Masala

Loved the naan bread, freshlybaked!

Went there for lunch on one Saturday
Curry tastes good, naan was fluffy enough but was slightly burnt
I dnt recommend lassie here,
Not a great ambience

You don’t want to eat here unless you want to risk feeling sick. When I walked into Masala, there was a terrible smell of cockroaches and mustiness. The floors are in disrepair and warped from water damage. Everything in the restaurant felt sticky. I left immediately after I walked in.
I had a better experience the last time I ate here when it was Chutney’s. What happened to this place?

When this place first opened, I was a big fan. I like to wait to write a review until I have been multiple times. I don’t believe you can have a fair picture of a place in one visit. I have been here 8 times now between eating in and take out.
In all fairness, the food started as a 5 out of 5, but has become a 1 out of 5. It is surprising that it is ranging in the wrong direction. Most places get better after settling in. After today, I have to say it has seriously gone downhill.
My typical favorites are lamb vindaloo, chicken tikka masala and chicken curry. My last two visits, I have had the curry and tikka masala. The only explanation I have for how bad the food has gotten, particularly the tikka masala, is a change in chefs. The tikka masala tasted like a combination of bad barbeque potato chips, a gym sock, and chicken. None of the customary Indian aromatic spices, no taste of heavy cream… It was just plain bad. Not to mention the entire dining area was filled of stank. When you walk into an Indian restaurant, it should be a welcome smell.
If the ownership or chef did change, this place better contact who left to plead for help to fix the issue. I had heard the original owner was same as Himalayan kitchen, which is actually a solid joint for Indian and Nepali food in Hawaii. I just can’t picture this place still being under the same tutelage.

Veggie samosas. Garlic naan. Chicken masala. Navratran biryani.
Empty at 5:30 on a Tuesday. The samosas were piping hot and they were very flaky and the chutney was super flavorful.
Garlic naan was extra garlicky. Very nice. Both the chicken masala and biryani were luscious and decadent. We basically ate til we were stuffed and still had a tiny serving of chicken and a good sized serving of biryani left to take home.
Solid food at pretty good prices. The chicken masala came with white rice and raita.

I went here for lunch and ordered the red curry plate off the lunch specials. It came with rice, curry, side salad and nan bread. The serving size was a good amount.
Parking was easy. There is a parking lot right next to the restaurant where customers can park and they validate your tickets.

I live in the neighborhood and this was my first time trying this restaurant out. Was a spontaneous decision to try, since our first choice was too long of a wait.
Its a very small venue that seats about 15 – 18 maximum.
The wait was not bad… from the time of being seated to getting our food was about 20−25min which I don’t mind since the conversation with the family was interesting.
We ordered 2 chicken dishes and a lamb dish which was okay… was not feeling it as I’ve had better tasting curries. I think the curries may have been a bit overpriced for the portion given.
The host/​waitress was very nice, and very soft spoken. Was not thrilled with the chai drink I ordered… tasted a bit weird, and the extra flavoring of a bug in my drink did not help.
If this food reflects what indian food is, I guess I’ll pass.

I am the kind of guy who is cursed with empathy. I wrote my previous review within about an hour of getting my plate, when I was still pretty upset. In my experience it is best to let things settle before reacting out of anger (although give me a break, it was lunch). Nothing I said was untrue, but as I thought about my review I realized why am I punishing the owners and the cooks — the latter or both of whom are really good, because of a server?
And while I would recommend to that server being a little more friendly and welcoming if possible, maybe she was just having a bad day or had a lot on her mind.
It pretty much just comes down to you should give rice with a plate. A chicken breast an a half and a small salad won’t do it for me.
The chicken was really good, though. And so was the salad.
I hope this place does well. It serves good food.
Be more friendly and get five stars!

This is about as good as it gets for Indian food in Hawaii. Good food for the right price and there’s parking! Did I also mention it’s in Hawaii? Who would have thought you could get good Indian food here but lo and behold!
I brought my recently transplanted Indian friend here. She was not expecting decent Indian food in Hawaii and was so happy, she took pictures to send her mom. I asked her how you eat Indian food. USE YOUR HANDS for the naan and papadum! Get different types of curries and mix all the flavors together with your rice! If you order Biryani, make sure you put Raita sauce on it.
Everything was so good! Even better the next day.

Delicious vegan plates. We recently demanded to try plant based meals, and this restaurant was perfect. It situated just across from Walmart. After we are finished with running errands at there, we walked across the street to try this Indian restaurant.
It is actually Indian and Tabitan. The dishes seemed to be in small portions at first, but we were completely full by the time we are finished. Rice comes with the dishes.
Unfortunately, we can’t remember the name of the plates we ordered. We picked them in random anyway, and they turned out delicious.
The serves was fast and friendly.

