Indian Spices

Owners daughter is the hostess and compared to the next door competitor (other hostess is old lady), their food is more tasty!
Reasonably priced.
Liked all non-​veg dishes and Chicken Makhni is specially smooth & nice. Veg dishes like Saag-​chole (spinach-​chick-​pea), kari-​pakoda is worth mentioning.
Sometimes they have Biriyani which is nice.
But in desert they loose a star ’ * ’ as they do not feature ‘Gulab Jamun’ as often as they should. Instead it’s always kheer, every time I went.

Staff is very friendly. I recommend the lunch buffet it’s a solid value and the dishes rotate so you can try something new each time. You can even get the lunch buffet to go with fresh naan if you are in a hurry. If you are sensitive to spice, it can sneak up on you here, but I’ve always enjoyed it. This place does the little things right from the subtle seasoning in the rice to the standard dishes like chicken tikka masala.

Best food ever. Had a family dinner and so satisfied with service and taste of food. Best thing is they can make mild hot or extra hot exact proportions .
No words !! Just give a try and you will be writing review like me

Lunch at Indian Spices on Sixth Ave was a delight today. I walked in, got seated immediately, was given a large glass of water and was asked if I’d like to order off of the menu or partake in the buffet. The buffet sounded good to me so without any wait I took a plate off of the table and helped myself to a little of everything.
If you like flavor in you food you’re going to like Indian Spices. Everything had some zest to it without being overly so. My favorite item on the buffet was the Chicken Tari. It contained large, very moist chunks of chicken in a curry like sauce that held a piquancy without being too bold.
I’m no connoisseur when it comes to Middle Eastern food but my only disappointment from the buffet was the Tandoori Chicken. It was a bit dry and not offering as much flavor as the other dishes and that’s a shame since it’s usually the main attraction for most westerners who come through the door of an Indian restaurant.
One thing that I notice that I was impressed with is that there was only one person working the dining area. She was the sole person greeting customers, ensuring everyone’s drink was okay, busing tables, and working the cash register and she made it look easy. A lesser experienced person may have gotten overwhelmed but she seemed to have a system, remained very pleasant and nothing seemed to faze her.
My check came to exactly $ 9.00 plus tip… quite a bargain for an «all you can eat» buffet of quality food in a nice atmosphere. The slight dryness of the Tandoori keeps me from rating this with five stars but I wouldn’t let that deter you from stopping in and enjoying a good Middle Eastern buffet at Indian Spices.

Great Indian food. Nothing gourmet, service is spotty, however the prices are great. The menu is huge. This is a BYOB place. I was there for dinner. All meals come with delicious, flavorful rice that I could eat by itself. Yellow curry was good. Chicken vindaloo was very saucy, but tasty. Not crowded for dinner and such a good value for sixth avenue.

I discovered Indian Spices a few years ago when I was downtown for Light Up Night. All of the restaurants in the area were incredibly crowded, but we stumbled upon this one that somehow wasn’t busy. Usually not being busy isn’t a good sign, but in this case popularity doesn’t seem to correlate with quality. I have no idea why this place isn’t busier, but I won’t complain — I think there could be a Pirates game, Steelers game, sold out shows at every theater, a parade, and the arts festival all going on downtown simultaneously and I’m pretty sure I’d still be able to walk right in and get a table here. So now this is my go-​to place when I’m in the area for a show or a game.
The ambiance isn’t particularly inviting — it’s very sterile and hole-​in-​the-​wall. They have a large selection of typical dishes that you’d expect to find at an Indian restaurant. I’ve sampled quite of few of their popular meat dishes (tikka masala, vindaloo, etc.), all of which are good, although not the best I’ve had in town. Where I think Indian Spices really knocks it out of the park is with their vegetarian offerings. In particular, their Aloo Ghobi and Malai Kafta are crazy delicious. The Aloo Ghobi has fresh chunks of cauliflower, potatoes, and onions tossed with cilantro and curry spices. It’s super flavorful and has quite a kick — love it when food makes me sweat! :) They definitely live up to the name «Indian Spices,» so be sure to order low on the spicy scale if you don’t like heat. The Malai Kafta consists of fried veggie balls (peas, carrots, onions, potatoes, paneer cheese, and probably more) swimming in a warmly-​spiced tomato sauce. The veggie balls are just bursting with flavor and have a texture that is slightly crispy on the outside but soft on the inside. The Malai Kafta sauce is wonderfully complex — spicy, sweet, coconutty, creamy — with raisins and sliced almonds mixed in to add a nice textural variety. Absolutely delicious. If I had to pick just one Indian meal to eat for the rest of my life, the Malai Kafta from Indian Spices would definitely be a strong contender.
Portion sizes here are generous (if you run out of rice they will happily bring you more), and the prices are more than reasonable, especially considering the location. My hubby and I can each get a meal and share some naan and barely crack 20 bucks. Such an excellent value. Service is usually attentive and the food comes out in a reasonable amount of time. Overall, I’d recommend giving this unassuming little restaurant a try!

