Korma Sutra

The food at Korma Sutra is pretty good, but there’s nothing that stands out as particularly spectacular. The drinks made there are pretty good though.
I’ve never eaten the lunch buffet but the dinner menu is pretty expensive so don’t go unless you’re prepared to drop a hundred bucks easy. The décor and ambiance is great and romantic, everything is in deep shades of red. This is a good place to take a date you really want to impress.
I’ve been here a few times and usually it’s not very packed but the waiter and waitresses are pretty slow to take my order or bring me out my food. which definitely affects my rating here. If it’s not busy and I’m spending a good amount of money I expected to be waited on.
I think this place was going for really classy but the hookah smokers outside kinda depreciate the value of this place in my mind. However, all in all I like this place and would go there again for an anniversary or something.

Excellent Lunch Buffet. I’ll admit that is the only time I have ever eaten here but still, the lunch buffet is a must try! The food is delicious. My favorites are the Marsala and of course the curry all on top of the saffron rice– YUM. The Naan tastes like it should and is very filling. Every time I get a craving for Indian food I come here and stuff myself miserable. I have also had the pleasure of conversing with the owner a few times and he is a very personable guy. The tables are positioned very close together too so try not to eavesdrop on other conversations ;)
PS– they also have a lunch buffet discount voucher on their website so be sure to print it off before you go.

— Pros: Chicken Masala, Garlic Naan, lamb kebabs, good alcohol menu, service, décor, location, portions
— Cons: price-​to-​experience ratio a bit high. A bit too dark, serious and quiet for my taste.
The food is tasty and they give you a hefty portion. I probably will not return because I prefer I more lively ambiance and a less costly plate of chicken masala. I went on a Monday evening.

This food was terrible– as in NOT edible. We went here on a Groupon. He had the Lobster Bisque and I had the trio of soups– both were disgusting, oily and filmy. The complimentary appetizer never came; honestly, that’s probably the biggest favor they did us. For an entrée, he ordered the duck; they didn’t have it. He ended up choosing the surf and turf (holy shit this is funny), which was supposed to be a ‘Lamb Porterhouse and Catch of the Day’. I swear to you the ‘Catch of the Day’ was frozen scallops and shrimp in a watery cream sauce and the ‘Lamb Porterhouse’ was a big ‘olé lamb sausage link. I order the Chicken Tikka Masala. It came with a white, red, and green piece of chicken. Only the red one was not NASTY.
The service was terrible. The shift manager was kind but had no knowledge. I surmise that she probably managed a Chilis or James Coney Island before landed this gig in Downtown.
Short version of facts: We admitted to them that the soups were yuck. They forgot the appetizer, they didn’t tell us that there was no duck for twenty minutes. The shrimp and scallops were cold inside. Upon arrival, we showed the manager our Groupon and asked which entrees we could get. She said any of them. When the bill came, we got charged an extra $ 20 for the ‘Surf and Turf’.
Result: We left paying nothing and getting to keep the deal to use again later. I’ll give it to someone I hate. I wouldn’t eat there no matter how free it is. The website was misleading. I should have known the place sucked when it was empty on a Friday night,
WISE WORDS: Just go to APPLEBEES Instead.

This place was recommended to me by a friend so I decided to check out their website.
1. $ 16 for a lunch buffet of Indian food is absolutely ridiculous. I don’t care where you are – Indian food is not terribly expensive food and a $ 16 buffet is a slap in the face.
2. To add insult to injury, the tone of the website is the most arrogant I have ever come across… Have you forgotten that you are in the service industry? Quote:
«As a result of this we can not and will not be competing with „HILLCROFT Indian Restaurants that do lunch buffets from $ 3.99 and up“ or any establishment outside of downtown Houston. Nor will we be competing with establishments from the Houston tunnels like „Rico’s“. If you want real North Indian Food, we are your downtown Indian food destination.»
Wow.
3. They offer a voucher for a discount on the buffet… and then there is a long list of conditions, including what days you can come, at what time, what you can eat, etc.
4. They don’t allow any kind of coupon for the buffet. Not even Groupon. That’s crazy! If you got a deal through Groupon for your restaurant, it should be applicable to anything a customer wants there (excluding alcohol, of course).
5. They are «gracious» enough to offer discounted parking… if you sign up ahead of time… and if you spend more than $ 50 per car… and… and… just more restrictions and ridiculous rules.
6. Parties of 4 or more get 18% gratuity added automatically. Who do you think you are?
I will absolutely not be eating here. Also, bragging that you buy fresh produce every two or three days is not a selling point!
Get your pretentious heads out of the clouds and come back down to earth. You are selling Indian comfort food. Get over yourselves.
(Also, your restaurant’s name is an insensitive appropriation of a title of a collection of Hindu holy books. Classy)

