Vatika India Cuisine

Solid performance. This is what i like to see in a restaurant. The buffet was well stocked with a small and great selection. I got to taste everything and it was all good. It is cute that they use a microwave right next to it to keep the plates warm.
I the lunch was so good, I dragged 3 friend 20 minutes back there for dinner and they preformed just as well. I am pretty sure a couple runs it. They were a bit slow on a Saturday so the chef came out to say hello. I only had praise. Lamb Kebab was just outstanding with great presentation.
I will be going back soon and often
As for who is writing this. MY experience with Indian food mainly comes from Expat Indians in Vietnam.

I purchased a gift certificate through my husband’s employer so that we could enjoy a dinner out with my son that Saturday.
We had checked out their website and their menu prior to purchasing the certificate and there were no indications that the restaurant is closed. When we arrived at the restaurant that Saturday, we found them not just closed but looking like the restaurant was being torn apart (no tables or chairs on the inside-​only things like sawhorses and tools).
Hopefully we can get a refund on the gift certificate.

This is one of the worst places I have eaten. Just because the restaurant was near the ferry station, we got to-​go boxes to finish our lunch during our ferry ride. The Biriyani was just rice mixed with some paste, chicken tikka masala was just ingredients without any cooking. Literally worst Indian place you could ever be.

I had a delightful meal here, flavorful and ample. Having had my taste buds fried by being too bold at other places, I decided to start low on the spice scale — next time I’ll inch up. The rice was done perfectly, the nan was excellent, the main course excellent — and the waitress could not have been more friendly and helpful. If I have any criticism, it is that the place could be just a bit warmer, but Vatika is an asset to Edmonds (and to ferry traffic — it’s located only a few yards from the dock, just across the tracks).
Give it a try. I’ll certainly be back!

We ate here yesterday, after wanting to try it for several months, despite some negative reviews, we were very happy with the food and service. The décor was fine. We had: veg samosas, chana masala, aloo gobi, chicken vindaloo, raita, naan, and rice. Everything was very good. Delicious actually. The waitress asked us how spicy we wanted our dishes and we selected a variety. Mild is what you’d expect. Medium hot made me break out in a nice mild sweat. Perfect. I recommend this restaurant.

They had friendly staff and a nice location with easy parking. Unfortunately the food doesn’t stand up to other Indian restaurant foods. Actually, it became off putting at one point during the meal because we could detect an underlying blandness that was covered up by pure spice. We actively avoid this restaurant now.

I purchased a groupon for this place almost a year ago and it was about to expire. Because of all the poor reviews on Unilocal,I wasn’t too excited about using the groupon.
Went in on a Friday evening, the place was pretty empty, there were just a few other couples in there. We were seated right away by a very friendly woman. It was very clean and tidy, with mellow indian music playing.
We had the vegetable samosas, and shared the chicken tikka masala, and fish vindaloo, with the spinach and paneer nann. Everything was pretty good, the chicken was especially delicious! I had a glass of red wine, and my bf had a beer. Total bill (before groupon) was just $ 51.00, not bad!

Nice open airy space.
Good selection of older hindi songs but thats just me :-)
Food was freshly made, a bit under cooked. We had to wait a bit for it but I don’t mind waiting if food is being freshly prepared.
Flavors could be better — Indian food is all about flavor. They missed that mark, so I won’t be going back.

I was excited to try this place because I had a groupon and it’s located at a great spot in downtown edmonds. But… overall this place can definately improve on alot of things. First, we were the only ones in the place and the drinks and food took longer than expected. Ok, so I don’t mind the wait as long as it’s worth it… sad to say it wasn’t. The rice was sticky, not jasmine rice first of all and the spinach paneer was very bland and the cheese was almost tofu-​like. The fish tandoori was ok but again kind of bland. They need to work on their Indian spices, the food was bland and non-​Indian like. Almost like some type of fusion, which I wouldn’t mind if it worked but unfortunately it didn’t. I hope this place improves, server was nice and naan wasn’t so bad but there are definately better Indian spots elsewhere.

Stopped in while waiting for the ferry. I have been to many poor quality Indian restaurants in questionable locations but this has to be the worst. Everything tasted terrible and as I write this I think I am going to be sick from the food.
Don’t go here no matter how hungary you are at the end of a long day while waiting for the ferry. If I could give it no stars, I would.

