Just went here with my dad and it was great! We ordered the butter chicken, channa masala, butter naan, and Punjabi Khadi. Everything was very good and the workers were very friendly. Highly recommend! read more

My family absolutely loves it here! Food is delicious!! Prices are good too. Very friendly family owns it. They are always very nice, courteous and friendly. read more

Kind of surprised to find a place that serves good Indian food in a town called Ceres. would highly recommend that you get the buffet as it has pretty much most of the menu on it and you can sample from each freely. Lack of beverage selections keeps this from being a five-star. read more

Usually Nagina palace in Turlock is my go-to when it comes to Indian food/Indian buffet. They have a great price for the buffet plus the Naan bread comes with the price of the buffet $7.99. only problem is they are not open on the weekends. I came Saturday to this one for the very first time and I must say I will never come here again. 10$ per person and naan is extra and 1$ for the garlic naan. They have little choices compared to Nagina palace. Awful customer service!! They never came to give us a refill on naan bread or soda ! We were already 2 plates and 30-40 minutes in to eating nobody came to refill our drinks or bread. I had to go and get the women and when I went over to speak to her she was giving me a lot of attitude. After basically feeling like I forced her to refill or drinks and bread. She gave me regular bread instead of garlic bread which I paid 1$ extra for. Not worth the drive out here or the price of the buffet for the little choices they have. food was alright not anything special.....Learned my lesson and sticking to Nagina palace. They have a great selection, delicious food, great pricing, naan comes complimentary, and they have wonderful cosutomer service. But I must say the bread was good and sso was the rice pudding dessert very much reminded me of arroz con leche. Other then that I won't come here again read more

This may have been the most bland, flavorless Indian food I've eaten. As soon as I walked in, the teenage waitress asked me what kind of Naan I wanted. Then she asked if I was having the lunch buffet. She never asked if I wanted anything to drink. She was the best thing about the restaurant. It was very dark with blasting music. The buffet choices were 4 different kinds of chicken bones, an extremely runny dal, rice and some remnants of possible vegetable pakora. Everything tasted the same. The rice was adequate. The guy at the cash register asked me how everything was and I told him. He just sort of laughed. I really wanted to like this place, but I don't think I can possibly give them another chance. read more

Our first time here. Everything was delicious! Service was very good. We asked for mild and it was. We will definitely be back. I would recommend this place to everyone!! Yum! read more

The taste of the food is awesome, really flavorful. But I have to share my honest feelings. I was upset that nothing was labeled. This was my first time ordering from here and I had no clue what was what. I ordered four different chicken dishes and three different naans. Doesn't help that the online menu has no pictures so we just ate blindly. So please Sunlight employees, for future reference, please label your containers and foil for naan. Also small note, we put special instructions for delivery and it was not followed smh. I understand with COVID operations you are trying the best. Thank you. read more

I had lunch today here with a friend. We chose the buffet. We were pleasantly surprised by the variation and taste of the food offered. We were brought a beautiful basket of Nan. My favorite dish Was the curry chicken. It was YUM! Everything on the buffet was authentic and delicious. We also tried the tea at the buffet. DELISH. The service was efficient. THE BEST THING OF ALL????? The total bill for two people was $15.00! What a deal. GREAT FOOD don't miss the lunch buffet. PS: If you are looking for a dessert buffet, This isn't for you. Just great authentic Indian food. read more

Best Indian food around, including Modesto, Turlock, Tracy. Everywhere. This place is the beat.

We love coming here for the lunch buffet. The selection of vegetarian options is great. My daughter is a vegetarian and she loves coming here. We also love the sweets. The service is hit or miss. Our drinks seem to take a long time to be refilled. But it's worth it because the food is so good. read more

The food was fine but the service is trash. The waitresses didn't give us our rice or lassis. My boyfriend had to go up to them to ask about the rest of our order. Then when we were trying to pay for our food they just ignored us for 10 minutes while they helped other customers. Such rude people. Save your money and go some place else where you're actually welcomed. read more

We went to eat with our family today and found that the standard of food was horrible for the price we paid. Also there were flies hovering near the table and on the food. Found this place very unhygienic. We will definitely not go back there. read more