Omg I love Indian food! But there’s not a lot of them around and its kinda pricy. So I have always wanted to check out masala right across the street from Walmart. Their prices are pretty decent and their food is yummy! The restaurant is pretty small so careful if you are bringing a small party. Its just about the size of maharani but maybe a little smaller.
Food: we got the veggie samoas, butter naan, chicken Masala and chicken saag. We wanted lamb but it was a bit too pricy for my college student budget (lol)
The food was delicious! And its open until 9pm which is definitely a plus.
Downsides: the wait feels a bit long but its worth it.
The service was meh cuz it took awhile to get my water refilled but they were training a new girl so I can get that
I will definitely go back for the lamb dishes but I gotta save (lol)

Awesome matar paneer and dal. Love the down-​to-​earth feeling about the place and their simplicity. This is very close to Indian food as you would get it in an Indian home. They’re smaller than Maharani but in my opinion their fare is more authentic. Will definitely come back!

We had the Rogan josh and veg. Naan. Please don’t choose those at this restaurant. :-(. Maybe their other dishes are good

Always very full when leaving as the food is delicious and volume good. Prices reasonable and the place is casual and nothing fancy. Staff personable and inviting. Will come again for great Indian Food.

My husband and I went here recently. This place is small, maybe 7 – 8 tables. Parking can be difficult to find during the weekends, but there is always the Walmart Garage across the street.
The food here was pretty good, but we decided to research first and found the best choices from this place is the Chicken Tikka and the Chicken Korma. We decided to get these two, since so many Unilocalers suggested these dishes. We also decided to get the Meat Samosas for appetizer. It was pretty good with the green sauce.
We loved the Garlic Naan. Omgahh!!! And the service was great! The guy behind the counter was awesome! He even gave us the naan recipe! He was pretty coola and we loved the place. It was small and cozy, which was fine for us! The service was good and the food didn’t take too long.
We’ll definitely be back! We left happy and full :)

It’s a must eat! Do it sooner rather than later! Friendly staff, tasty grinds… chicken and lamb curry great!

I had the saag chicken, with rice and plain naan. Food was very tasty, I’ll admit, but there was very little chicken in my dish. Mostly saag, but well prepared. Naan was a but doughy. And I know Hawaii is expensive, but I expect more for the money I paid. I’ll try others before I return.

Interesting name of a restaurant to start off with…
My utmost favorite dish has got to be the Saag Paneer. It is a spinach-​based curry with homemade cheese. Just the fact that it would be pretty hard to make this dish at home, makes me want to come here more often.
You should definitely try it. It reminds me of a spinach artichoke dip, but in a curry format. Nan bread would be extra,.
(Right across the street from WallyWorld on Koreamoku)

The food was tasty but the service was not good. We got the table immediately but it looks like they had missed our order as three tables seated after us got their food ahead of us. Total wait time for the food was about an hour.

Decent food. Good to get your Indian fix. We ordered through Aloha 2 go delivery service so my review is strictly on the food and not the dining experience. We ordered the spicy chicken tikka masala, spicy rogan josh (lamb), mild chicken korma, veggie samosa and garlic naan.
The veggies samosas were great. Wished we would have ordered more of them. The chicken tikka was good. Not the best I’ve had but definitely good. We ordered it spice and the spice level was great. Enough to feel the heat but not enough to break out into a sweat. The rogan josh lamb was ok. I’ve never had this dish before so I have nothing to compare it to. It wasn’t bad just not my taste. The chicken korma we ordered for our kids. They all liked it. I found the coconut flavor a little too pungent for my tastes. The garlic naan was ok. It was a bit on the chewy side like the dough had be overworked. Could have been a result of it not being fresh off the grill to because of it being take out though. Altogether, I’d eat here again. Definitely for the veggies samosas and chicken/​lamb tikka masala.

Gave this place another chance and regretted it. Got the veggie coconut korma. It was bad. For $ 16.60, I expected a decent meal. Portion wise this was fine. But not in quality and taste. The veggies were the frozen mixed veggies you’d get in a grocery cooler (peas, green beans, cubed carrots, corn). It tasted like something I’d get at Komala curry house for way less. The white rice was unspectacular. Service was slow. I will not return.

