This was one of the best meals we've had on our vacation! So good that we plan to return again before we leave. The service was very helpful and friendly. We were looking for recommendations and she listened to what we liked and suggested two entrees that knocked our socks off! We had the Vindaloo (veggie) and Paneer Tikka Masala! They were delicious...lick the bowl delicious! I loved the added veggies in the Tikka Masala and the paneer had a lovely texture. The naan and rice were also perfection. The restaurant was spacious and clean and had a friendly atmosphere. Definitely check it out, you won't regret it! read more

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Oh my GOODNESS THIS PLACE !! We stopped on our way up to Whistler and were warmly greeted and seated-ordered samosas to start and honestly I have never tasted a better one. Flaky, great filling and big:) . Butter chicken, aloo gobi , absolutely delicious garlic naan-they obviously care about their food (they have been in business for a very long time) and we will now make a stop there every time we head up to Whistler. Thank you! read more

Just had dinner here with my family and loved it! We are an Indian family visiting from California and this place was very authentic. Service was also great, we got the butter chicken, garlic naan and padi chaat. Definitely recommend! read more

Incredible food and staff! When I had accidentally ordered the wrong thing, they were able to cancel the order and refund me with no problem. Highly recommend. read more

The food is always good here. I like their authentic style of food. I find this place makes the best goat curry. Naan and Roti taste so different than other places. read more

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Stopped here for some Indian food cravings on way home from Whistler, food was delicious and the service was excellent. Definitely recommend this spot! read more

Essence Of India - Goat Vindaloo - Indian Near Me - Squamish, British Columbia

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Unfortunately, my boyfriend and I were extremely disappointed with our experience here earlier this week. Don't get me wrong the food was tasty especially the garlic naan. But we asked our server her opinion on the spice levels and got met with "It's different for everyone I don't know". We also noticed after we had already ordered, she let every other table know that the spice level went from 1-6 (medium being #1) except us. Not helpful at all when it came to us ordering. Also, my boyfriend's butter chicken only came with 5 pieces of chicken. We asked our server if this was the norm and again "I don't know. Probably." I honestly wouldn't come back here. Sad. read more

Best butter chicken in the world! We also tried the lamb biryani and the chicken tikka, they were also amazing! And don't worry we didn't forget about the super fresh and fluffy naan. Employees were also super nice. The restaurant was also really close to a Mountain View! This is an awesome restaurant to stop at when you're in Squamish! read more

We stopped here on our way to whistler. Amazing butter chicken and garlic naan. We loved it. Truly lived up to its hype!

I've been here multiple times, and it's always a good experience. This is by far the best Indian restaurant in Squamish!

Consistent, Delicious. Highly recommend the food and staff is more than welcoming. Try the Tandoori chicken, tandoori ribs and tandoori salmon. Samosas are wonderful. Over the top!!!! read more

The food was fabulous and extremely authentic along with very generous portions. My husband had the Masala Salmon and I had the Tikka Masala Chicken. So delicious and deserves this high of a rating. Small town and somehow this restaurants food is like you are eating in a large downtown in NY! Love read more

The best Indian food in Squamish. This family run restaurant has always been so reliable and delicious. Easy take out and well priced. I love this place and have for decades. read more

If give this place more stars if I could. Outstanding food and service has kept this place going for 17 years. I was dining by myself but left feeling like I just made new friends. This humble family business is clearly committed to making sure each made-to-order item that leaves the kitchen is something to be proud about. I had 2 dishes I've never tried before and I can't wait to go back and get them again. I got a papri chat appetizer; served cold which was refreshing on a hot night. Then I got the chili paneer for my entree. It's offered in spice levels up to 6. I love spicy food so even though I was tempted to get level 4, my waitress thought I should get level 2 and we settled on level 3. And super glad I didn't ask for 4 which I presume would e been akin to Thai hot. I probably would've even been fine with level 2. It's a super flavorful dish! It comes with really fresh, perfectly cooked basmati rice and I ordered a pappadum and Taj Mahal beer. Even the pappadum was more flavorful than most restaurants. The meal was so delicious I couldn't stop nibbling and still had enough left over for lunch and dinner the next day. If you like Indian food, you'll be blown away. If you've never tried Indian food, Essence of India will turn you into an instant fan. read more

Best Indian food I have ever had. Was recommended word of mouth to be as good as it was. I have been telling everyone to go there... even though you have to drive all the way to Squamish. The chef is world class and anything you get will taste simply amazing read more

Essence Of India - Daal, Mulai Kafka, Aloo Gobi, Palak Paneer Garlic Naan - Indian Near Me - Squamish, British Columbia

Best chicken Pakoras in Squamish. A good experience overall, great service. One observation, I would prefer less salt in the food over all.