It's a shame I have to give this a three star, because in terms of food, I would easily give it a 4 or 4.5. The food is delicious. I ate at the lunch buffet and the price was good for all the options you get. Many types of curries, both vegetarian and meat, some side salad, small fried bits. The naan you have to add additional charge but they make it fresh and it's delicious. The drop in stars is simply the quality of service, as many have mentioned. Like seriously, I have never met people who were so careless about their customers. I honestly don't mind, since I'm there to eat, but at least give me the basics: Seat me after I come in, ask if I want something to drink, actually tell me when the naan is additional charge, and just overall care about your customer. It breaks my heart because the food is honestly good and the price is decent, but I know many will be discouraged in coming if service is bad. I can live with it though, so three stars. read more

Really bad service. I will never go back again. They even brought my chai tea at the end when i was done eating. No high chairs available for my two kids. I would NOT RECOMMEND THIS PLACE TO EAT. Really bad experience read more

My breakdown: Food - 2.5 - completely mediocre. Service - 0 (negative if possible) Price - 3 - yeah it's cheap but normal for Indian restaurants. This place would have been alright if it weren't for the horrid service. I checked online to see what time it opened and it said 930 am and I thought well that sounds suspiciously early. So my sister and I got there 10 minutes before 10. Open sign wasn't turned on but upon closer inspection, the time on their door does say 930. I could hear people inside so I called the number on the door. First call, no answer. Second call, a lady who seemed to be pissed off about being interrupted answered. I asked her what time they opened and she said 10 am. I said thank you and hung up. I waited until 10:05 and still the doors are still locked. Another family showed up and we're all just standing there. 5 minutes go by and I call again. No answer. So I call again. Finally same lady answered. I said we've been waiting outside. Do you open at 10? She says angrily, we're opening right now. A guy opens the door and we go in no apologies or even a good morning. I asked about their buffet if they have it and the same lady looks straight at me and said condescendingly, we just opened so it can't be ready. And I'm just looking at her like mother effin b-tch you can just say it doesn't start until 11. But whatever we ordered a la carte and as soon as we order all the buffet food starts coming out and was ready by the time we got our food. So would I go back or recommend this place? Hell no. read more

Drove here to get jalebi. Day 1. Was told to come early tomorrow and they will have some made. Day 2 came here and was told, " oh we didn't make any". Don't make promises you can't keep. I was planning on catering, guess not from here. read more

Loved their food! Tasty, fresh and traditional. Very quick in service. We will go back again!

This place is great!!!! The food is amazing and the buffet is definitely worth going to. The syrup balls are the best and I have to get them every time I come. If you are thinking about coming here, please do! read more

Food is delicious, but order was wrong when delivered through Grub Hub. Orders are 9/10 wrong when ordering through GH. Owners did made it right. Would recommend they double check orders before sending them out. read more

Went for the lunch buffet which was great. Had garlic naan, I think there was an upcharge but worth it. Came back another day at 1:20 and they said the lunch buffet was over but the sign says up til 2:00 so I went away hungry and disappointed. But for the price and the food I still will be back. Wish they'd extend it til 3 pm since I'm a night shifter and eat later. read more

There are only a few restaurants worth eating at in Ceres. This is one of them. The food is good, hot & fresh. 5 stars for food. We dined in. People were all nice, service was good. Atmosphere is semi-banquet-stripmall-Industrial-chic with TV's on and a really nice bar that I've never seen anyone sit at (I would tho). So decent dine in spot. I bet the take out is nearly as good but naan is piping hot if u dine in. The chicken vindaloo was our favorite cause we ordered it spicy and it is so tasty. The chicken korma was a close second. Super good but ordered it medium. 3rd was paneer chili which I can appreciate but it is semi sweet. Think sweet and sour sauce but little different with cheese cubes & onion & bell pepper, cheese cubes remind me of tofu but with a cheesier bite. I got down on it, but the other 2 I liked way better. They threw in rice. Indian food is becoming one of my favorites. I'll be back here for sure. I even loved the Indian lager/beer too. Was good and cold. On Friday night, we sat right down, got food quick, was delicious. 3 beers w/ food I listed for $55 bucks. 2 of us were stuffed with just a little snack left to take home. Can't beat it. read more

The food was hot, fresh and tasty and the service was good. The mixed grilled platter is plentiful for $11. Good deal! It feeds 2 people easily. Be back soon! read more

