Best fast casual south indian vegetarian restaurant in the Bay area imo super consistent and…read moreauthentic! The paper roast and paratha does not miss, really love the kesari and filter coffee as well. Really good spot for lunch as it is way less crowded than the usual dinner rush

Pretty good dosas here. I got the podi masala dosa and I thought the flavor was very tasty. A tiny…read morebit on the spicy side and it builds as you eat more. The potato filling in the middle was very yummy. The sauces / chutney paired nicely with the dosa. The sambar was pretty decent (maybe could have used a little bit more flavor or salt but still fine). The dosa is really large, like two feet long? Pro tip: the menu has the item names but don't have descriptions of what the item actually is. But their website does have descriptions and I found them extremely helpful.

My second time here. We came around 5.30 and ordered a mega tiffin. I came with two kids ages 9 and…read more3. At first I thought that tiffin will be enough for us but then my kids quickly gobbled the idli and mini dosa and wanted more. So I ordered another plate of only idlis( has 3 big soft fluffy ones) and also took advantage of the happy hour to order a masala dosa for me. I am not the kind of mom who eats kids leftovers all the time. So I wanted my own dosa. For drinks, I did a medium strong filter coffee ( they make it to your customization and I was surprised to see they even had jaggery). My 9 year old took a mango lassi. Food was incredibly satisfying. Servers are very attentive and they came three times to our table offering more chutney and sambhar. We already had enough but if you like more sambhar and chutney with your food, this is heaven. One server even came with ghee for my little ones for idlis. I was so grateful. He was genuinely sweet to my kid. Felt a connection than just a business! Ambiance is classy and relaxed at the same time. Nobody gave me the side eye when my three year old was a little noisy. Have a corner for takeout containers for leftover food, very generous. I would highly recommend this place for its delicious food, relaxed atmosphere and friendly service. Prices are reasonable. They have happy hour daily from 3-6 pm and when we went at 5.30, the restaurant was more than 70% full on a Thursday. Eat early and save money too. We really had a very good time! PS- when you pay the bill ( you have to order and pay the bill before you eat at a room next to the dining area), do enter your phone number at the end and enroll in the loyalty program. I already redeemed an award today!

We went here for a weekday lunch this week. The ambiance…read morewas good. Very lively and bright, The service was pretty quick and we got what we wanted quickly. The food quality was good but it's not without its issues. First it was a lunch thali and there was no Sambar as part of the thali. Strange! When we checked with the folks there, we were told that since we had Mor Kolambu as part of the thali they don't give sambar. More strange ! Next the appalam. It was not warm and it was stale and it was soft like roti. We complained and got another appalam and it was no different! Though no complaints about quality the variety seemed very blah. The quantity was more than adequate but they could have reduced it and given more variety of items. We had white sundal and also black sundal in the veggies. Why ? Also no roti or poori included with the thali! So overall we liked the food, but don't think we will come here for thali. There are far better options around the bay.

Satkar has brought back their non-vegetarian dishes, and they are as fantastic as we remember them…read morefrom years ago! We ordered palak paneer, chicken makhani, and bengin bhartha. All the dishes were absolutely delicious, and they still include a plain naan or order of rice with each entree order. I highly recommend you call your order in ahead of time. It's conveniently ready at the time you'd like, and you can just pay when you pick it up. I'm not sure how walk up orders are these days, but back in the day, you would have to wait quite a long time for your order due to how busy they are.

Satkar still has very good vegetarian dishes but the non-veg they have brought back is not that…read moregood. The butter chicken (makhani) was so over-buttered you couldn't taste anything but the butter. The lamb curry was better, but still very tough and dry lamb chunks. My advice to Satkar would be to either go back to vegetarian or do some serious improvement to the nonveg.

This place is a hidden gem! We loved everything we ordered. The jackfruit cutlets were crunchy with…read morea soft filling which melted in the mouth. The paneer lababdar was the best we've eaten in a while. Overall the food had a very Indian dhaba vibe. Even the garlic naan was well made - soft in the middle and crunchy on the edges. Must try! Will come back for sure. The gentleman serving our table was also super sweet!

Tried their jackfruit cutlet (vegan) after seeing great reviews on Yelp. Didn't disappoint- 5 stars…read moreit comes as 4 cutlets. It was tasty, not too oily, not too spicy. A great appetizer. Also got the aloo chaat - 4 stars as chana/chickpea was cooked but little tough. Since their green chutney has yougurt, they substituted it for ketchup and tamarind sauce. Overall good food, was a quick takeout. Although I didn't dine in, the space looks new, clean. Will come back to try other items on the menu.

