Clay Pit

I’ve been to a lot of Indian restaurants in the US, and it’s always hit or miss. Due to my extensive travels in and around India I’ve developed an understanding for how the food should be cooked and how it should taste. Granted, most Indian restaurants here adapt their menus, which are usually quite spicy, to suite American milder tastes.
Based on my experience at the Clay Pit, the service was poor and the food was horrendous. To be precise, these are the basic tell-​tale signs of Indian food quality that a good restaurant should not get wrong:
1. They call it Basmati rice, which is not what I was served. Instead of long white properly cooked grains, I got broken sticky uncooked tiny cheap quality rice grain.
2. The Naan should be fluffy, fully cooked with golden brown spots and butter applied. I got a Naan that was white-​looking with doughy fat uncooked edges and there was no butter to be found.
3. Tikka Masala. The sauce should be flavorful with a blend of creamy tomato sauce. What I received was pickly-​flavored tomato sauce, with no creaminess. This dish is probably the most popular and the most basic to prepare. Given, if you’ve never had Tikka Masala, you might be okay with the taste. But if you know the real tikka masala, then their version will not pass.
4. The Tandoori appetizer. Tandoori vegies (or anything Tandoori) should be sizzling roasted with some crispiness and amazing aroma as it’s served. For Clay Pit, the tandoori items they serve are a bland group of soggy veggies that has no sizzle nor aroma. This is blatantly mis-​leading.
Now, all this would be somewhat acceptable in an establishment that charges you $ 5-​$ 7 for an entrée. When you are paying $ 13+ for an entrée, you expect enough quantity and a certain quality.
When you know more than the manager about how the food should be cooked and served, it’s definitely a bad sign. Instead of apologizing for the poor quality, the waiter and manager chose to argue with me; another bad sign. Clay Pit was a huge disappointment, and I would not recommend this place to anyone. Their high prices are just to cover their downtown rent. They’re clearly taking advantage of customers, most of whom don’t know any better.
I do know a very good Indian restaurant in Austin that is comparable in price, but the chef knows what he’s doing. Feel free to comment and I’ll let you the name of the restaurant that gives fantastic rice as much as you want, amazing Naans, and yummy entrees.

Ok first of all, the mussels are the best-​no joke, hands down. The sauce is unbelievable by itself or with rice. We always get the mussels. The mixed grill is actually really good to share as well. I feel like this place cannot go wrong. Yum yum.

I ordered Bhindi Masala with Nan. The service was excellent and I must say the ambiance for an Indian restaurant this was amazing. The food was also perfect. I prefer another way of how okra is cooked but claypit did an excellent job. They also have spiciness level here, Desi Hot being the most hot of them all.

So I’m hard on Indian joints because that’s where I hail from and most places white ppl go (no offense) are watered down. Clay pit has some of that, which is smart business, but they have legit Indian food too — and its REALLY good. It’s rare to find beef dishes at Indian places because Hindus are against eating it — but they have it as an option, and it’s freaking awesome in curry. I absolutely love the beef vindaloo.
A tip to the n00bs — get medium spice. I’m a brown man and overtime I’ve realized ordering hot is a bad idea. Super authentic places don’t give you spice level options, and what they serve is closer to medium than hot. Best Indian food I’ve had in Austin easily.

Really good buffet on the week days only $ 9.00 for some awesome Indian food and complimentary naan. The lassi mango drink with rum is really good but very filling and the menu has some great dishes as well. That being said I only go here for the weekly buffet. The buffet runs from 11am to 2:30pm but well worth trying. I have had a few menu items but most of the stuff on the menu is on the buffet at one point or another. This place has a bunch of cool rooms and even an underground eating area. I’d highly recommend stopping by.

I used to always love this place but i had a horrible experience here and i don’t think I’ll go back. I ordered the samosa chaat and it was extremely cold and came out looking really messy and didnt look like it usually does. I tolerated it but when there were chunks of rice in it i told my waitress and she said it was an indian restaurant and it happens. I continued eating it and then i realized there was a huge chunk of what appeared to be squid or calamari. It was a white rubbery ring and had the texture of calamari. After that i just didn’t touch the food and felt sick to my stomach. I don’t know if they had plated the samosa chaat on a dirty plate but it was gross.

Clay Pit has several large dining rooms fit to accommodate groups. The historic building has the misfortune of drab décor with cheap tile floors and scuffed wooden furniture most likely purchased via auction from a failed chain restaurant. the food was suspiciously served less than five minutes after placing our order. We were presented with two plates of depressing grey colored reheated mushy goop accompanied by microwaved naan.
Not worth it.

