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My husband and I joke that House of Curries is our second kitchen as we're here almost every week.
Very affordable tasty food and complimentary chai. We've tried a lot on the menu and my favorite remains Ghobi Ghost - the lamb & cauliflower curry. Really friendly service from staff who remember and take care of their regulars.
Not fancy but it's the food, staff and prices that keeps me a happy customer.
I'm really into their salty lassi lately. MMMmmm. I don't feel guilty since it's yogurt.
I didn't like the naan stuffed with potato $2.99 as much as the plain naan, but it was still good.
Had 2 different curries - yummy.
Seems like half the tables in the restaurant are wobbly, but taste, price, and that they're open till 10 p.m. make up for that annoyance.
I've only had the garlic naan & somosas, take-out. YUM! But watch out - the garlic naan is… Read more »
Best curry I had in a long time,
the service was friendly and fast.
I swear, I just sat down and my food came within 3 mins.
I had the chicken tikka masala and it blew me away, large portions, bread + rice.
Will def go back
My husband and I have been having lunches here for several years. It is a completely unpretentious and affordable place, and the food is fabulous, across the board. Their eggplant dish with the plain rice and plain nan is my favorite. Their green mint sauce in a squeeze bottle is a perfect enhancement. I eat about 1/3 of the eggplant dish with all the rice, and bring the rest home to sparkle up my taste buds for a couple of days. My husband likes the lamb there. I don't eat much meat, but when I've tasted it, I must admit it's delicious. Try it. You won't be sorry!
I love this place! I've had nothing but good experiences here. The food is great, the prices are amazing, and the staff are so friendly! It's not fancy by any means, but for us it's just right for dinner on a weeknight.
I haven't had anything from there that I didn't like...and we usually try something new each time. Tonight we had lamb with spinach and fish curry and both were excellent.
NOM NOM NOM
I've been oh so tempted by this place every single time I swing by, but have somehow never been in.
Until today (dun dun dun!).
Swung by around four-ish, so it was not super busy, only a few tables with people in it, but not empty, which is a good sign.
My friend and I settled on chicken tikki masala and regular and potato naan to share. The service was very quick and they were very nice. The complementary tea was also VERY nice, as was the patio seating on such a lovely day.
The food came out quickly and was slightly overwhelming. The naan was cut into quadrants (supposedly, so we would have an easier time sharing?). The potato naan had a little kick to it, which was unexpected, but in a good way. Not the scary way.
The curry was good, but could have had a bit more flavor. There were only about four or five chunks of chicken in the dish, but we didn't even finish all of it, so there didn't need to be a lot. Between the two of us (small girls who eat like dirty fat men), the fact that we couldn't finish it was quite impressive.
I'd come back for a quick curry fix definately. Yummmmmm
I've eaten Indian all over the world- and yes at places where there are mostly Indian people eating there. This place is fantastic. When I am out of the country, it's one of the things I miss the most. My favorite is the baigan bharta. There may be better Indian places, but in the US, they will cost about 4-5 times as much. My husband and I routinely eat there and get enough for 3-4 more meals to take home. Their people are genuinely kind and quick with service and for the price, you absolutely can NOT beat it anywhere except maybe in India or Pakistan.
Food great - best chicken tiki masala. People always great! Service is prompt and friendly.
they do free chai (super tasty) and outdoor eating out front with heat lamps for chilly days.
Never had a bad meal here. Great Indian food.
It's great to find an Indian place and a breakfast place in the same neighborhood you like (see The Sunny Side Cafe), much less next door to one another, but here you have it. I love the friendly service, and the great food.
Great little place.
All the curries were great especially when dipped in naan bread.
They have free chai where is great! You have to serve yourself but I don't care! It's still great.
Service is friendly and quick.
Food comes out relatively slow, but it's well worth it.
Fast, cheap, delicious. That is all I require.
The Chicken Tikka Masala ($5.99) is very good. The chicken could be a little more tender, but the sauce is drool-worthy. I love the Baingan Bharta ($5.99). It's very different from other restaurants, which usually serve a tomato based eggplant sauce. Here they add cream to the sauce, painting it a bright yellow color. It's nice and spicy. It also makes a fine chip dip. I wasn't all that juiced about the lamb curry ($6.99). The lamb was a little dry and just didn't have the flavor of the other two.
