I've been going to Passage to India for over 25+ years. The point is I know it very well. Over the years it's been my go to consistent Indian restaurant. Lately, meaning the last few years, the quality of service has steadily gone down. Fast forward to 2018, not only has the service gotten bad but they are being super cheap and ripping customers of on the to go orders. There have been so many times where they short change me on rice.... Why??? It's the cheapest item for them to make. They always claim a certain amount of time comes with the meal. But that never happens. I called them (the owner) out on it tonight and they acted like they were doing me a favor by providing me the rice I actually paid for. I've had it with them being so cheap with their customers and ripping them off. You'd also think the owner would acknowledge or even say HI to a customer that's been going there for 25+ years. But sadly no. The owner at Passage to India is horribly rude and in hindsight has always been. This might seem small issue but just think if you ordered curry and got home with no rice even though you paid for it. Not only is that not right but it's a bad eating experience as well. There are sooooo many other indian restaurants with FRIENDLY service. I'd won't be going back to Passage ever again! read more

This is my first time ordering meals from this restaurant. A total disappointment. Restaurant staff was cold, impatient, and business-like. Food was over-priced - like many restaurants on El Camino Real. I couldn't finish the chicken and the dessert I ordered at home. The sauce tastes somewhat artificial. The dessert was extremely sweet. Overall nothing felt right. I wouldn't come back. PS. Had serious stomachache after the meal. Concerned that the chicken I ordered was not fresh. Horrible experience. read more

I am by no means an Indian food connoisseur, but I really enjoyed the food at Passage to India. I visited on a Saturday night where they had a dinner buffet going. I think you could still order from their menu, but it was assumed by the host and the servers that diners were there for the buffet. When we walked in, they seated us at a booth and did not bring any menus. Eventually we figured out that we were supposed to get up and just go to the buffet. They have a wide selection of southern and northern cuisines, starting with the wide variety of appetizers, mostly fried. While every dish has a label, they don't give much description. If you're not familiar with Indian food, your best bet is just to take a little bit of something that looks tempting and try it. I really enjoyed the butter chicken as well as the naan and the cooling yogurt sauce. I don't know the name of half of what I ate, but I tried a little bit of everything. They have a wide variety of Chinese-Indian food, but it looked a bit too odd to me. My favorite part of the meal was the mango ice cream and fresh oranges for dessert. Yum! Service was fantastic. They brought a basket of fresh naan, buttered and garlic + parsley, to our table twice. Our water glasses were never empty, probably getting filled at least eight times each in the two and a half hours we were there. Another very comforting sight was how often they refreshed the offerings of the buffet. Servers were very conscientious of what was running low. One last thought, when we arrived at 6pm, we were one of only three parties present. As the night went on, the restaurant filled up, more than half with South Asian patrons. I take that as a good sign. read more

A fantastic place to take someone who's never experienced real Indian food before (you can totally get them hooked on it here). The buffet is an amazing deal that offers an extremely wide variety of dishes to try. Most dishes are at least tasty, a lot are really good, and some are absolutely delicious. Just the ability to try all these dishes is alone worth the visit, and the superb food at a reasonable price is worth repeat visits (they also like to change out some of their dishes night to night allowing for you to try even more new dishes if you come back). Once again, this is a truly amazing place to get Indian food. Side Note: There's basically no point to ordering off the menu and I don't think I've ever even seen someone do that. It's more expensive than the buffet and your menu item is likely already at the buffet so ordering off the menu really just wouldn't make any sense. Stick to the buffet. Also, MAYBE bring a water if you can't handle spicy food? The water glasses are small and they usually only end up refilling yours like once so if you can't handle mildly spicy food I could see this causing an issue. Unlikely, but still possible. read more

We were there on a Monday night with friends of ours. The dinner buffet is open only on fridays and the weekends, so we went A la Carte. Food was really good - we ordered for Baingan Bharta, stuffed Karela (was our favorite that night), Veg Makhni and Sarson Ka saag. I loved every dish except the saag. Their bread basket had some assorted breads - plenty for a party of six, we ordered for extra breads without realizing this and had a bunch of left overs. Same with the subjis. One dish easily serves two. So some left overs there too. We had the veg apetizer platter (mirchi bajjis were amazing!), and Gobi manchurian (5 starts:) as starters. Again, a lot to munch on..next time we'll do the manchurian and just one more apetizer (in place of the assorted) read more

