Decor cozy modern and comfortable, good service that is attentive and pleasant with warm welcome. The food is delicious,fresh and surprisingly light. Prices are reasonable. One of the few everyday NY Indian restaurants that hits all the marks. read more

Such fantastic Indian cuisine! Highly recommend. The service was excellent and we were waited on by 3 or 4 different staff throughout the evening. Personally ordered the, Malwani Chicken Hara Masala, which was extremely flavorful, filled with delicious spices. Ate this with Cumin Rice and various types of Naan. If you're looking for fine Indian dining, look no more! This restaurant is conveniently located, waited by attentive staff, and filled with flavorful and rich menu items! Enjoy! read more

Wow, so delicious and best lamb I've had in so long. Do yourself a favor and visit this gem. read more

Chola - Everything - Indian Near Me - New York, New York

This was a really unique experience for me and my family. Indian by roots, I usually find myself at more "Americanized" Indian restaurants that are either less authentic, or just of lower quality in terms of both preparation method and freshness of ingredients. This restaurant has an amazing selection of both South Indian and North Indian cuisine. Many places that offer both, typically are better in one or the other. We ordered both types, from dosas with a wide variety of chutney dips, to more Northern lamb and chicken curries. Being American, I ordered my favorite chicken makhani, which is heavier in creamy than most curries. The service was also excellent, in addition to the ambience. While most nicer Indian restaurants in NYC servce food in western style plate settings, this one maintained copper servingware. Highly recommend this place for family dinners and dates! read more

No dish was good enough. Panned Kali Mirch was labelled as must try on their menu, and it wasn't even tolerable!! read more

I love the food items they have for buffet. Especially idly, vada and chutney sambar are awesome. Served tandoori chicken and dosa at table. There was no wait time at all. Once we returned from there we felt drowsiness for long time not sure whether food is the reason for it. read more

Would say the best Indian food I've had in the city over the last year. Had the Chicken Tikka Masala and it was amazing. Service was great. The restaurant feel was great. We really enjoyed our time here. Will be coming back! Highly recommended!! read more

Great service and a very good modern Indian food! I'm giving 4 stars only because I went to some other Indian restaurants in NY that I enjoyed more, but food here is awesome and highly recommended! read more

Good restaurant. The owner goes out of the way to make things right and be hospitable. They have good food during lunch buffet with excellent choices of a variety of dishes. I do recommend the restaurant. read more

This is by far the worst Indian food I have had. The chicken is like rubber .. I ordered the chicken biryani and the kori gassi The chicken was the same for both .. looks like it was cooked a week ago .. texture felt like rubber and im not even kidding ... they just mixed the rice for the biryani and put some sauce for thr curry with the same chicken ... it was so bad .. i cant imagine how this restaurant has 4 stars .. I would have given negative stars if I could ... you would expect better quality in new york I would hope? Please avoid at all costs .. read more

so good! pumpkin bartha and the kerala parotta were amazing. great service, cute place.

The food is delicious, and service is even better. There is outdoor dining available. Drinks are heavily poured as well. Highly recommend!!!

Great place. Plentiful lunch buffet. Lamb Karahi and the Kheer are awesome. Friendly staff, kind faces and a torrent of amazing tandoori chicken circulating. I'll be back. read more

I have always been fascinated by the different kitchens of the world. Whenever I visit NYC, I hardly skip to try some Indian food. I love Indian style of preparation of food by adding different spices and giving a final touch with great garnishing of coriander and fresh ginger. Last Sunday, I planned to do something different. I planned on taking my whole family to dinner. I tried different places by myself a lot and was wandering what would be the best place to quench my thirst of making my family happy. So, going through the rating stars and reviews I finally decided to go Chola which has been one of my best Indian food spot. The place was pretty busy as usual but we didn't have any trouble getting table. I could smell the aroma and flavor of the food even from the entrance as we proceed. We started with mango lassi and some wine. We tried something different than usual. We ordered Masala Dosa, Chicken 65 and Kurkure Bhindi (Okra) for starters. We loved everything we got and for the mains we got Punjab goat curry, Lamb chops, black lentils and chicken "Kori gassi" along with some coconut rice, garlic naan and onion kulcha. Everything was so great that we love to come back again and again. The staffs are very friendly and helpful. We never had to look for anything, everything just happened to be perfect. Our glasses were never allowed to be half full and the severs kept asking if we need anything. I recommend this place if you really love Indian food and be sure to make a reservation before hand if you don't like waiting!!!!!I I just got lucky to get a table without reservations. I hope to bring my friends to try some brunch soon. read more