The naan are HUGE! Like so huge I blushed a little when I saw them. The garlic one is yummy, but I wish they sold paratha. The free chai is a nice touch. This is my new Indian/Pakistani spot. Sorry Kabana. I still love you.
So i had the Lamb Vindaloo and it was passable, although i am pretty sure that it was not supposed to have big tomato chunks in it. My friend got the tikka masala and that was just bad, missed on the flavor completely; his Potato naan on the other hand was good, and so was my other friends KKotl??? the naan with the meat in it. I gave it two stars only because the sauces they have are good. The slightly spicy greenish sauce and the other sweet sauce were good.
I like this place. Comfort Indian food. Maybe American style, but that's not so terrible is it? Tandoori chicken was really good. Naan, Chana Masala, and Chicken Tikka Masala also good and dependable. It's a go-to place for sure, and definitely not greasy. Stomach = Stable after eating at House of Curries.
Wow!
They put a lot of meat in each of their dishes! A+ for that, and their sauces are delicious. I'm totally for the self service style that asks you to get your own silverware, water, plates, and napkins. The only thing I'm not keen on is the wait. It makes you hungry, cranky, and irritable. Like IBS.
Which is good, because lavishly rich curries usually exit in a fiery manner, completely opposite in the lovely way they were consumed.
I guess you could call me a "house of curries ho". Its close location to my house/school allows me to go there almost weekly. Good times.
First off, the service rocks. Hands down, the friendliest service in Albany. There's this one guy that always makes sweet comments and the other guy has a really nice smile. The girl is a cutie, too. Anyways, the service is really fast, and the free Chai totally owns. Prices aren't dirt cheap, but cheap enough for poor students such as myself to afford a good amount of food. I don't feel I'm getting robbed.
The self-serve idea is nice. I like.
The food itself is pretty damn good. I really like the Paneer Tikka Masala and veggie wrap. Delicious. The samosas are dee-lish as well.
Overall, this place is worth going for a cheap bite. Occasionally you may run into some obnoxious high schoolers, but that happens almost everywhere.
I'm just generally not good at sharing food. I always like one food more and want to eat more of it. Then I worry about how many people I'm sharing with and how many bites I can take and how fast other people are eating and how hungry they look and how much I paid and I don't know, it just makes me anxious and unhappy.
But yo, I'm totally down with sharing House of Curries. It's tasty and it's cheap ($8 per person for 6 people) and the naan will blow your mind. Also, free tea while you wait. Way better than Naan 'n' Curry. Definitely way better than the campus location, too.
Four stars only because a ton of reviews promised me a hot cashier and he was nowhere to be found.
Foodwise, this place is just as good as the one on College. The ambiance isn't as good, though.
Try the rose-flavored Kulfi bar. Tastes like sweet frozen romance.
Pretty cheap, highly tasty Indian food.
Two Indian guys at work independently recommended this place when I whined about not having had Indian food in a while. Then, a friend of mine from Albany was like "hey, this place has a super hot cashier, and the food is pretty good." So we went.
* One star for the cashier who was as hot as promised and sweet enough to encourage me to pronounce my order all by myself.
* One star for the price.
* One star for the fact that the na'an was amazing and plentiful. Maybe it's just me, but I see Indian food as being just too awesome to eat in its pure form, like it'll ruin me for other foods or something, so it has to be dilluted with rice. To eat it with just na'an is selfish or unholy or something. Which is why you never get enough na'an in an order to finish off an entire dish, so you have to mix it up with rice. Or that's what I've always told myself. Not House of Curries. We had na'an leftover. It was fantasticness in its purest form.
* Another star for the waiter. Just kidding. The okra dish was dynomite.
Free water and coffee, heated outdoor seating, all awesomeness.
Third visit, where I once again got my standard chicken curry with naan.
Previously, I would have given them three stars. Nothing spectacular, but solid. Maybe even four stars, because the service is friendly and courteous. Unfortunately, on this visit I was served a curried salt lick.
I'm usually the one mopping the plate clean, but not this time. I generally have a high tolerance for salty food, but on this visit I couldn't even eat more than a few bites.
A very disappointed demotion to two stars.