I pass by this restaurant everyday to pick & drop my son & last sunday i finally decided that i'd better try it atleast one . Well if u want to try any indian restaurant the best bet is the buffet .. they have variety of srtarters , sweets & all you can eat , so even if ur not fond of a few , its still a good deal !!! Well there was nothing impressive about the layout or the display of different varieties of food , i felt it was cramped , the veg & non veg had no segration & we had to wait for almost 10mnts for Naan ..& funny enough the rice was also over !! The best part of the buffet was the fresh garlic naan ( though it came quite late ) All the non veg curries i tried tasted Ok .. nothing bad , but din't find any taste appealing enough to make me go back there next time . With quite a few options for Indian food in southbay i dont think i will be going back anytime soon ,especially for the cost . pros : ample parking , more variety of food than many buffet Cons : cramped .wait time for food was long .the cost dosent match up to the taste read more

Lots of choices. I like here. Also they have mango icecream.

I came back today, and the food was just decent, but a lot of it was cold. bummer. and we came shortly after 1 PM, and I noticed they weren't refilling a lot of the dishes (i.e. tandoori chicken wraps - which were pretty tasty). Service was good, but I definitley recommend Amber across the street. Although Passage has more choices, half of them are on the more asian side (i.e. egg rolls, coconut veggie curry, fried rice, etc). read more

Passage To India - Lunch buffet - Bakeries Near Me - Mountain View, California

Truly one of my favorite buffets in the Bay! Actually the only favorite thus far, why? Mango ice cream! Lotsssssssssss of potato dishes and I LOVEE potato, even though it's bad for you and me. The price = $$$, why? Well they do have quite a bit of food to select and it's always fresh and they keep dumping them in, so it's not like they keep reheating either. The buffet is about $15 bucks for lunch, I don't remember how much dinner was..maybe around the same? Anyways, the food is great, and lots of variety and you HAVE to try the mango ice cream! The customer service isn't bad either, it's not like they forget about your water! You do get free naan, and the mint chutney is on par (VERY important). Would I come back? OF COURSE! It's quite casual, and if you want to do a business lunch, it's totally appropriate. It's fine for kids too, and pretty nice inside, NOT spanking upscale, but it's nice enough with the clunky xmas lights. read more

Such a welcome relief to find good Indian food in Mountain View. The venue has high ceilings and tall windows and crossbeams, like it was some kind of steakhouse in the '70s, only now it's beautiful and airy. We came in at 9:50PM (they close at 10PM on Mondays) and the server/host said they were closed, and that he wasn't sure if we could get takeout (which is what we wanted, we didn't even want a booth). He asked the chef, and we were able to get our takeout, but listen, when you close at 10PM, you take your last table at 9:59PM. It sucks sometimes, which I know from firsthand experience as a server, but if the owner finds out, you're toast. Out of respect (see: I used to be a server), we just wanted takeout. So you might have to contend with resistance if you come close to the end of the day. We ordered two chicken tikka masalas (one mild, one hot), garlic naan, and meat samosas. The chicken tikka masala orders were on point: buttery, fragrant, with the perfect mixture of spices and complimentary basmati rice. They gave us veggie samosas rather than meat, which was disappointing, but only because I wanted meat; the veggie samosas were delightful, and their tiny form factor (smaller than a chicken egg) made them easy to eat and to enjoy (they came four to our order, and I will order them again, even though I do really want to try their lamb samosas). The naan was dry and it seemed like the garlic/parsley were just added to the naan after baking. I prefer the garlic to be baked in, and I prefer naan that's more moist. It was not a huge deal because the naan soaked up all the thick, soupy tikka masala sauce after the chicken was gone. I'll certainly eat here again. I'm looking for a reliable, casual Indian restaurant to make my regular joint here in Silicon Valley, and Passage To India is a contender. read more