The BEST onion pakora in the bays area - hands down! It's a cloud kitchen place - just come in and…read morepick up your order. I have got it for 2 parties and it's a hit! My only request would be to have them provide a chutney / sauce with it. The pakoras are gone before I can photograph them

Flavors: 10/10 Portions: 10/10…read moreCustomer experience 10/10 Drive from Hayward to Sunnyvale to pick this up: totally worth it. Tonight I was craving a home style chicken and rice dish similar to what my mom makes . Now I know it's not possible to get that from a restaurant, but the closest to that is the Donne biryani preparation that a few places offer in the Bay Area. So I looked up Yelp and found this spot. The fact that it already had 4.9 stars was reassuring but I didn't put too many expectations on it. But what I did was call the place and make sure they'd be open by the time I made that 28 mile drive. I spoke to a person named Sagar who took my order and told me to take my time getting there and drive carefully! Husband and I got there around 9:30pm and it's a cloud kitchen setup with kitchens in the back and a point of sale kiosk and counter at the front. As instructed I called Sagar and he came up to the counter with my food, and also let me know he had added a free dessert since I drove all the way from Hayward . Husband and I got home and immediately dug in and what can I say, the flavors totally took me back to my mom's kitchen. The Donne biryani was bursting with taste, and what made it superb was that the flavors were in balance, with neither the spices nor the aromatics being overpowering in any way. The other dish, the pepper chicken was epic by itself, and should have been enjoyed with a bread of some sort, because the biryani didn't need any accompaniment. As if this meal wasn't divine enough the cherry on top was the pineapple kesari dessert that Sagar kindly added to our takeout bag. Thanks Nalapaka, for a taste of home, away from home !

There's nothing more disappointing than consuming tasteless carbs and calories!!…read moreThat's exactly what the thali at Southindies was on this past Sunday. An overloaded plate with a bunch of unconnected foods cannot make it a south indian thali!! Bland, boring and not worth going back to. Service was decent though, no complaints. Bay Area, especially south bay has a ton of competition with a new restaurant opening every few months. It's only a matter of time before this place is gone!! With this quality of food, I'm not recommending to any of my friends

Came here with my other veg*n coworker for lunch, and we both like it a lot!…read more I got the crispy masala dosa, and it was beautifully crispy as advertised and I liked most of the sauces it came with. The potato in the middle was nicely spiced. My coworker hadn't seen dosa before and thought it was the biggest burrito ever until I showed him that most of the inside is hollow, LOL. He got the thali plate, which apparently comes with free refills, which is an amazing bargain! I might get it next time we go, but I do love dosa... We both liked our food, and we also split the fried cauliflower appetizer which was also delicious! I was skeptical when I saw it come out with ketchup, but let me tell you, it works really well with the spices on the cauliflower. Mango lassi is exactly what you expect from any Indian place. Even though the little plaza thing this is in looks a little on the run down side (gives hole-in-the-wall vibes), the interior is clean, looks relatively new, and tastefully decorated, which was a pleasant surprise. The servers were really nice and helped my coworker out as he hadn't had a thali plate before but saw it on another table and wanted to try it. It wasn't too crowded at lunch, but also wasn't that empty, and I think we were the only two non-Indians there, which is usually a good sign, heh. We're already talking about when we want to go back here, and might bring one of our other coworkers who is more open to eating vegetarian stuff, as well, so I know I'll be back here! This is probably going to become a regular lunching spot for us in the future.

Solid curries and naan! Really nice service and even better dishes! I think they also do buffets,…read morebut we just came for dinner. There are many tables for parties of 4 and a bar area for the buffet. The mango chicken tikka was a little more on the sweet side, but we really enjoyed the lamb skewers and paneer saag. Their naan was also came out fresh and hot.

Found this total hole-in-the-wall on UberEats and thought, "okay, let's roll the dice." Ended up…read morehitting the jackpot. The samosas? Crispy perfection with the exact right potato-pea ratio. The butter chicken was smoky, not cloyingly sweet like everyone else makes it -- the sauce didn't overpower the chicken, it actually let it shine (imagine that). Then came the kheema naan -- mind blown. Soft, flavorful, stuffed like they actually care. The malai kofta was creamy, smooth, and made me question every other version I've had before. If you're hunting for real, comforting Indian food that doesn't taste mass-produced, Delhi Dhaba is the place for you - it's like a warm hug from your punjabi aunty :-) Run. Don't walk

