Rasika West End

Flavors are excellent as is the service. Location is easy and reasonable prices. I have nothing bad to say about this place and it’s been a DC favorite of mine.

Initially, I thought the place and staff was a bit pretentious, but I was wrong. We sat at the bar, as the place was jammed and we were two hours early for our reservations. The service was great and the food was even better!

This was one of the best meals I’ve ever had. I went with a friend of the owner, so maybe I got a little special treatment, but the service was unquestionably the best I have ever received in any restaurant, anywhere. If normal customers get service half this good, then they are getting their money’s worth.
The food: Holy god the food. I’ve eaten my fair share of Indian cuisine, both home cooked and in restaurants, in DC, New York, London, and Delhi, and none were as good as this. Due to our special status they just kept bringing us various dishes and often didn’t tell us what they were, so it’s hard for me to name them but all were extraordinary. I specifically remember the flash fried spinach or kale and the okra dishes were just amazing. Dessert was fantastic as well, I got a raspberry and chocolate desert that was perfect.
Verdict: It’s not cheap, but if you save your pennies or are just a high roller, it’s not just the best Indian restaurants in DC, but one of the best restaurants, period.

My husband and I are both physicians working across the street from the restaurant. Have been coming here for years. We always had a great experience at Rasika. It used to be one of our favorite restaurants in DC… until our last visit a week ago.
We sat at the bar. The new Mexican bartender flirted with female customer while we waited to get service. We sat at the bar for over an hour. The bartender was too busy trying to impress his next sexual victim. He took our order but an hour later he indicated he had not submitted it to the kitchen yet at which point my husband got up and left the restaurant. No drink. No food. It was a terrible experience.
Great food! Poor service! Poorly managed place. The owner has 9 restaurants in the city. Needs to better manage them and hire appropriate staff.
Please fire the Mexican pervert! We are not coming back until the sexual predator is gone.

Amazing food, great wait staff, prissy hostess!
My wife and I had reservations last night along with our 1 year old, who is experienced at fine dining and well behaved in restaurants. Bear in mind I confirmed the reservation and was specifically told that bringing a child was fine and that while they don’t have highchairs they did have booster seats. We were greeted by the British hostess with attitude about the child, and laughed at when we asked for a booster seat, and told that despite my phone confirmation, that they don’t have any. She then asked us to park our «pram» and we had to negotiate bringing it to the table to act as a highchair.
Once we were seated, thankfully things turned around, as we received excellent service from our waiter. We ordered the tasting menu with wine pairings and had a wonderful meal.

Worth it! Got a reservation for a Sunday night, showed up a little early and they sat us before our slot. Great décor and great vibe inside. My boyfriend and I went with 3 small (palak — signature, good, just different; sweet potato samosa — great texture variety and the chutney was delicious; and cauliflower — a little crispy but very spicy) and the Tikka and the lamb with Caramelized onions — we also got garlic naan and truffle naan… do not skip out, the oil was a great compliment and super delicious. I would recommend this for a one time splurge definitely not a everyday value there.
4 stars because our service was just mediocre. He was slow to return and not very responsive!

Upscale indian cuisine with great service, nice décor and ambiance! We made a reservation.
Here’s what we ordered and we liked it all.
Butternut squash — we were surprised with this, waiter’s suggestion after he heard what we ordered and quickly told us to change it since he knew this tasted much better.
Garlic naan — great!
Sev batata puri — pretty good!
Ginger limeade drink — tasty
Mango drink — loved it!
Overall a nice place for a nice occasion.
(Late Post — August 2015)

Late Sunday night dinner with reservations for 4 girls still had over an hour wait. Yet this is the place everyone’s raving about (including Hilary Clinton?), so we decided to wait it out. My Indian friend from England said she knew immediately it was pretty legit from the sights and smells and said her friends did well in recommending it. I thought this was promising. One hostess in particular treated us rather rudely due to our inquiries… and the wait continued by the host stand.
Once seated, we were able to glance over the drink menu, which was filled with lovely flavors and very unique. I can’t remember what my friend ordered but I had a sip and it was delicious, albeit small. I requested a vegetarian dish not quite on the menu: palak paneer and jasmine rice. It was delicious, a great portion, and exactly what I had asked for … and yet, I can get a delicious and generous palak paneer with jasmine rice elsewhere without waiting 90 minutes, enduring a rude hostess, and paying $$$ for it. I would come here for naan, dessert and drinks, but will think twice before spending that kind of money again, particularly during dinner.