I'm terrible... I've been to this place so many times now (at least 5) and I'm just writing the review now- 3 or 4 years after my first time there. I recently took my mom, as she had never had Indian cuisine before and she absolutely loved it. I was afraid of taking her initially because she cannot have spicy food for health reasons but the second to last time I went with a girl I mentor, I realized it wasn't too spicy and she would be able to enjoy it just fine, which she definitely did. Every time I've gone it has been for the lunch buffet- all you can eat for $15, can't possibly be any cheaper and there's a wide selection of food to choose from. The food is all very flavorful and fresh. The service is great and the waiters are constantly circling around to fill your water and make sure you are okay. I had one of my 2 or 3 Indian fixes for the year, so I will definitely be back again later this year. read more

AS we were browsing for the Indian food near mid-town for the lunch, we found Chola. we decided to give a try. as soon as we entered our nose was filled with delicious aroma. we were given a round table for 5 people, which became the best part of getting seated. The brunch was simply amazing, as commented by other people in the yelp. You'ii just get your tummy filled seeing the food. For me the goat biryani was the best. Hopefully they will put some chicken korma in the coming days.. A best value for the price.. A must try place.... with never ending food . read more

One of my best Indian meals. Good quality buffet. The meat was cooked right and not left the to reheat in the display. Chicken Tikka masala was flavorful, you could see the holes of the skewers in which the meat was initially prepared. A lot of spices, the right amount of spicy. They bring nan to the table individually, some fried cauliflower apetizer, chicken tikka on the bone also done crepe with mashed potatoes, all this brought to the table. Dessert was good, fried dough balls and milky rice. Delicious. They kept filling our water... Very nice and accommodating. Sorry for not using the Indian names of the different dishes, that's another level. read more

great food and amazing staff ! Our waiter kept checking on us and refilled the on-house dip while we waited for the food. Very pleasant experience and delicious food. I went there again with out of town friend. Highly recommend. read more

The best Indian food I've eaten outside of India. But $20 for an Indian buffet lunch isn't cheap (and the dinner menu would be even more). I appreciate that they bring some fresh dishes around to the tables without being prompted, including tandori chicken and naan, and that there is a plethora of food in the buffet...even lamb, yum! Despite a lot of conflicting reviews, I found the service to be attentive without being overbearing. Definitely worth a try, maybe on a special occasion to justify the cost. read more

Beautiful restaurant in east midtown. Great service and fabulous lunch buffet! Will surely be back!

The food is delicious and the host and his family are extremely welcoming. I go there with friends about every other week and we enjoy everything about the experience. I highly recommend the shrimp tandoori, the lobster tandoori, paneer tandoori, both the starter cauliflower dish and the main chopped cauliflower dish, and shrimp tikka masala as well. The drinks are generous and very tasty, we are big fans of the lychee martinis. Food quality is consistently excellent and portions are very plentiful. A friend loves the tandoori lamb chops. We have tried many different dishes there, and while I only named our most favorite ones we never had a bad dish there. The host is happy to accommodate special requests. Nice atmosphere to get together and have a conversation. Since the restaurants are closed for dining in due to the virus, I decided to order in from here this evening and there was no disappointment! The food was as delicious as ever. If you are looking for high quality food, and want to feel like they care about you, this is the place. read more

This place was extremely solid. I actually think the location is great, as there are so few decent restaurants in midtown (that are reasonably priced). I went with one other person at 7pm on a Friday night and the restaurant was more than half empty. However, by the time we left at 8:30 the place was hoppin', so I do recommend making a reservation. It has a very nice vibe - low lighting, tasteful decor. It would be totally appropriate to bring a date. Now onto the food. We shared an appetizer of the Chicken 65, which was not at all what I expected. It is essentially fried chicken poppers that are flavored with various spices and tossed in a bowl with green chilies. For those of you who like fried chicken of this sort, and aren't afraid of some spice, I'd say this is a safe bet. I don't think it merits the thumbs up icon on the menu, indicating that this is a MUST GET dish. We weren't feeling particularly adventurous, so for mains we stuck with chicken tikka masala and lamb rogan josh. Both were good, though I think the lamb was better than the tikka masala. The chicken seemed a bit dry. We also got garlic naan which smelled DIVINE, and my friend tells me tasted just as good. Gluten and I are not on speaking terms, so I sadly couldn't partake. They brought a small free side dish of chopped mixed vegetables which was good, especially to mix with the other spicy dishes. For dessert we got Pista Kulfi, which is pistachio ice cream cut into triangles and served with a fluorescent pink syrup. Sounds weird, but it was BOMB. I definitely recommend it. That was a first for me. The service was prompt and attentive. If anything there were TOO many waiters inquiring after our well-being, but neither of us minded. I thought the price was...fine. Not cheap by any means, but I'm used to being completely gouged at Indian places in the city, so this was a nice change. read more

