Happy to have referred two friends to this lovely restaurant! I went two different times once to…read moreorder a la carte and the second time to experience the buffet. Before Maharani Palace I will admit Indian food was not on my radar. Not on purpose; I live closer to other cuisine. I share this detail as context behind why I might have been so impressed with the buffet. An opportunity to try many wonderful popular Indian dishes I have heard before. The chicken tandoori was my favorite. Moreover, the customer service was wonderful. I never had to hunt anyone down to get my water refill. Lastly, this is a great restaurant to go to if you are looking for a place that isn't too noisy. Would return!

Lunch Rating... This…read moreis a buffet. Never eat at buffets. Food missed mark even with all of the options. Besides finding bits of bone or whatever it is in some of the curries, then the taste was .... It was just a very overrated and overpriced experience. The naan was good, but that was it. Plenty more Indian places to go, just not here.

Drive all the way here from Arlington to have lunch with a coworker. I thought they might have the…read morelunch buffet but apparently it's weekends only (so I'll need to come back for that). My coworker ordered the chicken Tikka masala and I got the chettinadu chicken medium spicy. I've never had Tamil food before but this was absolutely 10/10 delicious. I would return just for the chettinadu chicken. The service was also super friendly!

Grabbed samosas and Chana masala (medium spice) to take back to my hotel while in NoVa house…read morehunting. The food was delicious, well spices, and piping hot. Service was great, however I would call the restaurant directly for take out vs ordering online - it's through Grub Hub and the wait times are wildly inaccurate. While I didn't eat there the restaurant was clean, brightly lit, and a great place for a date or a family?

There are many restaurants that claim to offer street food, but this one appears to take the…read moreconcept quite seriously and has a menu with pretty much exclusively things that would be considered in that category. It was busy even in the middle of the afternoon. While, I would've been happy to see their rendition of one of the classics, I wanted to try something new and I cannot remember ever having had a misal pav, which is a sprouted, mung bean curry served with bread. They warned me that it would be spicy and it did have a decent kick. The bread was just enough to make the whole thing a finger food without needing any utensils. I also got a robustly spiced Samosa and some unsweetened chai. Come here, turned out to be a good decision for me because there are certainly times when I want and eat food, but do not want a giant meal. That being said ordering a couple of dishes here could get indulgent very quickly.

Taste, quality, value…read more Overall 4.5/5 I want to preface by saying that I don't generally give out 5 stars easily. However, my experience with Chaatwala surely deserved it. Food (1.75/2) - Majority of what we tried, we loved. I enjoyed the Chhole stuffed kulcha, chili paneer, Dahi puri, and Vada Pav. My kids liked the milder noodles. But the Puri Bhalla Chaat was something I could skip. I could see many places for improvement but for what this place offers, it is great. It's not trying to be fancy and so it's not charging you those prices. Prices seem fair and makes the food worth it. I would come back to try more varieties of their street food along with stuffed parathas and dosa/idli. Drinks (1/1) - Fresh juices and masala soda were on point. Perfect combination with the street food indulgence. They definitely were refreshing. However, I was disappointed with the masala chai that seemed watered down and lacking masala flavor. Decor (0.75/1) - Setting could be improved. There are fairly good art works on the walls and the tables. Reminiscent of India, they even have a chalk board with menu items. However, they can definitely improve by doing something with the drinks corner which seems dull and uninviting. Service (1/1) - now this place is not a fancy dining place at all. There aren't even people bringing the food to you. You have to go up, place an order, and wait until they call your name. However, they make it really easy to order, eat, and enjoy. You go to the front, put your order in and go back to your table. But they are really fast at preparing your order and the wait is very low even when the place is packed. After you are done eating, if there are any leftovers, they have kept to go boxes and utensils for you to pack it up your self. All the food is brought to you in compostable plates so once you're done, just throw it in the trash without worrying about the impact.

I like everything here, the food, the ambiance, the service I highly recommend. Mostly if you are…read morearound reston. I come heree often and it never disappoints me!!

Reston town center by the skating rink. Street parking or garage and walk over. Made a reservation…read moreonline but it was not busy when my group went. The food was amazing! All of it. If you need to use the bathroom, The restaurant hallways is connected to a mall indoor part. Its around the corner. We order kale chaat 2 cause it was so good. Better than the whole table thought it would be. Momos - steamed and chili. all were great Lamb vindaloo Goat biryani Garlic naan Food was amazing. P.K was the best drink so good. Actually all the drinks were good.

Extremely friendly service and amazingly tasty food!…read more Everything we had was perfect! Highly recommended!