I’m honestly shocked at the number of 5 star reviews for this place. The food is good/​decent but this place lacks things which in my opinion take away from the overall experience.
Arrived early for our 830 reservation on a Saturday night and had to wait about 15 minutes to be seated. Somewhat annoyed but tried not to let it affect me. We were seated and I promptly went to wash my hands and the sink in the men’s bathroom didn’t work. I had to wipe liquid soap from my hands as the water wouldn’t turn on. Again I tried not to let it take away from the experience.
The server came to take our drink order and we decided to get appetizers (palak chaat and samosas) and when we asked for chutney he stated it already came with some, which it didn’t. For our entrees, we ordered the Chicken Tikka Masala, a custom order of Chicken Briyani as well as the Andra Chicken. The Andra chicken was spicier than the other dishes and some of the chicken was rubbery (not cooked through). The tikka masala and Briyani were both pretty good but nothing out of the ordinary. The palak chaat was very good and the samosas were very disappointing.
For dessert we ordered the chocolate samosas and gulab juman w cardamom ice cream which were both terrible. Could just be that they weren’t my cup of tea. I’m a traditional cheese cake, Apple pie or brownie type of person.
Perhaps the «hype» of this place set us up for disappointment but I’ve eaten at quite a few Indian restaurants and this one wasn’t any more special. My wife who is south Asian agreed places
like Bombay Tandoor, Jaipur are just as good for a fraction of the cost.
Go check it out if you must but don’t expect anything epic…

We came for a late dinner on a weeknight and it was an hour wait for 3 people. We were told to try the bar. I decided to put my name down anyway and lo and behold 20 minutes there was a table for us. A little unexpected but nice. Cocktails were great. We nibbled on a few dishes including a veggie curry, chicken tikka masala, and the garlic naan. My coworkers had never tried Indian food before and liked it a lot. I thought the food was good but nothing too special. I definitely wouldn’t wait an hour.

I came here last night for my job’s holiday party. We didn’t sit in the main restaurant area; our party was in Rasika’s library which is close to the kitchen. The library can cozily hold about 35 people (including wait staff) and we had two long tables which sat about ⁷⁄₈ people on each side. We had a reception that started at 6:30; I asked for tequila with lime juice and club soda and while I don’t know what brand tequila they used, clearly it was top shelf. Everyone enjoyed their drinks – definitely no complaints there. Our meals were served family style and this is what we had:
Appetizers:
Avocado Banana chaat — Avocados/​Bananas/​Spicy Sauce
Palak chaat — Crispy baby spinach /​sweet yogurt /​tamarind /​date chutney
Seekh Kebab — Minced lamb /​garam masala /​mint chutney
Mango Shrimp — Fresh mango /​cashew nut /​ginger /​coriander
Entrées:
Black Cod — Fresh dill /​honey /​cheddar /​star anise /​tamarind
Lamb Kashmiri — Caramelized onions /​ginger powder /​fennel powder
Chicken Tikka Masala
Malai Palak — Spinach /​cumin /​garlic /​ginger
Dal Dhungaree — Smoked Lentils /​caramelized onion
Cucumber Raita — Cucumber /​yogurt relish
Basmati rice
Bread basket
Dessert:
Gulab Jamun,
Rice Kheer
Cardamom Ice Cream
I was able to try almost everything and there really wasn’t anything that I didn’t like but I do have my absolute favorites: the Palak Chaat – hands down the best thing on their menu. There was just the right amount of salt mixed in with the sweetness from the date chutney and tamarind. As I mentioned earlier, it’s family serving but it took a lot of self-​control not to just take the bowl for myself; I also liked the mango shrimp, the chicken tikka masala, and the black cod. I do wish that they brought out more food; there were people in my office that thought more food would come out. The bowls that were used looked like they could feed one person. My favorite dessert was the Gulab Jamun. The rice kheer which is similar to rice pudding didn’t really do it for me. It was a bit runny. I definitely enjoyed myself, the food and drinks were great, the service was good, albeit a tad slow with the drinks, and the ambiance was nice. The bathrooms are nice but funny thing happened – my coworker told me that they don’t have soap in the bathroom and she had to use her hand sanitizer. I’m thinking to myself, Rasika must have soap. It turns out that the soap dispenser is in this cylinder-​looking thing and you have to gently pull the lever underneath toward you to get soap out. Not to worry, they have soap! This place was jumping so I know it would be hard to get reservations. I’m looking forward to going back and getting a ginormous bowl of Palak Chaat.