For many years Don and the staff have been pleasing the palate with their delicious food. If you want rich, savoury or spicy they do it well. The expanded restaurant space may not be enough to seat all but the take out service does a bustling trade. I don't know how they keep up and sometimes there is a short wait but worth it. One other thing. Don almost always makes a trip from the kitchen to say thanks to his customers. The personal touch that shows why he's such a successful entrepreneur. He cares and wants to make your experience great. A hungry electrician Thanks! read more

Amazing!!! Best Indian food I have ever had. Owners are lovely as well. She took the time to explain to me how they make the sauce etc. Everything we ordered was fantastic. No complaints whatsoever read more

Where do I start? Even the white rice had a remarkable flavor to it. I've never had that before at any Indian restaurant. We got a spice level of 3 out of 6 on the chicken masala and that was perfect with the chili naan. To compliment it all, the lady at the take-out counter was so kind and made it all so much better. Great ambiance as well, perfect place to sit down and enjoy. Thank you read more

I don't eat Indian food too often nor am I super familiar with how its "supposed" to taste, but I thought the food and service here were great. My group basically ordered 8 different dishes from butter chicken, to garlic naan and Samosas. We found all the dishes done well and not bland at all with accurate spicyness levels (I assure you the spiciest level will be very hot given we ordered medium). The chef also made some alterations to how the dishes were served for our group since we were eating it family style, which was much appreciated. read more

Essence Of India - a plate of saman and sauce - Indian Near Me - Squamish, British Columbia

Best Indian in town!! Super friendly, great value, you get very good portions and of course all the extras to go with. All of the items we ordered were perfection! We will keep going back. read more

Really flavorful and delicious Indian food. Order ahead since they make everything from scratch so take out is at least 30 minutes. Naan is delicious too. read more

Excellent customer service and great tasting food! Our servers were exceptionally friendly and quick to serve. We love spice and the waitress recommended level 6 which had a good amount of heat that allowed us to still taste the organic flavors of each meal. She brought us raw chilies to add to our meals if the spice wasn't up to par with our tastebuds. The chef even came out to greet us and make sure we were satisfied with our meals. We ordered tandoori chicken wings, chicken tikka masala, and lamb vindaloo with basmati rice. We loved the garlic naan so much we ordered a second plate. Tasty flavors - we'd definitely come back! Thank you. read more

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Really great Indian food in a small town! Pictured below we had the Chicken Tikka Masala with Jasmine Rice and Garlic Naan. It didn't look like much but was extremely filling. The garlic naan just melts in your mouth. Price was decent. Taste was amazing. The chef was great. He came around and asked what we thought of the food and showed us his tandoori oven! read more

Essence Of India - Chicken Tikka Masala, Jasmine Rice, Garlic Naan - Indian Near Me - Squamish, British Columbia

This spot can get hoppin, especially in the winter time as hanger hits on the way back from a drive from Whistler. Thanks to Yelp, I found a couple appetizers to start with - the samosas ($1.50 each) were humongous - about the size of my fist, flaky and tasty. No meat options for this, but still very good. The chicken wings are excellent - perfect savory flavor ... addictingly good - quite honestly, I could probably eat a couple plates of these and be good. Entree wise, we tried the lamb saag - it was very tender and flavorful and the garlic naan it came with (I'd pass on the roti for this!) was delicious! Soft, flavorful, and just enhanced all the flavors. I think I'm going to try the butter chicken or chicken tikki marsala next time though - the dishes that passed by us looked so good. Portion sizes were generous - we were definitely full with 2 appetizers and an entree, with some left overs to take home. The down side to this place being very busy (pretty much every seat was taken when we were there), was that the wait for the food can be a quite long. I think there was maybe 20-25 minutes between appetizers and entree... Admittingly I was quite full after the samosas and wings, so it gave my stomach some time to digest and settle vs stuff itself, but it still felt like a good amount of time to wait. Nonetheless, I am definitely looking forward to going back again :) read more

Essence Of India - Wings - Indian Near Me - Squamish, British Columbia

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Ordered Biryani and what came looked nor smelled nothing like it. It's made with Spanish rice, not Basmati. And the ingredients include: corn, green peas, string bean, carrot, green pepper, red pepper, chick pea, cherry tomato, ginger (yes, ginger!) and grated cheese on top. It's more like my homemade fried rice with frozen mixed vegetables! Worse of all, it tasted nothing like Biryani. I came away feeling I just had Mexican cuisine unfortunately. I can honestly not recommend this place as it had none of the essence of Indian food from my experience. The only saving grace was the naan which tasted pretty good and authentic. read more

So we had the Essence of India Chicken vidaloo Lamb saag Paneer palak Peshwari and garlic naan Samosa 3 For a takeaway. The lamb was an instant hit with everyone. The cinnamon naan bread is an awesome finish to an excellent meal read more

Excellent food and service! Best Palak paneer and malai koftas! Pair it up with their mango lassi!

