Review: Maharaja Indian Buffet

Charlottesville has more than 44 restaurants. It offers a wide range of local restaurants, from fine dining to casual dining. I had the pleasure of going to Maharaja to try their Indian buffet, offered from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Maharaja is a nice place, well decorated with lanterns, colorful settings, and a beautiful patio to eat outside.

Their food is reasonably priced; for lunch there is a buffet, and dinner is served a la carte. On this journey, I tried the lunch buffet. They have more than 10 different dishes with a salad bar, rice, nan, a soup of the day and dessert.

I tried the Vegetable Pakoras, which have onions, potatoes, and jalapeno fritters, along with rice and nan to top my lunch. There was also Dal Saag, a dish made with lentils and spinach cooked in a light cream sauce; tikka masala, marinated and grilled in a clay oven, in a creamy tomato masala sauce; and Bhuna, cooked with onions and bell peppers in a light masala sauce.

Their salad bar is full of healthy choices with sauces for nan dipping, like yogurt cucumber sauce. Soup of the day is always offered as part of Maharaja’s Indian Cuisine. Usually, they prepare Dal Soup made with yellow lentils.

Their dessert section has delicious options like Kheer, which is rice pudding. I chose mango lassi for a sweet yogurt treat.

Maharaja was a great experience. The manager of Maharaja said they give a stamp for every visit someone makes to the restaurant. When a person gets seven stamps, they get a free buffet lunch.

The food is prepared by a chef who is from India but has also worked as a chef in Orlando, Florida.