Balaji Cafe
| Address: | 298 Sunset Park Dr, Herndon, VA 20170, USA |
| Phone: | +1 703-437-1267 |
| Site: | balajicafe.com |
| Rating: | 3.9 |
| Working: | 11AM–9PM 11AM–9PM 11AM–9PM 11AM–9PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–9PM |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 8
HA
Harry Amin
Not sure why anyone would rave about this place. Starters, the prices are not that lower from other Indian restaurants. Besides they get you on other things to make the final price for the dish higher. Asked for a small amount of yogurt as it did not come with any of my dishes and they charged $2.00 for about 2.oz of yogurt. Now, thats heavy profit margin...Damn. For few dollars lowers you get tasteless Dosas and the sambar (dal) that is not fully cooked. You mostly get the watered down version as the main sambar has settled at the bottom of your bowl. There should not be any heavy settlement at the bottom, at least not in wholesome pieces if cooked appropriately. Could not differentiate between plain and Mysore spicy dosa, other than the food coloring to the Mysore. Potatoes in the Mysore were bland... Ordered the spicy green pepper uttapum and there were literally only two pieces of supposedly hot green peppers (yes, I counted) and the they tasted like bell peppers, tasteless. The whole uttapum was packed with onions and not spicy at all. Now, I say this because I am not much of a hot food eater and simply did not want to shove bartered rice down my throat, so wanted to spice it up to get some kick. Complete tasteless failure. Others dishes may be good, I dont know. But really, chat..Bhel..pani puri..And all that can be found in alot of Indian restaurants nowadays. Plus, no charge for small amount of extra yogurt as they usually provide you some with your dish anyway. The place looks like a large whole in the wall Indian shack and frankly a disgrace compared to other Indian restaurants. The tables are wobbly, the entire place looks it can use steam cleaning..Sorry, I meant shrubbing. They have two water gallons containers with tap to them sitting on top of some counter, but the water containers are gosh few years old as the plastic containers have become fuzzy from their clear look...i can imagine how much chemicals are sipping in the water its holding. Plastics are good for a year or two before the bonding starts to slowly loosen up ....as they are made from oil pumped from ground..Yes..Look it up..Get educated..Besides they are platic jugs..You can get two gallon jugs for three or four dollars.... can go on and on....Last thing I will say, hard not to discredit this place...Once the ordered was ready, the staff members comes out from the kitchen located behind the counter with my tray shouting my order number from near the counter. Again this is a fairly large shack and my table was around the bend. I faintly heard her so I got up...How about coming down half way to the floor so people can hear you in the noise of other customers. Or better yet put table number tags so you can ask people where you can bring orders to...But why? Shouting is so..Civil... Pathetic.. The place is operated as if this is some small town in India. Even back home you get better service and maintained place. Anyone rating this place anything above two stars out of five have not been to any other Indian restaurant ( I dont mean north Indian, there are well serviced and pleasant South Indian/vegetarian places)..Or have not been in the states for long..or they have a simple low standards for themselves. Not would not... Will not recommend anyone to this place. Seriously, take your time to find a better place. Until you do, just eat at home. You are saving your money. If you are non-desi, I dont understand why you would find this place palatable..Unless youre a college kid with tight budget and willing to swallow anything Indian on the cheap, which it really isnt, I cannot understand why. Why two stars you ask...One star for taking a seat and another for able to hold down the food.
JU
Justin Veit
First, excellent food. Wife and I both loved the meal. Despite this, we arrived 40 minutes before the restaurant closed and received extremely poor and rude customer service from the gentleman at the counter mostly with the hat on 28 November 2016. Walking in, we noticed there was two other tables occupied, however we received mad stink eye from the cashier who apparently wanted to close the shop 40 minutes earlier than the posted close time. Food came promptly, and was quite tasty. We decided to give them a chance to redeem themselves and gave them a friendly goodbye. All 4 of the guys behind the counter looked at us, and completely ignored us. This was 15 minutes prior to posted close time. Very disappointing. Overall, great food, very rude and poor service.
AN
Angshuman Mojumder
A small cafe style restaurant that serves South India food. The person behind the counter was very welcoming and informative. We ordered the Mysore Masala Dosa - a savory crepe thats crisp and coated with a spice blend. It comes with a potato filling. The potato filling is very much like a chunky mashed potato style Indian dish. On the side was a sambaar - lentil based soup and a coconut dipping sauce. It was flavorful, crisp and filling. My lunch companion got the thaali - which is an assortment of different vegetables that comes with rice and roti/bread. He thought it was rather tasty as well. The South Indian coffee we got at the end of the meal was a tad too sweet though. I will be back to try the other items on the menu.
DE
Devasena Kanthi
Weve been going here for about a year, and the food has always been good. Today, we went in about 30 min before closing. The guy who took our order was polite when he told us the kitchen would close soon... nothing out of the ordinary. Thats when things got weird. The guy in the kitchen proceeded to have what could only be called a tantrum (complete with banging trays, and glaring at us) and whined that it was closing time. He proceeded to give us the stink eye throughout our meal. The food was good, but our meal was ruined. Were not going back.
RU
Rutj Moe
Lovely restaurant with great service and tasty food .we were explained in details about the menu .the lady at the counter was so infomative about the food and very welcoming too. Infact we thought she actually was the owner but later gathered that she is the manager .very few places are blessed with this kind of warm staff. Its not only for the food but its for that lady that myself and my wife will return to balaji cafe for another great experience.
RA
Rajendiran Ramalingam
Im experiencing very bad in the recent 2 times. Response is too bad. They are making long time to make the food. No politeness in their communication. Foods are so chilled. When it was taken to their notice, they didnt respond well. Though I dont want to give even 1 star, it is mandatory here. So giving one.
SU
Sundar Sankar
We stayed in va just for one night and were looking for an indian vegetarian place. We were very happy we choose to go to balaji cafe (spending $20 by lyft). One of the best sambar we have had. We could taste the freshness in the dishes and the price was very affordable. Highly recommend.
SA
satyanarayana kondle
Quality deteriorated a lot ... i used to like the biryani and chaat here ... last time i had chat and it tasted stale ... i tried dosa for a difference and it was too thick, and did not taste good ... and after having lassi, i decided not to come here again any time soon ....