I wonder what E.M. Forster would say about the widespread use of the title of his novel by Indian restaurants. I'm sure there are more than a few restaurants in the country named "A Passage to India." Why not use it? It's so catchy! I've been to India a couple of times, once in the North (Delhi, Agra and Chandigarh) and once in the South (Coimbatore and Cochin), and had some really great Indian food, thanks to my husband's associates who took us to the best places and welcomed us into their home to eat with them. I just fell in love with the cuisine, especially the spices. While the food made here does not exactly compare to the food made there, the Indian food here is still tasty and the food at A Passage to India is good. My sister ordered take-out via Eat24. My husband and I offered to pick up the food about 20 minutes after she ordered it. We have not been there before, so my sister told me to look for lots of Christmas lights on the outside of the restaurant. It's a good thing too she did that because this part of El Camino is not very well lit. The parking lot of the restaurant is actually quite dark. It also doesn't help that there's no street light in the immediate vicinity to illuminate this place. Perhaps the restaurant can do something about this? We ordered samosas (small and tasty), potato patties (so good), chicken saag (medium spice level, was just okay), garlic naan (good) and chicken tikka masala (delicious as always). I thought rice would come with the saag and chicken tikka, but none came with them. We had rice in the rice cooker, so that was not an issue. We will definitely return here for their buffet lunch or dinner. I'd like to try their other dishes and have some more of those potato patties. I'll make sure to reread E.M. Forster's book too before I come. Should only enrich the experience of eating here! read more

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EM Forster's "Passage to India" is about the meeting of Indian&Western cultures- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d1O1vDvetc On Mountain View's Castro Street, there are tons of Indian restaurants, and this is one of many. Tons of competing buffets. Passage to India makes excellent mango lassis and paneers, but be wary of their lamb vindaloo. It's HOT! Their dinners are delicious. They make superb naan. An elegant, beautiful spot in the high tech Silicon Valley. read more

Came for lunch buffet $14.95 per person Very good selection of meat and vegetarian options. I really liked the butter chicken and naan. You could also make your own dosa and sauce dips. For dessert, there is mango soft serve, pudding, and cake! Would recommend for someone who wants variety of Indian food. read more

I went for a weekend lunch buffet. It is a bit more expensive than other nearby lunch buffets, but I had a 10% off coupon from the Stanford Directory that I wanted to use. They have a pretty good variety of foods. I was disappointed that the day I went, they didn't have any vindaloo or saags, but I really appreciated the chaat bar. That was fun. I thought the meat in the curry goat was unusually fatty, I had entire chunks of pure fat. The desserts were kind of a let down. I've had better Gulab Jamun elsewhere, and I must have been expecting too much from the mango soft serve because of the Yelp reviews. My favorite item was the tandoori chicken and the chicken wraps. The tandoori chicken was delicious and the chicken wraps were pretty spicy. read more

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I enjoy Indian food but can't eat curry, so I love buffets. This is a good one with lots of variety. The Tandoori chicken (which is what I usually g for) is moist, plump, and nicely spiced. There are at least four different options for rice. Garlic naan is brought to the table but there are other options you can order or find on the buffet. I was happy to see that kher and carrot halwa are both in the desert area (although no golub jamun, which would be nice). read more