I had the lunch buffet. This is my first time visiting this restaurant and I chose it because of the great reviews. However, I found the food to be bland, very very dry, and definitely not fresh from today, and the selection was minimal. The service was extremely poor. I had to get up and get my own water, I had to go find salt-and-pepper shakers, the waitress not one time came to my table, only to bring me the naan, which they charge extra for and they don't tell you that when I ask you what kind you'd rather have garlic are plain. The lunch buffet cost me about $10. I was there at 1:15, I left around 230, not one other customer came into this restaurant. I do not recommend this restaurant for Indian food. I recommend the one in Modesto they have a buffet a huge selection they're clean. read more

Best Indian lunch Buffet in the area. Food is excellent, they rotate out some of the menu items regularly spits Always a pleasant surprise. Service is decent and place is clean! read more

Sunlight Indian Cuisine - Garlic Nan bread...mmmmm - Indian Near Me - Ceres, California

I got the butter chicken and lamb here with nan bread. It seems to be made so carelessly and tastes like they just put everything together in a pot lazily all at once and left it on the stove.There is no rich flavor profile which is in my opinion the best part of Indian food! It was thin and runny and bland. Very disappointing to spend 40 bucks on take out just to come home to this! There is a much better Indian place in Ceres I go to. read more

I placed a Togo order and my family loved all the food we had ordered. They were fast getting the order ready.

Ive visited many more times in the past 2 years and have tried the buffet and sweet multiple times. I'm rarely ever disappointed. Food it always tasty. Buffet and sweets are a must! But I've found myself avoiding this place recently because the customer service is very very cold. Rarely ever a smile even when you talk to them first. Even on the phone they are very cold. Good Customer service and a friendly smile mean a lot to me so that is the reason I gave them 3 stars. If you're someone who doesn't care and just wants good food then this is the place. Good Indian food read more

Highly recommend we love love love Sunlight, garlic naan, tandoori chicken, chicken tikka masala and samosas. Dang so good. Thank you for serving curbside and with door dash, we miss visiting your restaurant due to shelter in place. read more

Lunch buffet is a deal with a variety of dishes, deserts, nan, and teas. Authentic and independent...catch up on Indian TV and soap operas while you are there. Food is as good or better than any in NYC or London. read more

Best Indian food in ceres! Better than anything I've had in Turlock! And now that star is closed in Modesto, it's the best around there too. read more

Since there were no real options for Indian food in Modesto, I decided to drive over 20 minutes to this place and try their lunch buffet since they offer a variety of dishes to try. The lunch buffet was really good and everything tasted fresh. I had it with the garlic naan and it was so delicious and totally worth the drive. I feel bad I didn't remember the names of all of the dishes I tried but they were all really good! One of them was a bit on the spicy side but was tamed with some water easily. The rice is delicious and dessert was an unexpected treat as well. I can't wait to eat here again! read more

So I went to this restaurant with my roommate for valentine's day. We actually had planned to go to Indian Sweets Food & Spices (it's on the same road) but after sitting in for about ~15 minutes and no one coming out to give us water or take our order we decided to leave. We found Sunlight Indian Cuisine kind of hidden, it's by the In-Shape building. We went inside and well it was better than the previous place. We where greeted and asked if we wanted to dine in and of course we said yes. I'm not sure if it's just this restaurant or Indian places in general but I'm usually used to the waitress/waiter to pour me water and they just left us a jar of water; so we assumed we had to pour it and we did. For appetizer's we both got the veggie samosas; they were okay. They were very basic, other places they have a bunch of stuff inside other than potatoes but these just had potatoes. Personally I love chicken tikka masala, it is my favorite so obviously I was excited to get the main dish. This was honestly the worst masala I have ever had, the taste was very bland like it had no texture what so ever. Usually chicken tikka masala is suppose to be very creamy but it was not at all!! Other than that the garlic naan and mango lassi where okay. I am giving this place a two star because I was very disappointed in the chicken tikka masala. read more

Worst customer service, worst food Period. Had food there before also, but this time their food & service compelled me to leave this review for them. Ordered a pound of fish pakoras but was shocked after tasting. Simply the worst fish pakora I ever had. Could easily taste the loads of baking soda the cook added in it. Their mint & tamarind chutney looked & tasted like poison. Full of food color & tasteless. Butter chicken was cooked in a rush, with raw pieces of chicken & undercooked gravy. Above all the behaviour of the aunty standing at the counter was pathetic. She was too busy talking with her boyfriend that she forgot that a customer is standing & she has to help him. And when she was informed that she should help the customer rather than chatting on the phone she became rude & showed an attitude. Please don't waste your time & money there. There are lots of other better options in the valley apart from them. Here you will just get tasteless, undercooked & full of dangerous food colored food & above all the worst customer service. Try Nagina Palace in Turlock their food & service is much better than sunlight's. Shame on the cook for cooking such a pathetic food & shame on that aunty for showing such an attitude as if she is the owner. read more

