Raja Sweets is one of those Houston institutions that feels both legendary and deeply local. Tucked into Hillcroft's Mahatma Gandhi District, it's been around since the mid-1980s and has built a reputation for fresh sweets, savory snacks, and fast, efficient service for good reason. They just celebrated their 40th anniversary which I had the honor of attending! What I love about Raja is that it doesn't feel overly curated or trendy--it feels real. The kind of place people actually return to again and again because the food delivers. Their sweets are what put them on the map, but the savory side deserves love too. If you know, you know. The whole experience feels like a little slice of Houston history with serious community roots. Whether you're stopping in for mithai, chai, samosas, or a full meal, Raja Sweets has that rare combination of longevity, consistency, and cultural significance that makes a place memorable. There's a reason it's been featured by outlets like the New York Times, Eater, and the Travel Channel. read more

Raja Sweets - Owners and staff. - Indian Near Me - Houston, Texas

Raja is one of those places that has spot in Houston history. I've heard about it for years and was excited to finally get a chance to try some sweets. I got 4 different sweets and they were all so sweet that they were virtually inedible. The milk cake was crumbly and grainy. I guess I thought it would be more soft and moist but it completely fell apart when I cut into it. I got a mango ball and a carrot cake square and both were dry and so sweet that it any other flavor became quite mute. You kinda got the hint of flavor in each but it was very slight. There was a moist coconut ball that was on the brink of good but once again, was overpowered by this blast of sugar in your mouth. It was creamy and bouncy but alas went unfinished. I am giving a 3 because to be fair, nothing was inherently wrong. I just could not enjoy the desserts at all. read more

Bunch of crook pepole when you paid for the food chech your recived they show them selfe they are hounest but they are not they cheat becarefull read more

We went after lunch for a sweet treat and trust me... it was SWEET! A very different kind of sweet though... the sugar is very prominent in ALL the sweets we tried, however they each have a very particular essence, fragance and taste. With particularly Indian flavors like star anise, clove, cardamom. My favorite was definitely the Gulab Jamun , which looks like a donut hole but its more dense, like a cake, and its bathed in a "cardamomy" syrup... DELICIOUS! I had been wanting to go since I seen that one of my favorite foodies, Andrew Zimmer, had been there. We did not tried their savory dishes but we will be back! People were very patient and explained ingredients so we could choose our sweets accordingly. Its a very casual place, not usually packed and perfect for a quick sweet (or lunch) trip. read more

Raja Sweets - Front paradise of indian sweets - Indian Near Me - Houston, Texas

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I saw this sweet shop on many videos of very popular YouTubers. Seems to be the oldest Indian sweet shop! I was excited to check it out. I had only one day to explore the area and already have eaten at 5 other places. I decided to just sample a piece and take a box to go The piece I tried there was just ok! I felt guilty leaving without buying. I still got that box filled with a mix of over 7 different sweets. When I came home and ate them I was blown away with how delicious they are! I guess I was full this is why I didn't enjoy it there. And I did regret not getting more! Specially the jalebi! The lady at the counter I am believing is the daughter of the owner and I believe she is the one in all the videos. She is so welcoming and extremely friendly and sweet The ambiance is just a cafe style, they have tables if you want to enjoy your sweets there read more

