Lava Indian & Pakistani Bistro

I really want to like Lava. I want to love it, even. I went 3 times shortly after it opened. The lunch buffet was not bad, and the service was friendly. I went twice for dinner — the first time, it took forever to get the food, but it was good once it arrived. The second time, I swear I was eating sashimi chicken. That chicken was not cooked. Reading other reviews pointing to the same issue sadly doesn’t make me want to go back. BUT I WANT TO LOVE YOU AND YOUR FOOD. And what’s with the HORRIBLE décor? I would never go back at night. At least in the daytime there is light from outside instead of from those piercing track lights. Why did you paint over the old Mangiare walls for this? Please, please, please, do something about the under-​cooked meat and the uninspiring «design». Let me love you again!

When you in the SF area and craving Indian for lunch… This place is a little hole in the wall with great food for less… Love their Chicken Tikka Masala and Naan.

Went in for a lunch buffet. Small but decent selection of curries with naan and basmati rice. Nothing too fancy, but tasty. Pretty simple décor, lots of seating.

I will start by saying I haven’t had Indian food in years but we find this place by chance. It wasn’t crowded surprisingly so it made me a little apprehensive. But it was amazing. Just delicious. The décor isn’t designer and leaves you to wonder but the food was good enough to come back for again. Super reasonable prices at $ 11 – 14 on average. YUM

I have been here with my friends and ordered some biryani it was like some sambar rice with tomato and some shit in it. There service was worst I have ever been through. we ordered lamb too it felt like I was chewing a gum.
My best suggestion is better starve then going to some bull shit place like this.
Hope my review saves some ones life and time and money too.

Dear reader, learn from our mistakes (failure to read these reviews before venturing to this place). DO NOT EAT AT THIS RESTAURANT. IT IS A RIPOFF. The only thing missing from the sordid experience was getting sick from the food… and I’m not sure if I’m out of the woods yet… it may have a delayed, sickening effect.
AVOID AT ALL COSTS… PLEASE!!!

With my wife, we entered around noon a Saturday. Very friendly and helpful staff, they have a lunch buffet, which we tried. Each and every food was so fresh, delicious and tasteful. They also have Indian tea included. This was by far better than lots of other restaurant experience we have had recently. My wife reminded me to write an excellent review and definitely recommend all who can to try it.

I am always satisfied when eating here. I usually grab take out. Flavors are great and they give good size servings. The mixed salad is great for a starter.

Delicious food. Lamb curry for daaaays!

Good is great location is also great! The employees are friendly. This is a great way to lace for families or an evening out with friends. Great prices and huge portions of food and meat. Batted homemade a extremely fresh. Will definitely eat there again
*** update****
Have made lava my new go to Indian restaurant and have eaten there at least 1 time a week in the last 6 months. Food portion is always consistent and actually seems like it tastes better ever time I’m there.

I ordered take out here after hard work on Friday night. I love Indian curry, but I’m sorry I can’t say I’d recommend this place. Lamb was undone, didn’t get rid of smell… Veg curry was missing and naan was best thing of all. May be I ordered wrong dish…

This is my favorite Indian restaurant, period!
I have gone here and ordered take-​out many times, and it’s consistently AMAZING .
The service is EXCELLENT and the food is even BETTER !
I highly recommend the chicken tikka masala, the chicken biryani and the garlic naan .
YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED

I get delivery and it arrives on time and hot. The food is reasonably priced that why I order it, but it’s not the greatest. I’ve had some really great Indian food, so I would say a three star rating is about accurate in comparison to some of the other places I’ve tried. The people that work there seem really nice and they even included a free rice pudding with my order. I will continue to get delivery from there for those lazy days you don’t want to go out and don’t want pizza or Chinese.

