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All India Cafe
Categories: Restaurants Indian Restaurants Pakistani Indian, Pakistani [Edit]
431 State StSanta Barbara, CA 93101
(805) 882-1000
- Hours:
Mon-Thu, Sun 11:30 am - 10 pm
Fri-Sat 11:30 am - 11 pm
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- Yes
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Good For:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
- Noise Level:
- Average
- Ambience:
- Casual
- Has TV:
- Yes
- Caters:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
53 reviews for All India Cafe
Review Highlights
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"The lunch buffet was amazing." In 6 reviews -
"...fluffy and light and the garlic naan was delicious - I love..." In 8 reviews -
"Chicken Tikka Masala -- the best one out of the three." In 4 reviews
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53 reviews in English
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Review from Feliz M.
Santa Barbara, CA
4/18/2012
I love All India Cafe! My mother and I used to go here every week (not so often anymore as I don't have much money anymore) and the food is amazing! I don't know the guys name, but he is one of the main servers there, maybe a manager, but he is so nice and always says hello to me when I see him around town. If you love Bollywood, they always have a movie playing on a projector which is cool. Food is phenomenal and so are the drinks, try the Mango Lassi! Bomb!
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Review from Herb M.
Northridge, CA
2/14/2012
Do I have to give one star? I'd rather give no stars, but let's continue.
This place is horrible. Read all the 1 and 2 star reviews on this very page. The quality of the food is horrendous. The service is mildly horrible. Please, heed my words.... this is one of the worst restaurants in Santa Barbara. I can actually deal with horrible service. I can even deal with the super loud Indian music video blasting in the background. What I can't deal with is sub-standard food at high-end prices.
In short, don't. Just don't. -
Review from Gold H.
Albany, CA
5/21/2012
I ate here on 5/19/12 around 830 pm. Quality of food: 3 out of 5. Atmosphere: was good and 100% better than India house across the street. All of my vegetarian thali entrees' had same creamy base, no flavor of Indian spices. The Kulfi (creamy Indian homemade icecream) was rather a sorbet. The pistachio flavored Kulfi was even worse - more a vanilla flavored sorbet. I paid 15 bucks for 3 scoops of sorbets. Naans were well done. Service: poor. I had to waive twice to get any attention. I usually don't complaint because I hate to make others feel less or bad but that night I had to voice my complaint, the waiter still did not apologize. My water was not refilled until I was writing a check. I got pretty much no service except getting a table and my plates. Cost: fair price given the location and its competitor India house (worse) across the street.
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Review from Kohjay J.
Santa Barbara, CA
4/30/2012 1 Check-in Here
One of my favorites for Indian food here in SB. I love the lunch buffet for 8 bucks. Try any of the Lamb dishes, or marsallas. The Lassi are great, and the Nan bread is fresh.
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Review from Sean N.
Goleta, CA
4/12/2012
Went here because I love buffets. The food was pretty good. Had a nice selection of chicken and sauces. Naan was alright, not the best but sill okay. Only downside was it made me feel sick a couple hours later. Overall, food is good, but can get you sick to your stomach.
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Review from Rayna H.
Santa Barbara, CA
4/2/2012
Amazing food! Poor service. If you are willing to be ignored throughout most of your dining experience in the name of yummy Indian food, this place may be for you. I, personally prefer to go elsewhere next time I crave Indian food.
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Review from Bonny C.
Santa Barbara, CA
5/2/2012
ugh..it has been exactly 90 minutes since I ordered food to be delivery and it has not arrived it yet...when the driver called me and asked for directions I guess he couldn't really understand English well and HE HUNG UP ON ME FOR FOUR TIMES ALREADY GEEZ REALLY? I called again and they told me to just cancel the order because they could not find my place. WOW!
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Review from Kay D.
9/21/2011
I came here for the lunch buffet, and all I can say is average. The assortment didn't blow my mind, and because it's a buffet that apparently means they don't serve anything spicy. I had chicken tikka masala, some sort of fish curry, yogurt curry, and some garlic naan. I also ate some yellow vegetables and those fried vegetable fritter things, both of which were decent. The best entree at the buffet was the chicken tikka masala, and even that was average. But, my hopes are never that high for a buffet anyway. For dessert they have those tasty gulab jamun balls, which are dough balls soaked in something sweet, and you can dip them in a tasty sweet tapioca white sauce. I ate several of those.