Raja Sweets - Indian Near Me - Houston, Texas

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Diwali is coming. Raja Sweets will be busy for sure. I learned about this restaurant when my foodie friend hosted video blogs during the pandemic. He featured Raja Sweet. That's how I got interested with the Indian desserts. On my first visit, I was clueless. A helpful customer offered to introduce the sweets to me. He showed me the "milky" ones. They are all way too sweet for me and my foodie friends. I ate one after the other. No time to savor the moment. Then, I started to investigate by trying few items at a time as my way to understand the beauty as Raja Sweet is. I tried every curry dish on the menu and documented each sweet by cutting them up after taking photos, one by one. So far, I have nothing but great experience. I read the description on the website to see which ones are not soaked in "sugary water overnight". Such as Rasgulla, Gulab Jamum, Kala Jamum (deep fried black), Jalebi and Rasmalai, tend to be really sweet. I also want to highlight those with lactose-intolerance folks like me: Badana, Balu Shai, Besan Burfi, Besan Ladoo, Kaju Pista Roll, Mango Pehra, Punjabi Pinni, Coconut Laddoo, Gurpara, Jalebi, LadduMesu, Patisa and Pehra. The best way to check the website rajasweets.co/menu/ for currently offered sweets. Learning from description and tasting them are more meaningful than just put them in my mouth one after the other. I drink water or tea in between each bite to reduce the sweetness. Each item has its unique flavor. Please see all of my photos for complete description. On the other side of sweets counter is the hot food counter. I have tried chicken curry, goat curry and tandoori chicken plates. Each plate comes with one vegetable and rice or naan, which is made freshly in the kitchen. It takes about 3 minutes. These are humongous in portion. I often take my leftovers home for midnight snack. I hope you enjoy this comprehensive review. The best way to enjoy the Indian sweets is to visit Raja Sweets in person for a true experience. read more

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This is my favorite place in Hillcroft for Indian sweets. I always get the rasmalai and the orange jalebi and both never fail to disappoint. I, personally, don't love yellow jalebi, so this place makes the best orange jalebi. The edges are crispy, and the center is super juicy and soft just how I like it. I like how it's never too overcrowded here because a lot of people get their sweets to-go, so it's nice to be able to sit down and not feel claustrophobic. The service is also always fast like within 1 minute because the sweets are ready to go. A childhood favorite for sure. read more

This is a wonderful spot. The selection and desserts are great. They were also very helpful and patient with me -- a non-Indian -- who needed a lot of help navigating this new world of sweets, shopping for a Diwali gift. I ended up staying and having some chai and cream-filled gulab jamun. read more

Raja Sweets - 2lb Gift Box. - Indian Near Me - Houston, Texas

They have the best Indian desserts! My favorite are the gulab jamans. I always regret buying a pound as I eat them all ! Today I tried their savory hot pepper, stuffed w potato curry ( pakora) - delicious!! read more

One of my favorite places!! The food and desserts are AMAZING!! A true home away from home meal! The generous quality of food served always blows me away! read more

Food is always delicious!! Many choices of savory food and sweet treats !! Very tasty and filling. read more

The sweets are good but it is a little expensive by the weight. I had some chum chum and golab Jamun. Pakistani sweets a heavy with the sugar and syrup but I love it. read more

Raja Sweets - Variety of Indian/Paki sweets - Indian Near Me - Houston, Texas

Heard so many great review about raja but I don't like sweets treats so much that was why I didn't want to come. Then I was in the neighborhood so I decided to get some samosas from here. Turn out it's probably best to get only sweets treats since they are well know for it . The samosas are not good. I surely has better samosas in town. A lot of people came to buy the desserts section. read more

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We came here for allllllll the desi sweets as my Gujarati fiancé loves sweets! But we were also curious about their samosas as we are samosa fanatics.... Turns out, we were NOT a fan of their samosas. The flavor was okay, but the filling was very chunky - the potatoes weren't mashed but instead were large pieces throughout the samosa. We were hoping that they'd take the #1 spot on our "Best Samosas in Houston" list but alas, they did not. The sweets, on the other hand, were great! Not going to lie, we only had gulab jamin and a gulab jamin sandwich (which was a unique twist to the classic gulab jamin and I liked it a lot!). Nevertheless, we were very satisfied with the results! We'll definitely be back to try out other sweets as my fiancé has a massive sweet tooth! read more

The food is always amazing. Staff are friendly and always smiling. Started coming here when I was 14yo. 36 years. This place is a Houston gem. I ALWAYS get the vegetable plate and I'm not even vegetarian. Naan is bomb. Banana shake too. Grab a half dozen variety sweets on the way out. Love Raja! read more

