Punjabi Dhaba

The food truck is still open. and it is delicious. I usually get the Chicken Tikka Masala and i am never disappointed. Good portions for the price and spiced well.

THIS IS FOR THE BRICK AND MORTAR LOCATION WHICH IS CLOSED FOR 3 MONTHS (OR MORE). DON’T ORDER ONLINE FOR PICKUP OR DELIVERY.
The place is like a deserted island. The food truck is outside collecting dust and has a parking ticket. The inside is dusty. We finally flagged a guy down inside to let him know we were there to pick up our online order. He said they’ve been closed for three months so that’s not possible. There were some language barriers but the bottom line is the store is not open. Thankfully we selected the pay at the store option because reversing a credit card charge would have proven difficult.
So, since we didn’t have the food, I can’t speak to the quality but based on the reviews it sounded good!
We went with Capitol Hill Tandoor instead.

THE FOOD TRUCK — FILLING FOR ON-​THE-​GO
I did not visit the restaurant. Only the food truck. And in a sea of generic, ‘American fried food’ trucks lining the National Mall this was a very welcome sight.
STUFFED FOR THE PRICE
For around $ 15 my BF and I stuffed ourselves with Chicken Tikka Masala, Vegetable Samosas, and drank Mango Lassi. I only waited about 10 minutes after ordering before receiving our food.
SO WAS IT YUMMY?
It definitely wasn’t the BEST Indian food I’ve eaten, but there was still something home-​cooking and comforting about the food here which I enjoyed. I can’t complain. Flavors balanced out and worked well together. There was enough rice and naan to carry all the heavily, spiced items.

I ordered the Samosa Platter (chickpeas over samosas with rice) from the food truck, which I’ve had a version of many other times before. I became alarmed when saw the guy grilling pre-​cooked Samosas to crisp them up. It didn’t work. I like my food fried fresh. Normally samosas are deep fried in hot oil and the crust is so thick and crispy that it holds up against the chickpea sauce. Also, the rice was clumped together as if it was from yesterday. It wasn’t horrible, but basically everything tasted like microwaved leftovers.

Finally! We’ve tried a handful of Indian spots in the area but this one takes the cake. These days we are mostly delivery-​type-​folk, and that type of option is usually hit or miss. Thus far, not so with Punjabi Dhaba.
I cannot think of a single course we’ve been disappointed in. We usually load up on the veggie dishes, and almost always order palak paneer and baingan bartha, though we’ve also been very pleased with the bhindi masala. We’ve tried various other lamb and chicken dishes that we’ve always been happy with, and have oftentimes been surprised that those intended to be spicy are indeed spicy! You don’t always find that around here, as anecdotally, the consensus seems to be that American taste buds aren’t up to the challenge.
The naan is some of the best I’ve had in the area. While I was a huge fan of paratha while living in India, I haven’t found any version here that quite measures up, and I’d probably skip the roti as well. However, I was stunned at the quality of the batura, even after delivery (it seemed that a puffy, fried bread would face insurmountable challenges in transit). Now, if only I good find a spot with good chapati or roomali roti (open to suggestions!) We always have more rice than we need.
I do wish they would offer raita. And the mango lassi was so-​so, a little too liquidy and sweet for my tastes. I prefer something on the thicker side with fresh ginger — yum!

So bad I can’t even begin to describe. Grub hub should take this restaurant out of its list. The palak paneer was not the creamy consistency I have loved. The chunks of spinach and onion were completely unappetizing. The lentil daal was tasteless and the vegetable samosa was greasy and funky smelling. Don’t order from this place if you value your life. Delivery man was very scary snd confrontational.

Really good food!
Love the aloo mataar, mataar paneer, shahi paneer (little bit sweet but still really good), and the chana masala.
Highly recommend delivery as the area is a little far away. Also there are no tables in the restaurant.

This restaurant is good, but not without some snags. Before I finished my dinner, I would have given this place 1 – 2 stars… but the food redeemed it big time!
I ordered through an online service. The food took 70 minutes to arrive, which was the estimate I was given. Fair enough. Malai Kofta, the obligatory Chicken Tikka, and Chicken Saag were all wonderful!
They forgot our order of samosas. When I tried to call the restaurant, the phone went straight to a full voice mail. I called back later and tried to explain the situation. There was a serious language barrier with the restaurant employee with whom I spoke, but he offered a refund for the samosas and said he would call the online delivery service. I also put in a refund request for the samosas and received it quickly from the online delivery service. I can’t say whether I got the refund so quickly because the restaurant called, because of my request to the online delivery service, or both, but the issue was resolved.
I would order here again, with some major caveats:
1) Only order through an online delivery service that will give you a refund if something is missing.
2) Order really early and expect a wait.
3) Be prepared for surprises. :-)
Still, the food was excellent!

Found this place on Seamless and gave it a try on a Sunday afternoon. The food came in about 45 minutes, the delivery driver was friendly and the food was good. I got the vegetable samosas, which were great, and the palak paneer. The palak paneer was well flavored and sufficiently spiced. Not the best I have ever had, but pretty damn good for some Sunday delivery. I will definitely order from them again.