I came here for dinner with my boyfriend last weekend before going to the Warhol for a concert. It was pretty empty for dinnertime – only one other party was seated.
Service was a little slow; after we asked for a couple more minutes with the menu, we were left waiting for a while before the waiter returned to take our order. He was just sitting behind the counter on his phone. After our food was brought to us, he told us to «just ask» if we wanted more rice, but he was behind the counter until he came to refill our water as we were finishing up the meal. The food was good but not really outstanding. It was less expensive than some places in Oakland, but the portions were smaller as well (though more manageable).

I seriously don’t know how some Indian restaurants in the US get Butter Chicken wrong. Everyone like Butter Chicken – Indian Food lovers and non-​Indian Food lovers alike. This is one of those places who just didn’t get it right. While visiting Pittsburgh, we decided to eat here on our first night. We ordered the butter chicken, lamb vindaloo, and lamb keema. As I said, the butter chicken did not taste like any butter chicken I had ever had before. The sauce was very watered down, lightly bland, and bright yellow (vs the typical more orange color). My bf was excited that they offered Keema, which apparently isn’t offered at a lot of Indian spots. But sadly, it wasn’t all that great. My lamb vindaloo however, was delicious. Super spicy and plenty of tender lamb. Good sized portions as well, as wel had leftovers at the end. The mango lassi was also yummy and very thick.

Walked in for a quick early dinner and I was pleasantly surprised. Ordered chicken tikka masala, garlic naan, and lamb vindaloo. Even medium heat was fairly spicy, so order accordingly. It came with a big heaping pile of jasmine rice with cumin & cardamom. The server even asked if we wanted more rice. But it was plenty, we couldn’t stuff ourselves anymore. The flavor was fantastic, served hot, and we inhaled it. The garlic naan was incredible. Crispy edges and warm fresh bread center. It was just perfect, best naan I’ve had. Very courteous, fast, attentive service. Definitely would go again!

I stopped by with my friend on Fri. night for dinner before seeing The Nutcracker at the Benedum. Between the convenient location in the Cultural District, the good reviews from other Unilocalers, and the reasonable prices, this place seemed like a potential winner. Unfortunately, however, the food and atmosphere left something to be desired.
The a la carte dinner menu is pretty extensive, and includes most of the usual dishes offered at Indian restaurants. Because I’d tried samples of chicken makhni (butter chicken) from friends at another Indian restaurant in Oakland and really liked it, but had never ordered it myself before, I decided to order it. Bad move! The sauce was less creamy than that served with the dish at the other restaurant (see photo), and the chicken was of poor quality – all dark meat, with several pieces of gristle that I had to pull out of my mouth while eating (as discreetly as possible, of course, to avoid grossing out my friend). This version of the dish was disappointing, to the point that I only ate a bit more than half of it before abandoning the rest.
In addition to my entrée, I ordered a mango lassi, as I usually do at Indian restaurants. Even this was a disappointment, given its thinness in comparison to versions I’ve had at other Indian restaurants around town.
My friend ordered the malai kofta, a vegetarian dish consisting of potato balls stuffed with paneer and vegetables in a light cream sauce with nuts and raisins. She let me try a bite or two, and it tasted much better than my chicken makhni. If I’d ordered this dish, I probably would have finished it and left with a much better assessment of the food than I did. Indeed, my friend did so, and expressed satisfaction with its quality.
Aside from the quality of the food, I was rather unimpressed with the ambiance, which I’d describe as a notch below no frills. There was no music, the wall decorations were pretty sparse, and the tables were unadorned except for menus under the glass tops. Moreover, the place had a slight aura of griminess that was apparent from the odd odor that I encountered upon entering. Service was okay, and the food came was served in a reasonable timeframe, so I have no major complaints there.
Overall, I’ve had better Indian food in superior settings at other places around town, so I probably won’t return. It seems as though most people come here for the lunch buffet, so it’s possible that the quality is better than their a la carte cooking. If you do order a la carte, I’d recommend sticking to the chef’s specialties (the malai kofta was one of them), and avoiding the chicken makhni, for sure. If I went solely by my own experience, my rating would be a 2, but my friend seemed pretty pleased, so I’m averaging to a 3 to better reflect our combined judgment.

