Dhaba Indian Bistro

«Best Indian food in Madison»
One of our favorite Indian restaurant in Madison. Food is awesome and so is the service. We enjoy eating non-​vegetarian thaali and the price is unbeatable. They also serve vegetarian thaali. These both thaalis are only served on weekends and that too only lunch.

After several years of ordering takeout, I had the pleasure of dining in at Dhaba on an early Saturday afternoon. The space is beautiful; tons of natural light, warm colors, festively folded napkins, and an ambience that is a step closer to fine dining than casual.
Service: top notch. Truly. Every need we had (which were few due to their anticipatory and attentive service) were attended to, the staff was so warm and welcoming, and they had touches that I’m not used to like waiting politely to set the menus down until I had removed my coat and taken a seat.
Food: double top notch. I think it’s the best Indian food I’ve had to date. Now, I have to admit that I order chicken tikka masala every time, but that’s what I order from every restaurant. I was only half joking when I told my boyfriend I would probably drink the sauce as a straight shot. The chicken is incidental (white meat, tender, good quality); I honestly would be more than happy just dumping the sauce on rice and on naan and calling it a day. Speaking of the naan, it’s warm and so soft and, as it turns out, even more delicious when served in house instead of as takeout.
Dining in we were also offered soup or salad, and we both went with the soup. I believe it was a vegetable lentil; it reminded me of dal. The soup was served at just the right temperature. My boyfriend tried the chicken makhani; rich and chicken-​y and a good kick of spice at medium.
Each of our meals was $ 8.95, a steal for how much food you get and the wonderful service. I think I’ll skip takeout from now on and treat myself to dining in.

Best Indian restaurant in Madison.
Tasty north Indian food.
Service is decent.
I have been many times here and their food quality and taste is consistent. So you wouldn’t be disappointed.

Yummy food. Quick and efficient service. Price was average to high.
I would go there again. Lots of vegetarian/​vegan options as one would expect at an Indian restaurant.

Worst food. Ate last night here. ordered appetizer sampler chicken biryani and goat curry. Goat was not cooked properly and the appetizers looked as if they were taken out from freezer and heated in microwave. Biryani was like rice mixed in current paste. Not at all worth it. Do not waste your money or hurt your tummies. This is not authentic indian food.

Great northern Indian food. Outstanding take out and dine in many options. Authentic and homestyle Indian food like mom would make! Highly recommend the chicken tikka and paneer tikka as well as any of their tandoori dishes and appetizers are good also. Wide variety of meat chicken vegetarian options for all courses.

Ambience was nice — modern and immaculately clean, with pleasant decorations. Service was friendly and efficient, although not very personable. Food was amazing. The Vegetable Masala was perfectly spiced, and had a rich creamy curry sauce. The Baingan Bartha (eggplant) was also great, and had a grilled «open flame» flavor. Nan was excellent, a bit thicker than most indian restaurants, not at all greasy and stayed soft even when it got cold. The mixed vegetarian platter appetizer was very good, although the samosa and aloo tikki could have used a touch of spice. Also enjoyed the Vegetable Mango, although would have liked it better if the mango sauce was thicker. At many indian restaurants mango sauce is sweet, at Dhaba the mango sauce had a rich, savory taste. Nice. Be cautious though about spice level. Medium at most indian restaurants, would be a 2 at Dhaba.

Get ready for some real good Indian food. It would be unrealistic of me to expect 100% authentic Indian taste that you can only find in India, but this place is pretty close to being authentic, which is great because even this level of similarity is hard to find.
What stood out, was their keema naan, malai kofta and butter chicken. Best thing about Indian restaurants are that they have excellent variety of vegetarian dishes. Paneer makhni here was out of the box. Naan/​breads were very very fresh, seemed like straight outa oven. We ordered keema naan, garlic naan, spinach naan, butter naan and regular naan and all were good.
Good service too, we ordered their veggie vindaloo and found it to be very tangy letting them know about it, their manager replaced it with another dish.
Good ambience, great food, good service, clean bathroom, Overall a great experience.

Ordered delivery, and it took an hour and a half on a Tuesday night. Delivery driver blamed it on having to wait on the restaurant — but I’m not completely certain where the disconnect was since my hotel is within walking distance. Chicken Korma was the blandest I have ever eaten — but the Chicken Tikki Masala was very redeeming. I ordered both at medium heat, so it was really surprising to have one be so flavorful and the other so bland. Naan was very cold by the time my order arrived. May try dining in next time — difficult to discern quality when I’m not sure how long the food sat prior to delivery. I would NOT recommend ordering delivery to anyone else.

Ambiance was great, food was ok. We ordered most dishes in the «Nice» category but was definitely too spicy for our friend. Did find a problem that was shared with the staff that should have been escalated to management by staff. This did not happen and we did not pursue it.
Servers and their service was good.

