"CTM (chicken tikka masala): absolute perfection."
(in 44 reviews)
"I like their butter chicken, lamb kadai, aloo gobi, and garlic naan."
(in 46 reviews)
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Kabab and Curry's
Rating Details »
1498 Isabella Street
Santa Clara, CA 95050
(408) 247-0745
Santa Clara, CA 95050
(408) 247-0745
- Hours:
Tue-Thu. 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Tue-Thu. 5:30 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Fri. 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Fri. 5:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.
Sat. 12:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Sat. 5:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.
Sun. 12:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Sun. 5:30 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
- Price Range:
-
$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good for:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- None
287 reviews for Kabab and Curry's
Review Highlights
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This business is a Yelp Sponsor
3/19/2008
11/18/2009
11/19/2009
11/11/2009
11/26/2009
11/22/2009
10/20/2009
10/20/2009
10/22/2009
11/10/2009
11/22/2009
10/19/2009
10/18/2009
11/11/2009
9/29/2009
8/18/2009
9/5/2009
Updated - 11/1/2009
9/23/2009
10/17/2009
7/15/2009
7/17/2009
1 photo
10/21/2009
8/23/2009
7/7/2009
6/17/2009
6/14/2009
6/26/2009
11/10/2009
8/9/2009
7/17/2009
7/17/2009
5/5/2009
4/25/2009
5/31/2009
Updated - 4/20/2009
5 photos
9/30/2009
6/19/2009
9/20/2009
9/26/2009
One of the Business' Favorite Reviews What's This?
One of my ALL time favorite places to eat!!! Yes..it's small, it's quaint, it's in a converted apartment complex...but the food is CHEAP and EXCELLENT!!! It is definitely authentic Pakistani food, as you can tell by the customers dining...and I have never had any bad experience including service and staff!
The tandoori chicken, palak paneer, chicken tikka masala, and the yummy bread pudding dessert with raisins!!! All a good buy and worth every cent! The servers bring you naan piping hot to your table when seated. Don't ask for something crazy to drink..they have the usual sodas and water in plastic yellow glasses they use in preschool and kindergarden. The owner is always pleasant...and usually sits at the register.
For a good buy, come during lunch for buffet. You get to taste an assortment of dishes which usually change depending on the day. If you come for dinner, you'll be paying more and have less of a selection, as you choose what dishes you'd like to eat. I believe the restaurant is closed on Mondays but open the rest of the week. YUMMY!
The garlic naan here is really good!
I ordered:
Beef Seckh Kebab: 3 stars
Lamb Kadai: 4 stars
Butter Chicken: 3 stars
Butter chicken is usually my favorite dish to order at Indian restaurants but I didn't like the butter chicken here as much. I mean, it was okay but a little salty for my taste. The lamb Kedai was really good though and I usually don't eat lamb. The meat was tender and I couldn't smell the lamb *thumbs up*. Beef Kebab was pretty good too.
In general, the dishes here are good but the portions are small.
I went to Kabab & Curry at the behest of a friend who thinks it's one of the best places in the bay. It's not.
It's actually kind of scary. There's about a hundred Indian/Pakistani people crammed into an area that is inhumanly warm (actually ... warm because of humans) on a cool winter night. I'm Indian and even I felt intimidated by the "authenticity".
The food is just okay. I tried the Chicken Seekh Kebab, the Chicken Tikka, and the Chicken Biriyani. It was nothing special.
Trying to pay was a complete fiasco. They clearly just didn't want our money. It's good they deal mostly with Indian people, otherwise they'd have an insane amount of loss from people getting frustrated and walking away. I was almost willing to do it.
Really really REALLY good food...
I ordered:
Lamb Kadahi
Garlic Naan
Biryaani Chicken
The only complaint is that there were A LOT of small bones/cartilage in the lamb kadahi and the biryaani.. Every bite had something in it that you had to spit out... BUT the flavors were AMAZING its just too bad that you can't eat it really fast haha
Lamb Kadahi: A traditional Pakistani curry (or thats what they told me haha) the curry had amazing spices, just the right amount of heat and plenty of lamb!!!
