Punjab Cafe

The boyfriend and I decided to come here on a whim for dinner. First time coming here, and right off the bat I knew what I wanted: Paneer Masala and Samosas.
The samosas came with two dipping sauces: sweet tamarind chutney and a green cilantro chutney. They were flavorful enough to eat alone, but the dipping sauces brought them to another level. My favorite out of the two was the green chutney, because it made the appetizer refreshing when paired up with the richness of the potato filling. The best part was the crust, which definitely delivered on the crunch factor.
The Paneer Masala is exactly what you expect: creamy, rich in spices and the perfect amount of thickness. They served it piping hot, which was such a tease, because the amazing aroma made me wanted to dig in right away.
Didn’t understand the negative reviews for this place. One of the complaints that food was bland. I felt the opposite. There was tons of spices and the samosas were perfectly seasoned.
Would definitely come back.

Nice food, but spread might not be so big. Value for money. Definitely worth visiting.

This place is the best restaurant in downtown San Jose. Absolutely everything is terrific. I’ve been eating here since they opened in 2010 and have them catered several parties of mine. The food and the service are impeccable. Bobby and his crew are professional and affable, really warm hearted and good people.
I love the pakoras, the chicken saag, aloo gobi, all dals, esp black daal, and naans. I’ve catered a bunch of their veggies, paneers, lamb and seafood as well. All delicious.
Seriously you can’t go wrong. Keep it up guys.

Had dinner buffet. I went to this place since it has good rating. Looks like reviews are fake. All
Stale food for dinner buffet. Ambience is not ok and service is poor.

Food was decent, service needs upgrade, although the girl was very kind and polite, she was the one taking the order as well as serving the food. Overall, a good north Indian food experience.

I’ve eaten here twice with my coworkers and absolutely love the food. As a desi (that’s brown skinned person to you round eye friends =P) this place has very delicious authentic food! The service was great, the restaurant clean and the price is right… so come on down! The spiciness was at a medium level for both the Indo-​Fijian and Latino in the group. It might be on the hot side though, for those of you who can’t handle any flavor.

I regularly visit this place for lunch and sometimes dinner. The food here is delicious and affordable. The service is also very good and the people working here are very friendly. I would recommend to give this place a visit and experience the wonderful food and service.

We tried (family of 4) buffet on a Saturday night, and none of us was really impressed. We have obviously been to dozens of other Indian Buffet places in Bay Area, and this one probably falls at the bottom of our favorite list.
CONS:
— Very limited options
— Just 2 veggie entrée
— Rice seemed stale
— Entrée/​Curry were NOT even warm enough to enjoy
— Curd was definitely NOT fresh
PROS:
— Cheap food
— Good naan
All in all — not a place I would like to go back, unless it’s the only option for me.

One of the best Indian restaurants i know of! I was introduced to this restaurant by a good friend several years ago when i was working downtown. unfortunately i don’t work near by anymore so i don’t visit as often.
I loved going at lunchtime for the buffet and the selection of food. The food tastes great and good service as well. Some of my favorites include Lamb curry, tikka masala, samosa’s and everything that comes out of the tandoori (yum) They also make some really good Chai.
(I am really picky when it comes to Chai)
It is conveniently located Down Town and enjoy going here for dinner before game night, events at SAP center, convention center, or a night out for drinks.
Over all, i would recommend this spot to anyone who wants good Indian food. Include Punjab Café on your night out in Downtown!

We used to do to go but tried to do buffet today. It was an horrible experience.
Basic service was desperately lagging. No spoons/​no napkins/​had to ask for water twice and lassi three times.
I was really hoping the food will be good by unfortunately it was a complete let down.
We went for a buffet and asked if we can get paratha with mild or no spice and he said that parathas are frozen ones. We will heat and give… Horrible
Gulag jamun tasted badly and definitely store bought.
It’s near the campus and lot of students visit and for them it’s probably ok and why this joint is surviving.
Giving two stars because the food ordered for to go was decent but that said this place gets scratched from our list.

This is one of famous SJSU desi students adaa :).but on a serious note, its a good and cheaply priced indian buffet restaurant. Buffet is just $ 8 and it has decent spread for both veg n non veg foodies. one of my favorite too :), i have been here since it was $ 6 buffet.

Punjab. I love you.
No Punjab has been great though, great buffet. Love the buffet, the selections is just okay, actually the selection is not that great.
But the price sure is. $ 8.69 out the door with a cash discount and you pay at the counter so they do not expect you to tip! F* tipping at buffets, completely ridiculous, and I guess Punjab understands that too.
The price is great. The food is great, really good. A real winner here.

This is one of the worst Indian restaurant I ever visited. The food is tasteless. I wonder how ppl have it.
To all the local Americans a kind request do not ever visit this restaurant. This is not the true Indian food ull be looking for .
The California food department should close down such restaurants. Unhealthy food

We arrived in the nick of time; any later & we’d only have access to their buffet instead of the entire menu. I ordered what I always order at an Indian restaurant: chicken tikka masala. Theirs was a bit tart for my liking, but still a satisfying, spiced bowl ideal for running garlic naan through before devouring. I didn’t try the veggie samosas or the mix veggie dish he ordered; his reaction is usually a good indicator of whether I’ll like a dish or not & if I read him correctly, I was better off sticking to my tried-​and-​trues.
A couple observations: service was warm & friendly. Also, that cleanliness is obviously a priority for Punjab Café did not go unnoticed.

I’ve been coming here for about 6 years now. I love this place.
That’s all I wanted to say.
Please come and try it out. Everything they have is good. I personally love their somosas, garlic naan, and paneer tikka masala.