To drink I had the iced tea, which is chai tea! They also bring you a little cup of sweet cream to make a delicious masala chai iced tea bonanza. I highly recommend this; it was fantastic!
The price for the buffet can't be beat...$10 a person? Sign me up!! -
Review from Vivek S.
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
11/4/2011
Three words: Head for the hills!
I am really, this is a disgrace to be called 'indian food' -
Review from Joy Y.
Los Angeles, CA
10/11/2011
Came here for their lunch buffet for around $9.
Pretty typical Indian buffet. They had about 5 different curry (vegetarian, fish, chicken, and 2 other ones that I can't remember). My favorite was the chicken curry though they were all pretty good. I felt like it wasn't as fresh simply because they were running out of a few curry and didn't replace any, but I did have a late lunch.
I really like their naan which they heated up and there were lots of sauce to try them with! I love Indian food for all the spices so overall good meal! -
Review from R A.
Santa Barbara, CA
1/1/2012
Our group of 11 waited 90 minutes for dinner before leaving in disgust. No foo is worth this kind of service.
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Review from Ed R.
Los Angeles, CA
10/26/2011 1 Check-in Here
They have cool decorations, but their food wasn't the greatest. I would say that it wasn't good at all. I went there lured by their $8 lunch special and to only see a couple of trays that weren't even warm. To top it off, my nephew said that he saw them serve us Kern's guava juice, which by the way cost me $3.95. I was really upset. What made it worse was that it gave me a stomach ache. It's a cafe/store, but they have really should make an effort in their food or just make it a store.
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Review from Jason Q.
2/28/2011
Tandoori chicken was so weak and dry. The pieces were anemic. The color was off (lacked any of that classic redness). The meat was tough.
Thank god I ordered it with the thali which otherwise was pretty decent for flavors. It felt like it needed one more side dish in the thali.
Have to say the naan was excellent, warm, and tasted quite fresh. -
Review from Dina P.
Hayward, CA
8/2/2011
A group of us ate here after a horrible experience at India House across the street... we were really on an Indian kick and crossed our fingers.
It was amazing! Great service, reasonable prices, my Chai tea was delicious and never ran low. I had the vegetarian thali with veggy korma and tofu tikka masala- it was AMAZING!
Thank you, All India Cafe, for deliciously curing our Indian food fails of the evening!! -
Review from Ramesh C.
Torrance, CA
8/31/2011
Delayed by traffic on our road trip, we reached All India Cafe when they were about to close after lunch. The person who greeted us said they could give us a take-away lunch, but an older gentleman who handed us the food and billed us sounded really grumpy about it. But hey, it was no fault of ours that the the 'Open' sign was still lit, which was why we entered the restaurant in the first place!
To be fair, the food tasted very good. I had never had a better 'Uthappam' (fried spicy pancakes made of rice flour, a cousin of South Indian 'Dosa') elsewhere in California. The portions were generous, and were good on the palate too.
I give 4 stars for the food, and for food alone. -
Review from Sandy L.
Santa Barbara, CA
3/9/2012
Lunch Buffet $9.65: my friend was not eating meat for lent so we were happy to see the buffet had six different veggie dishes and plain & fried rice for her. The flavors were all very good including the meat dishes - for me not spicy enough but for my friend too spicy. The missing stars are for the sauces that were so watery that I thought they were too thin even for soup. As interesting as the decor was, and as tasty as the food was, the watery consistency is a real turnoff. I would rate this buffet as acceptable, cause we ate, but I'll try the other Indian restaurants before I would go back. ps. It is understandable why more than one reviewer used the word "disgrace" to describe the food here.
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Review from N H.
Santa Barbara, CA
1/30/2011
This was the last Indian lunch buffet in town that I hadn't tried. It might be my new favorite. My experience here was so counter to what some other recent reviewers posted that it's hard to believe we ate at the same place.
I liked their vegetable korma, chicken tikka (pretty tender), naan, and the fact that they have items in addition to chicken (fish, when I was there) in their buffet. They had a curry cabbage dish that would have been good except that it was unevenly spiced, too salty in some portions. Their chicken masala was also too dry for me.
In stark contrast to another review, while I was there, they were continually restocking each item in the buffet.