So happy to have found a spot nearby that satisfies my biryani craving. The biryani portion is…read moreeasily enough for 2 people -- shared with my bf and we had a good amount leftover. It was packed with the flavor and the rice and chicken were cooked perfectly. The onions ? Literal jammy perfection. My only note is I wish they put more of those onions because they're sooo good. The raita was also on the watery side but the biryani is just so delicious I'll forgive it. It's also the perfect spice level, but they bring you the sauce on the side if you want it even spicier. Also ordered the fried baby corn which we will pass on next time. They were good but not as much flavor as I'd hoped. The service was great and I appreciated the server's honesty in letting us know we definitely ordered enough food between us both LOL. I also liked the warm and cozy interior and how most of the seating is booth seating. Makes for a cute date night spot. I'll be back to try the Irani chai!

Some of the best restaurant discoveries happen by complete accident…read more We were actually on our way to AnnachiKarahi when gps informed us it had moved and been replaced by Charminar. While my husband drove, I quickly pulled up the Yelp page. The menu immediately caught my attention, but I'll admit I was hesitant. There were only a handful of reviews, and the ratings didn't quite match the ambition of the menu. Still, Hyderabadi cuisine is one of India's great culinary traditions, and it's surprisingly underrepresented in the Bay Area. Curiosity won. I'm so glad it did. Having visited Hyderabad, I know it as a city obsessed with food, a place where recipes reflect centuries of Nizami, Mughlai, Persian, and Telugu influences. While many restaurants here advertise themselves as Hyderabadi, they often stop at biryani. Charminar embraces the breadth of the cuisine, with everything from mandi and gongura specialties to chicken sukka, Mughlai curries, and, on weekends, freshly made rumali rotis. That alone made me stop and take notice. The restaurant itself is warm and inviting, with tasteful artwork celebrating the Hyderabad cityscape and the iconic Charminar. The staff matched the atmosphere: genuinely welcoming, knowledgeable, and eager to guide us through the menu without ever rushing us. The meal began with refreshing drinks before quickly moving into what became one of the highlights of the evening: the kebabs. The Lasooni Kebab and the Malai Kebab were exceptional. Both were astonishingly tender the kind of tenderness that only comes from patient marination and careful cooking. The Malai Kebab, in particular, was outstanding. Delicate notes of ginger and garlic layered into a creamy marinade, finished with the unmistakable whisper of charcoal smoke, created a kebab that was elegant rather than heavy. It was one of the finest versions I've had in the Bay Area. For the mains, we ordered the Chicken Sukka and Lal Chicken alongside the weekend rumali rotis. Paper-thin, almost like silk, they arrived impossibly soft and stayed that way throughout the meal. Anyone who has searched for authentic rumali roti in the Bay Area knows how rare that is. Too often they become rubbery within minutes. And it's rare to find it on menus so get your hands on it (weekends only!) The Chicken Sukka was my favorite curry of the evening. Layers of roasted coconut, deeply caramelized onions, warming spices, and beautifully cooked chicken came together in a dish that was both rustic and deeply satisfying. The Lal Chicken surprised me. Given the name, I expected assertive heat, but instead found a curry that leaned sweeter and tangier than anticipated. Not a flaw, just a different interpretation than I had expected. And then came the dish that reminded me why Hyderabad occupies such a revered place in India's culinary landscape. The Gosht Dum Biryani. If you visit on a weekend, don't overthink your order. Get it. Anyone can pile onions and masala onto rice and call it biryani. True dum biryani is a lesson in restraint. Every grain of rice should carry the perfume of saffron, whole spices, stock, and meat, without relying on excess seasoning. The rice itself should be compelling enough to eat on its own. Charminar gets this exactly right. Every spoonful was fragrant and beautifully balanced. The lamb was meltingly tender, yielding effortlessly from the bone, while the mirchi ka salan added earthy warmth and the raita brought just enough freshness to complete the experience. It was, without question, the standout dish of the evening and among the better Hyderabadi biryanis I've had in the Bay Area. The most exciting part is that we barely scratched the surface of the menu. Finding a restaurant that doesn't simply borrow Hyderabad's famous name but genuinely celebrates the diversity of its cuisine is rare. Charminar feels like it was built by people who understand what makes the city's food so beloved. What a wonderful addition to Sunnyvale. I sincerely hope the community gives this restaurant the attention it deserves. We'll certainly be back Congratulations to the Charminar team.

great food and service. Love their daal makhani and veg biryani. Always good quality.read more

The chole bature was recommended to me and was fantastic, I loved it…read more I would come here just for that. The portions are large and I shared the order. Please expand to SF!!!