Impressive-looking buffet with unfortunately mostly mediocre food. Beware places that try to do too many things (here, Americanized south Indian, Indo-Chinese, chaat, dosa, dessert). Pros: The tandoori chicken was surprisingly moist (all dark meat, which is a plus for me, ymmv if you're white, lol) considering it was sitting out on a tray over 2 sterno cans (this would be still drier than desired in a normal dine-in situation -- my expectations for meat at a buffet are considerably lower because all the food is just sitting out). The aloo gobi (potatoes and cauliflower) was good. The naan was a'ight but alternating the garlic and plain naan in the basket turned them all into weak sauce garlic naan, upsetting both the garlic lover and the garlic hater at the same time. Fish pakora was okay, though a tad overcooked and batter no longer crunchy from sitting out. Mango lassi was also decent but nothing special and expensive at $3.50 for practically a shot glass' worth. Cons: The butter chicken was nasty - sweet with no heat (butter chicken at say Curry Pizza House is mild but still has a slight kick). The goat curry, usually my favorite dish at most Indian restaurants, was mostly watery slop and bones. It was really bland and had no spiciness either. Actually, all of their food had barely any to no spice. The Indo-Chinese food tasted barely better than Panda Express, slightly sweet and/or bland - or both at the same time! - depending on the dish. The saag paneer had hardly any paneer and even less flavor. Other than the 1 goat and 1 fish every other meat dish was chicken, no lamb. Dosa was terrible, mushy from sitting there - lesson learned, only get dosa from places that bring it to you hot and fresh. Chaat was also unmemorable. They didn't have any of my favorite Indian desserts. The desserts they did have were especially awful considering this place is connected to an Indian bakery down the street. The cake was dried out and had a flavor profile that was not for me. The bread pudding was so curdled it was like eating a sweet omelette with bread and raisins in it. The "mousse" was hard lumps floating in milk and tasted like rolled-up balls of the cake. To add insult to injury I didn't get to try the mango ice cream soft serve the day I was there. We got there early but by the time we left there was a huge line. I would have been disappointed to wait long for this caliber food but for a quick and nearby AYCE it was okay. Probably will continue to try new places rather than go back, though. read more

We grew up eating Indian food and Passage To India's buffet is on point! The dishes here are delicious, always fresh, and hot! My children absolutely love tearing apart their warm, fragrant naans and dipping them into a bowl of buttery butter chicken! My family comes here to eat at least twice a month. The food here is so memorable that you will want to keep coming back for more! Service here is friendly and attentive. The bathrooms are clean and tidy. I gotta applaud them for their attention to details and taking pride in keeping their restaurant clean and pleasant for all patrons. read more

I got weekend dinner buffet here for a little over $16 and really enjoyed it and overate just a little bit. My favourite part of it was the live counter serving Dosa and other Chaat dishes. They also make a great Biryani and Indo-Chinese dishes with enough vegetarian options on the spread as well (Eggplant and Saag dishes were on point). Passage to India offers excellent value for the money. They also serve drinks but that's not included in the buffet. I've never tried the a la carte dishes here, but the buffet looks too good to try anything else. read more

Chat, biriyani, main course, soups, deserts, dosa, idli, sambar - they have it all! This is one of the most authentic Indian food places I have been to. In fact, its better than many restaurants in India! I had gone here for the diwali special lunch buffet. We first went to the passage to India bakery, which is 2 minutes away from the main restaurant, the google maps mapped us to the bakery. The bakery has a vegetarian buffet, which, i am guessing, has lesser choices than that in the main restaurant. We had to inquire at the bakery and figure out where the main restaurant was. So, make sure you are routed correctly. The buffet was awesome! Most of the times, south Indian restaurants have not-so-impressive north Indian food and vice versa. But passage to India has delicious south and north Indian cuisines. The buffet had a zillion choices- all of them equally good. I almost forgot the cute factor - they have baby dosaaas :D I'd go back to this place for sure! read more

Passage To India - Awesome fooood :) - Bakeries Near Me - Mountain View, California

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Thank you for the lovely New Year's Eve dinner! A wonderful feast and we are grateful that Passage to India has stayed open for takeout. Everything was delicious and ordering via Google/Menufy was easy. I am not sure if the app is a real-time tracker or just an estimate for when the food will be ready. At any rate, I'll be back! read more

You are basically paying $17+tip for good service and garlic naan for dinner buffet. Main course and starters and everything else sucked. The food was lying since hours, sambhar thick as tar and pav cold. Overall, food was not fresh and felt like $10 unlimited dishes (where I used to go during school days!) I'd definitely go for Sakoon as opposed to this one. read more