Although I finally ate at this restaurant last week, I have been gorging on their Über Eats offering for weeks!
I came during lunch time and although they were pretty busy, our service wasn’t too bad. We did have to remind him about drinks, but since we weren’t in a hurry, it wasn’t a big deal.
During their lunch hour they have a buffet option as well. I didn’t opt for this, but the elections looked delicious. I had my stale Tiki Masala and my friend had a naan wrap. I was actually kind of jealous of how good her wrap looked! They also bring baskets of naan for the table.
Overall food is great and prices are online with the quality.

Yum, yum… yum. Seriously. Coming from a recent mediocre Indian food experience elsewhere, dinner at the Clay Pit was so refreshing. We got a table in the intimate basement, which was really neat. Almost like eating in a cave. I liked it.
The restaurant is pretty large, and it was a busy Saturday night, but we had a reservation for two and got a seat quickly. We ordered the tandoori vegetables and a cucumber salad to start. The vegetables were fragrant, perfectly cooked and delicious. My only complaint is the sheer quantity of onion we were served. It came with a massive chunk of onion that was raw on the inside, so that wasn’t so great, but we gobbled up everything else. The cucumber salad was fresh and tasty.
I ordered the goat saag as my entrée with a side of naan, and my friend got the mixed grill. It was so good, I just wish it would have come with more meat and less sauce. The meat was tender, flavorful and delicious. I had to stop myself from licking the plate. Seriously, I could have eaten until I exploded and it took some serious willpower to stop myself from eating everything in sight. Yum.

I was in Austin for a weekend on business and went to the Clay Pit with a few colleagues. It was very busy, which I took to be a good sign, but in the end this was really a disappointing meal.
Pros:
+ Quite a nice space.
+ Very good service.
+ Reasonably priced drinks
+ The time we were quoted for a table (40 minutes) was accurate.
Cons:
–A little bit hectic and noisy.
— Mediocre, completely forgettable food.
— If you have four levels of spice, the spiciest one should be… spicy. It wasn’t even close.
I’ll definitely pass on this one if I’m ever in town again.

Big open dining room — clay pit has less of a hole in the wall feel and more like an established — here to stay– wooden table, Brick walls, ornate murals, and beautifully framed photos on the walls. That being the type of gem «hole in the wall» styled food is most definitely served here — amazingly spiced and flavorful dishes. Our server Lauren definitely guided me in the right direction with the food clarifying the sauce and what I could expect– actually changed what I was going to order– which I appreciated greatly. Typically servers at Indian restaurants let ya ride with your decisions like «really? Okay…» Lol — It’s my third time here and the service has been fantastic each time– would definitely head in either for their lunch buffet or to enjoy dinner.

Clay Pit is the best. I’ve traveled from London to Houston to Manchester sampling different restaurants’ Tikka Masala, and I’ve never had better than Clay Pit. It is delicious. It’s also really nice that you can adjust the spice-​level to your personal preference — most Indian restaurants take one look at me and crank the heat way down, and that’s no fun (I like my food to have a little kick to it).
The veg samosas here are also amazing, and the wine selection is really good. It’s a great place to catch up with friends and enjoy great food.

Oh Clay Pit. You’re an Austin OG and I dig it. And you’ve held up! Our food here was fresh and good, the atmosphere is great and on some nights, they’ve got salsa happening upstairs. That’s right — salsa.
We had two veggie dishes — a paneer curry and some cauliflower dish. Both were tasty, not mind-​blowing, and reasonably priced. My friend loved her hibiscus tea and I had a bowl of soup that really kind of tasted just like a sauce. It was fine but I wouldn’t waste tummy space on it again.
Their naan tastes fresh and the place is brightly lit, clean and packed all the time. If you’re looking for non-​threatening indian, this is definitely the spot. Sure, you leave smelling like curry but that’s always going to be the case. Expect it and relish it — but maybe don’t eat here if you have to go to a meeting afterward.

The food here was good but not amazing. Probably the best in the UT campus area though. The service was good and the restaurant is a great place for large groups to dine together. Also note, the parking lot is very small. I recommend walking if you live on campus. The drink I got also didn’t have much alcohol on it, it was good but not great. The best thing we ordered was the garlic naan and chicken coconut curry. Please note if you like spicy food you’ll have to increase your normal spicy request by one because their food is not on the normal spice level. I ordered a medium masala paneer and couldn’t taste any of it.