Excellent Indian food. The option to get chapati and not tandoori roti/naan is great. Some of the dishes are extremely oily but they all taste good. For the vegetarians, matar paneer is very good. read more

Chola is one of our favorite Indian restaurants in NYC. We've been for dinner many times, as well as more recently for the lunch buffet, which I'll review below. Before I leave dinner though, I'll say they have a fantastic and large menu with lots of options for meat-lovers and vegetarians alike. All of their dishes have great flavor and spice without being too oily. We went a few weeks ago for the buffet, and while a bit pricier than other lunch buffet options, it is a massive amount of delicious food. We got there just as they opened, so everything was fresh. They have a wide variety of options for meat and veg here too, including bhindi masala, saag paneer, aloo gobi, naan, dal, rice, chutneys, soup, uttapam, gulab jamun and rice pudding. They also bring out complimentary dosas, and for those who eat it, tandoori chicken wing. The food is all high-quality and around medium spice. It's hard to not keep going back for more! The dal was cooked to be warm and homey, the chutneys all full-bodied in flavor, the saag's flavor and richness stands out even apart from the paneer and the bhindi has a nice crunch to it without being fried. The dosa - always one of my favorites - has the perfect amount of mashed potato filling while being crunchy on the outside and perfect for dipping into the chutneys. This is one of those nicer Indian restaurants, without being a prix-fixe restaurant week kind of affair. Service is always attentive and friendly. read more

I revisited Chola recently for the lunch buffet. I was excited to see the variety of dishes, and even happier to discover that everything was delicious. Among the bounty they had a great lemon pickle, really tasty chicken tikka masala and rogan josh, and also a number of tempting veggie dishes. My vegetarian friend was also totally satisfied with the selection and left equally full. Service was good too -- our plates were cleared promptly and our water glasses were never empty. read more

Chola is one of many Indian restaurants on the block of 58th street between 2nd and 3rd avenues. It's a decent option, although a little on the pricey side. Our table had the Chicken Tikka Masala (the standard) and a shrimp and fish dish that also came with the masala sauce. Yeah, I know there's more to Indian cuisine than masala but that sauce sure is good. And Chola's masala didn't disappoint. The space was narrow but had a cool, modern feel. The service was ok. Overall, I had a good dining experience here and that's what counts, right? Not the best Indian out there but you'll probably leave satisfied. Get the Indian beer. read more

Absolutely heart warming food! Delicious and such kind service! Came for dinner which is only a la carte (buffet only for lunch). The place is homey and relaxing. Definitely recommend read more

Came here on a Sunday night. I made reservations 2 days ahead for a party of 7, but they weren't too busy when I got there. They were very welcoming and warm when I walked in alone. They sat me down and I waited for the rest of my party. However, once the rest of my party arrived the service changed. They were being a bit rude, and told us that they were closing at 10 and we had to be done by then. They told us this at 8... They were then being very impatient with our orders and brushing us off. While I couldn't confirm what caused this sudden change of service, my party told me this is very common for indian restaurants to treat other indian guests rudely since they don't expect them to tip. Other members of my party did complain and ask to speak to the manager at the end of our meal. Service aside, they food was great. I sampled quite a few dishes, but the chilli paneer really stood out to me. I would come back again, but hopefully service will be a little better. read more

Everyone who knows me probably realizes that I am addicted to this place. Best Indian Food EVER. I've tried every single dish by now, and each surprises me every time with perfectly balanced flavors. This is one of those restaurants where once you start on your meal you forget to have a conversation with you companion unless it's "mmmmm!" and trying to say something in between chewing... Can't get enough! read more

I can't say I've explored the Indian food genre thoroughly enough to have solid opinion on where this place falls. A 5 star rating yields a sense of awe, although I have yet to experience that when it come to Indian food, as much as I enjoy it. Nevertheless I would dare to say so far this place ranks rather highly. The portions here were substantial (unusual in my experience so far), but it wasn't quantity over quality. Everything was fresh and tasty (I do love spicy). Service was average and the decor was rather upscale, felt a little under dressed. Quite a pleasant experience. read more