The hostess and waiter were extremely friendly, much more so than at other Indian restaurants in town. I won't specify, but I went to another local spot on a rainy day once. The hostess grabbed my closed umbrella out of my hand and wouldn't allow me to put it under my table.
Compared to Spice Avenue, this place isn't as nicely decorated inside, but there's more variety in the buffet, and the employees are super nice. -
Review from Sankar S.
Sunnyvale, CA
2/28/2012
I have eaten Indian food for 6 years in the US in countless restaurants. This is undoubtedly the worst of the lot. If I have an option I would give it Zero stars. It's a disgrace that they call it "Indian" food.
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Review from Ella B.
Los Olivos, CA
8/22/2010
We went there b/c there was a 2 for 1 with the SB Axxess card. Good thing b/c I don't think I would go back if it weren't for the deal.
We ordered three dishes:
Chicken Tikka Masala -- the best one out of the three. Good sized pieces of chicken and the sauce was sorta sweet and not spicy enough.
Bhagan Bharta (sp?) -- the eggplant dish. Their version of it was interesting, a bit more chunky than at other places and they seemed to have put in a lot of ginger for an initial kick. Unfortunately, other than for the ginger, there wasn't really any taste.
Spinach dish with potatoes -- this was very unfortunate. it was tasteless and bland.
The rice and naan were fine, but c'mon, how could you call yourself an indian restaurant if you can't get rice and naan right, right?
Overall, disappointed with the food, but the service was fine.
Bill was about $45 for 3 before discount, and after it was $35 so it was a fair price for what we got at $35. -
Review from Ashley F.
9/27/2011 1 Check-in Here
Decent lunch buffet. Everything was pretty mild - good for me, but if you like spicy order off the menu. Great meal for the price.
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Review from Elizabeth W.
Santa Barbara, CA
12/11/2010
I enjoy the vegetarian dishes they have. Vegetable Korma is my favorite, but I have had it better at other places..
There food is kind of mushy and the service isn't that great. I don't like when they ask if i want rice with my meal and I have to pay even more extra for a plate of rice that should come with my food!
Anyway, It's an okay place. There's definitely better places in santa barbara like spices or taj. -
Review from Cindy C.
Forest Hills, NY
8/15/2010
Very disappointing. My husband and I are visiting Santa Barbara for vacation, but we were tired and didn't want to walk far from our hotel the first night, so we ended up here. Since we both love Indian food, we figured it would be a good standby first dinner. We were so wrong.
Briefly:
Service: Slow and inefficient. My husband and I were seated directly in front of our server, who was chatting with the hostess. He glanced over at us occasionally but still made us wait about 10 minutes after we had laid down our menus and had started tapping our feet. When our orders finally started arriving, the hostess brought over our dishes one at a time when she could have easily brought over two dishes (e.g. rice plate and tikka masala) in one trip.
Prices: Rice doesn't come included in the price of the entree?! That's just silly.
Food: Bland chicken tikka masala - something was just off, almost watery about the sauce. The naan was fluffy and tasteless - I usually like it a little buttery and toasted, and the naan was barely toasted. The dosa crepe was inedibly salty. I gave up trying.
Decor: Some people care about this, and I like a nice environment, which All India Cafe has. However, it just wasn't enough to save this place for me - I go to a restaurant to eat, not to look at the walls.
All in all a poor experience. I hope we find better food in the next few days in Santa Barbara! -
Review from Brinda J.
9/12/2009
I want to make this as short as I can.
No. Just no. I know you're all thinking, I'm Indian, of course, she'll say no. HOWEVER, I'm saying no because:
1. We waited 10 minutes before anyone took our order and drinks (which I would have wanted first and foremost).
2. When my Pa asked for a recommendation of what lamb dish to get, the server didn't know how to answer this question and had to get someone else.
3. We waited 40 minutes before we actually got our food.
4. No rice came with our dishes and we had to pay extra for rice.
5. The serving was so small that you could eat one whole serving yourself and still be hungry.
6. We asked for medium spice and it was extremely mild.
7. No one came to check to see if we were ok when we weren't.
There are more reasons why but why waste more space. They are a bunch of racists that treat Indian customers like crap but treat their white customers like God.
I can't believe this place got a Zagat rating. I want everyone to know this place was bad, service wise and food wise.
DO NOT GO HERE!!!! -
Review from Gina M.
