Cafe India

Note: Café India exists no more. It now is known as
FLAVORS OF MAYURA
Authentic South Indian Cuisine
Tel # 619−224−7500.
There still is a $ 10 lunch buffet, but only Tuesday-​Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Days-​Hours:
Tuesday-​Sunday
11:00 a.m. — 3:00 p.m.
5:30 p.m. — 10:00 p.m.
In the photo section, I uploaded pictures of the current menu.

Great food. Friendly service. If you are tired of waiting in line for more tired barbeque, try something different today.

I was really disappointed with Café India. I ordered the palak paneer combo, spicy. The combo was a great deal, it came with rice, naan, raita, and dal. However the palak paneer came out with ZERO paneer and not even a hit of spice or flavor. The naan was soggy with grease. The dal and raita both mediocre. I really wanted to like it when I walked in because I could tell it was family owned and was disappointed that it was such poor food.

A lovely family owned restaurant that offers a wonderful lunch buffet for just $ 9.99! As a vegetarian, I can always come here and know that I will have many options that are all yummy and for a great price. Dinner is also very reasonably priced and all the dishes I’ve tried are tasty. I’ve been coming here for years and don’t see any reason why I should stop!

Was visiting San Diego with Family and decided to try out this place… Did a pick up of following items, biryani, naan, yellow dal, kadai panneer and rice.
The quality and flavor of the food were extremely disappointing. Dal was very bad. C’mon this is the basic food of India… Naan was tough on teeth. They got the Kadai Panneer completely wrong. It was all watery. Biryani again lacked flavor. it was spicy even though we requested mild.
Here are basic things any North Indian Restaurant should get it right: Yellow Dal (staple food of India) and Naan. I can understand if you get some complex dishes wrong.
My recommendation avoid this place if you are looking for Indian food.

Excellent lunch buffet, excellent service and excellent food. Grab a kingfisher and relax.

Sad day when Indian food sucks. I feel like 2 stars is pretty generous considering what was delivered to my house. Those 2 stars are mostly because they deliver food and take online orders. Only 1 dish out of the 5 items I ordered was passable and it had something atrociously wrong with it!
Pros: online order, delivery option, delivery showed up exactly within estimated time.
Cons: the food.
I ordered: garlic naan, veggie samosas, veggie «pakouda» (pakora), bhanta aloo (eggplant and potato dish), and garlic shrimp (they had «fish» as an option but no clue as to what type of fish). I felt this variety would give me a non biased insight to this place as a whole and potential of return patronage.
I’ll just say it like it was: everything I tried was disgusting in some fashion. I love food from the Himalayan region. It may be my favorite cuisine when made right. This was the worst Indian food I’ve ever tried. Everything had a top and bottom layer of oil. Because of this, it seemed like all I tasted was McCormick’s curry blend and oil. The eggplant mush was inedible. The shrimp was ok tasting but over cooked and had RAW potatoes mixed in! They were seared on the outer edges and then completely raw as if held over a campfire flame just to get burn marks on it for the illusion of being roasted?
The naan was so chewy it hurt my mouth to eat. If you over cook bread in the microwave and it’s soft the second it comes out but as it cooks it gets harder and the consistency of a new rubber band… this was that exact texture. The samosas and pakora just tasted like crispy curry flavored oil. Such a sad night and waste of money. Photos of all included.

Stopped by Café India today and was very impressed with the $ 9.99 lunch buffet. You can’t beat it for such a good selection of flavorful food. I highly recommend trying it.

I LOVE this restaurant. My friends and I come here almost weekly and we are always pleased with the friendly owners and amazing food. The atmosphere inside is calm and inviting, and I often spend a couple hours with my friends just catching up and enjoying great, flavorful food. The Tikka Masala is the best, and a favorite among my friends. I have never had a bad dish here, and will always come back for more!

We came in late to have some food to go– the atmosphere is cozy, quiet, clean and calm. The chicken tikka masala was delicious! The gentleman who took our order was really friendly as well! Perfect way to end an adventurous day with some yummy food!

Dined here on a Friday night. The server was very kind. We ordered the tandoori fish tikka, chicken curry and saag aloo all with a heat level of 6. We also ordered garlic naan. The spice level of everything was perfect! We paired our meal with a Taj Mahal beer. The naan bread was hot and fluffy with a lot of flavor from the garlic and cilantro. The chicken curry had the same spices as the tikka masala but without the heaviness of the cream and with chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts. I loved the spices in the curry, just right. The fish was nicely charred with a delicate flesh inside. Great food and a soft ambience with light Indian music in the background. I recommend the same menu we ordered for a quiet delicious dinner.

I like Café India! :) Service is great, food is really yummy and the smell isn’t overwhelming like the Taste of the Himalayas restaurant.
But yeah parking is sorta hectic due to phil’s and red lobster.

