Thali of India

(more photos)

If you're a fan of Indian food like I am, you're sure to find something to like on the menu at Thali of India. But if you visit for lunch on Sunday, you'll get to sample a large variety of dishes in one of the restaurant's twice-weekly buffets.

Last weekend, we took my college friend and her boyfriend, visiting from Pennsylvania, to the lunch buffet. Thali's website gives two different times for the meal -- 11:30 to 2:30 and 11 to 3 -- but we arrived around 11:45 and the food in the trays still looked very fresh.

The restaurant wasn't very crowded at first, but it quickly filled up (and then thinned out again by around 1:30). The buffet, which costs $8.99 per person, offers several vegetarian dishes as well as meat-based ones, along with a corner section with fruit and desserts, like gulab jamun. In addition to enjoying bread from the two baskets of naan brought to our table, I couldn't resist a couple pieces of bhatura. Keep an eye out for masala dosai -- I scored a couple of pieces from a plate a server brought to one of the buffet tables, but when my friend went to get one later on, they were gone.

None of us ordered drinks (at dinner, I'll usually have a mango lassi), but even when it got busy, servers were constantly refilling our water glasses, which was nice. This was our second time at Thali in a week and a half, and I'm sure we'll be back again pretty soon.

TIP: Try the dinner buffet on Monday nights.

NEARBY: Cantonese House is in the same plaza.