my fellow pregnant mama and I were craving Indian food and were delighted to find Annapoorna super…read moreclose by. and they have an amazing lunch special, all you can eat buffet for $17/pp! you rarely find deals like this these days! their buffet was STOCKED too, with salad and fresh fruit (watermelon), fresh crispy pakora and samosa, plain rice, biryani, tandoori chicken, all your sauces and raita, and at least 10 different curries including chicken tikka masala, goat curry, veggie korma, saag paneer, and so many more that I wish I could remember. they also have mango pudding and a delicious rice pudding and gulab jamun. they bring over baskets of fresh, hot garlicky naan that's perfect crispy on the corners and soft and pillowing throughout, perfect for dragging through their delectable sauces. their curries were not too spicy (good for a pregnant palate!) but rich in flavor and full of delicious veggies and high quality meat. this was such a winner!! definitely adding this one to the regular roster.

First time to Annapoorna and it won't be my last! Came for their $17.99 lunch buffet. They had a…read moregood variety of meat and veg dishes, and you get a basket of fresh garlic naan. My faves were the aloo gobhi, navratha korma, and tandoori chicken. To my surprise, I even liked the desserts gajar ka halwa (carrot & milk pudding) and the mango puree with fruit. They did a good job clearing our plates and refilling our water. The buffet items kept getting replenished. Very efficient! Food is probably closer to four stars, but the garlic naan and value bumps it up to five! I'll be back!

Your new Indian spot for your cravings…read more I had: 1. Apollo Fich 2. Chicken Lollipop 3. Babycorn Manchaian 4. Hyderabadi chicken 5. Dum Binari 6. Irani chai - similar to milk tea. Really yummy, highly recommended

I have been wanting to try the food at this restaurant for sometime and today my friend and I…read moredecided to do so I was surprised to see a wide variety of foods even though the name said "Biryani pot". We were the first to enter as soon as they opened and we decided to try the dosas. I ordered the Mysore dosa and my friend got the masala dosa. We also ordered the fried pepper corn from the appetizer menu. It was fantastic. The dosas were crisp and tasty. We really enjoyed it. As we were eating the crowds started slowly increasing and by the time we left the restaurant was pretty full. It's a nice little restaurant, clean and tidy and service was quick and the servers were friendly and welcoming. I will definitely go back soon and I must try the biryani. Highly recommended this restaurant.

I really enjoy coming to this restaurant. They have have great Indian curries…read more Food: Southern Spice offers offers a wide selection of various and delicious Indian curries. My favorite dishes are the paneer butter masala and chicken korma. Their naan is good as well. The portions are very good for the price. Service: The service here is good, but it can get slow at times. Ambiance: I like the decor inside the restaurant.

Prepare yourself, dear reader, for a tale of the worst birthday dinner imaginable, courtesy of…read moreSouthern Spice, AKA, "So we're just lying Spice." I brought my wife and two sons here for dinner, as it was our oldest's birthday and he wanted Indian food. We ordered about $80 in entrees -- 1 saag paneer, 1 chicken tikka masala, 2 paneer masala (the kids' favorite), and a basket of garlic naan. You are required to pay the full bill in advance. (Never a good sign!) The misadventures would begin shortly, when maybe 20 minutes after we ordered, our saag dish came, with one side of rice. Now, dear reader, so you can properly visualize, there are four of us in our party, and one dish of rice is not enough for everyone to have a decent portion. We were like a pack of hungry jackals each staring at the single entree and dish of rice--mom is the only one who likes "the green dish", but she's too polite to want to eat alone while we're all hungry. The waiter tells us the other dishes are coming soon (lie #1). It's maybe 10 minutes later before the chicken tikka masala comes out, with one more shallow dish of rice, again, not enough for four of us to eat. By this time the first dish of rice and saag have gotten cold. No naan yet, either. Where is the paneer, you may ask? (We did.) "I gave it to the wrong table," our waiter says, motioning to the happy family eating in the corner of the restaurant. "So, are you getting us a new one?" "Yes, it will be 10 minutes." (Lie #2) Mind you, the restaurant is full and many other tables are getting their food. Baskets of naan are being delivered and we're flabbergasted. My son even jokes, "you should write a Yelp review that will take as long to read as it took for us to get our food." The minutes continue to go by. 10 minutes and nothing. 15 minutes, no sign of our cheese. 20 minutes, and the boys are wondering if this is a prank of some sort. 25 minutes, and my wife is no longer saying that it's not a big deal. "This is really not OK." 30 minutes since being told the food was 10 minutes away--nearly an hour since we first sat down and ordered, and the food still wasn't there. We try to convince the kids that we can ask for a refund and go get some McDonalds instead, but they wanted their paneer. It's about 40 minutes later, after every other table has been served and the take-out queue is empty, when the food finally arrived, alongside some plain bread (I had ordered garlic naan.) When asked what happened, the waiter blames it on the kitchen, saying that they gave him chicken instead of paneer, so he had to put in the order again. Why not come to our table and tell us? Give us an update and let us decide whether we wanted to continue waiting for the slowest birthday cheese ever? We watched the kids eat and I went to the kitchen area to talk to someone about our experience, but the manager was nowhere to be found. Our waiter had also disappeared. My wife had work to do at home and we couldn't afford to wait around any longer, so we left. Unsatisfied overall, disappointed in the service, and committed to never return. Let this be your warning, dear reader. Learn from our experience and go to Annapoorna instead. This place absolutely sucks. Happy birthday, kid.

