Best lunch buffet in NOVA?

[Rick]

Been looking at yelp and looks like seceral places that used to get good ratings have had a change of ownership or are getting lower ratings. What are the top Indian lunch buffets now?

[wayne keyser]

Tyler Cowen recently said the VERY hole-in-the-wall Kohinoor Dhaba is "one of the best Indian places around. Really yummy, a hidden gem." On my visit, I (handicapped) couldn't make it upstairs to the larger seating area - a couple of cabbies invited me to join them at their table downstairs, and made my lunch even more memorable (thanks again, guys!).

[monkeyrotica]

Second Kohinoor Dhaba. You'll have a difficult time beating them at that price point. Interior is nothing to write home about, but there are plenty of cozy Indian eateries with subpar food. Come here for the food.

[bubba3197]

Another vote for Angeethee in Herndon, very good.

Also check out Jaipur in Fairfax Circle. Not the biggest buffett, but quality is top-notch (I think a tad bit better than Angeethee).

[Dennis S]

A third for Angeethi, though I have now not been in several months, but I trust Polly.

[PollyG]

Angeethi in Herndon now has a chaat bar with a few offerings made fresh to order in addition to their excellent lunch buffet. The number of dishes is not as large as some other buffets, but the quality is quite good.

[KeithW]

I went to Woodlands today for brunch and in my opinion it was as good as it ever has been for the past several years. I have liked my past experiences ordering off the menu on a weeknight better than the weekend buffet, but we enjoyed the buffet as much as we have in the past. Service was also good, if anything it was slightly better.

One change for the better is the array of sauces that are new -- or at least I never noticed them. The yellow one (onion and garlic, I think) is especially good. You can put them on dosas, mix them into rice, or use however else you like. Perhaps desserts are not as good -- that's not my thing but I think others who went with me missed not having the carrot dessert which I think is called halwa.

[TheMatt]

I'm a fan of the lunch buffet at Saravana Palace. It's vegetarian, mainly South Indian, and at lunch they often have veggies you don't often see like ivy gourd. Always a variety of tastes!

I've also heard good things about Karaikudi in Chantilly. It's Chettinad food, so I imagine you might see things like crab, fish, egg, parotta on their buffet (and probably not as many vegetarian options!). I hope to go soon.

[Rick]

Thanks Matt and everyone else. We ended up at Karaikudi and loved it! There was a 30 min WAIT at 2:00 on Sunday!! They actually literally ran out of food for the buffet and had a packed restaurant waiting for food. I caught the tail end of the big variety of food and it was all excellent, but when I went back up for seconds it was just about all gone. What I didn't like is they brought out a few huge trays of single dishes which really cut down on the variaty. They were very apologetic and you can tell they are still trying to work out the kinks. I'll definitely go back, but I'll give them some more time to work out the kinks. There was almost nothing on the buffet that you find at a typical Indian buffet, no tikka masala, no tandoori chicken, no saag paneer, no chana masala etc etc. I loved that we were able to try things we've never had before and the spice level seemed geared toward the nearly all Indian crowd which was a nice surprise.