I most often get disappointed when I eat in South Indian (Tamil) restaurants in the US simply because I know how food is supposed to taste, having grown up with that all my life. That said, Arusuvai was one of the few restaurants that did not let me down. My parents loved the food, and I was impressed with the taste and quality, as well as the authenticity. We had ordered Briyani, Parotta, and Mutton Curry for lunch, and had also ordered Crab Masala for to go. They all tasted very good, especially the crab. Food might seem a little on the pricey side but I think it is definitely worth it. Staff were friendly and Service was fast enough but we did visit pretty on the tail end of the lunch rush, so not sure how the service will be when they are packed. Decor was pretty much standard South Indian restaurant style. read more

Arusuvai Chettinad - Indian Near Me - North Brunswick, New Jersey

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This was, without a doubt, the worst restaurant experience I've ever had. We had a reservation for 10 people at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. Upon arrival, we were told we could choose between the banana leaf special or the à la carte menu. However, when I tried to order from the à la carte menu, I was told it would take at least an hour to receive the food and that we should order the banana leaf special instead. If the à la carte menu isn't realistically available, it shouldn't be offered. We ordered four vegetarian banana leaf specials and six non-vegetarian specials, along with a Diet Coke and a ginger ale. The service and food quality were extremely disappointing. The banana leaves were brought out with a few items already placed on them -- all of which were cold. The curries followed about 15 minutes later and were also cold. The appetizers didn't arrive until at least 30 minutes later, and only after we reminded the staff multiple times. Our drinks didn't arrive for nearly an hour. To make matters worse, the waiter substituted seltzer for ginger ale without informing us because they didn't have ginger ale. When we pointed out that this was not what we ordered, he seemed annoyed rather than apologetic. The poori arrived after we had already finished eating, and only two were brought out for a table of ten. Slow service is an understatement. Adding to the frustration, we were told ordering à la carte would take an hour, yet the table next to us -- served by a different waiter -- ordered à la carte and received their food before their banana leaf specials arrived. Interestingly, when we asked for the check, it arrived immediately. We were automatically charged a 20% gratuity, and the waiter then asked if we wanted to add an additional tip. When we expressed our disappointment about the cold food and poor service, his response was dismissive and unprofessional: "There are 25 items -- how much can you eat?". For clarity, the banana leaf special does not even include 25 items, making that comment both inaccurate and inappropriate Cold food, slow and disorganized service, poor communication, and unprofessional behavior made this an unacceptable experience. I would not recommend this restaurant. read more

Arusuvai Chettinad - Indian Near Me - North Brunswick, New Jersey

I've had the misfortune of being to this place 3 times and all 3 times I've seen customers being shouted at by the staff and customers shouting at the staff for their service. This time I was personally at the receiving end and hence this review. Hands down the worst service in all the Indian restaurants in NJ. The restaurant is definitely learning from their mistakes so now they make you wait in line, make you prepay so you are locked in, give you a good piece of their minds frustrate you so much that you just want to leave but cant and at the very end they will ask you if everything went fantastic. Food is mediocre at best. I've got my due for my 3 attempts, visit at your own risk !! read more

A Deeply Disappointing and Humiliating Experience If you are looking for a welcoming meal with good food, save your time, money, and dignity--look elsewhere. We recently visited as a party of five, bringing in out-of-town guests who had driven over an hour to join us. What should have been an enjoyable evening turned into an absolute masterclass in bad hospitality. The Service and Atmosphere Upon arrival, we were quoted a 35-minute wait. With a crowded lobby, we decided to wait in the car. When we received the call that our table was ready, we walked back in through the main entrance--only to be aggressively shouted at by the host for using that door. When we tried to explain, he barked at us, claiming he was "too busy with payments" to deal with us. His tone was so unnecessarily loud and rude that other patrons actually stepped in and asked him to calm down. Instead of apologizing, he forced us to pay upfront for the buffet ($30 per person) and sent us on our way. Being publicly humiliated in front of our guests was infuriating, and the complete lack of basic courtesy from the staff set a terrible tone for the rest of the visit. The Food and Cleanliness * The Food: Mediocre at best. For $30 a head- buffet, the quality is grossly overpriced for what is served. Nothing was standout or worth the premium price tag. * The Environment: Tables and surrounding dining areas were barely clean, feeling wiped down in a hurry. * The Restrooms: A total disaster zone--dirty, unkempt, and with floors that were continuously wet. This establishment does zero justice to the hospitality industry. Charging premium prices while treating paying customers with blatant arrogance and disrespect is unacceptable. We will certainly never be back. read more