There was a one-​hour wait for the Kingston ferry, so we had to kill time. We decided to eat. There was a huge wait for the bar across the street so we hit up the Indian place. It was pretty decent, no real complaints about the food, but I probably wouldn’t go back, because it’s a bit random.
We ordered the fish tikka masala with rice and our friends had another curry with garlic naan. We liked it because they knew the rush we were in by the time we had decided to get Indian take-​out. They let us know that they’d be super quick and we could catch the ferry. They were very true so I appreciated the speediness… but it was really quite overpriced for what we got. The curry portion was tiny… so was the rice… but hey, when we’re pressed for time waiting for the ferry in that neighborhood, we can’t really be picky.

I feel badly giving this place such a low rating but the food was abysmal.
The service was very friendly but you have to have more than nice people to make a restaurant work. The building is also very run down and old. They should do some upgrades to make the restaurant more welcoming.
I was happy I had a Groupon because if I had paid full price I would have been really irritated rather than just disappointed.

I came here with a friend for lunch. We came expecting the lunch buffet but when we got there we were told there was no buffet due to a warming issue and we could choose any of the items off the menu and will be charged the buffet price.
We ordered the baigan bhartha and the palak masala both medium spicy with unlimited naan and rice. Because the buffet was down our food was made fresh and it tasted good. The spicy levels are a bit mild, I think I would be fine ordering hot spicy.
The customer service was amazing. The staff is incredibly friendly and attentive.
The atmosphere is blah, could use and update.

I really feel sad that I cannot give more of a rating than this, because it seems the new proprietors are trying really hard to make their restaurant work. They could start by upgrading the interior, and using real tables instead of plywood box frames. For the amount they charge for the food, they should put a tiny bit of effort into it.
Granted, I hadn’t been out to eat Indian food in a long time, and I don’t have a ton of experience with eating it. It wasn’t that the food we had at Vatika was inedible, it was palatable, it just wasn’t what we expected, and it wasn’t up to par even with the food that I’ve tried at Indian buffets which is how I usually eat it.
I had ordered the Chicken Tikka Masala (12.95) and requested it be served with no rice, and politely asked if I could sub in some vegetables for the rice, I also ordered it medium spicy. My mom ordered Biryani with Lamb and Naan.
I was served about a cup and a half worth of a creamy tasting tomato sauce, with absolutely no spice at all, that had a couple chunks of chicken, and about 3 pieces each of carrot, zucchini, and like one pea pod snipped into three. They also brought out rice, which I requested no rice. I know, I know. You are supposed to eat curry with rice, but because of my diet restrictions I try to avoid carbload, though the servings of rice seemed generous. I was not very happy with what I ordered, and I had to have a little corner of my moms’ Naan because I was just not satisfied with the tiny portion.
My moms’ Biryani had about 5 chunks of lamb in it, and was mostly rice. She didn’t really care for it. For the price of the meal, we weren’t super satisfied. I am like many reviewers, I typically look up ratings for places before I try and I didn’t this time and we ended up disappointed unfortunately. I do hear they have a lunch buffet which may be a better deal.

We purchased a Groupon for Vatika and went there last night for dinner. The food was wonderful! I am a huge fan of Indian Cuisine and will definitely eat here again and I look forward to doing so.
There was a group of four of us that went. We started with good wine, enjoyed the wonderful naan (plain and the garlic & basil) and the appetizer sampler (deeelish).
Our main dishes were the tandoori chicken, chicken tikka masala, shrimp kadhai, and the chicken tikka. Everything was prepared perfectly! You can choose how spicy you would like your curry dish, which is a plus in my book. The basmati rice was perfect too.
We really enjoyed our meal and the service, provided by Sonya (owner/chef’s wife) was excellent.
We weren’t sure what to expect. Honestly, I am surprised to see this place is averaged at 2 – 2 ½ stars.
We are going to try the lunch buffet next.