It’s a nice location, interiors were pretty with good paintings off the wall. Tried the veg thali, meat thali and a few entrée of the menu. The chicken tikka and paneer tikka in the thali were delicious and thali were priced at $ 9 for veg and $ 10 for meat. Very disappointed with service. The staff is not very friendly. It took a lot of convincing to replace lamb curry for a daal in the meat thali when a few of us didn’t eat lamb. The shrimp curry off the menu was a joke. Shrimps warmed up in tomato sauce. The servers mixed up plates with hot and medium spice levels!!! And some of us had to eat super spicy chicken tandoori. It’s an average indian restaurant

Great Lunch!
I had lentil soup, shrimp & veggie biryani, garlic and a New Glarus Spotted Cow beer. The dining room was very nice and very clean. The wait staff was very friendly and well trained. The food was delicious!!! I will go back and highly recommend the place.

Having recently moved here from a big city, I was incredibly surprised at the quality and taste of Dhaba’s food. It mixes authentic favors with classic dishes but adds modern technique. It’s a very clean and welcoming environment with a really lovely staff.
I’m a huge fan of fish fries and was impressed with their fish pakora (lightly breaded and spiced fish) — it’s flaky, moist and arguably one of the best «fish fries» I’ve had in Madison. Highly recommend.

While staying in Madison, I felt the urge to eat something vegetarian. Indian food was of course my choice and this place was interesting. I went and was seated pretty easily, I ordered the Channa Naaan, which came with a side of rice. It was honestly a little pricey, considering the fact that I could probably make that dish at home for a few dollars. However, it tasted good and the waiter was pretty nice. He even asked what spice level I wanted and when I asked if it was a scale for Indians or white people, he said Indians.
I saw a few other Indians eating in the restaurants, which I believe is a good sign. Usually when you go to an indian restaurant and there are no Indians eating there, it is indicative that the food is bad or is primary to western standards. I would suggest this to anyone looking for Indian vegetarian and possibly vegan food in the area!

We have a voting system at our workplace that lets people vote on what they want for lunch that day. We try to keep it fair by not allowing a restaurant to win twice in one week. However, if we forget to start a vote, often times we’re forced to «Default Dhaba.» I’m pretty sure those moments of forgetfulness are freudian slips, because we friggin love this place.
Personally, I’ve found my vice: chicken tikka masala with cheese naan. This amazing combination of bread, cheese, and curry has everything I’ve ever wanted in a good meal, and then some. I’ve found some other indian places that have similarly good masala, but the naan stands apart. No other Indian restaurant I’ve visited has come close to the wonderous naan found at Dhaba.

Can’t be beat. So good.
+ Take-​out service was excellent
+ Lamb curry, chicken curry, chicken marsala, tandoori, pakora, beef curry, vindaloos, paneer — all were *outstanding*
+ Tons of rice included with take-​out
+ Naan is huge and delicious
Truly excellent.

What a great little find! I was pleased to stumble upon this place! When I walked in I was greeted immediately. Service was outstanding… the little things they did that may go unnoticed was amazing for me. Simply saying please and thank you… excuse me when they came to a table to serve food or ask questions… I was in absolute awe. The food was outstanding! I got the extra spicy Tandoori Chicken Spinach and yes… I was sweating! The garlic naan bread went extremely well with it. I would love to bring my wife here if we are in the area. And on a nice day, I bet the outdoor seating is amazing.

This was our first time visiting and it definitely won’t be our last. Very nice dining area, modern and clean. Our waiter was very attentive and took good care of us. We appreciate the hospitality.
Great selection of drinks and the food menu was extensive. Everything looked good, so it was hard to decide. We started with the lamb samosas. Really delicious. I think next time we’ll get the traditional and lamb together. Ordered some cheese naan, which came along with our meals. The shrimp curry and lamb masala were absolutely amazing. The flavor of all the sauces were so complex and tasty. We decided on a «3» level for heat. The basmati rice was so light and perfect.
Everything was perfect. I have no complaints what so ever. Thank you.

A great delicious Indian place in town! I was surprised when I arrived on a Sunday, there was no characteristic aroma nor the classic lunch buffet! Very excited I wouldn’t bring the aroma around me after food and sadly feel hungry all the time…
We were the first customers at around 11am, the space was wide and you could easily fit large parties of 10 or more. As we went through our lunch, several other tables arrived. We noticed that a couple with a young baby was seated right by the bathroom, placing them further away from other tables; my friends and I thought that was extremely thoughtful of them!
I really enjoyed the food selection, some things are completely new and I have not seen them at other indian restaurants.
Good dishes to try:
Mango lassi — much more yoghurty than other places, actually really refreshing with food!
Meat platter — nice chicken tender-​like things, fried fish was nice and flaky. And i love the cracker and sauces to dip on the side
Aloo naan — potato naan sounds weird, but seriously, you’d not go back to regular naan!
Beef briyani — great flavor, and surprisingly spicy. beef was tender and tasty!
Chicken Makhani — loved the thick tikka masala sauce. very well cooked chicken! love it!
We shared the dishes among 3, and had at least a third of the dishes to bring home as leftovers. Just a note, the dishes were still wonderful after microwaving ;) Finally, be aware of the spiciness level, for Asian tastebuds that eat moderate spicy level, 2 stars is more than enough!

The best indian food I have ever had!
Vegetarian appetizer platter– all items had their true uniqueness. All retained crispness after being in a takeout container.
Lamb and spinach was flavorful and tender. Nice dpice balance.
Garlic naan was crisp and chewey even after bring in takeout foil!