DO NOT BELIEVE THEIR DELIVERY TIME!!! (Seamless) It will take well over an hour to get your food and by that time it will be soggy and lukewarm. They list an estimated delivery time of 30-45 minutes which is a complete lie. Food itself is not worth the premium they charge. They also do not delivery past 70th street now however don't list that on Seamless, manager made me feel like he was doing me a huge favor by delivering food that I had paid for. Very disappointed. read more

Came here because Jenna Fisher said it was good. And it lived up to it! We came for lunch for their buffet. Great selection for the price. Had lamb and chicken options as well as lots of veggie options. read more

(Pardon the long review- just finished Ruth Reichl's Garlic and Sapphires) Chola was a bummer for us, especially since we went in with great expectations- a 23 from Zagat and raves about the Tikka Masala. I enjoyed the decor and as we were sitting and waiting for our appetizers we were getting excited watching all the food come out. The appetizers (Samosa's and the various fried veggies) were yummy and sauces good. I had the Sauvignon Blanc which was honey filled and yummy- but didn't go with the food once we started eating. When our dishes came we dove in to the Nan first. Delicious. The rice was a little overdone and not as clean and fresh as I'm used to. I hadn't had Malai Kofta in a couple of years and I was excited to try it again. I dove in to the first bit and was immediately longing for more. Where was the burst of flavor? Where was the richness and smoothness? It wasn't there. The balls were naked- no flavor, no punch. It was so weak and the opposite of rich. The Tikka Masala was just as disappointing. I bit in and said, "This is just tomato sauce. It's like they took away the taste." As we ate more and looked around the restaurant we couldn't quite figure out what had gone wrong. There were an eclectic mix of people, some that we could tell were regulars, some Indian couples, some groups of friends. Everyone else seemed to be enjoying. Maybe we had ordered the wrong dishes? Another hypothesis I had was that they had taken out all the spices that make Indian Food explode in my mouth to be more accessible. And that could be true, at least for the dishes we had it has to be. In the end, we won't be back. There are so many other opportunities for great Indian food and I'll be seeking those out instead. Like I said to Matt tonight, sometimes the best is in the little holes in the wall where there are no pretenses and they are just cooking what they know instead of trying to cook to please. read more

One of my favorite Indian Places. They give you a ton of food at the lunch buffett which, I believe, is seven days a week. (although the dosas were rather small yesterday). The variety of dishes surpasses most buffetts too. read more

My son pulled up this restaurant on yelp when we were craving Indian food late night...what a surprise. Not the regular Indian fare. Very distinct and unique flavors. The Amritsari Methi Malai Chicken was exceptional. The service was excellent and the staff took good care of us even though they were winding down after a long day. read more

The food here is more like two stars - I've definitely experienced better food with less oil. The lychee martinis were made of lychee puree or some type of syrup, which was a dissapointment. The channa masala was not flavorful and the it needed to be cooked longer. The coconut rice was pretty good. The service was on point, but the prices were definitely not. This place needs to up the bar on the quality of the food for the price for sure. read more

This is one of my favorite Indian restaurant in New York City. They use fresh ingredients, the flavor is intense, and portions are huge. However, it is slightly pricier than an average Indian restaurant. Every entree comes with appetizer and dessert. I always order the lamb Saag, because I can see the deep green shreds of spinach and it tastes so creamy, salty, mildly spicy, and lamb is tender and flavorful. Their mango lassi is also very good. An Indian friend of mine used to say that you can judge how good an Indian restaurant is by their samosas, and the samosas here are amazing!!!! Five Stars! read more

Chicken was not chewable - rubbery, right out of the freezer into the curry. Too many coconut-based dishes. Rice, papadam and service were fine but that's not saying much. Far from eclectic cuisine. Disappointing. The vast majority of these Indian restaurants are overrated. I didn't eat even 15% of my dish. read more

Was craving some nice Indian food in the city , picked Chola , first time here and not disappointed at all, excellent service , friendly and courteous staff, ordered the biryani chicken was great dum style , rogan josh was yummy , they adjust the spice level to your taste Will be returning again !! read more

I came here for one afternoon to try their lunch buffet which only cost $14. At the buffet, you can serve yourself some delicious eats such as lamb curry and chicken masala. And, with an additional side order of naan bread, you are pretty much set. The food was delicious and after a few plates from the buffet, I was satisfied. I highly recommend this place on an afternoon to take advantage of their buffet. read more