Sitara Indian Restaurant

Delicious food.  What a find in the middle of Muncie!  This is a new restaurant with modern Indian decor.  Very classy atmosphere but wearing a hoodie and jeans I felt comfortable and was not treated any differently - the staff and owners seem friendly.

The restaurant is in the same plaza as the Marsh on the north side of McGalliard, near Wheeling.  It is next door to a Verizon store.  Lots of parking.

Food again was great, although if you're not used to Indian food, it helps to either read the menu carefully or ask questions.  There were multiple lamb, chicken, and vegetarian options.

I hope they do well.  That being said, the only thing I didn't like was the price.  For one dinner dish, no drink, no appetizers or extras, I paid $17 after tax and tip.  That is almost triple what I would have paid for the same meal in West Lafayette at Shaukin on River Road.  I don't see how Ball State students would be able to afford to eat here often.  Maybe lunch prices are different.  The $17 did provide me with enough food to take 1/2 of the meal home for the next day.

This place came recommended by my bosses, who are regulars.  I have had Indiana food before, but not in a restaurant setting.  The decor is simple and creates an intimate atmosphere.  It wasn't uncomfortably quiet or obnoxiously loud, unless you count the hipsters sitting next to us that wouldn't shut up about how spicy the food was and how much they could handle.

On that note, I'm used to spicy.  I can handle up to the higher numbers in Thai food (not Thai food from Thailand though because that stuff is pure lava, even if you tell them not to make it spicy), but I don't usually like to get food so hot that I can no longer taste it.  At Sitara, we had three options of how hot we wanted it.  I chose medium and my boyfriend chose mild.  He could taste the spice in his, but he's a wuss when it comes to spice, so his opinion on the matter is unreliable.  Mine was spicy, but on the level of putting a lot of black pepper on it.  It made me wish I had gone hotter, but it was still really tasty nonetheless.  I had gotten a salmon dish, which those come with the risk of being surprised with a fish bone in your gum, but not in this case!  The food is fantastic and comes out to you very quickly.

I noticed some people on here commenting on the service.  I went there half expecting them to be rude to me, but they weren't.  They were attentive and checked in on us.  Only thing was that the lady (I assume one of the owners) would walk away real quick without saying, "be right back" or anything and it caught us off guard a couple times, since it happened mid-sentence of us saying something.  We just kind of laughed about it, but some more uptight people might take offense to it.

All in all, I definitely recommend trying them out.  I mean, being in Muncie, there aren't a whole lot of options on ethnic food, so it's pretty much a requirement if you wish to broaden your cultural tastes.

I've been here a couple times, for both a la carte & buffet. The palak paneer is good, the korma is ok, & the mushroom dish is ok as well. The gulab jamun is actually pretty good, as I normally hate those things. Still cloyingly sweet, but not as much as usual. The service is lacking a bit & the buffet is extremely limited. There were about 6 dishes total on it, half of which I can't eat as a vegetarian. The naan was also hard & in the half hour I was there, no fresh naan came out. That's not cool, since there was no vegetarian rice available, so I basically ate my palak & korma with a spoon. I'd give it 4, as they had a spicy vegetable dish available, but the buffet was disappointing, especially during lunchtime hours.