I think the only thing keeping this place afloat is its prime location in downtown.
We came here on a Friday night with a voucher (which, in retrospect, I am SO glad I had). The food, as previous reviewers have mentioned, is super pricey for the fact that it’s Indian food (read: rice, potatoes, and other inexpensive ingredients) in a semi-​casual restaurant setting. Sure, there are real tablecloths and wait service, but 15 bucks for chicken biriyani that’s mostly rice with a little bit of chicken mixed in? And that was one of the cheaper options; the majority of the entrees are at least 20 bucks, and run as high as 30 – 35. It’s a tad ridiculous.
Food: Appetizers were the Korma 65 with cauliflower (essentially slightly crispy cauliflower in a sweet and sour/​General Tso’s sauce) and Pani Puri, which are crispy shells you fill yourself with a cold potato and spice mixture. We probably should have just gotten the cauliflower, as it would have served to be enough of an appetizer for two. The fact that they’re called «fritters» on the menu is a bit misleading; this was really just pan-​fried pieces of cauliflower without much in the way of the deep-​fried batter that I associate with fritters. Entrees were the Navrattan, which was exceptional, and the aforementioned disappointing chicken biriyani.
Service: Absolutely terrible. Our waitress was MIA when we were first seated, so the manager finally came over and took our order, only to pass it off midway through ordering once our waitress appeared. After clearing our appetizers, we waited at least another half hour with an empty table before our entrees arrived. For being a Friday night, the restaurant was far from busy (a 10-​top, a couple of 4-​tops, and one other couple were the only ones there), so I don’t know what took so long. The manager actually brought us some complimentary thin crispy sesame flatbreads (of which I can’t remember the name) once he realized that we were still without our mains. After the entrees arrived, we had to ask for new silverware because ours had been removed with the appetizers and never replaced. It took multiple requests to get our water glasses filled on more than one occasion during the night.
Overall, it was more work and money than it was worth to eat here. Thankfully, I live in Houston, so there is an abundance of tasty and well-​priced Indian food to be found in the rest of the city.

This was our first visit and overall pleased with the food quality; also nice that the kitchen staff is willing to adjust the ‘heat’ level of typical entres, as my wife and I have differing levels of spice tolerance. The portion size were modest. The hot Chai was enjoyable too.
On the downside, we did have to wait longer than average for our entres, which was a little surprising, since the restaurant was by no means full during our visit. We chose not to order appetizers in this instance, only naan (which was very good) with our meal. Although most of the staff seemed pleasant, our server was not very attentive aside from the necessary interaction. Prices were higher than I’ve come to expect with most Indian cuisine (and we’ve sampled quite a few); I’ll chalk this up to the downtown location? If only rating the food quality, I’d give 4-​stars.

I’ve done Indian food in many cities, and on 3 continents. This is as good as it gets.
The curries were fantastic. We tried 2 star, 3 star, & 4 star on the heat. They were all as advertised. They offer a lot of traditional Indian protein options (lamb, goat, etc.) All were done perfectly. The Naan was perfect. The Tikka Masala was to die for!!!
It’s not cheap, but not overly priced either. Great service, fantastic food, wonderful ambiance.

I’ve been to this place twice now over the last couple of months, both with the Living Social deal ($ 12 for $ 29 worth of food), and have been impressed by the food. They have a nice selection of vegetarian options and their garlic naan is quite tasty. I doubt I’d come without some sort of coupon, though, because $ 6 for four pieces of naan and $ 16 for a small vegetarian dish? Ridiculous.
But my real criticism lies with the service. On Saturday evening, me and a friend stopped by the restaurant around 5:30 to find the doors locked. After searching unsuccessfully for their posted hours (protip, y’all: that’s a good thing to display outside your restaurant) and knocking a few times with no reply, we had to actually phone the front desk to get someone to open the door. He claimed everyone had just been in a staff meeting, but newsflash: they were officially open for dinner. And even in Houston, people sometimes go to dinner early. Why turn potential business away?
Our waitress was nice and prompt, though a bit loopy. Was she drunk? Clumsy? Both? She was entertaining, at least. Had a very Megan Mullally-​type thing going.
At one point, my friend got up to go use the restroom. A few minutes later, I heard knocking from the hallway that leads to the restrooms. Surprise! The employees had forgotten to unlock the hallway door from the inside, thus trapping my friend for a few minutes until I got up to let her in. How exciting! It’s like the entire restaurant was on lockdown, which, fine, whatever, but then we showed up and the staff proceeded to … do absolutely nothing to prepare their restaurant for customers. Who do, it turns out, occasionally need to use the facilities. Without being locked inside a fluorescently lit hallway.
My favorite part of the evening, though, was when we were overcharged for an entrée that the menu claimed was $ 9. Since I haven’t yet achieved my goal of marrying a millionaire (just wait, Ryan Gosling), I thought paying an extra $ 7 for my entrée was a little ridiculous and alerted the manager. He chuckled and mentioned that, really, I was the one in error, since the menu had misprinted the price. The dish was actually $ 16, after all. I chuckled at the folly of my ways, poneyed up the money, shook his hand, and skipped off into the sunset, happy to give this outstanding institution even more of my hard-​earned cash.
Well, okay, not quite. Because here’s the thing: when you advertise a certain price, whether a misprint or not, you need to honor that. You can’t decide later that, hey, that was actually a mistake, LOLZ, and please give us more money. Customers are weird that way: just like we don’t enjoy being locked inside hallways, we also hate feeling cheated. Also, Obvious Cops, but that menu wasn’t printed on sheepskin and embossed in gold, you know? I have a feeling one quick trip to Microsoft Word would’ve cleared up the misprint. Barring that, like my friend suggested, a sharpie. The manager took off the $ 7 and we left.
In conclusion, Korma Sutra, your name is far too clever for the lackluster way your restaurant is run. Yours isn’t the only game in town. Get it together.

