Rangoli Restaurant

NOOOOO! Rangoli is closing!!! I’m seriously distraught over losing you Rangoli. There is no naan that will satisfy me now. No korma so creamy, no masala so delicious. Please don’t leave me… I’ll change I swear.

Rangoli is our favorite Indian restaurant… probably in the world. And we’ve been to Indian places in several states and also the UK and Japan (admittedly not in INDIA, though…), including more than 10 (that I can think of) in the Boston area. Anyway, we always get great service, and the food is (needless to say) amazing. And they DELIVER! Could they be any more awesome? We’re vegetarian, but our favorites are the vegetable korma, malai kofta, and mutter paneer. If you go, definitely try the samosa. Sometimes we go just for the samosa.

This place is great. The décor is stylish and the atmosphere is appealing. The first time I went there they messed up my order. I requested all-​white meat chicken, they put in mixed pieces. The flavor was still great and I still had a meal out of it, so it wasn’t a complete loss.
Since then we’ve ordered delivery and its been yummy. They even manage to get the poori to still be puffed up and crispy!
I ordered malai kofa, which I’ve been sampling at various places. This was my favorite so far. Its little vegetable dumplings in a Korma-​ish curry. Quite good.
We also ordered the vegetarian appetizer platter and naan. Both were quite good. The appetizer platter had some egg plant and potatoes fried in a light batter that wasn’t mentioned on the description list of it, but it was still yummy.
We also ordered Chicken Kadahi. My boyfriend LOVED it. It was super spicy, very flavorful.
We love this place and will enjoy toggling back and forth between it and our other favorite Indian restaurants in the area.

Great Indian buffet lunch and they deliver. The food is excellent.

Pleasantly surprised by this little restaurant in Brighton. Food was delicious and the service was prompt and friendly. Only con was the table next to us swearing loudly. Would definitely go back if in Brighton again.

I think it’s only fair to update this. Since that awful lunch buffet, I’ve ordered Rangoli delivery 15 or 16 times, which means I must have liked something enough to try it again… and again… and again…
It’s true. Their aloo naan is simply top notch (I usually accompany it with chicken khorma, or occasionally butter chicken). Freaking tasty. The samosas ain’t bad either, but I’ve gotten a couple burnt ones… yuck.
Still, love the aloo naan. 5-​star aloo naan.

I can say easily enough that Rangoli is not great, but not bad. I’m having a hard time pin pointing why that is, though. There was just something about all of the food that I couldn’t put my finger on (except the naan — that was effing fantastic)… either vaguely disappointing or just suspicious. As most people have said, nothing was spicy enough. This was sort of compensated by things being very flavorful, but then they lost out on something else. The basmati rice, for example, tasted great, but was seriously undercooked. My entrée — malai kofta — was tender and just crispy enough, but tasted overwhelmingly of ketchup. Cheap ketchup at that. My eat-​almost-​anything dude got the chicken combo and complained that his meat was basically mashed together cartilage and chicken bits, and also said that the sauce tasted exactly like some Chef Boyardee goulash he favored as a youngin.
So, what I suspect is that there’s not a lot of freshness here. I’m betting they use a lot of canned sauces and frozen things. This is supported by the alarming quickness with which the food was brought out. It all tasted ok, but sort of cheap and artificial. Indian for the palette primed by fast food.
Even so… it’s clean, good ambiance, good window seating, and really lovely service. Reinforced my loyalty to Punjabi Dhaba.

Once again, came on the advice of Unilocal!and those fancy stickers.
It was during the wrath of Hanna or one of those other hurricanes, so they gave us extra napkins to wipe down with, which earns them their service stars back despite the awkwardness of the host, who didn’t know if he should seat us or just bark where we should sit at us.
My sagwala was good, even though it was aloo instead of chicken, but whatever, it was tasty and I didn’t complain.
Our appetizer platter was good and the Naan was some of the best I’ve had, hands down.

Good friends, good conversation, good food (not «wow») and generous portions (especially the Salmon Tikka). Definitely one of the better places for the cautious Indian food diner since nothing was overly spicy. NOTE: still very flavorful though including the Chicken Korma.
Service was a little awkward, but not rushed which worked because there was a big group of us all in conversation. We also probably confused the heck out of the waiter when we ordered nearly every appetizer on the menu. The sampler platter and plenty of Naan is a great idea and a very tasty one at that.
For drinks be adventurous and try the Indian beers on the menu. They did not disappoint the beer lovers at the table and the mango lassi (mango/​yogurt smoothie) was perfectly smooth and sweet.
Wished I’d tried a dosha (think Indian burrito/​crêpe) because they were a great price and I feel like you don’t see those on Indian restaurant menus often. One other note they were a little cheap with the rice so order a side if you usually house the rice.