Raja Sweets - Indian Near Me - Houston, Texas

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This place is absolutely amazing I love eating at different indian spots, the food was absolutely amazing especially the butter chicken and samosa. I am a cha girl so I had two cups of that and it was just right..!!! They also have this spicy vinegar carrots and onion thing so BOMB! The place was packed but had spots for us to eat, very good customer service read more

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Raja Sweets Known in our circle for their kala jamun, today we decided to taste their menu of entrees and otter snacks. We had a small appetite so a small plate of pakodas with a side of rasgulla seemed like a good idea, although what we wanted to order was the snack platter. The snack platter came with 2 samosas and a portion of pakodas for $6.50 if you want to try. The pakodas were a decent portion and hot while being crispy - thumbs up. The rasgulla was as expected but shouldn't it come with a bowl of suger syrup ? The service was wanting and thats where the stars reduce. We were waiting at the food counter, which is away from the sweets counter for quite some time. I even called out to a lady at the counter who was packing boxes, and asked who can help us as we have been waiting for more than 15 min with noone looking to us, but she just turned and walked away, I still thought maybe she would send someone but no, she just got to the cash counter as if we did not exist - that was bad feeling. But i have been there for sweets plenty times and its been pretty normal Raja sweets also has a pan counter, I have not seen him in the past 2-3 visits maybe because of covid, but he is still there. read more

Raja Sweets - Raja Sweets- Pakoda plate and Single piece rasagulla - Indian Near Me - Houston, Texas

Horrible service to begin with, extremely unwelcoming lady who has her sass for not even good food. had Rasmalai that was disintegrated in the container. The milk was so watered down. So disappointing. read more

Just wanted to let you guys know the food is so ass nothing is good everything is so sad I hate it I spent a 100 dollars on the food it is completely dog shit read more

Probably my favorite place to eat in Houston! The food is delicious and authentic! The sweets are out of this world. You can tell they put a lot of heart into what they do. I love the mom and pop atmosphere. The service has always been wonderful when I've gone especially when Sharan is working. Her smile lights up the restaurant. HIGHLY RECOMMEND! read more

This review is solely for their gulab jamuns! They are the BEST I have ever had, and that's saying something. Our family always picks some up whenever we're in the area. They're amazing cold or warmed up in the microwave for a couple seconds. They're even better when served with ice cream! Give them a shot. I promise you won't be disappointed. read more

We stopped at Raja Sweets for a quick Tea Stop. Its a nice Cafe with a lots of sweets variety to choose from. We tried their Qalakand and Kaju katli which was good in taste and less in sugar. Really appreciate it when I asked for coffee in a milk they were willing to make it and it tasted delicious. Love the customer service. read more

Raja is one the oldest desi establishments in Houston. If you come to Houston and don't make a stop at Raja, then why did you come? Keep it simple: mithi and pakora. Simple but satisfying. I see a lot of people ordering a variety of stuff but I keep to the basics. Whenever I get food from here, it's always consistent. The pakora is fresh and the mithi sweet and not old/hard like other places. Make sure to show this mom & pop establishment some love! read more

My go-to place for chai, snacks and sweets. The aunties at the counter are just like mom figures and the service is great. I love chillaxing with my hot chai and realign my soul for a few minutes here. Only place with a huge selection of desi sweets. Parking is okay most times. This is the heart of hilcroft. Everything you desire is a stone's throw away from here. read more

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This store sells stale products. I bought 2 packs of rasmalai on Jan 5th, 2025 in the evening around 5 pm that same night the rasmalai in one of the packets went bad. It was sticky, unpalatable and quite clearly was sold after the product went bad. The other box which looked fine tasted extremely underwhelming! The health department needs to look into the quality of the items being sold here. read more