I have had Indian food in many countries, and states, and it is hit or miss. Sometimes it can be downright disappointing. Especially in or around San Diego.
The first time I walked into Café India, I was not expecting to be impressed, but when our food arrived, I was blown away. The prices aren’t bad either.
Even the buffet is good to go!
The food is exquisite. The staff are very friendly, and they remember us every time we come, and they even remember our favorites!
I really enjoy coming here, and I recommend you do the same!

I have only been by for lunch and have enjoyed the buffet each time. Café India offers very friendly service, it is very reasonably priced and serves delicious food.
100% worth stopping by and dining. Will be visiting again in the future and would recommend that you also consider stopping by for a delicious meal and pleasant over all dining experience.
Thank you so much Café India!

Super good Indian food. This place is such a great value. For 9.99 don’t expect everything, but still incredibly satisfying. My favorite is the chicken vindaloo. Great portions at dinner time with good service. You Can request tikka masala to be made with coconut milk as well.
Spice level is perfect and flavors are on point. Check in between 3 – 5 and you get a 25% discount. Eat here you will not regret it

I’ve been here twice for their lunch buffet, and I have to say, it’s pretty tasty. Not a whole lot of items, but what they have is pretty good for $ 10.
They had Tandoori chicken both times and Tikka Masala Chicken, I liked them both. Today they had chicken meatballs in a mild sauce. They have different veggies. several other vegetable dishes that I’m sorry, I can’t remember the names of. They do serve you some Naan bread too.
They also have a romaine salad and I like the creamy dressing they have for it. I even like the little sweet donut balls for dessert.
My friend and I bought the Unilocal deal and we ate for about $ 5 each! I would like to come back and have dinner here sometime.
It’s right next door to one of my fave phở places… The Phở Place!

Everything was delicious and not greasy. My family really enjoyed eating the lunch buffet, and we felt the price for the lunch buffet was reasonable ($ 9.99/person).

Despite I liked the environment and the service, it’s got the worst Indian buffet selection among all the restaurant I tried. So bad that I found myself snacking off of salad here. For vegetarian they only had the good olé saag without paneer (for saving $$$?) and some not so good daal dish. Bunch of boring chicken dishes for meat eaters. I came with a lot of anticipations but it turned out to be pretty disappointing.

I came here with the intentions to purchase and a la carte lunch entrée, but when I saw what they were offering at the lunch buffet for $ 9.99, minus $ 1.50 for a 15% Unilocal check in, well I changed my mind and went for the buffet.
The buffet was not entirely full with items, but there were more than enough to choose from for lunch, including a fresh green salad, fruit, and some nice flavor dressings. (
) The basmati rice and Gobhi Aloo or cauliflower with potatoes sauteed with garam masala was very good. (
) The had a variety of curries including Chicken Makhani, Chicken Tikka Masala, and a meatball curry that I did not recognize. (
)
They also had the Veggie Pakouda which were okay. (
) They were a little to floral in aroma and flavor for me, but what I really enjoyed was the Chicken Makhani, in fact I went back for three servings of it. (
) It had a great creamy texture and full of flavor, and the chicken was very tender. Actually all the food was very good, but the Makhani was exceptional. If you want naan bread with your buffet, you need to let them know, because they prefer to make it fresh so it comes piping hot to your table. (
) The bread was good, not as moist as I have had it, at other places, but still very good and great to slop up the curry with.
For ten dollars, the buffet is a really good deal. The only bummers was that they did not have any tandori chicken available this time. Hopefully next time. The service was not bad, then gentlemen running the place while I was there, were busily working on something on the computer, but it was not a big deal because I was busily swarming over the buffet.

Delicious! I have to open with the fact that I love Indian food, but haven’t sampled enough restaurants to know what’s good and what’s bad. All I know is that every time I go to an Indian restaurant my palate is satisfied and my stomach overstuffed.
A friend had a coupon from one of those city mini-​magazine books for a free entrée and so we headed down to celebrate his birthday the cheap Asian way. I ordered a mango lassi to start and it was yogurty down to the last drop! Mango lassi tends to be made sweeter than should be (or perhaps most places just have it way too sweet for my taste buds), and I was pleasantly surprised that the drink served at Café India had the right balance.
We ordered the veggie samosa to start, lamb curry, garlic naan, and the Chef’s special chicken tikka. I’m a little disappointed that the naan had to be ordered instead of given, so that’s part of the minus one star. The veggie samosas didn’t have a thick layer of dough, which some places have if they don’t roll it out thin enough. I’m a huge fan of generous filling and minimal dough in my samosas! Lamb curry came in what seemed like homemade blended curry sauce — careful, a spice level of 7 (which is what we ordered) will get you a slightly runny nose. Our Chef’s Special Chicken Tikka came out sizzling hot on a stone grill, and that definitely enhanced my experience at the restaurant. Huge chunky pieces of chicken with grilled vegetables on the side made it a great addition to our meal.
The server we had was pretty decent. A little quiet, but was very attentive throughout the meal asking if we needed anything. No complaints on our service. I’d definitely head back there again!