More of a 4+. Zero ambiance but a place to grab a good affordable Indian food. Not a place to be…read moreseen but if you don't want to be. Grabbed a table for myself to enjoy a solo meal. I tried the chicken biryani special for $10 bone in with a leg and thigh. Pretty good for ten dollars, not the best but enjoyable and filling. Lot of tables. Recommend grabbing a coffee at one of the two cafes nearby.

Our friends love this place and we finally tried it ourselves last evening. Absolutely delicious…read moreassortment of Rajasthani food in one big platter. It's all you can eat. There's a lot of different vegetarian food in this Thali. I haven't had the North Indian food forever. Glad I went there as I was able to try many items. I don't think I could a single item as my favorite as everything was very delicious. I got puri and roti to start my meal. It went so well with various curries in the platter (palak paneer, paneer masala, Chana masala, vegetable curry), the simple bowl of daal tadka went so well with the jeera rice. They also have kitchdi, so do not forget to ask for their Kitchdi. It's so good. Kitchdi is a lentil rice mix with lots of cumin. It's one of the comforting foods in north India. The ambiance was great as well. The manager just informed us they are going to start offering some South Indian food starting December 2025. I am stoked. Highly recommend this place.

This place is temporarily closed for renovations and rebranding. They expect to reopen in April…read more2026.

I ordered the Vada and Masala Dosa They were both delicious…read moreand I go back and order the same thing everytime I go! Service is excellent and the staff is very friendly and quick to get orders out Great vibes overall

Dinner with a group of 12 friends the party space was well setup for us and the service was also…read morequick and efficient. I got the mini tiffin and enjoyed the iddly, pongal and upma with sambar and coconut chutney. It was little bland for me so asked for a spicy chutney and they gave me tomato chutney which was spicy and yummy. The plain dosa was too oily but still good. Our group ordered so many dishes most were good, the appetizers took too long - the cauliflower 65 was very oily, thick batter and too mych food coloring; the lotus flower vada was interesting and plain uttapam was very good spongy like in a set dosa. The iddiyapam (a bit dry) with korma and coconut sweet milk was nice too.

Even more Vegan options than before! you will have to make sure there's nO Ghee in it, and in this…read morecase they assured that there wasn't, and The yum-factor is eXcellent! I reQuested +++ Level spicy, and The chef verified 5/5 heat level, and then delivered! definitely worth The "cheat meal" even for health nuts ;)

This place is in the Indian-heavy area of Northern Virginia where all sorts of interesting cuisines…read morecan be found from the subcontinent. The name, however, apparently refers to U.S. jurisdictions (despite the fact that it is near two states and one district, not three states). The menu offered variety, and I sampled a dal based on pickle spices, a mild stir-fried noodle dish, and some fried baby corn, as well as a shake which I enjoyed later. It wasn't the speediest takeout, especially considering they weren't overly busy, but I enjoyed it.

The best dosa I've genuinely ever had…read more The podi dosa is my favorite and maska bun with irani chai

This is unequivocally the best South Indian meal I've had in the U.S…read more This small Northern Virginia, Karnataka-style dosa shop focuses on benne dosai, the slightly thicker, beautifully laminated variety that's recently gone viral across Delhi and Bombay thanks to a chain that started in Bandra. It is both visually beautiful as well as perfectly textured, true to its name decadently buttered. The other star of the show here is the thatte idli, also known as plate idli. They are in my opinion better than the original more common, convex idlis available at most South Indian restaurants in the U.S. Tiffin Hut nailed the texture perfectly - I'd say it was better than the one I had at Ram Ashraya in Matunga. It was also generously covered in ghee and milagaipodi. Absolute must-try in the DMV area.

We ordered the desi chicken tikka, tandoori naan, mango coconut naan, chicken dum biryani, and…read morebatti murgh makhanwala -- and every single item was delicious. Service was great and ambience similar to Indian fine dining. The desi tikka stood out immediately: incredibly soft and juicy, with a perfect balance of flavors. The tandoori naan was soft and beautifully made, and the mango coconut naan was an instant hit with my toddler. The batti murgh makhanwala has quickly become a household favorite. Overall, a fantastic meal -- we'll definitely be back!​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

I got takeout, and it was ready faster than I expected. I like to get a spread of different…read morecuisines within the broad Indian umbrella, and in this case, I got some channa poora, idli with spiced powder, a manchow soup, and okra. The flavors were strong all around. The idli were the best thing I got, and had ample curry leaves and texturally diverse spices. Idli come with an array of chutneys and sambar by default, but in this case I had trouble even using those because the flavor starts out so strong. My chickpeas and okra were also delicious, if on the indulgent side. Getting manchow soup to go turned out not to be a great decision, as the crispy noodles had become soggy by the time I got around to unpacking my soup. Overall, high on salt and oil, but a diverse and interesting set of tastes.