Good Indian food. Waaay overpriced & overrated.
We found this restaurant on many top 10 lists in Washington DC. Also heard from local word of mouth as the place to eat.
We had the Palaak Chaat, which is their most popular appetizer, the crispy spinach. It was good for a few bites, but got to be way too greasy and the dressings too sweet. It kinda reminded me of those kale chips that are actually just clumps of dressing with a sliver of kale inside.
The chicken tikka masala was good, but nothing special. The chicken was ok, not dry, but not juicy either. The spices were pretty regular. Tasted exactly like any other chicken tikka masala from a decent buffet.
The black cod was pretty good. Tender fish, but not too interesting of spices either. Couldn’t even really tell why this would be Indian. It was good though.
The butternut squash was okay. Tasted like a regular Indian spiced curry with butternut squash chunks. Nothing too memorable.
The truffle naan was nice. The bread was decent, but not as chewy as I’d have liked.
The mango chutney was good. Definitely tasted homemade.
The Pinot Noir from Oregon was pretty mediocre. The wine had a nice regular fruity flavor with a dry finish but nothing lingering or complex. Definitely NOT worth $ 16 a glass. Would have paid $ 5.
Also, $ 2.50 for chutney??? really? Chutney should be like kimchi in Korean restaurants. If they make you charge for it, it’s just wrong. It doesn’t matter if it’s house-​made. When you charge $ 18 for a pretty average Chicken Tikka Masala, $ 8 for a tiny side dish of butternut squash, and $ 4 for a single piece of naan, I better get that 2 oz of chutney for free.
So the problem is not the food, it’s the packaging and the expectation. If I had the exact same food somewhere else and paid about half what I paid here, it’d have been fine. But the bill ended up being $ 100 for 2 people (without tip) for what was a pretty average Indian meal. Maybe the money went towards all the tacky décor inside? But the food wasn’t anywhere near what it should have cost.
Granted, there are many other items on the menu we haven’t tried that could be more adventurous and interesting, but I’m not sure if I’m willing to risk it considering the cost.

Great appetizers, okay entrees.
Rasika on a Saturday night is jam packed. We arrived a little early for our reservation and were asked to wait, not a problem, until we were still waiting almost 20 minutes after our scheduled reservation time. The host apologized and even brought us two glasses of champaign which I thought was odd but appreciated. It wasn’t until later the champaign made sense, I doubt they do this for the average customer forced to wait for their table.
Both appetizers were delicious so I had high hopes for our entrees. Sadly my Salmon tandoori was just okay, something I could have easily made at home. My husband’s curry was completely over cooked and the chicken was so dry inside. Not good.
We ordered dessert which was great but before our dessert came out, the waitress set down a different dessert with a candle in it and wished us a happy anniversary… lovely, except it wasn’t our anniversary. The free champaign now made sense. They must have mixed up our reservation with another couple who was actually celebrating their anniversary. I feel bad for that couple because they probably got squat.
50 – 50 on returning.