Horrible food. The food was so bland that it did not deserved to be so overpriced. The service was horrendous. We were trying to give an order but they kept walking away. There are many places that have more flavor and better customer service with the same price. I could make the same food but better. read more

I was really looking forward to trying the sweets from Raja Sweets especially given the rave reviews. Unfortunately, my experience did not live up to the hype. I placed a pickup order which included a variety of pastries such as Jalebj (no syrupy sweetness, Ladoo, Barfi and Cham Cham no distinctive taste everything tasted the same. Despite the visually appealing presentation, the desserts were surprisingly tasteless, lacking the rich flavors I was expecting. Additionally, I found the prices to be quite high compared to other local dessert places, which wouldn't have been an issue had the desserts delivered on taste. Given the cost and the underwhelming flavors, I felt compelled to share my experience to perhaps help improve future offerings. I regret to say that I won't be returning to Raja Sweets I had high hopes, but the lack of flavor and high prices were disappointing. read more

When my parents visited from Texas, they brought some Habshi Halwa from Raja Sweets, a shop located far from downtown. They've never tried it before, but I have. It was burnt and very disgusting. If you wouldn't eat it, you shouldn't sell it. read more

Raja Sweets - Habshi Halwa - Indian Near Me - Houston, Texas

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While Raja Sweets provides probably the best Indian desserts/Mithai, I was severely disappointed with the Mango Lassi, me and my yelpies had recently. Lassi, traditionally usually comes in 2 different variety. Either sweet or salty. Ours was neither. When I started sipping on my Lassi, I could not taste any sweetness whatsoever. Also, the lassi tasted sour with an after taste to it. I knew right away, that the yogurt was either stale or definitely expired. Normally yogurt can go days after its expiration date, but this one was definitely old. I threw away my cup as I couldn't deal with it and plus our next pit stop was at an ice cream parlor, so I figured I could just have a shake or smoothie their. As the Mango Lassi was a bust, I recommend yelpies to try it at Shahnai Restaurant or Aga Catering and restaurant or Agha's Juice. You wont be disappointed. For me, I will just stick with a select few desserts at Raja's. read more

Raja Sweets - The desserts. Woo. Lassi cravings - Indian Near Me - Houston, Texas

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****MESSAGE FOR NON INDIAN CULTURES *** Please stop being intimate when you are standing in line at RAJA SWEET HOUSE- it looks extremely disrespectful towards conservative Indian culture..if you want to do all that the STREET is available outside. There are many other older Indian parents and grandparents waiting for their food inside the restaurant would prefer that you DO NOT stick your hands in each other's pants! RESPECT THE CULTURE!!! Mithai is good and fresh and samosa are good. read more

One of the best shops for your Indian sweet delights in Houston! Good selection of sweets in a relatively clean space! Ideal for any festive shopping or even for your pot luck at work! '++'s: The Gulab Jamun, Motichoor Ladoo & Kalaakand are a definite go-to! Not too sweet, very balanced and flavorful.. these will surely impress you! '=='s: The Jalebi & Rasmalai follow the suit as the ones above but lack that definitive punch! '- -'s: The beautiful but overpriced festive boxes! $6 of an added cost for a 2lb ($14-16 bag of sweets) is very high! Though the optional boxes look pretty, the price is absurd in comparison..! read more

Raja Sweets - Jalebi, Rasmalai, Motichoor Ladoo, Gulab Jamun - Indian Near Me - Houston, Texas