Just tried this place and am officially announcing that I will become a regular. The pakoras were delish and not at all greasy, and yes, I agree with Reina g's review, the naan look like they could fly and maybe they have a Naan Mothership, they are so delightfully big. The service was fast and friendly, the menu is oh so reasonable. I also really like how they have all the supplies neatly stacked for you on the metro shelving when you walk in: to go boxes and bags, real and plastic flatware, napkins, etc. Hello, make yourself at home, we trust you, it says. And have some free tea while you eat (or wait).
I really enjoy coming here for lunch and dinner. I'm not sure if he is the owner or manager, but there is a really nice guy who takes orders and seems to always remember your face, asks you if you enjoyed your food, and makes suggestions of what you might enjoy. The rest of the staff is also pretty friendly.
Prices are very fair here as well. I don't feel like I'm spending an arm and a leg. There is always a place to sit here, which I really like. When the weather is good, I like to sit outside in the patio area. My favorite thing to order is the chicken tikka masala. The chicken isn't too dry like other places and the sauce it comes smothered in is really good with naan. When I come here with my boyfriend, I never want to share with him! I don't think I could ever stop coming here.
Amazing Indian take-out. We eat here about once a week and the only problem is that it's hard to stop eating because it's so good! Then you end up feeling over-stuffed, like after a good Thanksgiving meal, and wanting to nap instead of go back to work.
I adore the chicken tikka masala ... my co-workers love any of the lamb dishes (which are pretty tasty from what I've stolen from them!).
Wow... just wow. I don't think i have ever seen a restaurant with food full of grease and oil in their curries. I went to this restaurant believing that I would taste a great variety of curries since I am a huge fan of Indian food. I tried the Chicken Tikki Masala and it was gross. The curry was so buttery and oily it almost made me throw up. I ate a couple bites and just called it a day.
Another thing that bothered me and several other customers in the restaurant was that the waiter clearly used the bathroom, then touched his hair, prior to touching our plates. I like being clean with everyone especially when it comes to food, and this was just unacceptable. Horrible food and service... Don't think I'm going back and I only recommend this place to people who enjoy an oily and disgusting orange curry sauce mixed with horrible service.
I know five stars is a lot of stars. It takes ONE WHOLE HAND to count them! But this place deserves it!
I admit, the ambiance is lacking. This isn't the type of place a "tramp" doggy will take a "lady" doggy to convince her that deep down inside, he's a really nice guy. BUT, they have all the free chai tea! That's a million times better than sharing a restaurant with cartoon doggies.
The reason I give this place five stars also has nothing to do with my developing crush. Seriously, the guy who works the cashier could be my boyfriend. Anytime. If he's into that sort of thing. If he's not, that's cool too. I'm good with rejection.
I realize I'm rambling, so I'll wrap it up. I go to House of Curries once a week because of the VEGI KORMA! It tastes like ANGELS! Beautifully spiced angels. Thinking about it right now... nom, nom, nom... oh man... I... I gotta go. Call my boyfriend. Pick up some curry. Bye!
EDITED DOWN TO THREE... Still reasonable prices and tasty, but two of the three dishes were WAY too salty. Ugh.
Older review: Yum. I wouldn't sit down to eat there, as the ambiance is not so much, but I LOVE for takeout. I'm a veg and their veg stuff treats me right. They have great naan. And the employees are super sweet!
I work up the street from house of curries.
When I got off I called in an order and headed the few blocks down to the restaurant.
When I arrived the man behind the counter asked how I was doing...and it felt like he was sincerely curious.
He told me my order would be done in just a minute (as was earlier than the estimated finish time and had expected to wait) and told me I should have a seat and enjoy the complimentary tea.
At this point I didn't really care what the food tasted like.
These people were attentive, generous and (though unrelated to my score) attractive to boot.
Just as I sat down with my tea, a woman walked out with my bag and told me to relax and finish my tea with a smile.
Well, I did finish it, proceeded to my friend's house and enjoyed a very delicious meal of paneer tikka masala, rice, naan, and vege samosas.
Cheap, quick, kind, and FREE TEA.
Yes, yes, and I'll be back soon.
House of Curries is a clean, delicious restaurant. They have friendly management and wonderful drinks. They have the regular iced teas and such.... or, you can grab a neatly stacked cup and grab a nice, warm cup of fresh Chai tea with cream already added. They also have a dish of sugar to mix with your tea. Their food is very good. I ordered the Chicken Tikka Masala and it was spectacular! This dish was a little more creamy than Cafe Raj's version of it. I like House of Curries's version better. It had a lot of flavor but was also spicy and suttle. They have great Naan, too! I hope to return to House of Curries soon again to have more of this food!
