Desi Dhaba

Cambridge, United States

3.5

Closed now

20 reviews

Accepts Credit Cards

Contacts

QR code, vCard

Telephone:
+1 617-547-4121
Website:
www.desidhaba.net
Address:
401 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA, 02139
Central Square
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:
400 ftMassachusetts Ave @ Sidney St
550 ftBrookline St @ Green St
690 ftFranklin St @ Sidney St
Categories:
QR code
Download QR Image Download vCard

Map

Streetview

Activate map

Bussiness info

Takes Reservations
Yes
Delivery
Yes
Take-out
Yes
Accepts Credit Cards
Yes
Good For
Lunch
Parking
Street
Bike Parking
Yes
Wheelchair Accessible
Yes
Good for Kids
Yes
Good for Groups
Yes
Attire
Casual
Ambience
Casual
Noise Level
Average
Alcohol
Full Bar
Outdoor Seating
Yes
Wi-Fi
No
Has TV
Yes
Waiter Service
Yes
Caters
Yes

Today

Today 11:30 am – 11:00 pm
Closed now
Local time (Cambridge) 06:32 Friday, 29 November 2024

Business hours

Monday 11:30 am – 11:00 pm
Tuesday 11:30 am – 11:00 pm
Wednesday 11:30 am – 11:00 pm
Thursday 11:30 am – 11:00 pm
Friday 11:30 am – 11:00 pm
Saturday 11:30 am – 11:00 pm
Sunday 11:30 am – 11:00 pm

Description

Specialties

Mango Lassi

History

Established in 2002.

This business was started to serve fine Indian cuisine to Cambridge and other cites within the area.

Meet the Manager

Ranjit B.

Manager

Full time worker here. he has been working here since this restaurant had opened. He does multiple jobs including cooking, waiting, and delivering orders.

Desi Dhaba also recommends

Kabab Corner

126

reviews

Indiano

,

Paquistanês

Ranjit B. says,

«This business is a partner of Desi Dhaba.»

Related places

You might also like:
170
ft
Desai Daba
Central Sq (Central Square)
670
ft
Shalimar of India
546 Massachusetts Ave (Central Square)
820
ft
Dosa Factory
571 Massachusetts Ave (Central Square)
1
mi
Harvest of India
1001 Massachusetts Ave (Central Square)
1
mi
India Castle
928 Massachusetts Ave (Central Square)
1
mi
India Pavilion
17 Central Sq (Central Square)

Nearby

Near this location:
40
ft
Apollo Dental Assoc
413 Massachusetts Ave
50
ft
Café Luna
403 Massachusetts Ave
80
ft
College Year In Athens
1035 Columbia St Ste 16D
120
ft
Cinderella’s Bar & Restaurant
901 Main St
120
ft
Patty Chen’s Dumpling Room
907 Main St
120
ft
Cambridge Emergency Locksmith
907 Main St

