in terms of new items on the menu, liberal use of grease, and smaller portions. In the Michelin system they automatically remove a star when the chef opens a new restaurant. I am afraid the new one may sink them if they don't tend to their flagship.

• True, it's definitely not "traditional" Indian, but it's definitely Indian. Every dish on the menu is either Indian, or heavily influenced by more "traditional" dishes. It's the new takes on classic flavors, ingredients and recipes that I love about Indika. There are dozens of places you can go and get the lunch buffet with your standard basmati, naan, saag paneer, chicken tikka, tandoori ___, vegetable korma, raitha etc etc. And they all are usually pretty similar in quality - good. There's nothing wrong with those, and I enjoy them frequently, but if you're going to make a "Top 5" list, shouldn't those kind of be considered the baseline, and anything that rises above that needs to offer something in addition. So new twists, exceptional flavor, atmosphere, something to set it apart. It's like saying that a "#1" burger place shouldn't be called a true burger place because they serve a burger with caramelized onions, smoked Gouda and chipotle mayonnaise or something.

• I think Indika is *fractionally* Indian, as is Pondicheri. Most Indian restaurant operators would call it that as well, and I know many who scoffed when Robb Walsh named it Houston's 'Best Indian' year after year.

• yes, Indika is very good. And it was better before it moved to lower Westheimer. But it is not Indian in the "traditional" or Westernized sense. So it should have somewhat of an asterisk in the context of this list.

• So glad to see Indika atop this list. The food is always phenomenal, and the atmosphere is great. I feel like a lot of these lists sometimes give the #1 spot to an "underdog" out of either trying to show how cultured the author is, or whatever (though I'm sure the selection is always great). Indika, though, is in my opinion the absolute best, sure it's more expensive than pretty much every other Indian restaurant in town, but the idiom "You get what you pay for" is more true than most want to admit. Nice change of pace to see an institution win something, if that makes any sense!

• Is Shiva in the Village worth a trip anymore?

• I went there with the coupon a few weeks ago. They have a small, but good buffet. I'll definitely go back, but I'll probably order off the menu.

• Has anyone tried the new Sher-e-Punjab restaurant on Westheimer near Dairy Ashford? I've noticed the ads on this site and they make my mouth water. Next time I'm out west, I'm going to try them or Gourmet India (remember the manager at Bombay Palace? that's his place)

• A perpetually under-reported and always full place is India's on Richmond. High quality ingredients, varying spice levels and fairly priced. Good buffet and ala carte items.

• Think the Hillcroft / Mathama Gandhi district restaurants offer the best value and most exciting excursion for tasting multiple styles of Indian cooking.

• I went in search of an Indian buffet in Westchase last weel. The Moghul's was completely deserted (plus, after reading your review, I was loathe to attempt it), ended up going to Mumbai Spice, which was excellent.

• she'll be largely shifting her client base to her new place, Pondicheri...instead of getting new clientele.

• I was at Indika Saturday before last and was kind of shocked to see it so sparsely occupied. Hope it was just an effect of the Final Four being that night. Food was still outrageously good, though.

• Don't think that is correct, though it has been rumored....

• And at lunchtime, udipi gives you your choice of fresh dosa.

• It was too late to make last week's Openings & Closings, but The Moghul's is now closed. Can't say any of us are surprised.

• Hey, don't forget The Moghul's! Donald Trump eats there when he's in Houston firing people.

• Awesome list. Just awesome. I always like to see Udipi and Shri getting love. :D

TotalComments: 43