In our 1st attempt to conquer the Indian lunch buffet haven that is 74th Street in Jackson Heights, my girlfriend and I decided to tackle Delhi Heights on a random Saturday afternoon. We arrived rather early at around 12pm (opening is 11:30am) and the restaurant was nearly empty with just 1 other table occupied. From the pictures, the restaurant seemed bigger, but as with many pictures, they are deceiving! I do want to point out that during our 1 hour of gorging here, the stream of people coming in increased as the afternoon wore on and when we left at 1pm about 1/3 of the restaurant was 'full'.
So let's get to the saucy part, unfortunately not literally, but figuratively - on an overall level, yes the lunch buffet was cheap as hell at $11.95/person from 11:30am-4pm, but the food quality was really not great and was rather bland. Some dishes were OK and others were not flavorful or too liquidity. Here's what was available at the buffet and YES we tried EVERY SINGLE one of these dishes during the buffet to get a feel of what was good and what wasn't:
NAAN
You must ask for this at your table as it is not displayed with the buffet food. Just your typical naan, except it was not warm, but at least it was free.
VEGETABLE SOMASA
The potato inside was good, but it was a bit dry. It's a nice starter, however don't have it late in your meal when your stuffed because I felt it didn't taste as good then. Don't forget to add the chick pea sauce.
TANDOORI CHICKEN AND SAUSAGE MIX
The chicken was tender and pretty flavorful, but the sausage was just OK. The chicken was served in pretty big pieces, while the sausage was cut up.
WHITE RICE
Very disappointing. Not cooked very well and was inconsistent throughout. It was bland and did not taste like basmati rice. All the curry being offered could not make me forget about the blandness of this rice.
VEGETABLE FRIED RICE
All of the same problems as the white rice. A bit more flavor because of the veggies and being fried, but still wasn't great.
CHICKEN HAKKA NOODLES
Were a bit more consistent than the rices and had more flavoring. However, it was not that warm, which detracted from the flavor.
GOBI MATAR
This was way too watered down. Recipes call for this to be a bit mushy, but it was basically a dish of vegetables lying in soup. This was the most watery dish of them all.
CHILI CHICKEN
Chicken was soft and tender, but the sauce was watery and not dense enough. If you've had sweet and sour Chinese pork, then you will love this though.
GOAT CURRY
Once again the sauce was a bit watery and not solid enough. It felt like I was pouring soup onto my rice when I added some on my plate. The flavors were OK, but nothing great.
CHICKEN MAKKAN
Best dish at the buffet by far! The chicken was cooked well and the sauce was excellent. The sauce was actually saucy and not soupy and it had great flavoring.
PALAK PANEER
One of my favorite dishes at Indian restaurants, but this was too liquidity and not creamy enough. If the spinach curry was more dense this dish would have been very good.
GAJAR HALWA
We were way too full to enjoy this dessert, which was the only one offered, but I loved the little bit that I had of this. The almond flavor was real strong and very evident with each bite. If you love almond flavored desserts, you will love this.
You get my drift going through many of the foods. To summarize, most of the buffet foods were bland, watery and could've used extra flavoring. The one major food highlight was the Chicken Makkan, but it wasn't enough to save this disappointing buffet. The entire food experience was 2.5 stars, but since the service was very good and the waiters were real attentive with filling our water I added an extra 1/2 star for their hospitality. read more