Garlic Naan: Very good.. crispy yet soft and warm. Not too heavy on the garlic like a lot of other places.. Really good
Biryaani Chicken: The portion is HUGE and the rice is sooo good you can eat it alone.
Pricing is cheap too and the restaurant fills up FAST. We were lucky that we got there when it opened and we didn't have to fight for a table. By 6:30 all the tables were filled. I guess the food really is that good!!!
Definitely worth a try!!! MmMmmm..
I must say my experiences have been all over the spectrum- yes inconsistent but mostly worth mentioning. I must caution that over the weekends this place is very busy thus effecting the service. Depending on what you order this place is hit and miss. In general it offers clean seating area with service which is unlike typical South Asian restaurant.
I highly suggest beef seekh kabob, chicken karahi, chops, and daal. they are finger licking good and really flavorful. Definitely authentic. I will stay away from chicken seekh kabob and butter chicken as they haven't mastered it yet. Even when i order take out i end end waiting as they are busy. Owner is genuinely nice guy who is open to feedback and tries to ensure everyone has good experience unlike other south asian restaurants
We just had the most amazing meal in a long long time @ Kabab n Curry in Santa Clara...OMG this was bliss..:)
You guys will see us more often...can't wait to tell my friends! Amazing food!
Came here today for lunch with Daniele and although I liked it, it didn't wow me. I think we should have probably ordered off the menu instead of going for the Buffet. The Buffet was less then $10 and what I thought would be a good deal but the food was only okay. They have it all out but nothing is labeled and unfortunately I am don't know a lot about Indian food (except that I like it ) so I wasn't sure what I was eating. If you are vegetarian, be careful when ordering buffet because it's not labeled and it's hard to tell what is in the dish.
After we got it on our plate and asked one of the servers what we were actually eating, this is what we had:
lamb korma
chicken tandoori
aaloo mutter
daal
and a few other dishes but this is what we were told we were eating. Although flavorful, not the best Indian place I have been to. The service was really friendly though and they gave us tons of Naan without an extra charge so that was cool. Seating can be limited so get there not at lunch hour.
Parking was a breeze on the street. I probably would come back here again but not order the buffet. Too many things going on and I have no idea what they are. Overall though, for less then $10, you can't go wrong here for lunch.
Review based on lunch buffet...
One of the best buffet of its kind. My fav. is the tandoori chicken, soft and tender. It's close to my work, i generally get there after 1pm, the line is short or not there at all, saves time.
mMMMMMMM one the best indian food I've eaten in the bay.....
I was craving for indian food so I yelped it on my iphone... No regret! I was extremely happy I found the place.. my freinds were proud of me!
We tried......
Butter Chicken
Chicken Tikka Masala
Garlic and Regular naan.....
4 stars for both butter chicken and chicken tikka masala.. given the price is only $9, you can not go wrong with either choice!
5 stars for the naan, hands down the best naan ever! it was hot, soft, and fresh....
100 stars for dipping naans into my butter chocken!!
We were the first to arrive tonight, when the restaurant opened and I thought we were going to be the only ones dining here because it was so dead. But slowly the phones were coming in and so were the customers. We were seated and given our menus. The menu is pretty simple with Lamb, Chicken and Vegetable curries. We ordered the Lamb curry, Chicken Biryanni and Garlic Nann. The food was YUMMY! So full of flavor, I couldnt stop eating. The only complaint I did have about the food was the bones from the chicken and lamb. I seriously think the cook should debone the meat because it is such a pain in the butt to keep spitting out bone pieces. Thats why I am docking off one point. I have to say by far this is probably one of my favorite Indian style restaurants. Next time I am going to get my usual tikka masala mMmMmmMm I can't wait!!!
I'm glad to find good Indian in the area. Not to expensive $15 for one with left overs. Not a huge portion of curry, but adequate. Didn't give me a sweet chutney. light table service, but there were tables full of indian-american families which added to the ambiance.
GREAT FOOD!
clean place, onty down fall is it took some time to get our meal, with that said i really can appriciate traditional indian food
Their best dish is the lamb biryanis. Be sure to get there early or you'll miss out. I hear that they sometimes run out by 9 because the dish is so popular. And you have to be there on the right day - wed/fri/sun is lamb biryanis, tue/thu/sat is chicken biryanis.