My fiancée took me to Rasika for an awesome birthday celebration. It was my first time at the restaurant.
I created an awesome cocktail of my own. I asked the bartender to add a shot of rum to the «mango mocktail.» It was delicious (our waiter agreed).
The flashed fried spinach is amazing. It is very rich, so I recommend sharing it with the table. The naan wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, but it was good. I had the salmon which was flavorful, and tasty.
I would definitely go back.

I was totally honest with our waiter and informed him that I’d never eaten Indian food in my life — he did exactly what I wanted him to: told me what to order.
We had the Palak Chaat, Chicken Tikka Masala, Shammi Kebab, & two types of naan. I was the most hesitant about the lamb dish, because I typically don’t care for lamb — but it was by FAR my favorite! I had a great first experience with Indian food and loved that our waiter was so nice and willing to help me out with navigating the menu!

Love love love this place! A definite ‘must go’ if you’re in search of delicious upscale Indian cuisine. Even though this spot is owned by the same company that runs The Bombay Club, Rasika is by far my favorite.
Everyone raves about their flash fried spinach dish, and it does not disappoint. A wonderful spot for a date or a business meeting with impeccable service. A vegetarian haven!

I came here at 5:30 PM because there were no other reservations available, and though a little early for dinner, it was soo worth it! We ended up ordering from the pre-​theatre menu (which can only be ordered from before 6:30), and got a great deal and variety of food for $ 35/​person.
With 4 people at the table, we decided to order different things and share. The appetizers were actually my favorite part of the meal. The palak chaat was the standout; the spinach was so crispy and just melted in my mouth. The tikka (chicken) and the seekh kebab (lamb) were so tender yet light, and the sauce paired with them added the perfect amount of flavor and kick. The sev puri was beautifully plated and was like a mini potato cake, served with the right amount of crunch and decadent sauce.
As for entrees, the chicken, lamb, salmon, and grouper curry were all hits. We each ordered the one that matched our taste buds best. The chicken and lamb are a little heavier, while the salmon and grouper are light. But all had a great fresh and delightful taste.
Definitely coming back!

I love Rasika, especially the West End location. My partner and I try to come here for our anniversary every year. I generally have a rule, that I don’t spend a lot of money on Indian food because quite honestly it shouldn’t be… I’m Indian and my family are wonderful cooks so I have a high expectation of my food.
However, the dishes here have great spices and also have a good take on traditional dishes. I don’t come here for authentic food that reminds me of home, but I do come here for tasty food. I also, love how beautiful the restaurant is. Last time I came here, I got the spinach appetizer which is amazing and I always get, and also ordered the chicken 65 and the calamari. The chicken 65 was tasty, but the calamari had a little too much sauce not to have a starch, I actually held onto the dish to eat with my main dishes. Last time I had a avocado and banana appetizer and was bummed I didn’t get it this time.
As for main dishes, we got the chicken curry, salmon tikka, and okra. I loved all three especially the okra. I’ve had other main dishes and was in love, so be adventurous.
Dessert is always necessary here. I love ice creams and sorbets.
The cocktails are good here and are so unique, but a lot of times it doesn’t go with with the spices in the food, it often competes with the flavors. The wines, I think, are a better choice. Last time I got a yummy soda/​juice lime drink and loved it. I haven’t had the lassi, but I imagine you can’t go wrong.