Santa Barbara, CA
3/18/2010
I have never experienced a waiter like this one...SO SLOW. And OBLIVIOUS to every sign or effort we made to get his attention to get water, napkins, a box, our check?! Seriously guy!? Hire someone if you're too lazy to come over to our table when YOUR CUSTOMER needs something.
Only good/nice thing he did while we were there was mumbled his recommendation for food (since we had no idea what to get). The food was nothing I couldn't have made myself that night and when he came back to refill our water cups (after having called him BY NAME 3 times) he spilled a bunch of water in our curry! Didn't apologize or offer to bring us new/more curry...seriously? The lamb was over cooked, the curry was LITERALLY too watery, and our naan was not garlic when we specifically asked for garlic naan (it's my FAVORITEEE).
So annoying. Only reason I gave it A STAR was for the great seat I had for people watching during my horrible meal and the fact that I can't not give it a star.
I will NEVER return here. -
Review from Chris O.
Ojai, CA
9/25/2011
We loved this quick and simple Indian Food place. Fast and Friendly service got 4 Stars from us. The Food was good and hot...the Nan was superb. We mostly dug it because we were starving and needed some food asap. They did a fine job of it! Thanks All India Cafe! after a botched attempt at the India House near there...we we very pleased.
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Review from D. R.
Malibu, CA
3/12/2008
Dine here for lamb masala then take some breads home for later.
The former, is great (and goes under an alias, you'll figure it out, I have faith) , while the latter are deliciously soft and fresh and with a kick of spice and I like having them back at home as if I order them before I eat, I get stuffed too fast, and need to save some room.
Enjoy the 22 oz beers, some Himalayan thing that was great. Cold. Big. Tasty.
The lime sorbet, I didn't see on the menu, but the person I dined with ordered it and I must say: Bravo.
Note:
I would give this four stars, but I'm prorating my review to 5 as the one star review below: for someone with a culinary sensibility developed at Riker's Island and that seems to state that it was at least average, I think the one star review is a touch supercilious. -
Review from Morgan T.
San Diego, CA
5/30/2010
All India Cafe, you had me at "tofu"!
All those vegetarians and vegans out there who love their tofu, All India Cafe has GOT it! Palak Tofu was great -- not too oily. Tofu Tikka Masala was pretty good. Naan was great.
No real service problems, except that they brought us regular naan instead of garlic naan. To make it better, they let us keep the regular naan and brought extra garlic naan for free. I can see that a lot of others had service issues at All India Cafe and while I didn't, I can imagine how that would happen. The servers didn't seem like take-charge kind of servers.
I'd come back, for sure. -
Review from Janelle H.
Los Angeles, CA
7/17/2007
Way better than Taj Cafe. Everything seemed to have an extra kick of flavor, but it can be spicier.
Plus for the fresh naan.Listed in: That's absurd!
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Review from Ella L.
San Diego, CA
7/25/2010
My friends and I decided to take an all-girls-weekend in SB. We got so hungry that we didn't feel like walking around looking for places to eat. There are a lot of Indian restaurants on State Street for you to choose from...
The service was super slow! The food was good. I would rate the food 3.5-4 stars. The garlic naan was a little greasy for my liking. The Aloo Gobi (which they called Gobi Aloo) was a little salty. I can't recall the name of the other dishes we got but they were good. -
Review from Elissa F.
Santa Barbara, CA
10/8/2008
Awesome all you can eat lunch buffet!
This is a great place to get a yummy, quick bite to eat for lunch. I've been to the buffet for lunch twice now, and had great experiences and left stuffed both times. Definitely go hungry because the food is so good you can't resist going back for more. The naan is fabulous. It comes out hot and fresh. I like the garlic naan, although you can get plain too. Definitely try the mint sauce. Very flavorful, and compliments many of the dishes. I don't eat lamb or beef, but find plenty I like on the buffet. Yummy chicken and vegetarian dishes.
I'm getting hungry just writing this! -
Review from murali d.
Saratoga, CA
12/31/2011
Very good indian food. Entrees were mild in heat, curries were flavorful and the breads were very fresh and crisp. The service was very reasonable not like the Spice Ave where they stipulated conditions before seating us.
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Review from Kat Woman X.
Santa Barbara, CA
8/30/2011
Yum!!!! Good service! Good food! I'd like refill rice for no charge though! They even have bogo deals in Axxess and print flyers so keep your eye out. Nothing better than great food except a meal on them!
