India Cafe

I live in Kailua and work at UHM, so this review reflects both locations. This afternoon, I walked over to Paradise Palm on campus for lunch. It was the worst meal I’ve had. The meal was bland, curry was watery, and overall had no taste. Over the years, I feel the quality has really spiraled down for the worse. Last meal I will eat at India Café. Better to go with L&L, at least it’s consistent.

My friend took me here since he loves Indian food. He raved about this place so I went with him. I had never tried Indian food before.
The service was good but I have to give this place one star because the food made me feel sick. We had a seafood dish, lamb dish and some other random stuff. The seafood dish was extremely fishy and not fresh. The lamb dish was as gamy as could be. I sat there most of the night trying not to throw up. This is the first and only time I’ve felt like throwing up after eating something. I will never be back.

I loved india café, and this location was close to my house. Unfortunately, THEY MOVED TO KAILUA! :(

I’ve never had South Indian food so not sure if it’s the cuisine or the restaurant that I don’t like. Went here Easter Sunday with a vegan visiting from Japan, it was her choice to come here. It’s a cute little restaurant with these beautiful lungi? that are hung from the ceiling where a couple of them still had the price tags on them.
Everything we ordered was very heavy. The appetizer was a deep fried puff pastry thing and the dosas even tasted greasy. I had the lamb curry and there was a lot of fat still attached to the meat. I had to go #2 10 minutes after we left the restaurant. Just not my cup of tea I think.
The waiter (or owner’s brother maybe?) there is cute though, maybe I’ll go back to check out dessert ;)

Ate here for the first time in years last night. It was kind of disappointing. Only the roti paratha was good. It was a flaky, croissant-​like flatbread that was delicious. However, everything else was a let down. The samosas were bland and served with what appeared to be bottled sweet chili sauce. The spicy tofu sambal tasted like Italian marinara sauce with Indian spices added to it, and was too sweet. The raita tasted like yogurty nutmeg water. And the rice was dry. Hmm.

Aarti Sequeira of the Food Network’s Arti Party would be highly disappointed in this place. I surely was. After hearing about this place and passing it up on my way home for about a year, the BF and I ventured into India Café with some expectations and an open pallet.
RESTAURANT: To truly experience what India Café had to offer, we sampled their Sunday brunch buffet. I should have known better. We waited an hour for a table when we arrived during the prime restaurant opening slot. Stomach’s rumbling and mouths salivating, we took our seats in a poorly decorated annexed section of the restaurant.
FOOD: It wasn’t something to write home about. I’ve had better (not exactly here in Hawaii yet), but it was a nice change to the Japanese food diet I’ve been having lately.
SERVICE: The waitstaff was boarder-​line annoying. Typically, most people complain about the lack of customer service, but this place went above, beyond and overboard. Each staff continued to ask us if we were okay and if we needed more water every minute not allowing us to finish our conversation before we were asked again.
PARKING: Limited to only the small parking lot within the complex or street parking.

I came here with my two cousins and sister. Great place to get grub and catch up with each other. No place beats the Indian eateries in the Bay but there’s not a lot of Indian spots here that I know of besides Café Maharani, which may I add is delicious! We decided on Kapahulu since we were in the area. It was a hard place to find and the floor was pretty small. Tables are close together also, where your almost in your neighbors conversation. Not an uncomfortable size but if all the tables were filled up, I’d probably start getting claustrophic. Food was über yummy and the portions were perfect for us to split. All until… the wall a/​c fell on me!!!
Ok, now I’m over exaggerating. It was crazy though because we just finished up eating and i moved my plate a little to get up… and all of a sudden… CABOOM! That a/​c fell right down onto the table where I was eating… and if I still were sitting down… who knew if it would’ve hit me! Anyway, the waiter kindly apologized and gave us a discount on our bill. Just a warning though… I haven’t been there since… but if they still have that side a/c.don’t sit by it cause my seat was literally directly under it.

This place prepares their food differently than I am used to. There tends to be a lot of cinnamon involved in their dishes. That being said, I can’t say that I have not enjoyed their food except for their lamb based dishes. Their chicken curry is great. The eggplant masala is delightfully spicy, but definitely not for the weak of tongue or palate. I also like their egg curry and their roti-​parathas. The samosas are very different than other places I have been to, as they seem more like croissants than turnovers. However, they are delicious, especially with the provided sweet & sour sauce. If you’re not sure about this place, go there during mother’s day or father’s day weekends (sundays) as they always have buffets then. You get to try many different things, so it’d be hard to be disappointed if you don’t like one particular dish.

Use to get take out here a long time ago. Stopped in tonight and got some chicken cury to go. Of course the Indian food I use to get in Singapore and Malaysia was 10x better, but, I’d give this place 3*‘s for American Indian food. The rating is 2* and not 3 because I thought $ 13 was a tad much for chicken (2 chicken wings) cury w/​rice.

