Sitar Indian Cuisine

Very tasty! Not the cleanest, and the service suffers from being understaffed. But the food is well worth it.

Sitar Huntsville was not great. They have horrible service and are not attentive to patrons. They stand at the front on their phones and ignore you until you get up to ask them something. I enjoy the stars in Birmingham and Chattanooga but I wouldn’t waist my time here in Huntsville again.

I’ve had Indian food once since moving to HSV and was sorely disappointed so I was apprehensive when a friend raved about Sitar. Before heading to lunch, I did a quick look at the Unilocal reviews and found a wide divide between the people who loved it and the people who rated it poorly. Despite this divide, I still had lunch with my friend. Unfortunately, the poor ratings were dead on. Due to time constraints, I went with the buffet versus ordering off the menu. Before I put a single item on my plate, the first item on the line was fried rice. Fried rice? Really? I shook my head in disbelief and went through the line grabbing a little bit of everything to find something good. I finished the first plate and went back for round two. My primary takeaway from my dining experience: blandness. Indian food is known for its amazing flavors and textures. Sitar doesn’t come close to doing Indian food justice. As for all of you who love Sitar, I challenge you to find a highly rated Indian restaurant in a big city to see what real Indian food is truly like. The flavors and textures found at a good Indian restaurant will blow you away. I’m not being disrespectful to anyone … I’ve had real Indian food and Sitar isn’t it. It’s not even close. Giving Sitar the benefit of the doubt, their meals to order might be better but I’ll never know because I won’t be back. The one positive? The staff. They were very friendly and refilled our drinks quickly.

This review is for the lunch buffet. Maybe some people like it mild, but for me it was too mild, not hot nor spicy enough, not what I was expecting when I go for Indian food. I think huntsville foodies are more adventurous than that. The buffet food was also on the cold side.
Service was good and restaurant was clean. I think dinner will be better as you can order freshly made dishes to your spiciness level.

nice place, vegan options, tandoori chicken, sag, Lamb Vindaloo, chicken korma and goat curry. lunch buffet is offered 7 days-​a-​week, 11 till 2 I think, where you can sample it all.

Had Sitar for the first time! Loved it! We ordered the combination plate and the lamb is the best lamb curry I have ever had. The vegetable curry was just as great. The naan was perfect and wish I ordered some to take home. Will definitely have to check out the lunch buffet soon!

Walked into this place as an out of town visitor, they told us to sit down for the buffet at about 2:18 pm. The buffet area is a little soiled with food droppings, we did not let that deter us and decided to give it a try anyway. The food was lukewarm, but still flavorful. Because we were so hungry we still decided to stay. Not 3 bites after sitting down with our food the waiter comes to say they are closing the buffet and that we could get more food before they break it down. This is said to us with full plates of lukewarm food. Had we gotten extra just in case it would have been cold food. We ask why they did not mention this to us before we decided to do the buffet. He did not seem to understand. So we asked for the manager. We explained that we are from out of town, not aware of their buffet times, and would have appreciated them telling us when we walked in that the buffet was soon closing. With a shrug he says in so many words that we can just not eat the food and leave it. So we did, quite frustrated and utterly disappointed. I had been in town for 2 days and chose this as the place I wanted to make sure I got to try before I left. Needless to say I will never be back.

I am a fan of Indian food and these folks do it right. The garlic naan pairs well with everything and the bone in goat is a must eat fo sho. I have had most of what’s on the menu and would eat any of it again in a New York minute!!!

Sitar is a Huntsville legend and easily the best stop for Indian food. What it lacks in ambiance, and believe me it is quite sparse and dated, it makes up for in food and service.
First of all the portions here are HUGE! Seriously there is little on the menu you couldn’t split. The masala is tasty but runs mild. Ask for hot or extra hot if you like spice. The naan is toasted on real charcoal, yum!
But what I love most is the service. Our water glasses were filled after almost every sip, the manager brought us to go boxes without us even asking and even brought us a bag to take everything home.
Class. Pure class. Thanks guys!

Amaaaaazing Indian food. In my opinion, the positive reviews are right on. Their naan is delicious, probably the best I’ve had.
I always get the chicken makhani, which is amazing. It’s better known to some as butter chicken and is delicious. The sauce is really flavourful, lots of tomato flavour but not acidic. Every time I order it, the order is somehow bigger than the time before, despite it coming in the same serving dish as always. I swear they’re somehow sneaking in extra chicken through some secret tunnel or something, because every time I come here I’m always beyond starving so that’s not the issue. The rice is good too, very fresh. And I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the papadum is great too, and I usually am not a fan. It comes with a mint chutney and these marinated onions that are great, nice and sweet and not at all spicy.
The service is also great, very attentive and polite but without hovering. Any time I needed something my waiter was always close by, but I wasn’t being pestered constantly throughout my meal. The restaurant itself is also nice and clean and pretty busy. Everything tasted freshly made and not like it’d been sitting out or reheated.
Also as a tip, they do offer delivery which is a bonus. I’ve never done it so I can’t review it, but it’s a nice perk.