My wife and I used a Groupon when we dined here, and I’m thankful because I wouldn’t pay full price.
The food was pretty good. Although the menu contains a lot of non-​Indian cuisine (e.g. Sloppy Joes), their Indian food was very delicious. That being said, it took a considerable amount of time to arrive, and they forgot to bring our appetizers.
The ambience of the restaurant is a clumsy juxtaposition of a trendy-​downtown restaurant with subtle Indian undertones. The walls are smooth drywall painted red, and the floor is also uncarpeted. The result is the constant echoing and reverberating of everyone’s conversations. On the night we went they also had a live singer which also added to the cacophony. My wife and I had to shout just to hear each other.
The price must only be a result of the location, as the food wasn’t the best I’ve had, and the atmosphere leaves much to be desired.
Will not be returning without coupon in hand.

We came here with a LivingSocial coupon, and I’m so glad we did. I would not have been happy paying full price.
The restaurant is located downtown, so I’m just happy it’s actually open past 3. The restaurant, however, was definitely nowhere near busy. There were maybe 5 tables of people the entire time we were there. This may be because it was a Tuesday, or maybe due to the terrible service.
Our waiter was very friendly, but fast he was not. We had to wait 15 minutes for a side of garlic naan. Once we finally got it, there were only 2 pieces in there. Then another naan came out right away and that basket was full. Naturally we were charged extra for both…
The bus boys also decided they would take it upon themselves to clear our appetizers when our thali came out. That’s all fine and swell, except for the fact that we weren’t done with our apps. Shame too… they were good.
So overall, it’s not a bad place food-​wise. Everything was delicious, but not amazing. The service could definitely use some improvement. Having worked in the food industry in the past, I can tell you that not sucking is not that hard (that’s what she said??).
Won’t be coming back here…

I am a sucker for Indian food — on my last trip abroad I had Indian for dinner 3 nights in a row.
Houston has always been somewhat limited in their selection of Indian restaurants. That said, Korma Sutra comes pretty close.
The décor is very inviting and the food is pretty good.
I ordered the Chicken Tikka, the Shrimp Vindaloo and Naan. The naan was good but not exceptional, Chicken Tikka was OK but the Vindaloo was excellent. The Vindaloo, which in itself is very spicy had a hint of chutney which took away some of the spicyness. Overall, this is a very nice place, the service is good, the décor nice and the food is as close as you can get to eating London good Indian food in Houston.

terrible service, we didn’t even get a chance to eat so this is only a review of the horrible service.
My wife and i came one night after a symphony. The place was pretty empty, we still waited there almost 20 minutes, no waiter ever came or greeted us. We had to flag down a busboy to get some water and naan.
After 20 minutes I went to the host station and told them we were going to take off since it didn’t seem like anyone was going to be helping us, and he replied «ok».

I came here for lunch one day and was expecting a lot but our group was pretty disappointed when we left. DEFINITELY NOT WORTH THE PRICE.
First service was not that great, we were the only table in the restaurant at the time and I still had to call the waiter over to take our order. After looking at the menu I was very surprised at how pricey everything was on the lunch menu, all the entrees were ranging in price from $ 12 to $ 20 and to add on they even charge you like an extra $ 5 to $ 7 to add rice and naan to your entrée. I find this concept ridiculous because its like they are forcing you to spend this extra money because who is going to eat curry without any rice or naan. Not only that when our food came out everyone at the table looked at each other because I have never seen such small portions at a restaurant! The food was ok which is why I am giving this a 2 star instead of 1 star but I wouldn’t bother wasting your money here!
O and if you come here for lunch make sure you check your bill because the waiter had charged us the dinner prices instead of lunch prices and luckily I had checked it before we left so it could be fixed.