We also tried the tandoori fish and that was really yummy, too. Just the right amount of spice and not overcooked. As mentioned by other reviewers, the naan was warm and fresh from the oven.
I went there on Saturday, not knowing what to expect. OK the ambience is not fantastic and the service is a little slow and shabby, but the food is pretty darn good.
The tandoori lamb chops were very tasty, the lamb bhuna very good and the nans fluffy and piping hot.
No alcohol though. Thats a shame, nothing like a nice cold beer with some tasty tandoori food.
This is the best Indo/Pak restaurant in the U.S.
When I lived out in the San Jose area, this was the go to spot for a great dinner.
Fantastic food.
Warning the service here is terrible and awfully slow... But the food is well prepared and seasoned excellently.
Recommend:
Tandoori chicken
Butter chicken
Biryanis
Palaak Paneer
Eggplant
Raita
Best naan I've ever had! Don't know if it was the epic hike prior to coming here or what but this dinner was SO good!! We ordered a host of dishes...tandoori chicken, chicken tikka masala, butter chicken, tandoori fish, regular naan and garlic naan, and I know I'm missing like 4-5 other dishes! It was 6 of us and we were so freakin' hungry. I think the waiter thought we were literally crazy!! In all reality the food came out quickly but we were so hungry that it felt like an eternity.
The food was SO good!! I loved the tandoori chicken and the 2 chicken curries we ordered. For the group being so large we were relatively silent throughout the meal. We ended up going near their closing time which resulted in one of my friends flagging down the waiter and asking him if they were still serving dessert. OMG! He looked at us like we were crazy especially because were we about 10 minutes into the meal. He made sure to clarify that yes they were still serving dessert. Ok well after we finished dinner we decided that perhaps dessert would be a bit mucho!
As an FYI you have to go up to the counter to pay after your meal. A-W-K-W-A-R-D! The cashier was super nice but we were a bit embarrassed when he read off each item we had ordered. It was hilarious because he took a good 5 minutes re-reading all of the items just to make sure they had the order correct. The 6 of us were standing around waiting for it to end so we could pay and that included a lot of laughing. Everything is reasonably priced so go buck wild!! UGH too bad this place is so far away from my house.
Near Santa Clara University and behind Taco Bell off ECR.
I heard of this place through Yelp since I was craving Indian food and wanted to try somewhere 'new'.
The dishes were a bit small (expected right?) and they didn't have Bhindi/Okra dish. Isn't Okra in season?
Overall, the service was polite and not overly intrusive.
We ordered:
Eggplant
Garlic Naan
Rice
Chicken Tikka Masala
Beef Kebab
lunch buffet is limited and its too crowded. For the price, you can get better buffets in the south bay.
dinner used to be great and I do not mean the quality has gone down but quantity is down and price is up. Again, better dinner options than KnC around El Camino Real.
Friendly owner and wait staff. I used to dig their biriyani's but now have found Gulzaar and its a LOT better...
1 Previous Review: Show all »
-
5/9/2009
was a really good place for Indian-muslim food till they bumped up the rates by 1-2 $ and if I'm not… Read more »
i have no idea what the heck any of this food is called. i'll pick the easily identifiable foods. chicken. good. lentils. really good. the neverending warm pita bread just about completed my meal.
$10 all you can eat lunch buffet. that's a pretty good deal.
it was worth the curry evaporating from my pores for days after.
i go to a lot of indian restaurants for lunch and dinner, and this one is probably by far my favorite. the prices are so cheap, and the amounts are just perfect. when the food eventually comes out (service IS terrible), it doesnt look like itll be enough, but once you get to the bottom of the bowl, youre fully content. not the omg, i cant move type of feeling.
id give this place 5 stars on the quality and consistency of the food, but as agreed by yelpers, the service here is way too slow.
Hidden gem that serves THE BEST NAAN.
Directions:
Order the garlic naan
Order the butter chicken
Dip garlic naan in butter chicken sauce
Enjoy!