Thanks Yelp for pointing out this awesome Indian food in Squamish! Came here for a weekend lunch. It's on a side street behind a strip mall and was convenient since we needed to charge our car at the mall. The food is great quality and prices are very good. The two of us ate for under $30 pre tax/tip and had leftovers :) We found the lunch menu a little limited, but we were able to order off the dinner menu: - Chana masala with 2 veggie samosas - so good! They have a thinner shell and tons of potato filling. Interesting twist with the raw onions in the chick peas... Totally worth $6 - We had two types of naan. Their naan is decent but not as fluffy as I like. That being said, the spicy cheese naan was delicious and quite unique - we would both order this again. We both loved this. Garlic naan is average. Nice texture. - Mains include a side of rice or naan, so we went with butter chicken + rice. Good portion and excellent flavour! Love the thicker creamy texture. Food is a little slow but overall great experience! read more

Essence Of India - Spicy cheese naan and chana masala - Indian Near Me - Squamish, British Columbia

Ended up checking this spot out while spending a few nights in Brackendale. I can't recommend it enough! It was truly some of the best, if not best, Indian food I've ever had. So flavorful and fresh! And the staff were all super attentive and welcoming. read more

The best food in Squamish. Seriously, we order in a lot, but everything is excellent. We love the Chicken Tikka Masala, the wings, the garlic naan, and the dal maharni! So good. read more

The restaurant was not very full and we had to wave the waitress down to take our order. That's a bad sign. It took 45 minutes for the food to come out. one for service. Not friendly or very outgoing. The food is OK read more

Great food. I just moved to Squamish and I have got takeout from here twice. Delicious on both occasions.

The food at this place great, in fact it is better than that. Probably the best Indian food I hat ever. Nothing more to say, go there and enjoy your dinner... read more

Indian food that is bursting with flavors. Very nice and welcoming. Chef stopped by our table to check if we liked our food. This is the best Indian cuisine I have had in a restaurant. We ordered vegetarian dishes like palak kofta, shahi paneer, pulav with mild naan and roti. Even the kids enjoyed every bite. The hospitality was even more heart warming than the food which made the dining out experience more special. read more

Didn't expect to have such delicious Indian food out in Squamish! Portion was good and had good variety of dishes. read more

We were immediately greeted and handed menus the second we walked in. Food did take 'awhile' but there was only two people out front. The length of time really wasn't bad and the service was very good. Both individuals made sure to constantly check in with everyone. Once we got the food, it was delicious. I would definitely go back! read more

Short and sweet for this review. 5 of 5. The food was spiced extremely well. Everything had a great flavor. Even the spicy heat of the food was well gaged by the cooks. This was a great experience and I agree with the other wonderful reviews. Even the bathrooms were a step above most other places. Well done! My only sadness is that this restaurant is 8 hours from where I live, I would go every week. read more

Essence Of India - Indian Near Me - Squamish, British Columbia

Best samosas ever! Light flaky goodness on the outside and perfectly spicy potato filling. I always stop by here to pick up a few on my way up or back from Whistler :) read more

Essence Of India - a plate of food - Indian Near Me - Squamish, British Columbia

To clarify, this review is for delivery only! Post two day conference required copious amounts of Indian food, and the reviews for Essence were good. I ordered the mutter paneer with rice and garlic naan. When I phoned I was told that there was a $6 charge for delivery, they only take cash, and it would take an hour and a half. WOW. That was definitely not what I was hoping for. Still, I thought if the food was amazing it'd be worth it. The food was hot when it arrived, and the courier was very courteous. The flavours were a bit disappointing, though. It wasn't bad, at all, but it tasted almost like they'd used butter instead of ghee, if that makes sense. It didn't quite have the authentic Indian taste I was hoping for. The rice and naan were good, but the main dish left a little to be desired. Perhaps it's better at the restaurant? I'll have to try it there next time I'm in Squamish. read more