Ever since being introduced to the Halwa at Maharaja Bhog, I've been in love! Thanks to yelp members who posted menus of Raja Sweets, I saw that they sell this delicious dessert by the lb. excellent. I cleared my schedule and dropped by. Like other reviewers mentioned, this place is not fancy. It's a hole-in-the-wall, mom and pop shop that serves an assortment of Indian sweets along with samosas, pakoras, chewdas, and a small selection of hot Indian food. We got the chicken curry with aloo Gobi on naan and a side of samosas. For dessert, a delectable piece of almond burfi. Food portions are huge, and very filling for two adults. This place actually reminds me of Yellow River in Chinatown. Cheap food, not of highest quality but tasty. Chicken curry was on the saltier end, but perfect with plain naan. Aloo Gobi was good as well. Overall not my favorite Indian food place, but great bang for your buck. Now the highlight was the Almond Burfi. Not overly sweet, very dense and full of Indian spice flavors (think cardamon). I was in love all over again. Ended up also trying the carrot halva and pistachio burfi, all excellent. The only hard part about ordering is that none of the sweets have labels. Perhaps if I grew up on these desserts I would be able to tell what each one is, but the sari wearing Indian ladies behind the counter will patiently tell you what each one is. So glad for this place and will be back for more! read more

Raja Sweets - Samosa, aloo Gobi, curry chicken, complimentary salad, large naan, and almond burfi - Indian Near Me - Houston, Texas

I've been going to Raja Sweets for years for sweets, rasmalai, and pakora. I hadn't been there since COVID. I was hoping to get my favorites for Thanksgiving gathering but was disappointed in the changes in quality. Rasmalai is supposed to be in thick milk. It was very thin and unsweet. The pakora was more breading with fewer vegetables. The sauce that came with it was spicy instead of the former tamarind chutney. Sadly, I won't return. Very disappointing. read more

Went for lunch with my family, and Sharan the owner took such great care of us. We had a little bit of everything and it all tasted so amazing! We had the butter chicken, naan, goat curry, saag paneer, meatballs, samosas and pakoras. This place also has the best desserts! So glad we were able to stop in! read more

My all-time favorite mango lassi & sweets. Not one place in India made as good lassi. My husband, Krishna & I love Raja Sweets & the kind folks who run it! read more

A classic Indian sweet shop and restaurant. Inside seating is very basic, most people take out. Proper home cooked food at very reasonable prices, and a big array of Indian desserts. read more

I tried this restaurant for the first time based on some of the reviews I saw here in Yelp. I tried Rasgulla - my understanding of this sweet is that its made of milk/milk products. The ones I bought definitely had dough/flour or something that was uncooked and lumpy/solid inside the rasgulla's. It was the same case for kala jamuns too. The milk cake I bought was also really sour. I am guessing it must have been old! I understand that these are some tough times for businesses. But, that does'nt mean businesses can cheat customers with low quality products. I have had all these sweets in the past and I understand how its made and how its supposed to taste like. Request the owners to improve the quality and not rip off customers with substandard products. Thanks! read more

I can't review them today. After buying my favorite Paans (must try the small counter on the left side of the door), I want to buy some methai, but there was no social distance. People were eating inside, and a guy keeps walking around without a mask ( it was hanging on his neck). Store management was not concerned about the pandemic and didn't enforce any kind of restriction, sadly. So I left, and maybe I will try during the daytime and hoping I don't see that guy again who was enjoy his walking without a mask during rush hours. Unbelievable and disappointed read more

Easily the best North Indian (Punjabi) food in Houston at a fair price. Needs to have much higher reviews, eat here often, authentic genuine and not pretentious. The high end Indian dining food doesn't even come close. This restaurant is a must for people who enjoy real food! Saag paneer and yellow curry is our family favorite, unbeatable!! ( my mouth is watering while writing this review) read more

Where can I even start? My family has been frequenting Raja's since it opened back in the 80's. It became our Sunday tradition to get one plate of khadi, one plate of saag paneer, and 4 naan (no butter, specifically) along with any sweets we desired. Over the span of my life I've seen this restaurant expand and gain the recognition it deserves, but the staff never fail to be warm and welcoming, and the food never fails to hit the spot. Anytime anyone asks me for one restaurant to recommend in Houston, it's Raja's every time. If you like Indian food, check Raja's out for a delicious and affordable meal! read more