Gajalee

Our order:
Veg, Lamb and Fish Thali and Chicken Kolhapuri.
We stopped by this place after hearing a lot from one of our friends. Plain disappointment!

It’s probably been six months since I stepped inside Gajalee with a college friend to catch up. Upon learning the spot has just closed, my review here does nothing for garnering restaurant attention, but I did not initially come for oogling that to begin with.
As such, in looking through menu photos uploaded by other users, these are the items I believe I had:
–Lamb Vindaloo
–Fish Cutlets
Nothing particularly stood out, although I did like the curry broth the lamb dish sat in… Again, I’d have liked to return to focus on the food.
As fast as this place unfortunately shut the door, this review is now out!

Super disappointed that my favorite Indian restaurant in the city seems to have closed its doors suddenly. Not sure if this is permanent or if they have moved. Head chef Kovi always took great care of us. I truly hope they reopen.

Surprisingly, they have amazing fried chicken — the Singapore chicken. It’s not always on the menu, but it’s my new favorite fried chicken when it is!
I also really enjoy the Thali — I just love the variety of side dishes that come with the Thali. I’m not a fish person so I get the shrimp curry Thali, which has never disappointed. My BF who’s from coastal India swears by their fish curry.
They can get a bit busy so you might need a reservation if you have more than 4 people. However, it’s in a great food neighborhood so lots of other great dining options in the area on the off chance you can’t get seated here.

No frills Indian seafood dishes that you can’t find elsewhere in the Bay Area and few places in the world. This place reminds me of my family in India’s seafood recipes combined with their favorite seafood restaurant in Bombay/​Mumbai Santa Cruz district sharing a similar name to this restaurant.
A few people reviewed the place without even trying seafood items. Do not trust these people. We only ordered seafood items and everyone was more than content.
Incredibly unique flavor profiles and complex layers of spices. This is one of those places that people outside of urban places such as SF may never have the opportunity to try. This is some authentic Indian seafood that the masses have not yet explored. If you are a fan of Indian cuisine, enjoy seafood, and don’t mind hole in the wall type places, then Gajalee might end up being one of the best experiences you’ve had in a while. If you are from India and miss real Indian seafood dishes this place will make you happy. We rolled deep and ordered a ton of items to share, and we were satisfied with everything.
Wow! Good job mission area for supporting a place like this! I must go back! Stop reading other reviews and check it out. A true gem.

TL;DR Service is OK. Good west coastal Indian food.
This place is «spoken about» for its Coastal Indian food from the Western Coast of India. more particularly the south western coast — Mālvan/​Mangluru region in plain speak. Service is alright.
Visited them during lunch hours on a weekend and ordered the following —
1. Vegetarian thāli
Food was very simple, fresh and delicious. I will not crib about salt — less is always better than more. The spices come together just fine. Reminded me of food in India cooked by my neighbor. Repeats are encouraged.
2. kotmïr vada or kothimbïr vadï
which was meh. Too oily and hard. Not recommended.
3. Buttermilk & Kokam (
) based drink which was sorta refreshing.
The sea food thāli was given a thumbs up. I would visit them again for their vegetarian thāli if I am ever in the city.

Service was bad.
I would not recommend vegetarian jalfrazi/​kolhapuri.
Batata Vada was good.
Upon request, they made Paneer Tikka Masala which was really good (not on the menu).
They don’t serve naan. Bummer.

Been walking by this place far a while. Last night we decided to give it a try.
Fish xaccuti and machi fry fish were very good. The fish xaccuti was covered in a very flavorful sauce. Make sure to get the your food medium to mild level. Anything beyond that, it’s probably going to be too spicy.
The samosas are also very good, both the filling and the cover. It comes with roasted… coconut? I’m not sure, but what ever it is, it’s very good.
The carrot halwa is very good! Not cloyingly sweet.

I always say that I wish restaurants had «samples» of all the dishes so that i can try everything instead of ordering on big dish. Luckily for me, ordering the [fish] thali totally fit that description for me. The thali had rice, the fish curry as my entrée and then a bunch of little side things that I have no idea what it is nor can’t pronounce as little dishes I can eat my rice with. I like sampling all of them and most of them were flavorful and good. A couple of them were just a little weird for my taste. The fish was really good though. It was cooked well and I like the curry they put it with.
Overall, the platter as a whole was pretty good. I liked the flavors of most and the spices make it really good.

