Punjabi Dhaba

What can I say it was the best experience best service best food and best atmosphere… Bottom line Bottom ups for Punjabi Dhaba… The best next Indian Restaurant in Central Valley.

Authentic Indian food! Their saag was incredible. Awesome taste!.. Chicken curry was mouth watering. Good staff and excellent service. A must try place!

Absolutely the best in Fresno. The Parantha’s are amazing with Lassi and dahi. A must stop by place. Great service with great taste of Punjabi food.

Fantastic find! Good value, authentic and tasty. Don’t be fooled by the unusual location. It’s a delightful, casual spot.

Best indian food in Fresno? NO, yet definitely one of my favorites; the experience of eating here feels authentic and genuinely indian, and the food is very tasty, bona fide indian and unique tasting to its own family recipe– Im glad I tried it and I would be back for more. Its just an exit away on CA-​99, perfect pit stop for those traveling on this freeway and hungry for good fresh food. Call and order 20 – 30 minutes ahead to save time; they start serving all their meals as early as 9am (breakfast anyone). They accept major credit and debit card, and they have their own safe private parking lot. This place seems isolated and almost randomly out of nowhere, but rest assure you are safe here.
Key Items to order, mango lassi and naan. I would recommend anyone in for an indian experience to try this place, they serve their dishes in stainless steal plates, while their lassi in a stainless steel drinking glass. Their prices is also fairly low for an indian restaurant.
The freshness of their food, their homey hospitality and their exterior and interior that makes you feel like you just stepped into India– maybe the ghetto part of India, but still, if you want the authentic ethnic indian feel, this place does it really well. The ambience is not divey as I was expecting, it was actually decent, clean and air conditioned, yet don’t expect classy or amazing either, like I said ghetto part of India. I was impressed that they actually used glass for water, and their service was top notched, with water being filled through out by an adorable indian server. If your a diva, taking out would be a better option for you.
Their special thali $ 9.99 was actually a great deal and served on a stainless steel divided plate, and highly recommended if it was your first time, because you get to try bit of everything. The thali had basmati rice, raita, black dhal, goat curry (choice of chicken curry and chicken tikka is also an option The meal also comes with plain naan. Overall the meal was really good. The rice was fluffy but slightly on the dry side, not moist as I like it to be, the goat curry was delicious and flavorful, but lacked meat, lots of bones, yet this is expected because goat hardly does have meat to begin with, so can’t blame them, I would recommend chicken curry instead for first timers. While the raita was very refreshing, the dhal was so flavorful and well seasoned with spices, was not spicy. The naan, is just heavenly, the best I’ve tasted so far in Fresno, it was fluffy and the bread was just so soft yet perfectly chewy.
The mango lassi $ 3.50 is just delicious, not too sweet, and very refreshing. What made it special was the stainless steel drinking glass it was served in, kept it nice and cold and made it feel so authentic like in india.
Their samosas was just really nice ands crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. However the filling inside was not as flavorful as I like it to be, maybe because the masala was not the best I’ve tasted, but it was still above average.
The owner was just so passionate to make sure I enjoyed and was satisfied with my meal, and I appreciate that. He really explained the menu well too. I would recommend ordering ahead if your in a rush, because some dishes takes 30 – 40 minutes to prepare. Im a fan and I would be back for more.

I used to frequent this place very often it was my favorite Dhaba. I would drive all the way from North Fresno just at his place because they had the freshest best food. I ordered to mixed veggie sub to you as usual and went to pick it up and got all the way home and it was old stare spicy and very burnt tasteless I would not recommend this place only for the sheer fact that I’m pretty sure they don’t make fresh food daily because I can tell what fresh food is. This was so old and so carelessly put together I probably might have gotten sick if I ate it

THE ABSOLUTE BEST INDIAN FOOD I’VE TASTED!!! Out in the middle of nowhere and doesn’t look special from the outside but is very nice on the inside. Super friendly staff.

As good as I remember. Love this place. The mango lassi is delicious and my favorite samosa chana is still amazing. Can’t drive through Fresno without a stop at this hidden gem!

Gotta give this place another 5 stars because I made a mistake and called them when I went to pick up food at another restaurant. They called me back, concerned about my order, and we cleared things up. They weren’t upset about the money but were worried about the food which is totally understandable. Very polite customer service. And I feel really bad about the mix up! So glad I had already given them a 5 star rating.

Great food (even the water tasted good). Very nice people. We tried the Butter Curry and the Chicken Curry. The flavor was spectacular and it packed a little heat. I would have liked to see lamb on the menu, but the most exotic meat was goat. There are certain items that take a half hour to prepare, so I’d recommend calling them before you get there.