What I like best about Masala is that I can count on excellent food without the long wait time to be seated (though the wait for the actual food to come out took a bit long).
The chicken korma was da bomb. The rest of the food we ordered, onion kulcha and saag paneer, was well seasoned and delicious, but nothing compares to their bomb chicken korma. I would have preferred if the rice was a bit drier, but that’s just personal preference as my boyfriend seemed to think it was just fine and soaked up the yummy sauces nicely.
Will definitely be returning when I’m hungry and can’t wait for Indian food.

While roaming around our «new» neighborhood, we stumbled across this tiny restaurant. It was well after the usual lunch hour when we went in. There were only 7 – 8 tables and one waitress/​cashier. The brightly colored walls, scenic pictures and saffron colored covered chairs gave us a sense of being in Nepal/​Pakistan or India.
The server greeted us immediately as we entered and seated ourselves. She brought us glasses of iced water and lunch menus. What I like about the lunch menu is their combination or lunch plates, especially if you can’t decide or are pressed for time. Their dinner menu is more diverse and you’re freer to order à la carte so we thought. However, our server stated that most of their dinner entrées and their tandoori oven baked naan and kulcha breads are available all day.
We tried their meat (turkey) samosas, vegetable pakoras and kebab lunch plate. Each item was served with a different exotically flavored sauce. The portion sizes were decent and priced accordingly. We were delighted with our samosas and pakoras as they were seasoned well and fried crisp. However, the kebabs were a bit of a let-​down as we thought it was dry or overcooked. But, still, the flavors were very good.
The menus suggested that dishes are from different regions within India. Nepal and Pakistan are northern neighbors to India, so why not, eh? I think also, this place may be owned/​operated by the same folks as Himalayan Kitchen in Kaimuki. Masala may not be as «elegant» or spacious as our other fave, Café Taj Mahal, but their food is just as flavorful.
I can see that if this tiny spot gets crowded, service could suffer as there is only one person managing the front of the house. Indian cuisine is not a fast food so we do expect some waiting time and exercised patience while basking in the soft meditative music.
We’ll be back for dinner to try their curries, tikkas and kormas… real soon! Om…
#424

I just called to place a to-​go order (10/16)…its 8:20 and says they close at 9 and the phone rang, and rang. They really need to update their hours. I’m glad I didn’t go all the way down there first.
Saturday (¹⁰⁄₁₇) my boyfriend suggested indian food and that I call this place again. so I did and they answered! I told her I wanted to place an order to go. I ordered garlic naan, she told me they didn’t have it… umm ok, then plain naan, and then she said oh we have garlic, so you want plain or garlic… GARLIC please! next I ordered the chicken Korma (my fav), the veggie Chau Chau… they didn’t have that as well. ok so then I was scrambling through their horribly constructed website to find another dish. I told her veggie Aloo Saag, she repeated back something that I thought was what I had said. at this time I was going off the menu from Aloha 2 Go as well. she said «10 mins» so I said ok and hung up. a few mins after looking at the Aloha 2 Go website and the masala website I realized she was gonna charge me for the «appetizer» that was similar to the Aloo Saag. it was very hard to understand her so I called back to change it. I switched the Aloo Saag to Aloo Gobi. my boyfriend went to go pick it up.
The food was good, however there was like barely any chicken in the chicken korma and too much sauce, the portions of rice was generous since wach entrée comes with rice. the nann was very good! and I ordered a side of this yogurt sauce and they threw in a side of some cilantro lime sauce. both very good!
we used to live near Café Maharani, which is excelllllent! so I guess I was hoping it would be like that. prob wont order from masala again though as how they were out of a lot of stuff

Next to the buffet in Dulles, VA, this is the best Indian food I’ve ever had. Samosas are MASSIVE and delicious, lamb vindaloo is tender and the sauce is the perfect amount of hot. The owner even gave us free rice pudding because he’s a cool motherfucker.
Wish I had more for you, its a really tasty Indian food spot perfect for lunch. Whoever rated is less than 5 is an asshole who doesn’t understand Indian food.

Good place to eat!
The Naan is spot on, super good. I got the Chicken Tikka Masala. First of all the portion size is perfect it’s not too much and not to little. I got mines spicy. Spicy level would probably be a 7 out of 10, so not that bad. Overall good place to eat friendly wait staff and good service.