Moved to the Solano Ave neighborhood recently and need something after a late night at work.
Stopped in at 9:45 PM (15 minutes before they close since they are open until 10 PM M-Th) and ordered my litmus test for an Westernized Indian restaurant - chicken tikka masala and garlic naan. Not only were the guys super-friendly and didn't give me a hassle about ordering so late but the food was rock-solid too.
Naan was great and the chicken tikka masala was really good (not over-cooked or draw out completely by the season). Have to say I am going to definitely become a regular here when I don't have time to cook/need to grab something after a long-day at work.
I completely love this place. I always get the veggie korma or paneer tikka masala, rice, and naan. It is ALWAYS so GOOD! The sauces so flavorful and creamy, the rice so moist, naan so fresh...
The staff is ALWAYS so NICE! And the food is so CHEAP! The free chai rocks!
I usually order pretty basic dishes when I come here, chicken tikka masala, garlic naan, chicken tandoori...
The food is good, but I think that they could add more spices to their dishes. They kind of skimp on the chicken in the chicken tikka masala, but it leaves more sauce for dipping your naan in! Their naan is never burnt, and has a fluffiness to it that makes it more enjoyable to eat.
I guess I come here because sometimes I get that craving for a nice, hot cup of chai. You can keep drinking and drinking your chai tea until you think you are going to burst.
Customer service is basic. Walk up to the counter to order, walk back to your table to wait for your food to come. Service is usually pretty quick, as I've only had once experience here where the food took for-ev-er.
This is a good backup restaurant, and it's on my beloved Solano Ave. Parking can be a hassle depending on what time you show up, so I usually go after the dinner rush.
All in all, the food is not spectacular but still good, and their chai tea is amazing!
Great cheap to-go food! I'm not a vegetarian, but their Sada Bhindi (okra) makes me think I almost could be, especially when paired with a little Baigan Barta (creamy eggplant). But my son, who is an unabashed carnivore and doesn't particularly like Indian food, goes for the Tandoori Lamb Chops, and I gotta back him up. For 8 bucks. 4 lamb chops. perfectly cooked. tender and succulent. Awesome.
They package the to-go stuff really well, so there's never any leaks, plus you have that great little disposable "tupperware" for the kid's lunches. You can drink chai for free while you're waiting, except it isn't very good quality, so you usually have to pee like a racehorse before you actually arrive home with the food.
I can never finish this rich food, and end up eating it for the next two days, and considering that I end up paying about 20 bucks, that's a pretty good deal.
There's also a REALLY cute counter guy/manager, and if I were about a hundred years younger, I would definitely put the flirt on 'im. He is really accommodating if you want something off-menu, too.
Wraps are good for lunch when you're in a hurry...
This neon-signed restaurant was our destination for dinner after an afternoon cruising around the East Bay. The place was clean and quite busy, which are two very good signs. You order at the counter and they bring the food out to your table. We chose to sit outside (under a heat lamp) to get away from the crowded inside seating area.
The Chicken Tikka Masala was decent, but not fantastic like I had hoped. The rice was delicious, and the garlic naan was....UBER-garlicky (definitely not food suitable for making out, unless the person you're going to make out with shares your naan with you). I love that you can drink unlimited amounts of chai (free with your meal). The servers are super friendly and very accommodating.
Just a note - if you like super spicy, make sure to specify that when you order - they can kick it up a couple of notches for you on request. (I wish I had known that beforehand!)
I'm going to be straight up here.
The food is pretty good and it'll do the job when you need an Indian fix. Is it the best? well, probably not. Service? Essentially self-serve though they bring food out to you. Free chai and good, clean sauces available in the self-serve fridge, nice plus. But this is why I keep coming back and back again...the guys who work there are HOT!! They are so incredibly nice, sweet, and happy to talk about love, life, and the pursuit of good curry. I would've thought he was flirting with me, except for the fact that he was just as nice to every single person that goes to the register. Whatev.