Went here once for the lunch buffet and it was good. I don’t know Indian food so I can’t speak to how is stacks up. The place seemed a little dirty and the wait staff was nonexistent.

Updated review from 1.5 years ago. The food was a bit better than previously. Still very mild on the spice level. Good «introductory» Indian food for those new to the cuisine or for those who prefer mild flavors.
Noticeably fewer customers. Staff of 3 men looked bored standing by the register. There’s a fine line between keeping an eye on the dining room and glaring at diners while they eat. I felt like I was being watched and it was uncomfortable.
Would’ve gotten 4 stars for the food, with a note that it is all lightly spiced. Lost 2 stars for staff and for the long black hair I found in the cabbage. Lunch buffet and water came to $ 9.80, which is $ 1.20 more than last year.

Dont wast your money. This place sucks. Food is nasty, Glasses were dirty. Dingy place.

Was not a big fan of previous ownership… the food did not taste good at all. The experience was a little different this time.

This is the first time I had ever had Indian food, so I don’t have much to go by.
In my opinion, everything needed more salt, but it was good. I had the curry chicken with an order of garlic naan, which was basically garlic bread that needed salt. The food wasn’t bad, but I probably wouldn’t eat there again. The restaurant didn’t seem the cleanest, the staff was polite though.

I just got into Huntsville and was winging it for dinner. I was in the mood for Indian. The best things about Sitar were the service and price. I got their famous plate who’s name escapes me. I found the food pretty boring. The flavors did not stand out. The amount of food was more than you could eat so go hungry or you’ll have leftovers. They have a Unilocal coupon which is great. In the end it is about the food and I am not easily satisfied so I have to give this place a thumbs down.

I do not know how this place gets so many 4 – 5 star ratings. The last few times I had eaten here the food was very bland. A few weeks ago, while dining with friends, I ordered the curry «spicy» so I could possibly consume something more tasty than a canned or jarred store-​bought curry. That was a mistake! It was so spicy it was inedible. I was charged for it even though I ate only a spoonful. No effort was made to remake or even an offer. The only reason I stopped in tonight was because Saffron on County Line was closed. Again… the curry was bland, the Aloo Gobi was floating in oil and terribly under seasoned, and the Roti was doughy.
I was asked by my server, «how were thing?» and I replied, «not so good». I went on to explain how disappointed I was in the flavor and how under spiced everything was. I also explained that I have made a much better Curry at home. He simply giggled and kept saying, «yes sir… yes sir… hahaha, O.K. sir, thank you sir… Your bill comes to $ 25.45, sir». Ridiculous! No apologies, no «let me get the manager», no what can we do differently…
I definitely will not be eating here again. I will only patronize the other Indian restaurants that offer flavor and consistency. I agree with some that say this place is catering to people without a decent palate and actually have no idea what Indian spices and flavor are to taste. I will stick to preparing my own deliciously balanced and spiced curries at home for a fraction of the cost and keeping with traditional Indian flavor and tradition.

Simply put the dinner is much better than their lunch buffet thing. Naan is made right and my server was very nice and was always around to check on me. Overall it was a much better experience at dinner time but if you want some quick Indian food the lunch buffet is a good call too.

Sitar has a great menu with many tasty dishes.
Our meal started with them bringing out those wonderful Indian chips with an onion chutney and cilantro chutney. They were both good but after having the onion I could no longer taste the cilantro, or at least they combined into one amazing chutney. The service was friendly an the ambiance was nice and relaxing.
For a main dish I got the veggie sampler plate and a mango lassi. There were so many options in was hard to pick just one, and as I am accustomed to Indian lunch buffets it seemed like the sampler was a good choice. The sampler was three curries; chick pea, spinach and panner and pea and panner. I got mild which was indeed mild, maybe next time I would go with medium. The flavor was there and I enjoyed all of them. With sides of rice and naan this meal was very feeling and I needed to take a bit home. The next day I had it for lunch and it was enough to satisfy my hunger — who doesn’t like a twofer!
I would come back to Sitar’s especially to try their lunch buffet but for he price and amount of food dinner was not bad at all.

It wasn’t inedible, that’s really all I can say about it. I had the buffet. The Naan was very dense and doughy, the curries were all woefully under spiced, not just mild but actually rather bland. I’ve never had bland Indian food, but here it is. This place seems to be trying to appeal to people who dislike Indian food. My wife, for example, loved everything. Also the Tiki Masala had a very odd flavor I normally associate with Chef Boyardee canned ravioli, I have no idea what it was but it was there, and very strange.
I haven’t been for dinner, I hope the blandness of the food I’ve had there is just because it’s a buffet and they are trying to please everyone by not spicing things properly. Worth taking a chance on for dinner maybe but if you enjoy Indian food do yourself a favor and skip the buffet.