Spice Nine

i’ve been to this place four times in the month since i found it. it’s not that the food is exceptional, although most of it is quite good. it’s the homey atmosphere and the fact that with your $ 7.99 lunch buffet you get *fresh* naan brought to your table and a large mango lassi included. the buffet usually has pappadums, three meat and three vegetarian options, some obligatory deep fried appetizers, plus several salads (the black chickpea salad is delicious!), dessert, and of course chutneys. so it’s a satisfying lunch if you’re starving, and in fact always lasts me the rest of the day.

Cedars, Tandoori Grill, Shalimar, and the other 1,000 or so Indian restaurants in the UW District are a memory. Spice Nine is my new favorite Indian restaurant. They have the best lunch buffet. For $ 7.99 you get your own basket of naan bread, a Mango Lassi drink, and an assortment of Indian dishes that I’ve never heard of. There’s currently construction on the building where they’re located so it’s a little hard to find. My favorite dishes thus far were their okra dishes and vegteable fritters. The buffet ends at 3pm. You should go early because by 2pm all the good stuff is gone.

Spice Nine is quite underappreciated, which is understandable since it’s not the only Indian restaurant in the area, and hasn’t existed for very long. It is, however, undeserved. Spice Nine has the best naan I’ve ever gotten in the University District. The naan itself is a pleasure to look at, and the nice assortment of chutneys that’s served with it is not something available at other places around the neighborhood. The vegetarian menu is very extensive and *very* delicious. Even something as simple as lentil soup makes a great meal at Spice Nine, I haven’t had soup that good at any other place in the U-​District (I do like a good soup, so that’s important!).
In short, when seeking out delicious food, don’t pass by Spice Nine! It’s off the Ave and thus is unduly ignored, and that is truly sad because the food is excellent. You won’t regret stepping off the familiar course of traversing the Ave in search of lunch or dinner, Spice Nine is just one street over and that’s where the delicious Indian food is!

Not the greatest buffet in town, but quite reasonable. The tandoori chicken was the best I’ve had in a while (note to other Indian restaurant owners: it’s actually supposed to be spicy; not just covered in red food coloring).
The beef curry was a bit chewy, but tasted good. The dal looked a little sorry for itself — and contained beans. Odd, but OK. The butter chicken seemed to be the most popular dish in the buffet, and disappeared within minutes of being refilled. They also had some fried noodles, some vegetable dishes, and various startery things. The ones I tried were decent. I didn’t try the desserts, or the mango lassi.
Overall, I think I prefer Jewel of India, but I wouldn’t be averse to going back here.

The only thing the University District needs less than another lunch buffet (let alone an Indian lunch buffet) is another four year institution of higher learning. That said, Spice Nine’s lunch buffet is pretty good.
It’s served one one hot cart with about 20 small troughs to choose from. The batsmati rice was a bit overdone, but most of the dishes were great. The highlights were meatballs in a masala sauce, well-​seasoned quarter-​sized fried potato patties, aloo gobi, and some delicious garbanzo beans. Paper signs on the sneeze guard succinctly broke down each dish.
Back at our table, we found that naan, papadum, and mango juice were included in the buffet. All three were good (even my mom, who hates mangos, finished the juice), but all three also explain why the buffet costs $ 7.99.
For dessert, the rice pudding was topped with almonds and had hints of cloves and mango.
I’ll definitely be going back, since the other review lists dishes I enjoy but didn’t see on the buffet (like paneer).

I just tried this place for the buffet lunch and was surprise that the food was not bad. I had the chicken tikka masala (that had a creamy orange sauce that was great with rice), the chicken tikka, paneer, vegetable pakora. For dessert I had these yellow sweet balls chumchum?(don’t know the spelling) and rice pudding. The quality of the food is not as good as non-​buffet places like Shalimar or Taste of India for sure. The rice was not as smoothe and full of bite as I am used to. However, as a Indian buffet place I would say it is better than most buffet places and a good value at $ 7.99. We got free naan and roti and a glass of mango juice (they call it mango lemonade and said the juice was a temporary promotion). Quite a deal!