This is pretty good Indian food. The butter chicken was nice but the chicken masala was better. Pair that with some fresh hot garlic naan and you will be pretty happy.
The restaurant was pretty empty but service is good.
I would come back.

I’ve tried quite a few Indian food places in the area and Punjab Café is by far my favorite. The dishes are delicious and the food is consistently good. So then, why only 4 stars? One star gets docked for the number of times my to go orders have gone missing. For as good as the food is there have been quite a few times now that I’ve called in an order only to get there and my order got lost between the phone call and the kitchen. The staff is always apologetic about it but it still takes another 15 – 25 minutes for me to get my food so now I try to order before I’m extremely hungry to account for this.
I haven’t had any issues before with dine in and the food is good enough that I’m willing to deal with the occasional delay in receiving my to go orders. None of the other local places compare.

I uh, can’t resist Indian food. To me, this is at the top of the foodie chain. And so, if there’s Indian nearby and available, it usually trumps all food spots. Punjab Café is… c’mon man! Just listen to that name! It’s a definite winner!
Anyways, let’s get to the skinny on things. I order a chicken samosa and a chicken tikka. The samosa arrives first, it was fresh out of the fryer. Properly hot, and do be careful biting into it because it’ll burn the heck out of it. To me, flavors are at its most vibrant when they’re are destroy your mouth temperatures. So yea, tamarind sauce all the way. The chicken tikka was chicken tikka. Smother the basmati rice with it and top that on your garlic naan. Bite, chew and savor, yaaaaasss!!! Euphoria!
Anyways, the service was very good. The floor crew really knew how to take care of their guests. Very engaging and extremely attentive to every needs.
I heard their buffet starts at 830 pm. That’s cool and unheard of for me, since I know that Indian restaurants usually just doest buffet during lunch and «a-​la-​carte» style for dinner. Anyways, I like it, I’d come back for that for real.
I’ll see you next time Punjab Café!

Disappointing food. The rogan josh had little flavor while the tikka masala tasted like a penne tomato cream sauce.
The prices were moderate but even moderately priced bland food isn’t worth going out for.
The service was inattentive but friendly enough when you had their attention.

I was working Downtown the other day, and having a mad craving for some Indian food. So, I turned to the Unilocal app to help me find a place to go get my Curry on, and Punjab Café (PC) was the first to catch my eye. I saw they had a lunch buffet –which is my favorite way to eat Indian food!– and a nice low price tag of only $ 8.99! Normally, cheap buffets make me very wary, but after seeing a handful of trusted Unilocal friends had given this place the thumbs up I wasn’t too worried. Plus, I was with a couple of students, and I know how much they love cheap!
Naan (Indian Flatbread) — This might be the «worst» Naan I’ve ever had; it was more like Pita bread than Naan and had no character to it. I’m surmising they save the cheap stuff for the buffet and keep the good stuff for actual orders? 2*
Tandoori Chicken (TC) — Not the best rendition of TC I’ve had, but certainly not the worst. The chicken was a bit dry but the spice flavor was good. 3*
Chicken Tikka Masala (Chicken in a Creamy Tomato Curry) — Middle-​of-​the-​road version of this ubiquitous Indian dish. The sauce had a really good spicy flavor with nice tomatoey undertones, but it was bit too watered down for me and the chicken was pretty dry. 2.5*
Dal Makhani (Buttery Lentils) — Extremely watered down, and very disappointing. The flavors were so muted that I took one bite and said, «no thanks.» Which is a shame because done right this can be an excellent dish. Too bad… 1.5*
Chana Saag (Spinach & Chickpeas) — This is one of my favorite Veggie indian dishes, and PC did not disappoint! The Spinach was cooked to perfection; the Chickpeas had just a little bite to them; and the spices did not overwhelm the dish. I would’ve preferred a bit more Chickpeas in the mix, but that’s a minor gripe. 4*
Aloo Pakora (Potato Fritters) — Terrifically crispy and fried potato crisps, that made excellent vehicles for sopping up sauce, or dipping into their Chutneys. I was also really enjoying wrapping them around some of the Aam Achar (pickled green mangoes) and going to town! 4.5*
Goat Curry– This was PC’s crown jewel, in my opinion. The sauce has a nice thick consistency; spiced perfectly without being too salty; and the Goat itself was cooked so that it was fall off the bone tender – and had that terrific Goat flavor that I crave! I dare say this dish clobbers my other favorite Curried Goat dish at nearby Back A Yard. 5*
Service & Ambiance– The gentleman working that day was bit grumpy when we first walked in, but at least he kept our water cups full. Fortunately, we didn’t need to interact with him much other than settling up at the end. The interior has all your usual Indian-​type décor with TVs playing awesome Bollywood dance numbers. Service 2.5*/Ambiance 3.5*
Value– You really can’t beat $ 8.99 for a well above-​average Indian Buffet. They didn’t have a huge selection, but all you really need is that Goat Curry anyways. On a side note, the student discount they advertise is for SJSU students only, and not for students of other Universities. They really should change that policy, but it’s only $ 1-​off, so no biggie… 4.5*
Overall, PC is a great place to go if your inner Curry supply is running low, and in a need of a recharge. Highly recommended for a quick, cheap and delicious lunch in the Downtown SJ area. Namaste!

Yo y mi novia fuimos a comer al restaurant café punjav y esta vien buena la comida de la india y a demas atienden muy bien esta en la 7 y santa Clara en el centro de san jose y ademas la lleban a domicilio