Supremely delicious!
Went here for dinner with a friend before a show at the cabaret. It is a very unassuming looking restaurant and was not very busy. It took our waitress a little time to get over to us, but we mentioned that we had a show and she made sure to bring our food out as quickly as possible.
We got the samosas, which were huge and delicious. We also shared the chicken tikka masala and the chana masala at spice level medium. I love spicy food, but if you don’t I suggest going lower on the scale because even at a medium, these dishes had some serious kick! I loved the chicken tikka masala. So much so that I took the leftover sauce over rice home just so my hubby could try it! We also got the garlic naan and poori. Both were delicious and helped to scoop up the delicious food.
The portion sizes were also very generous for the price and my friend and I were each able to have a to go container from what was left over.
I can’t wait to go back!

Indian Spices is a great place to try unique, ethnic food at an affordable, low price. I ordered the fresh bread: Kaabli naan, which was a delicious sweet pastry like bread filled with sugar, coconut, nuts and raisins & Panner naan, which was a bread filled with cottage cheese and herbs. I thought the cottage cheese would be a dominant taste, but it wasn’t at all. It was very subtle and I could barely taste it, though it was wonderful. The bread is flaky and flat and has a very unique taste worth trying! The prices are absolutely wonderful! You get 4 large triangles of bread for $ 3.99. I also ordered the coconut soup ($ 3), which was very good. It had pieces of coconut, raisins, and nuts in a milky coconut broth. It was probably the first sweet soup I have ever tasted. We also ordered the Chicken korma ($ 9.5), which was served with a big plate of basmati rice. The rice is wonderful all by itself, without sauces or meat. The chicken korma was said to be a coconut based dish, but the dish had a richer taste of curry and less of a coconut taste. It was good, though I probably wouldn’t order it again. The server asked if I wanted it mild or medium. I ordered it medium and it was pretty hot. I enjoyed it, just drank a lot of water, which the waitress was wonderful at refilling. The waitress wasn’t the friendliest and didn’t help us newcomers with the menu much, but she refilled my waters and checked on our table frequently. The diet coke was served in a can and you poured it into your glass of ice, which I’m never a big fan of, but it was also only $ 2. I’m not sure if the drinks were refillable or not. The ambiance wasn’t really there and as soon as you walked in there was an odd odor. Perhaps table cleaner/​rags? It is hard to explain but it has happened at other restaurants and always turns me off a bit. The bathroom was not the greatest and is squished by entryway to the kitchen. I would definitely try this place again because of the food and their prices, but hope that they can dress up the place a bit in the future and make the interior match the quality of the food!

The food here is amazing, and the prices are very reasonable, especially for Downtown. If you haven’t tried their coconut soup, it’s rather unique and delicious. This is one of my go-​to spots for dining Downtown. Their service is fast and you can’t beat their location. It’s a family business and the wait staff are very friendly, funny, and incredibly nice. Their naan is excellent and authentic.

I went for the lunch buffet during the week and went a bit early (around 11:30) to find the buffet freshly stocked. I’m not a huge fan of buffets since they can get kinda gross after people have ransacked it a few times so if I can get to a buffet before the crowd, I prefer to do so.
The buffet and food was on par with the other India restaurant buffets I’ve tried. I wasn’t overly impressed or overly disappointed. The chicken tikka was very creamy as per the standard at these places. A little goes a long way. They had a vegetable korma dish wish I really enjoyed. The rice was a bit burned and I wish they had more vegetable dishes but it was either that vegetable korma, spinach/​lentils (which were bland) or potatoes — which I didn’t feel like loading up on.
I was somewhat disappointed that they didn’t offer pakoras or samosas since they had all the fixins for them (brown/​green chutneys). They did offer sweet rice pudding and carrot type hulva (sweet).
Price was $ 9 inclusive of tax which I found reasonable. The place started to get crowded around noon so I would recommend coming earlier if you can.