Food: 4 stars
Service: 4 stars
We got a fish curry thali (~$ 15), a fish fry (king fish ~$ 13), and a sol kadi (~$ 3) omg so good.
Fish curry was good, not mind blowing, but I loved every dish in the thali! None was too oily or heavy, yet each had a good distinctive flavor. Finished it even down to every bite of the kheer. Giving myself a pat on the back right now for remembering all these names: D
First time having fish fry and loved it! Heard that there is even better out there, so I’ve left it at 4 stars. Definitely worth a try here as starter though. We even scraped off the crispy fry off the bones. Yum! This came with a substantial plate of rice.
As for the sol kadhi. It was the game changer for me! Call me sheltered or deprived, I have never ever tried anything like it! My brain literally could not associate the refreshing, savory cold taste with anything in my memory. In my state of shock, I still totally liked it. Couldn’t stop sipping (why did it come in such a little glass!) Highly recommended that you try it at least once, and appreciate how well it balances out the flavors of the cuisine.

We were looking for a good thali place and the fact it is coastal fish cuisine cinched it for us. We had the fish thali and an extra plate of pomfret fried. The fish curry had the right spice blend and was really good. The pomfret fried is a favorite of mine. Only four stars cause I wished there was more salt in the curries, one chapatti was nearly not enough and the kheer had some kind of sweetener that changed the taste.
We are definitely coming back though for the fish thali.

I was craving some Indian comfort food for a late lunch and convinced my husband around 2 pm on a Saturday afternoon that it would be worth driving from SJ to try this place out :)
Thankfully, we were not disappointed!
We tried the sol kadi drink, a fish thali with a side of the komdivade, kingfish fry and the shrimp biryani special.
The biryani was the bomb! Very flavorful and the shrimp was cooked just right and not overdone.
We both ravished the fish curry thali. The only thing that was leftover was the rajma curry side. Why bother with rajma when you have fish curry right?!
The rava coated kingfish fry was decent. I’d skip the vade next time. The sol kadi was yummy. It was garlicky but we didn’t mind it.
Will surely be back! Parking is a bitch so be prepared to circle around.

Superb food. They have daily specials, when we were there, they had Pomfret. A complete pomfret fried with batter and spice. It was just awesome. Loved their fish malvani. We had asked it to be spicy and it was really spicy and awesome. It was perfect with the rice.
The ambiance is OK, the service is Good and the food is Awesome !

Fish fish fish… Fish fish fish!!! We went in on a wednesday as a foursome and the place was practically empty. We got quickly seated. Once he had served waters (which we would realize was a good idea), we perused the menu. Ordered a paneer special as an app along with the Kothmir vadi. Both were very solid.
Two of the folks at the table were vegetarian but there were plenty of choices for them. I decided to go for the Fish thali which comes with the Malvani fish and assorted vegetables. The fish was cooked the way I like it (not brittle) and was in a bed of curry. It was spicy but not in a sort of «oh, its going to be a long night» sort of way but more like the perfect medley of heat in your mouth sort of way. The thali was overall a ton of food so I feel like I did not do it enough justice.
In the end, we did not order dessert but they threw in free gulab jamuns. I am not a huge dessert person but these jamuns were drop dead delish.
I think if you want to try authentic south indian sea food, this place should definitely be on your consideration set. It is as authentic as it comes.
Side tip: ask if they have pomfret which is the local fish from the arabian sea. They get fresh batches often shipped over and your malvani will double in flavor with it.

I’ve been going to Curry Up Now to get my faux Inidan fix for some time now, so imagine my surprise when I found a cheaper, more authentic alternative just a block away.
The lunch specials at Gajalee come with tons of fresh, fast food. The three roti I were pretty big, and came with a good amount of chicken curry as well. Service was slow, but the food was worth it.