I ate at Rangoli with a couple of friends and when we sat down at the table, we realized that none of us really knew what we were doing in terms of ordering. We’re all used to going out for Indian with people who know a bit more about each menu item.
Well! The waiter was really nice and patient while we went through the typical «I’m definitely going to get the… No! The… what are you getting?» for about 20 mins. Overall, the food was awesome. I have no idea what we ordered. Something masala. I got something that was chicken with a spinach um… sauce thing on it. The garlic naan was delicious, although it seemed strange to be eating garlic with Indian food. It tasted like breadsticks… in a good way.
I would recommend the sampler-​type appetizer. It’s basically a plate full of different delicious things fried deliciously.

I got delivery from Rangoli once. It was relatively expensive, and the food was not all that great. Soggy naan, food was not spicy enough, and none of it was very fresh. It was like they had cooked it for lunch and left it out in case someone ordered delivery.
So, while Rangoli was not terrible, it was definitely not great. And in an area where there are tons of really great Indian restaurants, why bother with one that is mediocre?

Another popular stop for buying food for late nights at work — and it very much satisfies. Until I head to India-​proper, I will leave it to the ex-​pats to let you know how authentic it is — I get the impression that it’s not like what you would get in the country itself.
It claims it’s a Unique Indian Restaurant — but for Boston it’s similar to other places i have been (Bombay Club, Rani, Tanjore) — and it competes heartily. It’s a nice standard in Allston Village

In a neighborhood where you have your pick of Indian places, I have to say when I’m in the mood for a dosa, Rangoli is where I head (okay, so maybe that’s because it’s the only place you can get a good masala dosa but whatever).
In most regards, the food is pretty typical fare (good, not great) but I will agree that the chicken saag is excellent.
They have a pretty expansive menu (or used to) and most dishes are relatively mild, so it’s a good choice for taking friends who have delicate spice taste buds or are first-​timers.

Rangoli has 2 things that are amazing and must be tried by all…
First — Their Chat Pappri or any chat for that matter. This could be an appetizer or just an evening snack with some chai. They make is better than any other place in the area.
The second is their Choles (Chick Peas) and Batura (Deep Fried Bread) This is a north Indian specialty by these guys do it better than most so called «Punjabi» places.
I would not recommend their meat dishes. Their Dosas are very good but not amazing. There are 2 parts to the Dosa. One is the Dosa and the other is the Sambar (Liquid you dip the Dosa) For the spice lovers this is not very spicy. So I give it a 7 out of 10.
The main thing about this place is the guys that work there are real cool and very helpful.
I also second the Naan comments. Their Naan basket is great and a fantastic way to try out many different kinds of Naans for the first timers.

Great food!!! Went for lunch this afternoon and got chaats to start with and then pav bhaji (bombay bhaji with roll) and masala dosa!
And when I was walking out — I noticed the «People at Unilocal love us» sticker and knew this was the right choice!

Good lunch buffet. Only a few choices were out today, but they were all extremely good. The cauliflower curry was nice and spicy. The chicken tikka masala was wonderful.
They advertise themselves as a «unique» Indian restaurant, but it seemed to be a pretty standard lunch buffet. (Don’t get me wrong… my only complaint about the buffet was the lack of choices) Perhaps there is something more interesting on the dinner menu.

I can’t compare this to other Indian restaurants since I haven’t tried that many. However, my experience here was great. The food was a great balance of heat and flavor.
The service was great with recommendations. The only downfall is that the street parking is horrible, but the food makes up for it.

I have become quite a regular here. I absolutely love the masala dosa and the fresh lime soda (Indian lemonade) here. The service is very friendly and the service is fast too. My friend is always complaining that the food is not spicy enough, so every time we come in, the server gets us a little dish with spicy powder in it. Sweet :)
Update — I forgot to mention, their food is very authentic. The saag chicken is a must try for everyone if you like spinach. Also, I made my friend try Limca (Indian soda) and he’s hooked!

This place had the best tasting Indian food I have ever eaten. The menu had a lot of variety and had some styles I had not tried or even heard of. Waiters were extremely nice and it was nice a relaxed in there… for some reason it was Friday at around 8:30 when we went but only 4 tables were filled. Dinner was about $ 10 – 12 a plate and a 22oz. bottle of Indian beer (Taj Mahal) was $ 7.
I look forward to going back to eat here often. Delicious!

I have no idea why this place was practically empty when we went. It was a Friday night at peak dinner hour, but the restaurant was nearly deserted. However, this emptiness is for no good reason whatsoever! If you want a quality, quiet place to eat, then take advantage of other people’s ignorance, especially if you like South Indian food.
After careful perusal of the menu, I ended up ordering the Rangoli specialties combo, which I thought was a great deal. Everything was good, and the dosa was enormous. I actually couldn’t finish it, and half of it is still sitting in the fridge for dinner tonight. The only thing I didn’t eat was the coconut chutney, but that’s just because I despise anything coconut. The only problem may be that South Indian food tends to be an acquired taste, or at least unique enough from the usual North Indian food at most restaurants, so some people might not like it initially.