Excellent food and service. Fish curry, chicken masala and Daal Malkhni by chef Nani was awesome.read more

How have I never tried this place until now?! Wow, I was impressed!…read more We originally tried this spot because they had a deal on DoorDash - and now I can't stop coming back! I am obsessed with their butter chicken (medium spice is perfect for me). Their portions are large and also great leftover. It is a little on the pricier end for "fast casual" but they do make their portions larger than most takeout spots. I'll be back soon!

Service is wonderful. This review is for a catering order…read more We ordered 20 butter chicken burritos (and they offered to turn the order into 40 mini burritos. Perfect!). The burritos individually wrapped and were the right size for the parents, though even at mild, the butter chicken was a little spicy to me. I asked about allergens, and the lady let me know that they were going nut free in a week and everything would no longer have nuts. The butter chicken does contain dairy in the form of queso. We also ordered a tray of the corn bhel (this was AMAZING) and mixed salad (in hindsight, probably not the best order for a bunch of four and five year olds). Both are dairy-free and nut-free. The food was delivered promptly to the venue exactly on time. I paid for the order via Zelle when I placed the order.

What did I just eat?…read more I'm genuinely confused after eating at Maast Indian in Irvine, because I don't know how something can look so promising on the outside and taste so disappointing on the inside. I was skeptical walking in, not gonna lie. The place wasn't exactly packed -- maybe three tables had people and there was one person waiting on an order -- but I figured hey, every new spot deserves a fair shot. The interior actually looks really nice. Clean, modern, good layout, good lighting... it feels like a place that should be delivering quality food. Then I ordered the Tandoori Chicken "Panini Sandwich". First of all... $15 for a sandwich like that is wild. And if you're going to charge $15, the food better be memorable in a good way. This was memorable in the worst way. The flavor was just off. The chicken didn't taste like tandoori should. It didn't have that smoky, spiced kick you expect -- it tasted bland and kind of weird, like the seasoning didn't know what it wanted to be. The whole sandwich felt thrown together, and the "panini" part didn't add anything except disappointment. And what really got me was the value. No fries. No chips. Nothing on the side. Just a sandwich. For $15. During lunch hours. That's crazy. For that same price, I can go to Curry Hut, Curry Time, or other grab-and-go Indian spots and get a full combo plate that actually fills you up and tastes like Indian food is supposed to taste. This wasn't even in the same league. This wasn't a "maybe I ordered the wrong thing" situation. This was a "how did this make it onto the menu" situation. I hate leaving negative reviews because I understand how hard it is to run a small business, and I'm not here to tear anyone down. But the food needs a serious reality check. The presentation and the space are great -- but the kitchen needs to match that same standard. If the owner sees this, I'd honestly love to talk. Feel free to reach out. And for anyone reading this: you know I don't throw out 1-star reviews like that. The only reason this isn't a 1 is because I genuinely don't want to hurt a small business. But this experience was not good.

I can see why India Gate is rated so well. We were going to grab matcha next door but the smell of…read moreIndian spices overtook us, and what do you know, it happened to be lunch hour. They had Father's Day pricing which was $21.99 but usually I think it's a few dollars less. Either way, we'd come back. The food was hot, fresh, steaming and the area looked clean. Service was fantastic. They are consistent in refilling their dishes. Their garlic naan was so chewy and crispy, held our many dishes well. My recommendations are their butter chicken (must have), vegetable korma, paneer, and fish curry. The desserts were all good, from their mango pudding to gulab jumun and gajar ka halwa. The gajar is a blend of carrots slow cooked into water and milk, it's nice and light. Would recommend, better than some of the already tasty Indian buffets in the immediate area!