It was hot and hungry night when me and my bestie wandered into Masala. We had argued for about 15 minutes over where to go and finally decided just to choose something within walking distance.
The shop is a small place and seats maybe 20 people. That night our waiter was a little slow on the service at first but he managed to improve as our meal went on. (kept our water glasses full without us having to ask)
We ordered two entrees and two naan’s to share (hey like I said it was a hungry night).
The garlic naan is totally where it’s at yo! Seriously just order it. You’ll definitely regret it if you don’t.
Mixed Veggie curry was right what I was craving because I’d had a pretty unhealthy couple of days (too much processed food. and bacon. and buffets.) ahem. But eating a bunch of veggies felt like the right thing to do and honestly it was so yummy I didn’t miss the meat in this at all! I ordered mild but could probably have taken it up to medium.
Rogan Josh was totally the night’s big winner though! Me and my bestie both used our last bites of naan to scoop and sop up every last bit of the delicious lamb and sauce in this dish! It was so good I even ate it with some rice (and I don’t even like rice!)
It was a little pricey (about $ 20 per person) but we both agreed that we will definitely come back again!
Tip: If you’re doing take out call ahead or expect a 20 min+ wait.

Haven’t been here in years and from what I remember was less than impressed but convienent so figured would hit it up again. Long story short it’s edible but that’s about it.
First off the big pro’s are ample parking, quick seating, friendly staff, and decent portion sizes; notice didn’t mention food once.
Kid got the birani rice (mikd) and liked it; I thought it was pretty tasteless and bland myself. I got the Aloo Gobi (medium) and pretty much ditto though actually had identical heat somehow. I do like how they make their own naan and was decent though could have used some more garlic though sad when your naan is the best part of your meal.
My big three complaints were the complete lack of flavor, the lack of those tradional good side sauces I normally get at Indian joints, and lack of any choices of drink besides water and canned soda.
I heard this place recently changed owners but hope not as pretty damning with the new owner is no better than the previous on a dull sort of place.
Prob won’t repeat.

Same owner as Himalayan Kitchen — one of the better things this place offers that’s different is location. Located right across the Walmart on Keeaumoku, there is ample parking (you can get validated parking in their little shared lot or you can even park on the street or at Walmart and walk). Seating is a little limited but I’ve never seen them too busy.
My favorite dish here is the Rogan Josh — what flavor! Awesome too is the Mango Lassi, which is perfect as a to-​go dessert. The Saag Paneer is also good. This place offers the standard vindaloo, tandoori, and tikka masala. Try them all and see which one’s your favorite!
Downside: service here has always been bad when I’ve come EXCEPT when Suman — the owner — was there. Still worth eating here though if you’re in the area, but I think Himalayan Kitchen is its better half.

Unilocal 365 Challenge 2015 #2/​365
Ever since I went to a birthday dinner at Himalayan Kitchen in Kaimuki, I’ve been trying to find more Indian food to eat. I saw that Masala had opened in the old Chutney location, which is right in the area I work, so I told myself I would stop by for lunch sometime. Today, I finally got the chance to do so.
I walked in, and it was surprisingly empty inside. The friendly cashier behind the counter greeted me and handed me a menu when I told her I came for take out. I’m an awkward person and didn’t want to stand there as the only customer in the restaurant looking at a menu while she quietly waited for me. She told me that they had a special «Fusion Burger» with curry ($ 10.95), and that sounded good to me, so I went with that.
I actually expected a BURGER burger with buns, but instead got rice with a couple patties of some meat (sorry idk what it was) with curry in between, and a salad. Indian food is still foreign to me, but I love the flavors and spice. When I ordered it she asked me if I wanted it mild, medium, or spicy; I ordered it spicy, but it wasn’t spicy at all when I ate it. However, it did still taste good. The patties were a little dry, but mixing it with the curry and rice was still a flavorful mouthful.
I’m looking forward to trying Masala again, and ordering something from the regular menu so I can update this review with more than just one angle; but this time, I was satisfied with my lunch! Definitely recommend here if you want some quick Indian food!
PARKING: Free validated parking in Samsung Plaza, with a 15 minute grace period
Extra note: They’re only open for lunch, closing at 3pm

Pssst… it was previously Chutney… because the Chuntney sign is still there. Basically, they just put on a banner to cover it up. After seeing a bunch of excellent reviews of this place, my bf suggested to come here and try the food on a Friday night. My experience:
Service was great, no complaints.
Food: Garlic naan and cheese naan — it was pretty burnt and dark. You sure you didn’t over fried it? Don’t get me wrong, but the cheese naan was pretty delicious. Chicken vindaloo and masala-​you both kind of taste the same. It was too thick and dry. Didn’t expect that, maybe should have asked. Blueberry lassi — you was very tasty. I love blueberry yogurt drinks.
Price: You was kinda pricey for the amount of food given.