One of the worst Indian places I have been in the USA. Its a joke to call this place ‘Indian Spices’ because of thier bland, flavourless food which doesnt do any justice to making good Indian food with good spices and flavor. (By spices I dont necessrally mean spicy and hot, I just mean flavours). It should instead be called ‘Indian Spiceless’ From our experience, I can tell these guys dont know whats Indian food and how to cook it.
We ordered navaratan kurma and veg jalfrizi. Though technically these are entirely different dishes with kurma being somewhat on the sweeter side and jalfrizi being on the tangy and spicy side. What we got was nowhere near what we expected. Both the curries looked uninspiring and not that different at all. Both clearly had the more or less the same well cut frozen veggies you get in super markets and more or less tasted the same. Jalfrizi which typically has more sauce (gravy) was very dry (never seen it in any other Indian restaurant like that) and had virtually no flavour. it seemed like some spices were tossed in here and there. And to add to the insult, they prepared these wonderful exotic delicacies taking more than one hour to prepare when hardly there were any customers around!
Not only do the staff seem to not know how to cook Indian food, they also dont seem to know much about whats Indian food! My wife had ordered ‘Onion Kulcha’ without seeing the menu. (For beginners Kulcha is slightly different type of Indian bread like Nan.) Actually that item was not in the menu. thats fine. but instead of telling us that, the staff took the order and brought us ‘Onion Nan’. when my wife complained that this is NOT kulcha but nan, then the staff tells us ‘Onion kulcha is Onion Nan right!!!’. LOL! Actually this was not a big thing, but clearly shows that the staff (eventhough they looked like Indians) didnt know much abt Indian cuisine. I then explained to the staff whats the difference between nan and kulcha. then to make things more comic, we could hear them arguing inside the kitchen abt this issue.:P
Also the mango lassie was sour. We came here seeing four star reviews, thier buffet might be good as most reviewers have opined here or most of thier guests are newbies who havent experienced real Indian food. When we left the place, we were joking about the name ‘Indian Spices’ for all the flavorless food with no ‘real spices’ and exlaimed we could have done this food ourselves very easilyat home.

I chose Indian Spices over the other Indian restaurant a few doors down at the advice of an Indian coworker. His advice was spot on. I visited for the lunch buffet. It was affordably priced and everything was very tasty. I enjoyed that everything was clearly labeled so you know what you are eating. There are three sections to the buffet. The hot section that has all your entrée choices, rice and naan. The cold secion that had salads and sauces and the dessert section that featured a few choices, most notably rice pudding.
Even though it was a buffet, everything tasted fresh.
Service and atmosphere are the reasons I didn’t give this five stars. They were busy, but the server had a bit of an attitude. She seemed a bit put off by the fact that I wanted a refill on my water. The layout is also strange. There is a large front room, a hallway, another dining room and the back room with the buffet. I was seated in the hallway area and it was kind of awkward with so many people walking past.
I’ll be back to try the regular menu and will also do the buffet again.

Great (and cheap) lunch buffet! Really good chicken tikka masala and kir! Friendly service too. Don’t get scared if the place is empty, the food is delicious! Can’t wait to go back here!

Similarly to Andy E., I ordered my favorite Indian dish (aloo gobhi), and my grandmother ordered two samosas with mint and tamarind chutney.
The aloo gobhi was fine. It came with a ton of rice. Thanks! I like how they prepared the aloo gobhi.
The samosas were meh. They were soft and a little soggy. That’s kind of gross man. The mint chutney saved the day though.
We were the only ones here! It was very fun eating aloo gobhi and samosas with my grandma.
Argentina just missed an easy goal by the way vs. Germany.

The lunch buffet is super delicious and only $ 9 (including tax). There is another indian restaurant a few doors down but that place is nothing compared to Indian Spices. They have the best chicken Tikka Masala and kir. I love coming here and I am sad that they dont deliver.

Awesome! From the naan to the chicken tikka masala from the buffet, it was great! First time eating at an Indian restaurant, so I cannot compare.
Will definitely be back!