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Review from Elizabeth T.
Los Angeles, CA
8/20/2009 5 photos
This is probably the 3rd time I've tried Indian food in my life.
We stopped by to have a quick dinner before heading back to LA.
Overall, I'll say it wasn't a bad experience at all.
The facility is generally clean and well-deco'd; some Indian dancey music vids or movies (I don't know - they look the same to me!) were playing on the flat screens.
The host was polite and seated us promptly and brought menus, and some kind of crisp, tortilla-like round to dip into this salsa-curry like sauce. It was cold and refreshing.
We Ordered the chicken tikka masala, garlic naan, and a side of basmati rice. I generally don't like curry, but i guess I felt a little saucy that day and decided that I'd try it. (Is it a curry sauce that's in the CTM? I was just wondering...) In any case, I tried to appreciate the dish and I can honestly say that i liked it. The rice was oh-so-fluffy and light and the garlic naan was delicious - I love bread!
The only downer was that i thought everything was expensive, for what it was, esp. the CTM. I counted 7 pop-corn sized pieces of chicken breast and plenty of sauce to accompany it. For $11, I expected a bit more in quantity, but the quality was there. The rice and naan were both $3, but maybe I'm just not used to paying for rice, since i eat at Chinese restaurants more often, where rice is somewhere around... free.
So the food was good, but 3 stars rather than 4 due to prices. Other than that, I'd be glad to try Indian food again. -
Review from Do D.
Alhambra, CA
7/18/2008
Okay, I'm not even an Indian of any sorts. I do have a couple of Indian friends. I shop at the Indian market. According to my fiance, I cook some damn good Indian food: chicken curry, tandoori chicken, and vegetarian curry.
We ordered the chicken curry and the tandoori chicken. The problem is that I couldn't taste any level of spicyness remotely related to Indian food. For those who don't care much for spicyness, the food just wasn't tasty. For the $60 bill between two people, I don't feel the high price I paid for below mediocre Indian food was worth it.
The only thing keeping me from giving this place two stars is that fact that the service was great and the mango ice cream was yummy. -
Review from Arty V.
Solana Beach, CA
3/10/2011
oh dear. What a shambles. The food was awful. I can't believe the "tandoori chicken" ; reheated tasteless costco durge. Vindaloo; I have had better ready meals from trader joe's. terrible
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Review from Joe M.
Los Angeles, CA
1/30/2011
This place doesn't deserve even 1 star. The host/waitress didn't know what she was doing, the service was below poor. We ordered the buffet, but they never bothered to stock more food after running out. It should have been called all you can eat of what's left. Not worth what they charge. Seriously the worst Indian restaurant in Southern California.
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Review from Belle N.
Anaheim, CA
9/12/2009
We were here on Labor Day and I wanted to note what a great experience it was! Though we've had basic Indian food before, this was our first time ordering it on our own and trying it out!
The food was great...We had the Chicken Curry of the day and the Chicken Vindaloo which was Spicy! Just how I love my food! A definite must...we also had the basmati rice and the garlic naan which were very good...Our appetizer which was the Samosas were just OK - nothing mindblowing and heavy on the Potato (starch) as I had potatoes also in my Chicken Vindaloo...
Overall it was a great experience and there was like Indian MTV on...You can't go wrong if you're curious and wnat to experience good Indian food at least once! -
Review from Madison M.
San Francisco, CA
2/17/2011
One of the best Indian food spots I have been to. Too bad I don't live anywhere nearby anymore. The naan stuffed with lamb is absolutely amazing. I would be happy ordering just that!!
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Review from Emily W.
Santa Barbara, CA
12/7/2011
Lunch buffet is spectacular, it's our favorite lunch spot downtown. It changes daily, so expect something different each time. The dishes aren't spicy (which I understand, as it's made for the masses) but the quality is superb. Their chicken tikka masala is creamy, fresh, and the chicken is nice and tender. They always have fresh salad (no iceberg, hooray!), an assortment of chutneys, and a good amount of veggie dishes (my favorite is the saag). Don't come here expecting a huge selection but do expect great quality food and good service.
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Review from Lisa R.
Long Beach, CA
10/17/2010
the tandoori food plater was perfect. Fresh and not too oily. Good value for the price. It was also awesome that an old Indian guy was the chef! Made it taste more authentic : ) service was good.