How in the world did people find this place? It's hidden behind a Taco Bell and looks like someone's house.
Concealed in a neighborhood just off El Camino Real is the gem known as Kabab and Curry's. (Actually, I got lost while driving here my first time; so much for that car GPS unit...) The restaurant is actually located in the downstairs floor of what seems to be an apartment building. I basically Yelp-ed for lunch in Santa Clara and this was the first result that popped up! And there's good reason too.
Little did I know they have a LUNCH BUFFET!! Talk about a pleasant, yet confusing surprise: I walked in the door and people were just lined up for this awesome spread of food; not a menu in sight. For those who've never been, get in line, grab a plate, fill it up and chow down. When I went they had rice, a couple kinds of curry, kebabs, pudding dessert and all the fixings. Oh and waiters will bring you a basket of naan too! And it's a buffet! (I must have had 2nds, 3rds, and 4ths...)
And the food is good. To be honest, I've spent the last 6 months working abroad in China CRAVING Indian food. And Kebab and Curry's did not disappoint at all. My mouth is watering just thinking about it now. The spices blend together so well. Honestly I could just dip naan in the curry and just eat that all day.
But the best part is the price! (Well for lunch at least.) I mean a delicious buffet meal for under $10 (including TAX!!) Good thing my work is just 2 miles away. I'm going back again next week!
This place has one of the best Nan in south bay. I like this better than "Shalimar". The quality is much better so it's justifiable to be just slightly more expensive than "Shalimar". As much as I like this place, I wouldn't feel comfortable to recommend for "Buffet" though because it is not the place if you are used to Indian Buffet with lot of options. Buffet at this place has much less option but the quality offsets to some degree but not much. I typically order dishes instead of Buffet. I have tried Buffet twice so it's not a lot but enough for me to stick with ordering than buffet:).
Tandoori chicken is delicious, last time I was there the price went up and that was more than a year ago.
Friendly staff, next door to a neighborhood.
This is one of the best medium-end Indian restaurants in the South Bay. The food is excellently prepared (given it's not the healthiest) and is reasonably priced.
I love their chicken curries, their naan, and their sweet lassis (to die for!). The staff provide good service for an Indian restaurant.
This place does get busy for dinner. Also, it's located in a residential area and customers have to find street-side parking. So plan on being there early. It's worth it!
As others have mentioned, the food is good but not memorable. Overall, the dishes were bland. Nothing was even remotely spicy. The chicken in the chicken dishes was not moist enough. The yellow curry veggie dish was *interesting*. The eggplant dish was also *interesting*. Naan was crispy and thin. Nice.
Will I be back? Not unless I'm starving and happen to be in the neighborhood. Which is unlikely.
I am not Indian, nor do I claim to be an Indian food afficianado, but this place has some of THE BEST DAMN Indian food I have had, EVER!
My friend Sandie L. was visiting from Seattle and she was craving some great Indian food. I had been meaning to check this place out for the last year but for some reason, I kept thinking they were only open during the day, or I was trying to hit up the lunch buffet. I can't remember the exact reason why it took me so long.
So, looked up my trusty yelp bookmarks and found this place.
We ordered the butter chicken, curry chicken, palak paneer (spinach and cheese), tandoori chicken, and naan. Everything was excellent, and the palak paneer was cooked to perfection. The green chutney that comes in the bottle is spicy, along with everything else, and some of the best chutney I have had in awhile. I think we used about half the bottle between 3 people too.
Weekday Lunch Buffet, under $10 per person, including tax!!!!!
YUMMYYYY just enough selection for me (maybe too little for others)
2 chicken curries, 1 veggie curries, 1 veggie platter, rice, salad, chicken tandoori, dessert (pudding or bread pudding), 3 yogurt-y things
As far as drinks go, I don't know how the pricing is or if it's included or what...but we always order a mango lassi. a pitcher of water is usually at your table to begin with.
UNLIMITED NAAN!!!!!!! mMMmmmMmMMMmmMmm sometimes you get a crispy basket, sometimes you get a fluffy carb-o-licious basket, either way, MY FAVORITE PART.