Tl;dr: Good food, good service and fast. Gulab Jamuns are a must try. I've been here a bunch of times. They have the BEST Gulab Jamuns (Indian dessert) I have eaten in the Bay Area. Closest to the authentic Indian taste. Given how badly most people make it, these guys deserve an extra star just for that. I have only had North Indian preparations here. Have dined in, got their food to go and had an opportunity to try their food when they catered for an event at work. They did not disappoint. The only time I was less than happy or just okay with their food is when I had their dinner buffet. (Offered Friday, Saturday, Sunday). read more

Passage To India - The chaat counter for the dinner buffet. - Bakeries Near Me - Mountain View, California

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Worst lunch buffet ever and that is also so much expensive. Not much variety , we get more variety in less price with lot better taste in east bay area. We wish we should not have gone!! HIGHLY DISAPPOINTED!!!! read more

My husband and I came here for the lunch buffet. The selection was great, butter chicken especially was delicious. I was very impressed with the service and they were attentive. Our tea and water glasses never went empty and the staff picked up our plates as soon as they were done. The price was great- $14.95 for all you can eat lunch buffet with many choices from veggies to meats. I would definitely return! Our waiter served us hot naan fresh from the oven and we had a variety from buttered naan, plain naan, and garlic. I left feeling satisfied and happy. That's definitely the kind of eating experience I love to have! Will definitely return! read more

A reasonable Inidan situated on the western edge of Mountain View. The restaurant is bright and airy but suprisingly also has a Chinese section on the menu. The staff are friendly although they did forget my lassi but left it on the bill. The assorted vegetable pakora was good, an American portion so definitely something for sharing. The Chicken Makhanwala was good but not quite worth $14. Definitely worth another try read more

Passage To India - Bakeries Near Me - Mountain View, California

Want to give a negative eating for this bakery and the owner Sushma or whoever. I ordered a pineapple cake for a friend's birthday. I also sent her the message that had to be written. Ad simple as "Happy birthday...." I had to call her more than 10 times to do it. Everyone I called her, she used to just answer one question and hang up. She did this about 7 times after which I called and told her that she should not hang up on her customers while they are still talking. She said that she has been busy with customers all day while honestly, I can barely see anyone in that place. Worst attitude and horrible customer service!!! They asked me if they should write the message from left to right or otherwise. Duh!! I didn't ask them to write in Arabic. The cake didn't taste good either. Waste of money and waste of my time!! WE should not encourage such people who don't know how to are their customers. I will NEVER go to this place again, ever!! read more

Decent buffet. Lots of items but taste is not the best. Good think is you will usually find a spot quickly and when in a group everyone will find something that they like to eat. read more

UPDATE: The last 2 visits have been utterly disappointing. Tasteless food and the high amount of spices made most of the food items inedible. The waiter told us that chef is on vacation while owner said it's the same chef. Owner also said no one has ever complained about the food and just ignored us. This place is off my list now. ------------------------------ My go to place for Indian buffet. + Very authentic Indian food. + Lots of choices in both veg and non veg. + Pretty much all the dishes are delicious. + And most importantly all of the dishes have just the right amount of spices unlike most of the Indian restaurants who somehow put food in spices instead of putting spices in food. + courteous staff. - a bit on the expensive side. - restrooms can use some cleaning. read more

Lots of variety with ok taste and slow service. They have dinner buffet on weekends. Dosa was outstanding. Tandoori roti and chicken tikka masala were decent. Ambience was nice and relaxing. Good for a large group. Per person buffet was $18. Chicken Hyderabadi biryani was good as read more

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Delicious !! Went back again the last two Saturdays for the Buffet, just as good , if not better than I remember...From the moment you walk in, Shafani greets you, take you right to a table, and make you feel very welcomed... The Tandori chicken, curries, vegetables, and of course, the hot, garlic Naan.. Clean, fresh food, very nice staff, and at a very fair price... will be going back again this Saturday.... Craig Nolan read more

Ambiance is very good. The way they have presented the buffet is really good. The place is very huge( it has private area inside for promotion / grad parties) The service is good. The only negative i can say is - food was not as warm as i expected it to be. it was luke warm. They have a dosa stand which caters 4-5 types of dosa. A must try if you are really hungry and into buffets. read more