20 reviews of Desi Dhaba

No registration required
Place rating: 5
Cambridge, MA
Desi Dhaba is a quiet gem. The food is amazing and the service is very fast and friendly. I’d put in the top 3 Indian places to eat in Boston/​Cambridge. Fully recommend!
Place rating: 5
Boston, MA
The food was overall awesome. Esp Daal Makhani and Saag were tremendous. Decent appetizers for the lunch buffet. The naan was not so great, but everything else made up for that. All for a great price. Thumbsup.
Place rating: 2
Newton, MA
Fine food. Nothing special.
Need to improve in service. The chefs were continually staring at us throughout the visit. Awkward. Won’t recommend
Place rating: 4
Cambridge, MA
We go for their Saturday buffet and are rarely disappointed. If we have a complaint they make it right immediately for us. We love this place.
Place rating: 3
Cambridge, MA
Used to come here more often during work hours when their lunch buffet was 8.95 (instead of the 10.95 now — which is a somewhat hefty increase — but I suppose that the lack of local competition means that they can jack up their prices a little bit more).
The lunch buffet is usually decent (and generally well-​heated unlike some places). Their meat/​veg dishes are usually on point. Their tandoori chicken (despite the heating plate) can be kind of cold if they don’t switch out the heating element from time to time. Their naan is usually cold or way overdone from my experiences there.
Service is okay — there have been times where it’s been poor on busier days.
Place rating: 2
Quincy, MA
Not sure why they lost their liquor license, but it looked like it had an effect, there was no one there when i got there at 6.30, by the time i left at 8pm there was about 8 – 10 people there so not such a good crowd for a Thursday.
Apps were ok, Pakora’s a bit dry so were the samosa’a, i got tandoori chicken that was a little tasteless and dry also.
Naan breads were too thin highlight of the meal were the poori which were pretty good and the service was friendly.
Probably won’t be heading back there though…
Place rating: 3
San Francisco, CA
I had quite a few lunches here. The lunch buffet was always decent, but I liked a little bit more the other indian buffet places around Central Square. The price was all about the same between these places. The staff here is friendly.
Place rating: 1
Waltham, MA
Worst restaurant I’ve ever been to. I sat at the so called bar and ordered food. The dipping sauce that he gave me was left over from the table that just left. I seen him with my own eyes pick it up, not clean it and fill it with the sauce behind the bar 1000% disgusting. I recommend never eating here YOU WILL GET SICK.
Place rating: 2
Irving, TX
Sad to see this place flirting with the mediocre indian food scene in the Cambridge area. Used to be my go to indian spot. You can wait well above an hour and a half for delivery. When you call in that regard, they literally hang up on you. Major complaint is the quality of the food. When I cannot distinguish between lamb and beef in my biryani (as noted by another Unilocaler) there is a HUGE problem. It is very suspicious. They used to have affordable prices, not any more. What a letdown.
Place rating: 5
Boston, MA
So I went back and ordered take out again, twice, since my last review. The food was great. The flavors were amazing just like they used to be. There’s also an improvement in their goat dishes. Before I used to avoid them because it seems like the dishes were more bone than meat, but these past two times I’ve gotten a lot of goat meat in the dishes that I’ve ordered. And the Veggies Samosas are so yummy! I always add those and a small bread basket to my order, whether I dine in or take out. Maybe the chef was just having a bad day the last time I gave a review. These past two times the food has been back to its amazing quality that I’ve always loved. I’ll be going back!
Place rating: 4
Cambridge, MA
Food: Nothing super outstanding, but suppose I was famished so the chicken was pleasant to my pallet. Had lunch buffet. You really can’t beat the $ 11 price
Service: Average. At least they checked before removing a plate and they refilled my water.
Vibe: For lunch buffet, I’m quite upset that they don’t have AC on a 90-​degree day. But since the food is decent, I refrained from throwing a fit.
Place rating: 3
Brooklyn, NY
Food: 3.0÷5.0
Service: 1.5÷5.0
Value: 2.5÷5.0
Décor: 2.0÷5.0
Overall: 2.5÷5.0
I’ve heard decent things about this place so decided to give it a try. All in all, I think the food was fine for a convenient joint in the neighborhood, but definitely not worth going out of your way for. I’m honestly a bit surprised by all the positive comments on the food, though keep in mind that I tend to be more carnivorous at South Asian joints than the typical clientele. The place seemed fine save for two fruit flies flying around the chutney at the beginning of the meal, and service was courteous until phone calls became more important than getting my credit card.
Place rating: 5
Framingham, MA
I love this place. My friend introduced this place to me as his favorite «indian» restaurant and since then, this place became my favorite indian restaurant. The Chicken curry is amazingly good and also the portion is generous. I usually split the dish into two so that I can eat for two dinners.
Place rating: 1
Arlington, MA
Went to this place for lunch buffet on a weekday with a friend. Half the chafing dishes were empty and the rest had barely anything in them. Staff didn’t seem in any rush to bring out any more food.
Picked through whatever was available and ordered a couple of beers. Soon after more people start coming in and there is a line forming for the buffet. The waiter comes by, picks up the plates and drops off the check. I take the hint that they want us out even though we haven’t been there that long (we were barely done with our first plate of food and hadn’t even finished our drinks). I put the payment down which was quickly taken. Shortly after another waiter comes by asking if we can leave because people are waiting! As if mediocre Indian food was not bad enough, they had to add complementary incompetent and rude servers to the mix.
Place rating: 4
Berkeley, CA
I was invited to dinner at Desi Dhaba by two friends who count themselves among the regulars. We started with an order of the vegetable pakora and then moved on to three dishes that were ordered from a page of «specials» that we found on the table: a bhindi dish that I think was lahsuni bhindi, a chicken dish and a shrimp dish. The orders came with a huge bowl of rice.
Everything was delicious! I thought that Desi Dhaba was significantly better than a competitor in Central Square that I’ve been to for lunch a couple of times.
The drink options are not glorious, but I ordered a large bottle of Kingfisher and was glad that I did!
Place rating: 4
Cambridge, MA
We’ve been ordering from Desi Dhaba for years, it’s our favorite Indian restaurant in the area. The naan, chicken korma, chicken tikka maslala, etc. is all great. My only complaint is they are slow. Whenever we order for pick up, not matter the circumstance, we have to wait 10mins when we get there. They always offer a glass of water while I wait, but it is a bit annoying.
Place rating: 4
Boston, MA
Just had their great lunch buffet yesterday! There’s something so satisfying about walking into a restaurant starving and just getting food immediately, so my review may be skewed… but I think the food was genuinely really good!
I like that the lunch buffet has a bunch of vegetarian options (4 or 5, I think). Their dishes also had varying level of spiciness, so you can try everything to find the level you’re looking for. I think the eggplant dish was my favorite, but the vegetable chole was great too. Naan is toasty and delicious.
Yep, for $ 9, you couldn’t ask for a more filling and tasty lunch.
Place rating: 4
West Boylston, MA
The food was good, just a little spicy.
Service was good, but a little slow. Folks there are very kind.
We were worried that the food wasn’t going to be good because
there was hardly anyone in the place, but it was excellent and they
gave us plenty.
would visit again
Place rating: 5
Seattle, WA
What I love about this place is that it’s open on holidays, like Christmas and New Year’s Day, which happened to be the two days I went. The food is great and an excellent value — I paid something like $ 13 for the thali dinner (which included naan and dessert too) and $ 9 for the lunch buffet (which included dessert and chai too). Lunch buffet was exactly what I needed after a night of drinking to ring in 2014.
Helps that it’s right around the corner from my place! I see people eating by themselves here all the time, so don’t feel like you need to rally up a group to go in — the seats by the windows are great spots to enjoy your meal and people watch.
When it’s nicer out, they put chairs and tables outside so you can eat outdoors. They offer brunch but I haven’t been here for brunch. The service is friendly and attentive, and from their South Indian offerings (like dosa), you can tell they have a wide variety of menu options.
Place rating: 3
Cambridge, MA
I can say, with full confidence, that Desi Dhaba’s lunch buffet has never caused me to shit myself in my office. That is 2 stars for them right out of the gates.
The extent of my experience here is the bi-​annual stop in for the buffet lunch, and as far as Indian buffets go, it does the trick. Decent variety, well priced, clean albeit simple environs and the aforementioned lack of immediate onset incontinence /​and or wrenching gut pains. Decent outdoor seating when its nice.
Really, what more do you want? You knew the idea of Indian buffet for lunch was questionable at best to begin with.