THIS REVIEW IS STRICTLY FOR THE FOOD!. I'll talk about the service later in this review. First time trying this place was during a good friends engagement party. They rented out the small hall attached to the restaurant and had food catered from Sunlight. Food was very good. Everything was made fresh and tasted good. Their appetizers were very good. Their Fish pakoras, Samosas, Fried Paneer, pani puri and aloo channa was very good. I really liked the sweets too, it was the perfect amount of sweet. The main course menu items were very good too. Butter chicken, goat curry and everything else was great. Id recommend this place for food to anyone. This next paragraph is just for the service. Beware of their staff during parties they are very clumsy! I dont know if the servers at the engagement party worked for Sunlight or if the restaurant hires an outside company to provide servers and bartenders. I was snacking on some Pani Puri when one of the servers came by to clean off our table of dirty dishes. She knocks over the Pani (flavored water made from tamarind chutney and other stuff) all over me. My shirt, watch and pants were wet from the Pani. I went to the restroom to clean it off but i still smelled like it afterwards. Okay so it was an accident and I let it go. My watch was sticky but i cleaned it off with soapy water and it was nice and clean again. The second time around the same server spills water all over my brother-in-law. Talk about being clumsy SMH. So we let that go as well since it was just water and she apologized. The third time around she came by to refill our water pitcher and she spilled water on the table. I almost wanted to tell her to stop coming by our table and send someone else next time. Its one thing if you screwed up and spilled something on a guest but to do it over and over again is ridiculous. We dont like being at a party with wet dirt outfits or having to sit at a table with wet table covers. Sunlight you're doing great with your food, get some better servers for your parties and you'll be a great place for food and parties! read more

Came here for the brunch. The place is spotless but the food was completely flavorless and lacked any complexity. To me it seemed like they catered to the non-desi clientele. Almost like most "Mexican" or "Chinese" eateries rarely have food that would grace the tables of a good Mexican or Chinese cook. Not impressed by the buffet, but in all fairness I'm never impressed by buffets. The last time though Nagina did a pretty decent job so that might be a better option. They do get marks for cleanliness. read more

We hosted a ladies Sangeet at this restaurant on a Saturday, no written contact was provided for our agreement. Our party was stopped at 10pm sharp as they said that they don't want to get ticketed by the city for the loud DJ. They never communicated that with us during our agreement. We usually party til midnight or after for our parties, so this was very disappointing to experience. Customer service was absolutely horrendous to handle the situation on their part. We had also booked them for the wedding day lunch at the Gurduwara for catering. We pulled our order out after our bad experience with them. They lost a good $8-9k. We took our business elsewhere where we were respected as a customer. So host a event here if you only party til 10pm and enjoy bad customer service. We'll never give them our business again. read more

My family and I really love Indian food, and no matter where we go, we have never found an Indian restaurant that even compares to this one. Everyone who works there is very friendly and the service is always excellent. If you are new to Indian food, it is best to go during the buffet hours, that way you are able to make yourself familiar with the types of foods they cook and so you can find out what you like. I really recommend trying the butter chicken and vegetable pakora; they are my favorites! Not only is this place our favorite Indian restaurant, but it is one of our favorite restaurants in general :) read more

My friends and i enjoy coming here for the buffet. The craving for Indian food is too real! This is the best place in town and always satisfies my cravings. They also have take out, personally not my favorite because the portion is small and you have to purchace everything individually. Including nan bread for the butter chicken. I would suggest them having combo plates!! No matter what this place is amazing and a great experience away from traditional food around town. Also their desserts are worth trying. read more

We only went here once so maybe it's not quite fair for me to judge but from my first experience we are likely not to go back. The place was very dark inside. We decided on the buffet. It didn't taste as great as some other Indian places we've tried. They also charged us extra for the naan. It's always been free from our experience eating a buffet but I guess not here. read more

Decent Indian food, not overwelming, but good for a neighborhood Indian restaurant. Slightly lower to average prices for average portions. They will spice to order. If you like hot, tell them VERY HOT! Friendly service. Just opened, but very clean. We had dinner, but a daily buffet is available for $6.99. Appearently the same owners as Star India on Rumble Road in Modesto. read more