Vishala Restaurant

A low key restaurant with surprisingly good food. Being Indian, I’m very picky about Indian food and I end up not liking many of the restaurants. We went here on a Thursday evening. The chaat corner was closed at 8pm. We opted for the buffet. It was reasonably priced at $ 11. The curries were flavorful and not too oily. I would recommend to try out this place.

This is by far one of the best Indian restaurants in Houston. Been coming here for the past year and never been disappointed. The décor is not upscale but the food is excellent.

Best Indian/​Vegetarian restaurant I’ve been to, hands down.
My mom has been raving about this place for a while so I thought I’d check it out with her. It’s a small family owned restaurant with plenty of options to choose from. When you enter, you approach the counter and let them know you’d like to have their buffet. They’ll prompt you to their buffet, and you’ll pick up a silver tray and several mini metal bowls to go in (since a lot of the food is liquidy, like lentils). They have fresh roti’s (similar to tortillas) that are delivered to your table for no additional cost, and they are piping hot! They also have another section with other indian snacks (pani puri’s, etc.) that are for an additional cost.
You can definitely taste the authenticity in the food, and the employees frequently check up on you to make sure you’re enjoying your meal, which is nice and thoughtful. The food is fresh, tastes incredible, and has variety.
The restaurant itself isn’t the most fancy looking, but it definitely doesn’t look run down either. This place is truly a hidden gem in Houston. I can’t wait for my next visit!
Pro Tip: Roti’s and dosa’s are included in with the buffet :)

Love the food at Vishala. Everything is so fresh and tasty. We atleast visit here once a month. Very authentic gujrati food. Menu changes daily and roti, dosa, puran poli and bajra roti are provided at no cost. I am sure that whoever tries will not be disapointed.

Unarguably the best Indian food in west part of houston. Woohoo. or atleast their weekend buffet is. A huge variety of dishes and that too never compromising in taste. I looooved their rotis, soft and light. The rotis are by far the best i have had in Texas.
Although I haven’t found their weekday buffet menu enticing. I was blown over by what I found at my disposal this weekend. They have changed a lit from what they were about 6 months back.
A quick word of advice. If you are choosing the buffet. go before 4 pm. The dishes are predominantly prepared in the forenoon and it may not taste great towards the late evening. I have frequented the place in the evenings. That may be one reason I might have found it at par with others earlier.
The place boasts a fully vegetarian menu
The menu had too many items .of course I won’t remember all. but here’s a birds eye view.
1.Sambhar– a slightly sweet vegetable soup from south india to be had with idly aka rice cakes and rice. Was a bit sweet for my palate.
2.Rasam– a hot and sour appetizer. One of the best in city.
3.Around 9 varieties of chutneys and sauces. Red chilli, green chilli, tangy sweet sauce, onion sauce to name a few.
4. Papad. The papad was a bit soggy.
5. Idli aka rice cakes. Tasted great. Soft and in perfect shape.
6. Cut leafy vegetables, carrots and cucumber. You can marinate them with raita and it tastes great
7. Raita. spicy curd with cit veggies. It was thick and yummy. the garam masala was just the right amount.
8.chana masala. Chickpeas were tender. It was passable
9.paneer butter masala– impressive, rich in taste, but not mightily impressed with the quality of paneer used
10. Veggie cutlets– Shaped like a heart, i wouldve loved it if they were spicier.
11. Rava ladoo– sweet amora balls made with ghee and sugar. Yummy delicious
12.Pulao and rice– excellent
12. Dal tarka– Lentils seasoned with spiced oil is exquisite. to be had with the oulao and raita.
13– Kadhi — spiced yogurt and fried gram flour mix. these either have die hard fans or haters. unfortunately i am a hater
14.Cut watermelons, and fruit salads with custard.
15. Puranboli — This sweetbread stuffed with palm jaggery will impress you the first time, it stuffs you up as well at the same time.
There were some more which i do not recollect .
Apart from this they also sell various combo of dishes in packages, like a 3 gravy rice and sweet combo. you can essentially pick and pack. price ranges from 7 to 10 dollars for the combos.
Pros
1. Quick, clean, tasty fare
2. Their Rotis are great
3.Good service
4. Weekday menu remains a bit unreliable on selected items.
Cons
1. As evening progresses some of the slow moving dishes may lose freshness and texture
2.Their chaat servings was a huge let down.
Verdict: Must try and definitely better than choices available in famed little india/​hillcroft

Great, and getting better by the day it seems.
It’s a bit of a drive for us to get to Vishala’s, but we make it out anyway because the food here is so good, and you get a lot of it. We get the buffet, but it’s very tasty and unique, and they have a lot of offerings that I’ve never encountered before in other Indian restaurants, buffet or no. Tasty chutney, and amazing pickles too — we even bought a tub to take home on one visit, part of a failed scheme to reverse engineer it so we could have it on demand.
We just paid them a return visit and they’ve expanded the offerings, with even more dishes to choose from now, especially on weekends. We tried to try everything, but began to worry that our tummies might rupture. But everything we did have was great. Again, a lot of tasty dishes that aren’t encountered in other places.
Bonus — the management said they’re seriously looking into expanding into my part of Houston. They took my advice, before I even had a chance to give it to them!
Side note: We’ve shopped at the grocery store here too, and they seem to have everything you need to venture into the exciting world of Indian cooking.
Vegetarian, but meat lovers, trust me – you won’t care. Have a go at it.