Ive had my good times and there have been some bad times. Since there isnt any really GREAT Indian food in Hawaii, they rank among the tops here.
The Chicken marsala, the Shrimp, the Samosas are my normal which I order there. The shrimp when they first opened years ago used to have the shell on it but they have since removed it when making this dish.
What is even more refreshing is the Watermelon juice. Ahhhhhh!!! =)

My co worker asked me to have dinner and I graciously accepted to dine at a new place. I guess she had so many questions about the sauces, the waiter decided to give small samples of certain spices. He brought out the tofu spinach, tomato base curry and the medium spice curry.
The service is great here. I remembered the same waiter was catering at one of our Unilocal event with «Wine the Experience» They’re located in the same plaza.
The curry is tasty and it gets even better if you pair it up with the proper meat or vegetable of your liking. I totally recommend the spinach curry, which is thick and rich in flavors and of course has hints of green.
Long story short…
The chicken curry that I ordered came in a whole lot of curry sauce, a piece of thigh and drum stick, yellow rice and two slices of cucumber.
I’m a bit disappointed only because an hour before this dinner I devoured half a plate of my blazin’ steak meal. So the fact that I finished my curry with no problem led me to my disappointment of the portion here.
Byob for a price of $ 1/​person, they have friendly service and yes the food is good here, so I will be back.

ONE WORD! THREE SYLLABLES:
SA-​MO-​SAS!
the chicken tikka masala was new on the menu so i wanted to live on the edge and try it out… mmm mmm mmmm its perfect with the naan!
$ 2.50 corkage charge cant beat that at all!

This place will always have a special place in my heart because it was what turned me on to indian food in the first place. Yes, the seating is very small, but it’s cozy. The food is good. It doesn’t claim to be a five star gourmet eatery! It’s good food, good, friendly service at a reasonable price! Try the spicy eggplant or the chana masala… so yummy!

ok… so i’ve been trying better and i’ve been trying to call in for take out but since only family works there and can’t get fired they don’t pick up the phone if they’re too busy (yes i demand magic). So i sadly had to update this place… it seems all there dishes are preprepped stuff with too many spices all jumbled up hiding much of the flavor of the meats or whatever else you may order like the eggplant. I live my foods spicy and tastey… but i have to say that they plainly can attain those things ~ theirs no real culinary expertise here.

I love Indian food and have eaten at many Indian restaurants on the island. This is my favorite Indian restaurant, as I love it’s cozy little location and I have never had any problems with the food like others have reviewed upon.
Had my birthday celebration there with a party of 8, and it really helped our pockets that we could BYOB. We had a great time and really enjoyed our dinner.
The staff is also very friendly. At times the service can be backed up, but it’s most likely because of how busy they get. If this happens to you, have a sip of your BYOB and enjoy the conversation with the person/​people you are with.

Went here last night for dinner. It was my second and most likely last time here. I wanted to like it. I found myself coming up with excuses for this place. But the bottom line is that the food isn’t worth coming back for.
We ordered the «king’s platter» (choose 4 meat and 2 veggie entrees, served with rice and bread).
First off, they told us they ran out of naan AND roti. ??? What kind of respectable indian restaurant doesn’t have naan OR roti? We were stuck with the dosai (fermented rice) (not a fan). Second, the rice that came out with the dish was some type of mushy rice medium grained rice. Why no basmati rice? (FYI, they were out of rice the first time I went). Third, the food came out lukewarm.
This place is nothing special. The curries were okay, but not spectacular (I am a fan of the egg curry). Everything kind of tasted the same. I’ve had better here in Hawaii — Bombay in Waikiki is one of the better, albeit pricier, Indian restaurants.
Service was pretty good, but not good enough to make up for the dismal food. How they ever earned that «hale aina» award is beyond me.

After dinner at a new restaurant, my family always stops to ask the question: would you come back?
The answer at this restaurant: NO.
I’ve been to many an Indian restaurant and this is most possibly the worst. There were so many things wrong with my experience, that I don’t even know where to start.
The menu was very limited in its offerings [though, I must admit that their vegetarian selection is decent]. Though the servers were nice, the service itself was horrible. After dropping off our entrees, the waiter disappeared until we hunted him down 45 minutes later for more water and the check. My «chicken curry» (that’s what they call it) was just disappointing.
If you want good Indian food, try Bombay Restaurant in Discovery Bay [Waikiki] instead. Don’t bother with India Café.

I’m not an expert on Indian food by any stretch, I had really good food once at this pub in London and the dish had an Indian name… anyway that’s my disclaimer. I like India Café’s samosas and the dipping sauce. I forgot what I ordered once but it had whole pieces of chicken thighs which I don’t really like b/​c I don’t like to have to work too much to eat (when I’m dining out). The cups are cool. I do, however, have fond memories of this place because a few of my gfs really like it and we’ve had good conversations there.

Passable Indian fast food. Great selection of vegan/​vegetarian dishes, regrettably low quality product. Is it the ingredient quality or how long the dishes sit before you get them? Either way, the food comes out tasting like reconstituted leftovers. Which is okay, if you like leftovers. I didn’t mind too much the second time I ate there — I knew what was in store. Just keep your expectations low and you’ll be happy. The upside is that the food comes out very quickly. Interesting «dosais», a sourdough rice crêpe reminiscent of Ethiopian injera. Tasty fresh watermelon juice. Pleasant service, nice enough atmosphere. If only the food were fresher tasting.
P. S. I’ve eaten at Café Maharani as well, and it is much, much worse for vegans as most of the vegetarian dishes have ghee in them, and cannot be made vegan. (I would guess then that Maharani also reheats pre-​made food, but judging by their ratings, they do a much better job of it.)

The food here is very good. It can be very spicy, but shouldn’t it be?
As mentioned, it is definitely difficult to find, but look for the sign on the top of a car down a side street off of Kapahulu near the freeway. Sounds like a scavenger hunt, but really, that’s the only clue that you need to lead you to the prize… wow, what a dork.
Don’t pay attention to that… the food is good. That’s all you need to know.
Well, maybe you need to know that it is byob, so come prepared…