Anyhow, this is one of those VALUE places, and you know me, I'm a value driven kinda gal. So sure, it's probably not the BEST indian you'll find in the bay area, but given the price, wonderful hole-in-the-wall ambiance, + yummy boys, this is on my unbeatable list.
My Nepali sweety wanted to take me and my Mom to Taste of the Himalayas for her Birthday lunch. I even went by the day before to make sure they'd be open. The friendly waitress assured me they'd be open.
LIES!!!!!!
We showed up and were told they were closed for some sort of maintainance! I was beside myself! Nepali sweety was too, bummed that Mom wouldn't get any taste of her native land. We drove off to Solana hoping to find Something worthy of Mom's birthday lunch. My mouth was all ready for curry. . .
I spied the House of Curries sign and pulled in. The decor was nothing to write home about, and I had to ask them to turn the music down so I could hear Mom talk, but as luck would have it the girl at the counter was from Nepal. The food had a distintive Nepali flavor too.
The pakora wasn't anyone's fave and I thought all was lost. . .'til all the other dishes arrived. The Biryana was only okay, but everything else was just delicious and just what we'd been looking for for less $ than we'd expected. I'll keep going to Taste of the Himalayas for the wonderful atmosphere, but just for the food, I'll hit House of Curries in future.
You don't know, naan *edit echo* ! (c)Trick Daddy
note: I hate that song, but I have to say it every time I see some naan.
Okay, so the food here isn't the best, but it's edible. It'll satisfy your craving for Indian if you aren't some curry connoisseur or some shit. I can't hate $6 chicken, $9 lamb, and $2 naan (you don't know naan, naan! see what I mean?).
So here's the rundown:
Free chai tea. I like chai, but... Mmm. I love free chai.
The curry, tandoori, and tikki marsala are a bit bland, not spicy, but decent overall. Boo. I love spicy food.
The basmati rice was yummy. Mmm. I love yummy.
Their garlic naan was quite garlicky. Mmm. I love garlic.
The top of the water in our pitcher was frozen. Hilarious when i was trying to pour it. I had to stab through it like i was ice fishing. Mmm. I love stabbing things.
So in conclusion, don't come here expecting exceptional Indian cuisine. 3 stars gets rounded up to 3.5 because it's just too cheap to give it a 3, but goes back down to 3 because I can't give it a 3.5 and it doesn't deserve a 4. Mmm... frugal.
Great little restaurant. Very reasonable prices ($6 - 7 for entrees, about $1 for naan). Friendly staff. Heated outdoor seating.
Honestly, one of the best places I've been to on Solano :-)
The guy behind the counter was really hot and they gave us a discount because it was our first time. Other than that the food was unimpressive and the chicken was dry. I have had better. Maybe the other dishes are better. I had the chicken vindaloo.
This is be a great choice for a casual lunch with friends. I peeve of mine is going to any restaurant and then smelling like the food for the rest of the day. House of Curries is well ventilated and because Solano Ave. has such a nice climate, it's possible to sit outside most of the year. For less than $10, I was able to get a chicken tikka masala plate with two large samosas. I left feeling very full.
Like most people on Yelp, I appreciate the free chai tea and the ease of getting your own water from the fridge. The place is run by younger folk and they do their best to make sure the customer has a good dining experience. When placing my order at the counter, the guy working was very business-like (but helpful) in explaining what my choices might be and he handled my questions like a pro. My experiences with the food have always been positive. It doesn't stand out as fantastic, but I've never been disappointed.
This place is great! My companion and I picked this on a lark while walking in the neighborhood. The food is reasonably priced and the meat-infused Nann is fantastic. In addition to that we had Lamb aloo and Chicken Tikka Masala, along with rice. The spice level was a little lower than I would have liked but still plenty good and zippy.
One odd feature of the place I liked a lot is that they have pitchers of cooled water in the fridge where you can serve yourself. I like this because I hate waiting for the server to bring you the simple stuff. I'd rather get my glass of water myself. I have a few other things I'd like to try the next time I go there.
$5 Lunch Specials MON- FRI
Neighborhood: Downtown Berkeley
Police | Firemen | Military…
Emeryville, CA
Neighborhood: Elmwood
Category: Indian
Berkeley, CA
Category: Indian
Neighborhood: East Solano Ave
Category: Indian
Albany, CA
Category: Indian
Albany, CA
Category: Himalayan/Nepalese
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