I was debating whether to give this place a 3 or 4 stars. Truthfully, it’s a 3.5 stars but it makes sense to round up since I really did like the food.
When you drive to this restaurant look for where a bunch of trucks are congregated because this place is right next to their rest stop. The exterior is very unassuming so you might miss it. Parking was easy in their lot. The place is a bit run down so don’t expect much for ambiance. You are strictly here for the food.
After we sat down, we were given menus to peruse. I was set on ordering chicken tikka masala because that’s my default order at Indian restaurants. However, upon trying to place the order I was told it would take 40 minutes to prepare because they make everything fresh upon ordering. I guess that’s good except it seems rather inefficient and would hinder selling a lot of the items on the menu since most people don’t want to wait 40 minutes for their food. The man taking our order said to call in next time if we already know what we want so they can start cooking it ahead of time. Fair enough I suppose.
Because we were all starving we decided to go with the butter chicken lunch special (my boyfriend wanted to order chicken curry but was told the butter chicken is much better. If you want to order chicken curry with the special that is an option). The special comes with butter chicken, rice, either mixed veggies or lentils, yogurt with chickpeas, some red onions and a pepper, and a naan. They were all delicious! I preferred the mixed veggies over the lentils but both are good choices.
For the naan, we wanted onion and garlic naans instead of plain naans that came with the special. I liked the garlic naan more than the onion naan. Definitely order that. Here’s where a misunderstanding occurred. After requesting those naans, the guy said it wasn’t included in the special and would «cost a little bit more». We took this to mean that the price difference between onion/​garlic naans and plain naans would be added to our bill. That was fine by us. Instead, upon receiving our check, we saw we were charged the full price of the onion/​garlic naans on top of the full price of the lunch specials which included plain naan. The issue is that if the onion/​garlic naans were charged as a complete separate order then we should have also received those plain naans because our cost total would have been the same. Even though we were confused and a bit displeased about the mix up we were going to pay for the meal anyway but would be more careful about clarifying about our orders in the future. The guy (Johnny? I’m bad with names, sorry) listened to us and took off a part of our check as compensation. He even declined the tip we offered him. He said he wanted us to leave happy. That was a very kind thing to do and we appreciated it greatly.
We will be back but maybe next time call in our orders. Hah!

Excellent food! Tried goat curry, butter chicken, shahi paneer, kadhi and desi murgh. Strongly recommended for good food and super nice owner.

Been coming here for almost 2 years now and I can’t believe I haven’t given them a review. This place is fantastic! Awesome Indian food. The goat curry is so good, perfect blend of heat and spice, and the naan, oh the naan! It’s the best! So freaking good!

What a surprise! Me and my family were returning from vacationing in high Sierra mountains — back to LA and we thought we could stop to eat some Indian food along the way. Looked up Unilocal and this was the nearest Indian food joint. I had hard time locating it and it’s near a dumpy old gas station. The whole place has a rusty and forlorn look and filled with truck stops and garages. But — once you get inside the restaurant, it is pretty fine. Not fine by the fine restaurant standards, but fine for the street and the gas station standards.
The real surprise is the food. AUTHENTIC Indian food ONLY! the place, the food, the service — everything deserves nothing short than five stars! Folks — this is what authentic Northern Indian food tastes like. Not some watered down crap that they feed you at some upscale restaurants! This is simply the best Indian food I have had this side south California ! Simply the best — so much so that I asked the manager if he plans to open up another restaurant in LA or any plans of expansion. Turns out he was a garage /​truck stop owner and does the side business of restaurant ! I am disappointed in the fact that I will have the luxury of eating their food only when I am traveling between LA to Fresno /​SFO when I am on I-​5. Sigh.
But to those who are staying in Fresno — guys you have the best tasting Indian food available in a restaurant !! Enjoy!

3^rd time trying Indian food and this place has been the best. Good food and great service.

Don’t expect too much Restaurant type ambiance. Though the backyard has the feel of authentic Indian Dhaba with Khaat and benches. I would say try Kadhi, Dal Makhani and Square shaped paratha with less oil.
We were also looking for a great gossip with friends. But later Mr. Kaley (seems to be owner of the dhaba) joined us and suddenly we were discussing Khatauli, Saharanpur, Faridabad, Gurgaon… so overall food is extraordinary.

Terrible terrible Indian Food!!! This is the worst Indian restaurant that I have ever been in my life. I ordered chicken curry for me and Goat curry for my daughter. The food came super SPICY!!! Impossible to eat, I asked the waitress why you did not give me a warning me about that? She said is always like that there is nothing that I can do. I tried to eat the goat curry and found out that 80% were bones!!! We left and went to eat far away from there. Do not waste your money.

Right down the street from work, otherwise I would’ve never known it was there. SO GOOD! A little pricey but good portions and amazing, friendly service!

I really wanted authentic punjabi chicken curry, this place had the same type of curry as most mediocre indian restaurants in town. The gravy was lumpy and not well seasoned. Disappointed.

For my first time ever trying Indian cuisine, I chose the right place. The lady at the counter was exceptionally helpful and suggested a combination plate that consisted of Daal, Saag, Shahi Paneer, Garlic Naan and Rice. If you are vegetarian this is an excellent place to go for take out. I seen other comments mentioning it is not the best place for dining in or a date and that is true. For a quick lunch by yourself or with a friend it is not bad. The Shahi Paneer turned out to be my favorite and I just had to go back the next day for lunch. What a gem!