I’m really surprised by some of the reviews here, because what Jim M. and I ordered was actually really delicious. I cleaned my plate happily! And the staff here was so nice, turning up the lights for me because I couldn’t see the menu very well.
The waiter recommended a combo platter for us that saved us a bunch of money and included 2 entrees, rice, naan (I chose garlic naan), yogurt, and lentils. I also ordered wine, and Jim got tea with spices and milk. It was just all so tasty that I actually was able to finish my portion. This meant that Jim was left a little hungry still, alas. In the future we know that it works better for us to order separately even if it saves us money– a great deal for couples in general though– Jim has a larger than average appetite I’d say, which makes me jealous during tasty dinners.
So far I can say that the vegetarian specialties are top-​knotch!
I don’t go downtown much, but I’ll try to come back here.

Places like this always make me feel like I need to go and order at least a half dozen different things before I really know how good the place is.
We had a HUGE meal last night at Blue Nile on the University’s dime, and so we were eating light, tonight. We opted to split a «Mixed Thali» which included lentils, rice, yogurt sauce as well as naan. Liz selected a creamy vegetable dish and I chose the lamb roghan josh. All of which was carefully flavored. Nothing was bland, nothing was over seasoned. The lamb was fork tender and quite spicy while still tasting of red meat, not just heat.
I also ordered a cup of chai which was particularly good. I was surprised at how sweet it was and that this didn’t frustrate me. It had enough tea and spices that the extra sugar worked well.
The staff were all very pleasant and helpful. They even brightened the lights when they could see Liz struggling to read the menu.

I’m a huge foodie AND Indian. I really know my Indian food and this was anything but either Indian or food. We should have realized from the free paapads and chutney. The paapads were dough-​ey while the chutney lacked mint or tamarind. Next, came the appetizers. They were called «tandoori» but were neither dry nor grilled. Tandoori food isn’t supposed to be dunked in sauce. They tasted like orange chicken from
Panda express. rubbery n too much sauce.
Second course: thali. Rogan Josh and the pulao were decent. However, the raitha lacked salt while the daal makhani had too much spice (masala). Chicken tikka masala was not even mediocre while the naan was full of dough.
Finally, the rasmalai. Although the texture was acceptable, it had too much rose water.
In case you are wondering why I had all this food in spite of giving up after the first course, it was coz I had a groupon worth 50 usd. Therefore, I had the luxury of giving them multiple chances. Sadly, they failed on all accounts. If quantity = quality, they may be ok though. Huge serving sizes! Unfortunately for them, I’m not a
Student trying to squeeze every last penny out of my meal.
Disappointing!

Having lunch here ended up costing me $ 300.
$ 50.00 for the food and $ 250 for the parking ticket I received while eating said food.
I ordered the Seafood Ratan, garlic & mint naan and Ras Malai for dessert.
I agree with other Unilocalers in that the food is very overpriced with only average (at best) food. I mean 3.50 for plain iced tea??? WOW!
My server didn’t have a clue about what the Seafood Ratan was. His discription was way off and he said so when he brought me my food.
If my additonal order of naan was garlic then I totally missed it. Perhaps it was only the mint – it was fine, but not worth 6.00 IMO.
I have never eaten Ras Malai before and so I have nothing to compare it too but it was actually good and I could see myself ordering it again if Gulab Jamun is not available.
I can honestly say that even though the food was O.K. I won’t be returning here again.

Went here a few times for lunch with co-​workers. Very overpriced. The portions are small and food only sub-​par. Once I ordered Saag Panir with extra naan (since they only gave 1) and it came out to be $ 20. $ 12 for a small container of saag panir. Wow! Then they charged $ 2 per extra naan. When I order the same dish elsewhere, I pay around $ 7 — $ 8. Their naan ended up being dry and chewy. Way too expensive!
Chicken Tikka Masala was okay. Small portion and little dry. Other dishes were alright as well, but nothing really stood out.
Service was a bit slow, and management I found to be rude and unprofessional. The waiter was way too creepy. Ew… Wouldn’t recommend.

I went here for lunch today with some co-​workers. The atmosphere is that of a fine dining establishment with nice décor and attentive staff. However, as other reviewers have mentioned, the portions are very small, the food was bland, and the prices were way too high for what was served. I was blown away by how bland the food was.
I’d take India’s on Richmond any day before I ever waste my money here again.