This place has very very poor service, we stood in the entrance for 20 min behind other people and no one came to take your name or even tell you how long wait would be! ! We can also see folks serving food to other customers from open trays while they are talking over the tray food and spreading all their spits all over it, and the tray continues be used for customer after customer! After seeing that we left and will not recommend this place to anyone!!!!! read more

Excellent Chettinad cuisine with amazing ambience! Every dish is flavorful and delicious Amazing food. Good service. Must try. read more

Honestly worst Indian food I have eaten, went for a Saturday buffet but was served on a Bannana Leaf. Unlimited but every food is tasteless except chicken Manchurian. Lamb Biriyani, korma, fish fry and fish sauce are all tasteless Besides way over priced at $30 plus 20% tip, not worth it. They have a lot to improve or bring in a different cook. Last year was there on a Mother's day Buffet, which was good. read more

My favorite Indian place in Somerville closed ....boooooo and I needed to find a replacement. This place did not disappoint! Wonderful food, service, atmosphere etc! We got there at 12 on a Sunday and by 12:30 there was a wait for a table. I'd go back in a heartbeat! read more

Looks like they made a comeback. Big fan of this restaurant when it opened but during/covid it deteriorated but now it looks its better. Butter chicken, koli gasi chicken and mutton sukhha ws delicious. The paratha with egg ws too overpriced. Overall delicious Indian food with southern indian flavors. read more

Best South Indian food. Good service. Must try parota korma. Paneer masala dosa. No delay in service. Crowded on Saturdays got to be early or late for lunch :) read more

Arusuvai Chettinad - Parota korma - Indian Near Me - North Brunswick, New Jersey

First timer .. liked it .. we went with a group of 6 people and luckily got seats :). It was a buffet . Around 16$ + 4$ =20$ !!! It's not that good for vegetarians. 20$ was too much . For meat eaters it was worth. Veggie food was average. Sweets were average too.. but my friends loved fish, prawns and other non veg items. They ran out of chicken starter around 2 pm and kept refilling with fish. We then asked and they were courteous enough to give a chicken gravy for us. Very nice service . Wish they had more chicken dry items. Lots of parking available. BYO too. Nice experience overall .. read more

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Great take out dishes especially the fish will try again soon . Heard good thing about rest of menu

We went for dinner; food was very good and authentic chettinad style. More than that, Vijesh (from Goa) was very kind and responsive in serving us. read more

This was extremely authentic Indian cuisine. I was very happy. As you see, we got a variety of things to try! The service was great- they kept checking in to make sure the food was good and the spice wasn't too heavy. They kept refilling our rice. And the ambiance was casual and quiet! read more

Arusuvai Chettinad - Indian Near Me - North Brunswick, New Jersey

Food was so delicious, highly recommend it. The banana leaf unlimited meals on Saturday had an extensive menu and delicious options.

Worst Saturday thali. The service was okay, they forgot to give silverware. They mentioned unlimited thali but made faces if we asked to get appetizers. Rice was not at all good, parota was good but it is not included under their unlimited thali policy. The fish (sardine) smelled pathetic. The sides of vegetarian thali were tasteless - only one sabzi was edible. The vada appetizer was not cooked from inside. Idli we ordered as separate entree were stale. Never again. Not worth the dollars they charge. read more

Lesson learned while dining at Arusuvai Chettinad: Never judge before trying. While visiting some family that came from Houston, somehow dinner at an Indian restaurant came up. To be honest, I was so against this primarily because I'm not a fan of spicy foods, and for so many other reasons but spicy foods is def number one. The restaurant itself lacks a lot of decorations. It's actually a pretty bland restaurant but whatevs. We came in the evening around 7 pm and this place was empty. So, of course, that made me even more reluctant to try this place. Despite that, when it was time to order, I opted for anything on the menu that wasn't spicy. I ordered some kind of fried rice that had egg, chicken and a ton of other things. Pleasantly surprised, my rice was delicious. Around our table of about 15, so many other things had been ordered. As I dipped and dabbed into some other foods I was actually surprised because almost everything (although extremely spicy) was very good. This wouldn't and still isn't a place I would go out my way to visit only because I never have a taste for this sort of cuisine, but I will say if you're a fan of spicy food and Indian food this is your place. The service was great and the people were very friendly. Prices were also very reasonable. read more

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I placed an order for 1 tray of Andhra Chicken Masala on 10/22/204 at 5:42pm with Muthu to be picked up on 10/25/2024 at 3pm. Muthu calls me at 11:15am on 10/25/204 trying to convince me to change my order to another dish. After intensely probing, he let me know that they could not prepare Andhra Chicken Masala due to a logistical issue on their end. Long story short, Arusuvai left me scrambling 6 hours before my event to find another dish. This dish is amazing but Arusvai cannot be trusted for catering/tray orders. In the past, I have faced similar issues with them. Sometimes I get an excuse that they don't have the ingredients needed for a dish, etc. read more