I do not recommend this restaurant on the basis of the service alone. I’ve been here for an hour with friends and the food has yet to come out. When we inquired to the waiter as to the status of the food, it prompted a mad scramble in the kitchen, leading us to think that they had lost our order. What is perplexing is that the waiters clearly knew that we had ordered; they gave us plates for the table after we put our order in. Also, there were only a couple other tables here at the restaurant with us, so it was not a particularly busy night.
As a result of the lost order and poor service, I do not recommend this place at all. I will not be returning to this restaurant and I implore you to save yourself the trouble and go elsewhere.

As a picky eater from a Konkani family, I’ve never found an Indian restaurant that comes close to capturing my cultural experiences in their dishes.
That is, until last night.
I stopped by here with the fam after a long day of hanging out in the Presidio. The restaurant only had a few customers at the time, so we were seated immediately.
We were impressed by the extensive menu — so many references to our favorite seafood dishes! We ordered the following items:
— Sol Kadi: First time trying this drink in a restaurant. It was WAY TOO SALTY to even finish…
— Machi Fry (Pomfret): Yum. Yum. YUM. We ordered 4 orders of the pomfret fish fry, and 1 order of the kingfish. This dish was served with onions, raita and a fish gravy. Absolutely phenomenal. This dish is startlingly similar to the Konkani fish fry my mom makes at home (although the restaurant’s version contained more of those pesky fish bones).
— Tisrya Sukke (Clams): Pretty good as well! Only complaint would be that the meat was a little difficult to scrape out of the shells.
We also ordered dal makhani and another vegetable sabji which were fairly standard. It was great that the fish fry came with rice as well.
Gajalee is a very special restaurant in SF, and I will definitely return here as soon as I can — it’s a new family favorite :)

This place is at the Valencia Street and 16^th street of San Francisco. They have an awesome Indian food. Especially, if you wanna go for spicy Indian food, this is the place for you.
Get chicken 65 as an appetizer, veg samosa is also good. Then in the main course: Chicken Malvani, chapati, kolambi palak rice and biryani. It sounds a lot but its worthy. I spend like anything for this food.
Parking: There is a street parking only. You have to try your luck. It usually takes 30 minutes (on weekends) to find the parking space but we do that, because we don’t wanna miss the food. Always, try on 16^th and 17^th street, because valencia street hardly has an open parking space.
The restaurant is nice and clean. The best thing is that they give Gulab Jamun at the end, which is again an awesome Indian sweet and I hell like it. I would say «Go for it!»

I’ve had been waiting a long time to visit. So when friends suggested, I jumped at the opportunity. But it was a let down and I wont be visiting anytime soon. Maybe I expected more ‘Indian tasting food’ having eaten Indian food back home. But the Rawa Fry (Pomfret & King fish) were dry, under-​seasoned and lacking in salt. The vada Pav had the same issue with under seasoning, especially the salt! The third star I gave was for the Chicken Xacuti/​Kolambi Ambat Thikat+ Kombdivada combo, which was the only highpoint for me. Clams Sukka tasted better with the chapati than on its own. The cutlery could certainly use an upgrade.
This place is FAR from my place and was not worth the visit.

Parking was atrocious on a Saturday night, but I eventually found a spot several blocks away. Gajalee specializes in food from the western central coast of India. We ordered the following:
— Lamb Vindaloo — Vinegar based chilly sauce and cube potatoes
— Fish Thali — selection of different dishes served in a round platter – fish malvani masala, vegetable curry, potato coconut masala, red chickpeas, raita, basmati rice, a roti, & a tapioca kheer
My take on the Vindaloo:
Finally a proper place to try this Goan dish. That said, it was pretty standard East Coast US Indian – a sweet almost Spaghetti-​O-​like sauce with a kick, strong western influence (but was I tasting Portuguese or US influence?). Pretty good, but not wonderful or memorable.
My take on the Thali:
The fish was quite tender, decently fresh, but the Malvani curry (this region’s standard) was pretty average. The other dishes were quite authentically flavored and coconuty, but nothing was mind-​blowing. The raita was tangy and good, but isn’t it always? The tapioca dessert was quite dry and a little too thick to be enjoyable.
All in all:
It was pretty good, but not good enough to make me come back. The waiters were really nice, though – they gave us a free Mango Piyush (basically a thick mango lassi with cardamom powder). I really wish it had been amazing – I would desperately love to have more quality Indian restaurants in the Bay Area to choose from.