Damn this place is SHAAADY! I ordered through GrubHub (largely based on the moderate reviews here so pay no mind) and was kind of bummed that I had to wait an hour for my food given how close this place is to my house. But no big deal, I waited until my dogs started going crazy barking. I opened the door and downstairs is a man, standing outside his car and just staring at me, majorly creeping it real. Finally he said something about delivery and that he called like ten times. Umm, I had my phone in my hand the whole time, I never received a single call. At this point, I’m starving and just want my food so he finally gets moving and gets the bags out of the car. I go inside and start checking on what’s in the bag and within 30 seconds find out that there’s no rice to go with my chicken tikka masala. I hope you never have to suffer through the disappointment that is craving indian food, waiting for it for an hour and having it arrive with no rice, it’s soul crushing. So I run out after the driver who’s leaving and manage to stop him and yell at him from my porch that there’s no rice. He tells me everything is there, to which I say, not the rice sir! So he makes a phone call and eventually comes back to give me $ 2 in cash, the price of a side of rice. I was hoping he’d give me rice but oh well, I guess I’ll scramble through my cupboards.
So here’s the fun part. I start opening the foil in which the naan is wrapped and realize that they only gave me plain naan when I ordered Keema naan. So I decide to call the restaurant. I explained the situation to the man on the phone and right away he tells me that they «remember including the keema naan in my order.» I say that this memory does me no good since I only have plain naan on my plate. He then asked about the rice and if the driver gave me the $ 2 back to which I said yes, but that was before I opened the foil with the naan. Suddenly, he seems in a hurry to get rid of me and says quickly that next time I come in or order online they’ll credit me. To this, i say that I don’t think there’ll be a next time considering the strange delivery guy and the messed up order. So then he says ok, thank you and hangs up on me! I immediately call back and go «hi I’m the person you just hung up on» and he goes «oh, I thought you said bye.» WTF? Really? So at this point it’s about principle and while in most other cases I would have not wasted my time for $ 4 worth of naan these people are out of control. So I tell him that they effectively owe me money and i want a refund and he rudely says that I have to call Grubhub to get my refund. Ok fine, so I did. The customer support person from Grubhub seemed put off since typically you contact the restaurant for a refund. She called the restaurant and then had to call them back again after checking the price of the naan because the folks at Lava only offered to refund me half of what it actually costs. She then apologized profusely for them being such gaping a-​holes and not wanting to speak to me directly.
Long story short, this place ruined my dinner and left a bad taste in my mouth. Someone needs to teach them what it means to be in a customer service oriented industry. Shady as all hell and the food quality is kind of below average.

Food was pretty good. But I didn’t appreciate them asking for a tip. I ordered from eat 24 and I had instructions to my door which they did not follow.
U shouldn’t ask for tips because my response will be «keep praying, pray to God»

I get delivery from here through EAT 24 about once a month and I have a love –hate relationship with this place! The restaurant is super close so the food is always here in 15 minutes from when I place my online order, which is great! The Chicken Tikka Masala always gives me a stomach ache for a day but it’s so yummy I continue to order from here! Be sure to order some flavored Naan. Also, they always include a free Kheel dessert with each delivery which is another nice bonus!
The store front is kind of depressing looking and empty, but I recommend this place for delivery!

At first I was skeptical as the atmosphere bland and the Buffett looked very limited
To my surprise it was Authentic Indian food and very good for a Buffett!

My mom and I went here on a whim for the lunch buffet on a Saturday and were disappointed by the food quality. The service was friendly enough, but we walked to the counter and paid before going to the buffet, so the service wasn’t really important.
First of all, the naan is served in one of the buffet steamers instead of fresh, so it was soggy instead of crispy and fresh. Most of the dishes tasted a little fishy, which made me wonder if the fish had been cooked in the same thing as everything else or something. The chicken tikka was flavorless. There were literally no spicy items. The best thing on the buffet, in my opinion, was the chicken jalfrezi, but that was also mediocre.
There was chai on tap, which was kind of nice, but that also lacked in flavor. There was a dessert, too, which is something, I guess. I didn’t try it, but my mom liked it.
The price was right, at about $ 10 a person. Overall, this seemed like a place to get lunch if you needed a lot of lunch quickly and didn’t care too much about the quality.

Last minute craving Indian food… but didn’t want to drive far… wanted a parking lot. usually I would drive to naan and curry on Irving or downtown sf.but.now this is going to be my to go place. We cruised into the parking lot. my dad saw a Vietnamese phở place so instead we went to check out the phở spot… they said sorry only to go… so back out we went… walked to the door at 8:46…and to my surprise they welcomed us and served us right away… we were in and out by 9:20…we ordered the lava lamb, tikka paneer, lamb naan, pander naan, side of rice, and mango lassi… great service… yum food and lots of selection of veggies for next time I come. I will try the $ 9.99 lunch buffet…

Love that this place is walking distance from my work ! Keep in mind, it’s in Brisbane which is a really small town tucked away between South San Francisco, Daly City and, SF. I was not expecting to see such a crowd but maybe all the SSF biotech companies made their way over.
Anyways, I stopped by for their lunch buffet with some of my coworkers. There were about 10 choices in food along with a dessert choice, chai, and naan. Out of everything I tried, my favorite would have to be their chicken tikka masala. It was sooo rich and creamy, I couldn’t get enough of it. I thought their tandoori chicken was pretty good too. Most places overcook their chicken but this was still perfectly moist. They also had saag, eggplant dish, and daal. It was all good but I thought the saag could have used more spices. Lastly, I finished all the meal with some chai. But sadly, the chai was a let down. It tasted very watered down and no spices at all.
For 10 dollars all you can eat, this place is pretty good. I would definitely come back for their tikka masala and some naan. Also, you could also get the buffet to go and fill up a box which I thought was pretty neat.