Surabhi Indian Cuisine

The service is adequate, but not great. The price is reasonable. The food quality is good. But there is one great reason to make the trip to Surabhi on either Monday or Friday, because those are the days they server Butter Chicken on the lunch Buffet. Creamy, glistening, slightly spicy Butter Chicken I often dream about on Sunday evening, it is wonderful.

Indian food that is actually spicy! Too many times I have been to Indian restaurants where their version of "hot" comes out of the kitchen about the spiciness of a sweet bell pepper.

I had Surabhi's lunch buffet, and though it's billed as having 40+ items on the website, in actuality it does not. The variety is equivalent to what you'll get at Izayka in Eagan, India House in St. Paul, or India Palace in Eden Prairie and its other locations. Maybe they reach that item count number by considering the tomatoes, cucumber, and ice berg lettuce as separate items...

Anyway, to the food. I am not a connoisseur of Indian cuisine and have never had anyone walk me through what all the dips and soupy stuff are...I don't even touch them and skip to the main dishes. They had signs telling people to eat the dosas with the tomato sauce or another sauce so the restaurant is trying to be helpful to non-native eaters.

There was plain basmati, fried rice basmati, and chicken biryani. Palak paneer, baigan bharta, daal curry (other vegetarian stuff too but I did not eat them - hey, I'm a carnivore). Naan, kheer, goat curry, chicken something (not a red sauce, but a brownish-yellow one), chicken marinated in a spicy yogurt mix then sauteed (wanna say it's Chicken 65), tandoor chicken and pepper chicken.

I liked the Chicken 65 and goat curry the best for their spiciness levels; made my nose run. Palak paneer was lacking in paneer and too heavy on the cumin. Baigan bharta was disappointing as it tasted only of onions (oh, how I miss the brinjal from south africa). The chicken curry-ish dish as edible but not outstanding enough for me to take seconds or desire ordering it in the future. Naan was dry, dry, dry; like cracker dry even when they added a new batch...will avoiding ordering breads from here. Chicken biryani and fried rice looked the same, but biryani won out in flavor though I've had better biryanis elsewhere. I did not try the tandoor chicken as I have never found it to be very good anywhere I've been; it always taste flavorless and dry to me.

Overall a great place to order from when you expect "medium" spicy to make your nose run a little.

Service was fine. We were seated and glasses placed and filled on our tables with an extra pitcher of water once we returned from the buffet line. Nothing dissimilar to Chinese buffets I've been to; plus a lot of people I know would appreciate having an extra pitcher of water to refill themselves rather than wait for the staff then b*tch and moan about how the service was poor because no one stopped to give them more water.

I would rather spend $15 here for a full thali meal (apps and dessert included) then at a place where I get half a potato for the same price but can then say the waiter smiled a lot.

Love the food,  when I say spicy - the food is Indian standard spicy ( hot hot! good good!) I love their Kholapuri chicken and chicken tikka masala! anyone who loves authentic Indian food ( not the typical lousy creamy and sweet food you find every where else) should try this place.