Great atmosphere and yummy food! Like most restaurants, some dishes are better than others. Here are the ones I like:
— Palak Chaat. I did my fair share of research before going, and I knew I had to try it! Those fried spinach with whatever addicting sauce on top are delicious!
— Sev Batata Puri. Menu says that it’s mushed potatoes, mangoes, and vermicelli on top of crispy biscuits. I’m not sure I could taste everything, except that everything tasted heavenly!
— Malai Seekh kebab. Lamb sausage with green sauce on the side. It’s on the salty side but it’s flavorful.
— Chicken masala. I know its not adventurous or creative. But I swear this is the best dish I’ve had at Rasika so far.
— Bread is yumms! We tried the garlic basket, which had the regular naan, onion sage naan, and mint. I can’t really taste the mint, which is a plus to me because I don’t like mint! Dip them into the curry… YUMS!
We also tried several other curry dishes on the menu, but unfortunately I felt like they all look similar and taste rather similar. All I know is chicken masala definitely had the best flavor!
The dessert was underwhelming. Perhaps we didn’t choose the right ones. We had ice cream (mango, coconut, and some other flavor that I can’t tell), gulab jamun (donut holes dipped in honey), and rice pudding. Rice pudding was off-​putting for me! It’s kind of sweet, but also have some sort of spices on top. Never again.
Overall, we enjoyed our first visit and will definitely go back again! But do remember, if you want to get a prime dinnertime reservation on a weekend, book it at least two weeks in advance!

Touristen verirren sich hierher eher nicht obwohl durchaus empfehlenswert. Sehr schickes indisches Restaurant. Wenn man zeitig vor 18:30 kommt kann man das happy Hour Menü Essen für $ 35. generell auch für Kinder geeignet, falls diese das scharfe essen mögen. Vorbestellen! Sonst findet man keinen Platz.

As many Unilocalers agree, this is absolutely one of Washington’s finest. Easily one of my very faves in Washington — the décor, ambiance, service, food is all spectacular.
Ambiance: has a modern and smooth feel. Right out of a scene from Scandal. Very beautiful. Outdoor patio seating. They take walk-​ins too.
Service: impeccable.
Palak Chaat — well, wouldn’t it feel totally weird if you didn’t try this now after you’ve read tons of reviews raving about it? It’s a flavorful dish with a light yogurt. It’s incredible. Popeye would love it. Spinach hater would love it. So, get it.
Ringana Papeta Nu Shak — eggplant with perfect sauce
Mango Shrimp — delicious but small if sharing
Garlic Naan — this was good but nothing spectacular.
Popcorn (at the bar) — this is an amazing creation. Such unique flavor!
A few other tried and true favorites, perfect for sharing, but everything is always wonderful.
Also great:
Chicken Tikka Malai
Tawa Baingan
Excellent.

Le restaurant indien Rasika situé a West End est le dernier de mes avis sur les restaurants que j’ai pu tester a Washington. Le dernier mais le plus contrasté également, je m’explique…
Le restaurant se veut gastronomique au regard de la quantité dans l’assiette mais aussi en rapport avec la très belle salle de restauration. Nombreuses sont les alcôves présentes ou l’on peut se blottir au calme ou bien profiter de la belle salle avec certains fauteuils extravagants et admirer les beaux éclairages de différentes couleurs qui participent à asseoir une atmosphère chic mais résolument moderne.
Une fois la carte épluchée, je me suis orienté vers un chicken tikka masala pour né pas prendre de risqué (car j’avais déjà goûté ce type de plat). L’assiette arrive et la c’est un peu le drame… Le plat se veut déjà assez minimaliste de part la quantité, et puis on m’avait assuré que ce n’était pas trop pimenté, mais ce fut tout le contraire ! Je crois que c’est le plat le plus épicé & pimenté qui m’est jamais été donné de goûter !
Je vous laisse imaginer l’après digestion…
Pour finir j’ai pris un dessert (dont je né me souvient plus du nom malheureusement) mais la aussi j’ai le souvenir qu’il était assez petit mais bon quand même. Pour accompagner mon plat et mon dessert, j’ai dégusté une bière indienne et j’avoue avoir été assez déçu aussi la-​dessus par le manqué de saveurs et par un goût de houblon clairement pas assez présent à mon goût.
Pour conclure je dirais que c’est un restaurant (à l’addition salée) très sympa pour son ambiance, sa salle en elle-​même et pour le service qui fut fort agréable et attentionné, mais je n’ai pas réellement apprécier la partie nourriture, c’est bien dommage et c’est pour cette raison que mon avis né finira pas dans ma liste de sélection de restaurant à Washington.