+5/5 Excellent…read morelunch buffet. Everything was kept warm and fresh wish the dishes being replaced regularly. Service was friendly !! Nice guys all around Their food had the right amount of spice. Biryani was fragrant and fresh garnished with coriander . Chicken tikka masala solid . Tandoori chicken was flavorful and moist. Had garlic naan and tandoori roti (whole wheat) both were good - I felt the naan could have been buttered / salted a bit but the freshness wins anyways. Casual ambiance . They had tvs playing Bollywood music and World Cup soccer . The pricing is an absolute steal for $18/per person all you can eat including naan. Some places charge $5 per naan nowadays ! The value is insane and they deserve major credit . I asked if they serve halal meat - he said yes usually but not advertised as such because supply can fluctuate. But with lamb / goat it's always halal. Chicken most of the time . Highly recommended for lunch !

Easily one of the best Indian restaurants I've had in SoCal. The ambiance feels upscale without…read morebeing pretentious. The interiors and decor are *chef's kiss. One detail I loved was the screen playing old-school Indian movies in the background. It adds a layer of nostalgia to the experience that's hard to describe, almost like the feeling you get watching classic black-and-white films. The food does take a little while to come out, but it's absolutely worth the wait. Service is friendly. Samosa Chaat (9/10) - An explosion of flavours. I loved that they leave larger chunks of samosa throughout the dish instead of turning it into one giant mashed potato bowl. Great texture and balance. Dahi Puri (8/10) - Refreshing, slightly spicy, sweet, and savuory all at once. Plus, it's a fun dish to eat. Lamb Curry (7.5/10) - The meat was tender and the curry itself was rich and flavuorful. Butter Chicken (8.5/10) - Packed with flavor and hands down the best butter chicken I've had in Orange County. My only complaint is that the portion wasn't bigger. I ran out of butter chicken before I finished my naan

This review is for their online ordering…read more This is my first impression of Mint. I live in Irvine and always eat at Southern Spice, Clay Pot or Natraj when I crave Indian food. However this time I thought I would try something different. So I ordered online with Mint. All the pictures and reviews were decent so why not? Well I should've stuck with my OG's because this was not it. I ordered x2 buttered chicken that was in a very small container (see photo attached) for $20 EACH! Garlic Naan that was $5, Mango Lassi also $5 and Gelato. First, if you guys are paying $20 for a small tiny container of butter chicken in LH please please do yourself a favor and go try Southern Spice. Their flavors are mouthwatering and the portion is huge. I understand inflation but this is ridiculous and the flavor is blah. It's like there is no spices in there at all just butter and tomato sauce AND the kicker...no rice! Super weird to me that they do not automatically give you rice! Like who just orders butter chicken or any Indian,Chinese, Korean dish for that matter without rice! I mean rice has to cost you guys a pretty small fraction no? Just give people 1/2c of rice! If not, at least you should make note of that on your menu so people know ahead of ordering. The garlic Naan is decent really no complaints there, the Mango Lassi they gave me was the size of a kiddy cup (see photo) Literally a child's sippy cup is bigger than what I received for $5 insane! And just to make matters worse, when I opened by bag they placed my gelato directly on top of the hot food! So when I took it out, it had completely melted. $10 for melted pistachio creamy soup, just what I wanted. You guys have to do better for your customers. I get the price increases but for what you are giving and the immense amount of lack of flavors...is wild. Save your money, drive a little bit further and eat some true Indian food in Irvine/Tustin cause this place is not it. The pictures posted are truly beautiful but pictures are not everything especially when it comes to food quality and flavor. I am only giving two stars bc the Mango Lassi and Garlic Naan were decent tasting.

Came here in a rainy night and it was packed. We were hungry and ordered so much food and the…read moreflavors of everything just hit the spot. The chicken tikka masala was not anything spectacular as I have had better elsewhere. But it definitely hit the spot. The samosa and the paneer were stars as each bite produced additional flavors which continued to build on each other. I could just eat these two dishes forever. We tried the dosa and the goat. The dosa was perfectly crispy when it was hot. I personally didn't enjoy eating it as leftovers the next day. But I couldn't stop eating it and dipping it in all the curries and sauces when it was piping hot. The goat surprised me as I'm not a huge fan of lamb or goat. But the flavor profile and the spices made this a dish that was more flavorful than our usual go to tikka masala. Will definitely come here again and again.

I went for their lunch buffet and the price is amazing (18.99) but I think their flavors are a bit…read moremore mild than other restaurants and not as memorable. It's good if you want to try a lot of different things but I found nothing to be particularly mindblowing. However, since flavors are mild, I think it is also less spicy than a lot of places so it's more welcoming to those who can't handle space or very strong particular flavor.