Well, this is a surprise… totally misleading Unilocal rating.
I’ve had plenty of experience where I go to a 4 to 5 star place and I get 2 to 3 star quality… this is the first time I went somewhere without looking at the Unilocal review, got a 4 to 5 star meal and came home to find that it only gets 2 to 3 stars on Unilocal?Wow. The amount of times this is happening is making me question whether I should trust Unilocal… ’cause up until now, I have pretty much decided to NOT go anywhere that Unilocal gave less than 3 stars to.
Okay enough about Unilocal… the meal at Vatika was fantastic… I have to admit, I avoided going because the place used to be a fast food fish place… I imaged the worst and could never bring myself in to have Indian food. It was by pure chance that I got a groupon for this place and decided to give it a whirl when it nearly expired on me… snagged the roommate and we were off.
We had the veggie samosa — better than average but a little bit over fried.
The waitress (owner?) recommended the METHI with chicken, which I’ve never had despite my years of eating Indian, but was absolutely phenomenal (reminded me of Punjabi Dhaba in Cambridge — aka the best Indian food I’ve ever had). The BAIGAN BHARTHA (an eggplant dish) was delish, as was the MALAI KOFTA a cheese and veggie ball dish. The onion NAAN is probably the best I’ve ever had except for the fact that it was way too salty, but even that doesn’t detract from the full on deliciousness of the meal.
Add to all that the super friendly and attentive wait staff. means Vatika gets a very solid 4 stars, bumped up to 5 because of the addictive methi. Yey to good Indian in my town.

I went for lunch on a Monday with my two kids and my sister-​in-​law. I was a little nervous after reading the reviews, but know a friend who has eaten here and liked it so I thought I’d give it a try. We were the only people on the place when we arrived at 13:30ish. The buffet was not as hot as it could have been. By the time we went back for seconds, it was hot. Much better. I suspect if the place were busier, the buffet would be kept hotter.
Most of the food I tried was good. The chicken tikka masala was very good. The tandoori chicken was moist and some of the better I’ve had. The naan and pakoras were delicious, as were the mango lassies. The rest was just ok. service was very friendly. The atmosphere is not great — but I think they’ve done a good job. It’s an old Skippers, I’m not sure what else they can do without major renovations.
I think the lunch buffet is a little over-​priced. I will go back, and I hope this place susseeds.

I grew up in Edmonds so, knowing how long this place used to be a skippers (well over 20 years) I won’t hold the décor against them. I had the sashi korma chicken with basmati rice, plain naan, and chai tea. I was given the option of «mild», «medium», or «hot» for spiciness. I’m used to Indian food ranging 1to 5, mild to very spicy, so I opted for «medium» (three star?). The dish took a while to prepare and was very mild in both general use of spices and in terms of hot spiciness. I was expecting a little more heat and flavor. I guess to someone sensitive to spice it could have been medium but not to my taste buds (I don’t want my nose to bleed but a few sniffles from the spices is good in my book. My nose was not running).
The chai tea had a slightly odd flavor and is not sweet :(I guess I’m spoiled with Cedars by the UW and Saffron Grill by Northgate… omg I love sweet chai and non-​sweet is just kind of blah even after adding sugar.
The naan was basically fine. The basmati was not as dry as I’m used to on the plate but tasted ok.
I think this place would do much better by kicking up the spice a bit more, making sweet chai, and just generally making the food more remarkable and distinctive rather than bland and forgettable.

I’ve had better.
I think that statement pretty much just sums up my experience at Vatika. One dish tasted just like chicken with the Spaghetti O’s soup. In my opinion, not very tasty at all. The other dishes were a bit bland for how much the lunch buffet was, and some of them did seem lukewarm as another customer mentioned. I probably won’t be returning.

This restaurant serves solid Indian food! It recently opened down by the Edmonds ferry terminal in the old Skippers location. A welcome addition to Edmonds. I would imagine it would be a good place to stop for a bite after getting off of the ferry.
We were seated promptly and the service was friendly. The ambience could be better but I would imagine it would be difficult to completely un-​Skipper-​ify it since it’s such a distinctive style. One big plus is that this restaurant is very clean.
Now onto the food. Delicious and HUGE portions. My friend and I split the naan — a little crispier than I am used to but still very good. I had the palak paneer and it was pretty tasty as well and the rice that came with it was nice and fluffy. I got completely stuffed to the gills and I still have quite a bit left over — enough for at least two meals. Score! My friend had the biryani and was a fan of it too. I want to come back and try the tandoori chicken, I spied it at another table and it looked quite good.