This is a great place to eat Gujarati food, which is sweeter than other Indian cuisines. The food is always fresh and hot. The buffet is a bargain compared to other places. The menu changes daily. The rotis here are fresh and some of the best I’ve had.

We went there for lunch for Sunday buffet. Waited by the counter to find out how it worked. The lady at the counter ignored us for a couple minutes. went to another table and than again went in the kitchen And came back. Not a good start… But nonetheless when she returned I asked excuse me and asked her how the buffet worked. We were told to take the vegetables and curries and rice and the roti and poori would be brought to the table. No eye contact, no acknowledgement…
Anyways, We got our plates and waited for over 5 minutes for pooris/​rotis. The vegetable were a far cry from authentic indian flavor. the dal/​sambhar were decent but sweetened and so was the yogurt curry. The vegetable kolhapuri had no flavor.
Unfortunately my kids came out hungry and we did not enjoy the food at all. We went in with high expectations of a good vegetarian meal — with all the great reviews. We will never go back again. .very disappointed.

Cannot believe I haven’t reviewed Vishala yet. This all-​vegetarian buffet is delicious, and a bargain at only $ 7.99 (since other buffets in the area are charging double that). There aren’t as many choices as you may be used to, but the selection changes daily, and I’ve never had anything I didn’t enjoy.
The breads here are especially delicious, plus you can pick up groceries next door when you’re done eating.
I don’t know that I can improve upon what Alison Cook has already said about Vishala, so I’ll just post the link to her review:

The Sambar alone was worth the drive outside the county line. My county line, not theirs. I left Harris county to go eat Indian food. It was a buffet, and I’d read several good things about the restaurant portion of the grocery store from a couple of sources.
Who went? Nerdy*, Freakazoid, and Cray-​Cray. We three love Indian food, and would travel many, many miles to follow a lead.
The Sambar was spicy and aromatic. Oh, it smelled wonderful. It was full of cloves and bay leaves, and the broth was fantastic and thick. Of everything on my plate, I think it was number one. Although, the green lentil curry was pretty spicy and savory, too. I had added a small scoop of beet-​stained rice to my thali tray, and the olive green colored curry was gorgeous against the beet colored rice.
The creamy soup, Kahdi, is a sort of gravy. A bit spicy, and a little sour (yogurt added); perfect spooned over your basmati rice. Or my dark purple/​pink rice.
We arrived at an odd hour, so when we walked in, the staff was eating, but were very welcoming and accommodating. We were shown to the roti on our way up to the buffet table, and off we went filling our katori (thali bowls) with curries and soups.
As well as the above, tried a saffron colored cabbage dish (also very pretty with the my rice) and a slightly sweet chickpea curry. There was also a salad with beets, cabbage, and pomegranate seeds that was right up my alley. It helped cut through some of the heat emanating from the dishes on my thali tray.
We were also brought (once the staff finished their meal) Poli (a flat bread stuffed with ground, sweet lentils), which was excellent dipped in my Sambar and Kahdi. It was spread with ghee, so I was a happy not so crazy camper.
There was also a whipped yogurt dessert with almond shavings and cardamom sprinkled on top. Amazing and dense. (Not slow on the uptake dense — just to clarify.)
*I want to point out the Nerdy wasn’t the only nerdy one in our group, but you don’t want to mess with Freakazoid as she’s a little crazy, and Cray-​Cray has full (almost) control over the content of this report. Essentially Nerdy got the name because Nerdy was the only fully (almost) sane one of the three of us. Default.

Oh, wow.
I can’t say that I’m well-​versed in Indian food (or versed at all), but I DO know that I liked it (!). Nearly EVERYTHING was very flavorful. It’s a buffet, too, so needless to say, my girlfriend and I got food-​wasted (that’s really not like us, though^_^;;.it was just that interesting). Make sure that you’re clear about the different breads that they have; blindly agreeing will get you one when you meant the other (see Nikunj S.‘s review for the names of the breads; I really enjoyed the rotli with everything I had). The ladies were really nice, and seemed willing to explain how things worked. It’s also an Indian grocery store; the restaurant entrance is on the right side, if you don’t wish to walk through the store.
I’d visit again. If you’re in the mood for something different/​interesting, I suggest that you give this place a try. Judging by the reviewers who are accustomed to Indian cuisine, this seems to be a good start.

Super spicy food. When it was brought to their notice, They did not even try to fix the problem. Rather, they blamed us. Customers from other tables also complained about spicy food but they did not pay any attention to them either.