I don't give five stars easily. But this is one of the best Indian restaurants in the US. I can say it because I have travelled quite a bit within the US and I don't recollect such tasty food. A few things. Quality of ingredients. The freshness will hit you especially sea food. Their meen polichadhu is out of the world. I tried their nethili, srilankan roll, momo, briyani, and crab. They brought the taste of India to these dishes to the US. Extremely difficult to do so. Their mutton Lola ball also stood out. Passion for food comes through in the food these folks serve. read more

My friend and I chose Arusuvai for lunch yesterday because it was close to her home. We were pleased to learn that the food was great. I had the delicious palak paneer, which is easily in the top 5 palak paneer dishes I've ever had. It was very flavorful and creamy. I had my friend try some and she also agreed that it was great. Portions may appear smaller than they actually are. I arrived pretty hungry and only ate half of the paneer before taking the rest back home as leftovers. Great first experience dining here. We'll both be back! Definitely want to check out the other menu items. Taste | 4.5 Atmosphere | 3 Service | 4 Presentation | 4 OVERALL | 4.5 read more

Arusuvai Chettinad - palak paneer - Indian Near Me - North Brunswick, New Jersey

Went there for banana leaf meal . Loved the taste of all the items served but it just feels expensive. Expected more for paying 30$ for a meal . read more

Arusuvai Chettinad - a plate of food on a banana leaf - Indian Near Me - North Brunswick, New Jersey

Their veg and non-veg meals in banana leaves are good., specifically take out. However veg items are not that good, I went with two families, expecting to try vegetarian options, ordered about 7 different vegetarian items, but most ended up as a disaster. Late serving, missing order..., don't know who manages the restaurant, but not a good choice that I pulled my group to this place and regretted. read more

Very Poor Customer Service. Bad attitude. I would never recommend this restaurant to no one. PLEASE DON'T GO THERE... and look for another restaurant. read more

Authentic chettinad super food All dishes are super and the buffet is good too The lamb chops are out of this world The mutton and chicken appetizers too And chettinad chicken curry wow Vegetarian food also very good Buffet good too on weekends read more

Authentic South Indian food. If you are looking for a south Indian or Chettinad in NJ? I would recommend to try this place. We loved the hospitality and the way they have taken care of us. This will be my first choice whenever I visit NJ. read more

I've ordered takeout multiple times from Arusuvai and sat down once for a meal. I've had various biryani entrees and appetizers each time. The chicken and goat biryanis are very delicious and authentically spicy. Even a medium spice level here is really spicy. As for the appetizers, I think the chicken lollipop and the gobi are also awesome. The food is consistent and I've never had a bad meal here. It can sometimes take some time for the food to be ready so if you're ordering takeout like me, best to call ahead. Oh and the entrance to the restaurant parking lot is deceptive. You have to enter the parking lot before you actually see the restaurant and drive around the building containing other merchants to the other side. I've missed it once or twice and had to backup. read more

DO NOT GO HERE!!! I had ordered 2 masalsa dosaa, we had suspicions while eating it, the food might be old, but didnt say anything that time. But that evening, i was having a terrible stomachache, I literally vomited the dosa. read more

I came here for the lunch buffet and it was so delicious. The whole place has the smell of aromatic rice and spices, it is divine! I am more familiar with their Somerville location, but this one was just as lovely! The staff is friendly and quick to clear away any dishes. The buffet was clean and cared for, which is the most important part of a buffet! If you are not familiar with this type of food, give it a try! The spice level was not out of control and there are many options to choose from. read more

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We went for weekend buffet. Made reservation through phone but still had to wait for 30+ minutes. The food was definitely worth the wait. Really yummy for buffet. However, we felt a big let down with the Biryanis. Both Chicken Biriyani and Mutton Biriyani had only rice and didn't get to taste any meat. I waited for restock and even when the tray was restocked, still no meat ‍ The vegetarian momos were nice and hot. read more