Ordered online direct through Unilocal,was my first time. Seamless, easy process. Was a little apprehensive after reading some of the other reviews, but took the plunge and ordered the Lamb Biryani, Raita, and Garlic Naan.
Delivery took ~35mins, not too bad at all. Delivery guy was friendly.
Now, the food? Well I ordered hot, and found the spicyness to be a little lower than expected, but still pleasant. The lamb was tender, with a full flavor, and the portion was HUGE!
Raita was great, and they gave me two containers full. Plenty to use, with spare.
Naan was a little small, and cold, however had good flavor and overall was perfectly fine.
I was impressed, and recommend at least the biryani!

Let me start by saying, I was not expecting much when I ordered delivery. I was so pleasantly surprised. The biryani was MONEY. Chicken was fresh and cooked perfectly. They let you pick the spice level, and actually deliver on it. Portion was huge. Delivery was fast. They nailed it. Give them a shot.
And for everyone who is complaining about not having butter chicken, Chicken Tikka Masala is basically the same thing.

I walked out of the Air and Space museum wanting to find an Indian food truck… Sure enough this one was directly across the street! Now, keep in mind this is a food truck. If you have high expectations of any food truck, I feel sorry for you. That being said, the tikka masala was a tad bit watery from what I’m use to and I have had more flavorful Indian dishes. But overall it was quite good for $ 9 (tikka masala w/​rice, chickpeas, spinach, and a large piece of naan). If the sauce was a bit thicker, I would have given it 5 stars. My friend (who has only had Indian twice in her life) got the tandoori chicken with the same sides and it was about on par with the tikka masala and she enjoyed it.

Food Truck Review.
I first asked to try a little bit of the Chicken Tikka Masala to make sure it didn’t taste more like soup (bland and watery). While the sauce wasn’t thick it wasn’t too watery either and was sweet and delicious. I ordered that with the chickpeas and lentils, and when I got back to the office, I was surprised to see a whole piece of naan included. Other food trucks I’ve tried only give half the naan.
The rice for the most part was alright, but I did notice a some of the rice was a little bit under-​cooked. The naan bread was good and large. I only wish everything was less watery, but otherwise I enjoyed my meal.

I ordered through Seamless and it showed up in about 45 mins which is what was expected (Seamless said 45 – 60). They have a large delivery radius which is awesome too as I’m north of Union Station. The Samosas with Chick Peas was massive and cheap and so delicious and flavorful. The lamb vindaloo was as hot as it gets without getting stupid hot and also tasted amazing. This is some of the best Indian food I’ve had in DC proper and frankly am so glad I can get it via delivery. Will order again and again. Oh and to Amy (commenter above) they do have Butter chicken according to Seamless.

See my review under“lucky kabob”. Same restaurant, different name. Painful time ordering as I had a really hard time understanding the man. Mediocre food and not great service. We had food delivered — arrived 20 minutes late. Told them we were paying cash, the driver arrived without change… Thus got a huge tip that was not warranted. If we lived in DC, I would have gone the next day to request some money back. Disappointed.

So tired of places that just blatantly lie when it comes to time estimates. Quoted a 30 – 45 minute window and here is 90 minutes later with no food. The person on the phone offered no explanation and couldn’t even confirm the order was on the way. Inexcusable bad.
Update: Food arrived after 100 minutes. I expected middle of the road take out Indian. This was slightly worse than that. The veggie samosas were good. The kofta was spicy, whereas kofta is normally sweeter and creamier. The real disaster was the rice, which was bland and had 3 or 4 bits of hair in it. The garlic naan was ok, but rather bland for garlic naan.
Between the mediocre food and the absolutely atrocious service, easy call to never come back to this place.

I was really in the mood for Indian food and saw this place was nearby and had a couple good reviews.
First off, what Indian place doesn’t have butter chicken???
Secondly, the delivery guy took an 1.5 hours to deliver my food when I was quoted a 30 – 45 minute wait time. I was a little hangry, so I called the restaurant at 1.25 hours asking when I should expect my food and the person just said «anytime now, he already left». Didn’t even offer to call him. I said «so he will be here anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour?» and all she said was «yep!» Ummmmm, OK.
Lastly, the food was below sub-​par. The rice was hard and dry like it had been sitting out overnight and the chicken seemed to have been dropped into the sauce because it carried no flavor. The only good thing was the sauce itself and the naan which thankfully 1 order comes with two big pieces, so I just ate naan dipped in the sauce. Oh, and I ordered a soda that was room temperature. Mmmm, nothing like warm soda to try and cool your mouth off with after eating spicy food…
Stay away unless you desperately need an Indian food fix and there’s no other choice.

It took almost 2 hours to receive two orders of chicken tikka masala. The quality of the food was extremely poor. The sauce was bland and seemed like they watered it down. The rice was crunchy.
I will never order from this place again.

The food could be great, I have no idea because it is 20 minutes late and I just spoke to someone from the restaurant who said it is *at least* another 30 minutes before getting here — hasn’t left the restaurant yet. We ordered on foodler and left a generous tip — for a meal that is going to be close to an hour late when it finally does arrive. Not a good start to a first impression.
I’m updating my review from one star to four — the food is amazing. I still think the delivery needs serious work but the food alone is worth four stars. So good and tasty. The flavors were deep with every dish. We had a large group and tried many options — everyone was very pleased with the food.

What a great option for the area! Great value and great food. An order of naan is $ 1.50 and includes two large pieces. Most entrees under $ 10. Fast delivery and hot food! If you don’t do well with spicy food, beware — the food was on the spicier side.