This place has decent food, though I would not call it authentic Indian food by a long shot. For me, the place is overpriced and underwhelming. I ordered the vegetable korma — I generally really appreciate korma’s rich, savory, sinfulness. I got the korma at the *hot* spice level, also.
What I got was nearly an abomination to my palette. Sure, it was rich, but the sauce was crunchy (they did not grind the cashews/​almonds into a fine/​semi-​fine paste in the korma to make it a divine, sinful sauce as one would expect in traditional korma) as they did some half-​assed rough chop of the nuts. This really detracted from the dish as the sauce was not rich enough and the vegetables were overshadowed by me constantly grinding cashews in every bite. Second, despite ordering *hot*, my dish was anything but — rather, I got a dish that bordered sweet.
This place is an elegantly-​presented façade: sure they have a nice atmosphere and service, but the food is not good Indian food by any means.

Food was good, but the only thing that really stood out to me was the heavenly mango cheesecake. The sauce they pour over it is so good, super sweet and fruity.
The naan isn’t the fluffiest or most flavorful I’ve had. The chicken tikka masala was good, but not spectacular. I’ve had better Indian food in Austin, frankly.

This is the best Indian food I’ve had in Austin. They are extremely busy here all the time so prepare to wait around 30 minutes for dinner. We waited at the bar and I ordered the Taj mahal– very sweet and fruity but totally delicious. Bar service was terrible, however. The bar wasn’t even crowded, there were 3 bar tenders, and we were still sitting there forever waiting for them to take our order.
When we finally got seated, the servers took a long time to take our food order. They also took around 40 minutes to bring out the food. I ordered the calamari and the coconut curry plus cheese naan.
The calamari was really good. It wasn’t fried in the super crunchy disgusting batter that other restaurants usually have, but it was a light batter full of spices. The coconut curry was also very good. The cheese naan tasted just like a cheese quesadilla!
I love this restaurant, just be prepared for mediocre service.

I love tikka masala and it makes me so sad that I’m, so far, unable to replicate the delicious restaurant style dish at home. Luckily, Austin has a few great Indian food restaurants and the Clay Pit is one of them.
I’ve been to the Clay Pit twice before and I have to say, the first time I went, I was hesitant. Not sure why, but I was concerned that it wouldn’t have the right spiciness like the indian food I was used to. I was wrong. First off, they have an awesome happy hour. Like I said in my previous tip, it’s only $ 1 off booze, but their drink prices are on the cheaper side, so it ends up being a good deal. Try the Taj Mahal. Not a complicated drink, but really refreshing. I can’t remember what their happy hour is on food, but I want to say it’s half off appetizers. We’ve had the tandoori bites before and they’re awesome.
For the meal, I ordered paneer tikka masala, which was of course fantastic. You can choose your spice level and I went with medium, which was perfect. I also got a side of cream cheese jalapeño naan which was really good too. My friend had the Khuroos-​E-​Tursh specialty dish which is chicken-​breast stuffed with seasoned spinach, cheese, and other wonderful things, topped with a cashew-​almond cream sauce. Oh wow. It was amazing. Not very spicy, since the sauce is more creamy. We also ordered chicken samosas for the table, which were yummy. You get two of them since they’re a pretty decent size.
The food is fabulous, the décor is pretty, happy hour is great, and needless to say, I’ll definitely be back.

Great flavors and great variety.
I came here for lunch buffet and I enjoyed it very much.
I liked all their chicken dishes and even their rice was very tasty.
We came at opening time so there weren’t too many people. I would definitely recommend you to come at opening time to beat the line if you don’t have a reservation.
This place is also great for very large groups.
The pricing is good and the service is great. Even their bathroom is very clean.
I would definitely come back for more.

YUM YUM YUM!
I’ve been to Clay Pit only three times since I’ve been in Austin, which is surprising because this place is amazing. I remember I went here for the lunch buffet one day with some people in my research lab and we never wanted to leave. The food was on point. The ambience was on point. The waiter was on point. Everything was on point. I’m not sure how long the lunch buffet is or when it starts and ends, but you can always call and ask.
I came here the other night for dinner and got the chicken tikka masala, which is a tomato-​based butter cream sauce seasoned with herbs & spices. I also ordered regular naan to complement any leftover sauce. Trust me. if you get a curry dish, I HIGHLY recommend you also order some naan. You’ll thank me later.
If you’ve never had Indian food before, but are interested in trying, I would come here. Please do not go to Teiji’s on The Drag. While Teiji’s is also good, Clay Pit is far far far far more superior in terms of food, ambience and cleanliness.