Girls' Night Out with my daughter. I was thinking of trying one of the many new Indian restaurants in the neighborhood, since Little Bombay is spreading south. But when the Yelp reviews didn't seem as if any were a standout, we decided to return to Arusuvai Chettinad. Wise decision. Only one other couple was in the restaurant, quickly replaced by another. I thought that it would fill up as we were having dinner, since Indians seem to eat later, but that didn't happen, and it's a shame. Arusuvai has some of the best food around, and the service was excellent. We shared an order of vegetable samosas that were crisp, non-greasy, and stuffed to capacity with potato and peas and some spice. Delicious! For the main course we tried one old favorite, Palak Paneer, and something new: Fish Moilee - tilapia pieces in a sauce of coconut milk, onion and tomato. The chef apparently left out the spices, and sending it back to be fixed made all the difference. I would have appreciated a little more fish, since some of the pieces were so tiny it was as if they weren't there. The sauce was terrific after that. Very good garlic naan rounded out our dinner. The piece de resistance, though, was the dessert that was presented to us as a gift, soon to be added to their menu, for us to sample. It was a mound of shredded beet root, held together with ghee and possibly milk, with cashews throughout and a dusting of chopped pistachios. Sweet, but not too. Absolutely superb! We couldn't stop eating it, and I don't always like beets. The waiter was terrific, and the ambience is simple, but nice. Our only mistake had nothing to do with the restaurant: if you like to have wine with dinner, bring it with you or stop along the way. The small liquor store next door (not related to the restaurant) is a total rip-off and charges double what any other place would. I will definitely be going back to Arusuvai the next time I'm in town, and my daughter took a menu for take-out. Love this place!! read more

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3.75. We came here for lunch on Saturday. I took so many pictures, and I am sure they thought I was a spy or something. (Will post photos later) The lunch buffet is $13.99.... so for two people, the final cost including tax and tip comes out to somewhere around $30+. I thought the lamb dish was really really amazing (extremely tender and falling off the bone), and all the spices in dishes smelled just incredible. But because this place is so small and not too popular (at least it wasn't so crowded when we went), the food here was rather warm than hot, and also slightly salty because it had been sitting there for a while. When more people came, the servers turned on the heater, and the food got very hot, and it tasted soo much better. Would I go back to this place? I've had $10 lunch buffets better than this place. I would say this place is good, but not quite the best. read more

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Decent south india food but nothing spl to mention. Its has a Tamilnadu style non vegetarian cuisine which is often spicy and pepper heavy. Resturant itself is not a very happening place. read more

Amazing Spicy Chinese-Indian Food... The crab curry, despite the fact that you do have to do a bit of work to eat it, was amazing. The eggplant is also super good. Perfect pairing to the dosa which is light and crispy. They are spicy... i don't even think they can make non-spicy but you should ask if you can't take hot food. Atmosphere is much better relative to other Indian restaurants in the neighborhood. read more

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Hard to find specific Chettinad cuisine done the way it should be. Not toned down for "Anglo" tastes as some places are guilty of. Decor is nothing to write home about but the food is top notch. If you're looking for a regional take that is authentic, well this isn't your average standard Indian cuisine. Dosa is on a level you won't find too many other places. Good specials, happy staff and a brisk "family" clientele. BYO, FYI. Small but serviceable liquor store in walking distance. Best to bring your favorite libation from home. Recommended Highly. read more

Finally it open - the Sunday buffet doesn't disappoint with a wide variety of meats, and south India favorites.

Great little spot, very authentic feel. Cool how the menu highlights which region of India the dish is from. Prices are very reasonable, place is also BYOB. I'd come back for sure to try more read more

If you're like me and and are super tired of North Indian Punjabi style food at Indian restaurants, then this place is perfect for you. It's a Kerala style food which is a state on the coast of South India and the food was absolutely DELICIOUS. We ordered the konkan crab appetizer and a chicken appetizer which were both melt in your mouth amazing. For dinner we had the shrimp moilee, paneer chettinad, and goat biryani. All of them were perfect except for one thing..the biryani was pretty large but there were only about three good meaty pieces of goat. That's why I gave four stars. Will definitely be back. read more

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Food Service Ambience This place is over priced for weekend buffet $17 per person (incl tax). The variety of food is very limited here 2-3 variety of chicken with a mutton and a fish curry, including biryani plain rice and idli vada and uttapam. And chickpeas salad and on desert- ice cream and rosogulla. There are way to many place to eat in same variety, and cheaper then here. read more

Lamb rogan josh + lamb korma were really good. Garlic naan is amazing. Maybe we were too hungry so everything was so delicious.

Went there again. This time went with husband & kid for Memorial Day Dinner. Wanted to order kothu paratha but ended up ordering Egg Burji, Gobi 65, Shrimp Manchurian to start with. I, normally, don't like to eat non-veg, esp, seafood. Yet tried couple of Shrimp Manchurian pcs. Very tasty. Will try the same again. The appetizers were very filling. For entree's, we ordered Masala dosa, Kal dosa with Vada curry and chettinad style Ennai Kathirikai. Liked everything very much. Though ennai kathirikai was a bit spicy for me, my husband liked it very much. Honestly, no after-effects at all. I am happy that we had a wonderful evening dining as a family. To finish, we did not have enough space for anything else. So, decided to drink some canteloupe juice and left happily. read more