I've been here a number of times now since Saraj in Redwood City closed. The variety of food is really stunning but I am especially a fan of the goat curry. They bring you enough naan for the whole meal. We also get a big cup of yogurt to cool our flaming mouths. I'm so white that my nose runs for the entire meal. I always get the desserts and the mango soft serve. A couple of downsides: You have to order the Chai tea separately which is about $3 a cup. I'd like it better if it was in a carafe. Also they run out of tandoori chicken a lot so you might have to wait for it read more

Awesome food We had the lunch buffet here Highly recommend the chicken biriyani and aloo mutton , fish fry . We are leaving with our tummies and hearts full . Will visit again read more

If you're actually trying to get to India this is not the place for you, but after coming here and eating their food you might not want to go to India anymore. This place has the best Indian food I've ever tasted, granted I have never been to India and tried the food there, but if I had to guess, I'd imagine it would taste like this. I always get the vegetable biryani. Then I order too much naan for one person and eat until I'm in pain. My stomach has never hurt so good before. read more

This place was excellent and exceeded our expectations. I love Indian food but my wife was not a fan of it, we decided to give this place a try after several recommendations and now my wife is also a fan of Indian food. The place is clean and the food is really good with multiple options gen and non-veg. The fresh dozas are amazing. We will definitely come back read more

Thought of giving it a try after reading multiple good reviews and I am so DISAPPOINTED! The food is edible but unsavory! No taste, the servers are disinterested, nothing to drink in the buffet menu. Veg pakoras were undercooked, the other things looked like leftovers from lunch menu. And one thing I definitely know being a punjabi is that whatever I ate named "dal makhni" was no way dal makhni! And if you love paneer dishes, you will be majorly missing it here! SKIP this one! Many other good Indian restaurant options available. Dont waste money on this one, considering it is 17$/person+tax! read more

They have a variety of things. I am giving them 2 stars only for the pani puri and the variety of things they got. The taste to everything that they made here is bad! Very BAD! They got everything wrong. Nothing in the menu has a good taste that you can finish what you took in your plate. Would never recommend this place to anyone. read more

Came here with some Indian friends. I explained to them (as I will to you, now) that I'm a noob when it comes to Indian food. I've liked most things I've tried, but often don't know what I'm eating. I never go to Indian places on my own because I never know what to order (also because I never remember the names of what I've eaten...). They decided this would be a good place for me to go. Decor is nice as you enter and there are two main areas (somewhat connected) to get food for the buffet. I actually liked most of the food I had...but I still can't remember some of what I ate. I did find it really odd that there was some Indo-Chinese (Indian-style Chinese) food there. I didn't bother trying any of that. I think the only thing I didn't really like was the butter chicken - it was super sweet!! I was totally not expecting that, but it was certainly too sweet for me (isn't it usually not sweet??). The goat curry was probably my favorite thing of the day there. Not sure that I'd be back here - even my friends admitted that there are far better Indian restaurants to go to. They just weren't sure how willing I was to go into the deep end. They actually ended up describing this place as a good intro place for people whetting their appetites for Indian food, so I can understand why they chose this restaurant. read more

The passage to India have a good Buffet . Went on Sunday Dinner time. I went for their Bengali buffet . Its more of a standard buffet , with a few customized bengali dishes. They have over 50 items in Buffet (10-15 starter, 25-30 Main dishes , and 10-15 dessert) . Overall a good selection from all over the country. Food quality was good . Service was good . It was not crowded , so had a good time there. read more

We have been dining here for at least ten years. While other people may think there are better restaurants in the area I strongly believe this is by far superior for the following reasons. Buffet is always fresh, they offer both meat and vegetarian options parking lot is big, no need to stress over finding a spot tables are not crowded service is excellent Overall, the food is delicious, when we come with the entire family (about 12 of us) we are assigned a separate room where we can be as loud as we can and the toddlers can roam around our table without bothering anyone, now, for me this is very important because it is mortifying to think we are too loud and might bother other patrons, the service is always excellent, the naan bread is the best, the tandoori chicken delicious, I have nothing but good things to say about them. read more