Arrive AT 11:30am when they open for weekday lunch buffet, or AFTER 1pm. WHY? You'll beat the massive business lunch break rush. It's literally chaos for that time period and the servers are running around like maniacs and the line goes out the door JUST to get your food. After that, the line is a quick wait.
The seating is unorganized, make sure an employee sees you and promises you a table before you're done getting your plate; the Mexican guy who works there is a GREAT employee but kind of under appreciated. Ask for his help and try to tip him, I think they pocket tips so hand it to him directly if he did his job.
Garlic naan, the best. Chicken Marala...excellent, but hands down the best shrimp tandori.Excellent, great prices, great service. I'm a fan!!!
My Indian friend took me here for the dinner.
Their Tandoori chicken was so moist inside of the meat and delicious! We had chicken curry & lamb curry. Both were soooo good. And if you go there, you gotta try naan. It was just yummy. I couldn't stop eating!
But their Mango lassi was too sweet.
it might be good combination with spicy curry, but I just couldn't take it.
oh, in the end, I learned I shouldn't expect good service here. there were also long line for to go inside of the restaurant, so they were so busy and we had to go to the cashier to pay. -- is this their rule? everyone was paying this way.
Surprisingly yummy. It's hidden behind Taco Bell(Hell) and I would have never thought to go there - ever! Only reason I did is because of the great reviews on here.
Buffets usually disgust me, but this one was clean and well presented. The food was fresh and nothing looked like it was sitting around.
It seems like they focus on making a few things really well, instead of providing a poutpourri of ho-hum nastiness like some of the other Indian buffets out there.
Their rice is super yummy and I liked their bread pudding.
The Chicken Tikka Masala was amazing and delicious. Such a great mixture of spices! It had a faint smoked flavor, and I really liked the overall combination of whatever they put in it!
The butter chicken was a disappointment overall, but one family member seemed to really like it. I don't think it tasted anything like butter. :(
The shrimp tandoori + rice thing was kind of expensive, but then they did use jumbo prawns. They were pretty tasty, but I probably won't order them again (too expensive for the taste).
And the $4.00 tandoori chicken leg quarter was really good, except for the fact that there was SO little meat! Where did they find such an anorexic chicken? I would order this next time and hope there's actually more meat on the drumstick... otherwise, it's mostly bone!
Sorry, I didn't think the naan was that special! It only tasted like plain fresh bread to me... :/ I tried both the garlic and butter ones.
The beef kabab was good (and that's coming from someone who doesn't like kabab in general, but I can still recognize a good combo of spices even if I don't like the dish :P)
Overall, I would come back just for the tandoori chicken and chicken tikka masala. :) And, yes, the service doesn't seem to be the cornerstone of this place, so keep that in mind.
A little hidden gem off of El Camino right smack dab in a residential neighborhood. I was hoping it would look a little bit more hole in the wall-ish from the outside and inside to give the home style atmosphere but alas it's a full fledged restaurant with two fairly large sized dining areas, a full waitstaff, and a pretty schnazzy Kebab and Curry sign.
Their menu is pretty strait forward with all the usual Pakistani favorites and various tandoor'd items. Another page on their menu is for the various Indian desserts and their descriptions - ohh so raz mathai is boiled cheese. Nice, I never knew that.
We ordered:
* Beef Seekh Kabab, -- delicious - tender, juicy, a big piece that can be easily split for two people, it came on a bed of fresh onion
* Saag Gosht -- lamb was tender, all the flavors and spices were there, I would've liked a little more kick but it's definitely not as oily as Shalimar. I bit into a piece of cinnamon stick or prune pit. What is this thing?
* Chicken Tikka Masala - like that one beer commercial - tastes great. the sauce had great flavor, I wish they gave a few more than like the 4 chicken pieces though.
* Naan/Rice - more on the light fluffy side, some parts were thin and crackly. wasn't really thick or doughy which I would've liked. Rice was perfect
Portions except for the rice were a little bit smaller but the service was on point. The total came out to $30. Just about right. You pay a little bit more for having someone bring you water and your utensils.