This is my review for the restaurant side of Vishala. I consider it the best Gujarati food around. And Unilocal lists 5 other places, but no Vishala. Gujarat is a state in western India. Gujaratis like me, hail from this state. Gujarati food is what I am reviewing. The food is tasty, hot and fresh. Today the buffet had the typical sweets, savories, entrees, soups, rice, breads and condiments.
Gujaratis eat bread first. Rice is eaten with daal or kadhi. Vegetable entrees, plain yogurt or other lentil preparations may also go well with white rice. Roasted or fried, plain or spiced up papads made from moong or udad flour are served throughout the meal. They may be plain or have various flavors by blending black pepper, garlic and other flavorful seeds in the flour.
The following is a partial list of items we had tonight.
Sweet — Mango ras.
Savory — Paatraa.
Entrée — Bhinda.
Entrée — Moong.
Entrée — Spicy Potatoes
Entrée — Toor daal.
Entrée — Kadhi.
Breads — the kitchen sent out hot off the griddle rotlis, rotlas, puris & puran polis
rotli = whole wheat thin unleavened tortilla
rotla = millet bread
puri = whole wheat puffy fried bread
puran = sweet lentil filling
poli = puran stuffed sweet bread served with ample ghee
ghee (sounds like dinghy) = clarified homemade butter
White rice
A note about condiments. In India pickles do not mean a kind of cucumber marinated in different ways. It means a myriad of preparations. An Indian pickle could be made of one or more of raw mango, lemon, onion, black pepper, ginger, Indian capers and other local items.
Pickles can be mild or hot. Tart, sweet or salty. Every pickle has its taste tickler presence with different foods. Irrespective of region or cuisine, pickles are perhaps the most important accompaniment for any Indian meal. Simple accompaniments could be onions, carrots, cucumbers. Garlic, tamarind and date, cilantro and hot pepper chutneys are quite common. Raita, a plain yogurt based dip can be made of onions, cucumber, carrots or tomatoes.
Often in Gujarati homes, a fresh hot accompaniment is made with diced cucumbers, bell peppers and carrots. A little oil with black mustard seeds, turmeric and chili powder spices up this fresh preparation.
All these delicious items for dinner were a feast. On a personal note, my wife and I will eat a couple of rotlis and one vegetable entrée for a typical dinner at home. We may eat a daal and white rice if we wish. So once in a while, we like to treat ourselves and here is where we come. At $ 7.99 for lunch or dinner, this is mom’s kitchen and it is called Vishala.

I’m not sure of the dishes that I tried, however my husband and I loved everything.
The soup made with yogurt was similar to Tom Kaa Kai (Thai coconut soup without the chicken of course). The stir fried sweet potato, gourd mixture was delicious and spicy. The stir fried okra was surprisingly not slimy at all! Even my husband ate it!
We did the take-​away option and ordered extra roti (minus the butter/​oil put on it).
I came recently for the buffet option, which I would highly recommend just so you experience the fresh roti experience (three different kinds, one almost like a dessert with a sweet filling). The service is very friendly.

Good inexpensive vegetarian buffet. Food felt fresh and tasted good.

The decoration might be tacky. However, do not judge this book by it’s cover. The buffet is delicious. The buffet is reasonably priced. They are constantly bringing out fresh hot bread.
Not to mention it’s not often as a vegetarian you can go into a buffet and eat with your hearts content.
A mild warning, I am not Indian or Pakistani. The staff isn’t able to communicate very well in English. The signs above the food lacks a description of what the food is actually made of. So, only people who are willing to sample and try with abandon should come.

Review for the Restaurant only :
We did a take-​away for the $ 6.99 sunday buffet. For the price we got a choice of 2 curries (we chose Undhiyo and Chana masala) + 4 Rotis + Dal/​Kadhi and Rice. They also have an option for $ 8.99 to add farsan and sweets.
The Undhiyo was MINDBLOWING. I took a bite and closed my eyes. I was transported back to my aunt’s home in Gujrat. Flavourful, authentic and absolutely scrumptious.
The chapatis were like mom-​made. Very soft and non-​greasy.
Dal — authentic Gujrati which is traditionally a little sweet, with peanuts.
We also took Puran polis which were made fresh on order. For those craving authentic Indian meal, this place is as good as it gets.

This review is for the restaurant only.
The restaurant is a lunch and dinner buffet, but unlike most other buffets where the food is old and dry – this buffet is absolutely scrumptious and fresh. It is like a smaller version of Bhojan. All the standard Indian– Gujarati dishes that are vegetarian. They do have an ala-​carte menu for «chaat» (Indian street side snacks) for less than $ 4.
The buffet is $ 7.99 and that includes freshly made breads (puri, roti, etc) that they bring out to you while you are eating. The service is always friendly. They allow you to do a take out from their buffet for $ 6.99, which is really convenient for me.