Came here with two of my favorite people on a Friday Thank-God-Work-Is-Done-In-5-Hours lunch outing. The restaurant shows up rather surprisingly in a seemingly Pleasantville neighborhood, slightly off of the main roads. I had NO idea what to expect as a homeless man greeted our car as I parked.
Lunch Buffet was hit and miss. Did not enjoy the tandoori chicken (slightly dry with a hint of Batch Cooking For Buffet in it), but the palak paneer and chicken tikka masal were BOMB. (Literally for +9 hours from ingestion...)
I seriously could not get enough of those two curries, and as the waiters also brought enough naan to feed a farm of Indian cattle, I definitely did not survive Friday afternoon without casualties.
Got packed around around 1pm so we missed the rush by coming around 11:45.
Decent food + great service - weird freaking neighborhood = 3 stars.
Yummy!!!!! I've lived here for about 2 years and although I've heard of this place from yelpers and friends, I never realized it was so close to my place.
Stopped by here on a Sunday afternoon. The place was full and had it's constant stream of people getting food to go. This was a good sign.
We had wanted to try the Lamb Biriyani which the menu says they have on certain days, but the told us it was only for dinner.
We ended up getting a chicken leg, beef kabab, paneer tika masala and a lamb dish and some rice and naan. I forgot which lamb dish we got since the guy suggested it to us instead of the biriyani, but it was good since the masala was on the sweet side and the lamb dish we got was on the savory side. Perfect compliments of one another.
Everything was really good. The pricing and the portion sizes was great as well. We were both stuffed after our meal and it was under $30.00 for everything.
Overall, this place was really good. The service was attentive yet not pestering. I'll definitely go back here.
Yay I finally went to the LUNCH BUFFET!!! Being unemployed does have its advantages... I can travel as far as I want for lunch. Except it's making me poor.
Everything is good as usual. The menu included chicken tikka masala, paneer masala, palak paneer, tandoori chicken, basmati rice, salad, and dessert. You can probably stand in line once and get all the different types of food and put it on one plate. Compared to other Indian buffets I've been to, there really is a limited selection here. What I was really surprised about was the dessert - an Indian bread pudding?! The outside of the bread was crisp, inside was soft, and the gooey sweet white sauce was delicious!! I wish I didn't stuff myself so much to the brim that I could only take a couple bites of that sweetness and then want to throw up.
As soon as we picked our table and got up to get our food, our waters were at our table. And as soon as we sat down with our food, a basket of warm naan came out! And our naan basket was never empty. I think we had about 4 baskets for 3 people. On a Friday, the rush wasn't at noon; it was at 1pm!!
Regular menu is better than the lunch buffet.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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6/28/2008
NO BUFFET ON WEEKENDS! WAHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
Man I was seriously looking forward to that but when I… Read more »
My girlfriend and I went here. One of her friends recommended it to us. Food was excellent and fulfilling. Service was a little slow. But once your order was taken the food came out faster.
Recommendations:
Butter Chicken
Chicken Tika Masala
Palaak Paneer
Garlic Nann
Once you get close to this area you can smell the smell of masala from a block away, which makes you hungry.
Went there for lunch buffet, which is very reasonable and the meatball masala and tandoori chicken were great. I have also heard their chicken masala is great. Great place when you want to spice up you flavorous meal.
Not to mention very good customer service for busy lunch hour.
This place came highly recommended, but I'm not sure why.
The number of choices was a fraction of what other Indian buffet places offer. The dishes they did have were decent (hence the three stars), but not notably great.
Issues:
- I ended up with an undercooked piece of tandoori chicken. Unpleasant.
- They seemed to be economizing on the lemons (none) and onion slices (limited) accompanying the chicken. It's a little thing that makes a big difference to the taste.
- The raita was sour - spoiled yogurt?
- During lunch, a women begged for money at every table, apparently with the ok of the staff. I feel for her, but I didn't order guilt with my meal.
A few days later, I had a wonderful lunch a nearby Indian buffet, so I know that better is possible.
Weekday lunch buffets are awesome. The dessert that is only available on weekday buffets are out-of-this-world.
The tandoori chicken is great. Bread is fresh.
Price is unbeatable.
