Gandhi Indian Restaurant

come back! we need you!

Decent food, kind of pricey (I think), same kitchen serves the better café next door.
**I just read the other reviews of Gandhi, which indicates that it’s now CLOSED… if that’s so, I imagine the café went with it… I’ll have to check ** :(
Gandhi’s is good Indian/​Bangladeshi food, but doesn’t really prove superior by any criteria. In the past, I’ve been for dinner and the buffet, and was happy both times without being super impressed. I’d say the best thing they do is their tandoori chicken, which is standard fare, but they do it really well. Their fish curry was maybe the least interesting dish I’ve tried. Slightly tough fish (means it’s overdone) and a bone-​piece or two meant I wasn’t looking forward for more. For what you get, I think the menu prices are a little much.
Actually, compared to the menu prices next door, which is a small Bangladeshi café, that shares the same kitchen, and actually shares an entrance between the two restaurants, Gandhi’s feels a bit like a rip-​off. While the menus are definitely different, there is some similarity. The café (whose name I can’t find… anyone know? msg me and I’ll write up a separate review), because it’s so obviously owned and operated by the same people, seems to be selling cheap but totally delicious lunch variations of the Ghandi menu… and the prices are so different I’m suspecting they’re catering to two very different clientele. Both times I’ve been to the café, I’ve got a ton of spicy treats for very little cash, and while the décor is nothing special (diner tables sitting under two TVs showing Bangladeshi news channels), the food really shines. I’ve had the curried lamb, the samosas, their potato and cilantro hash, and their desserts… all of which greatly pleased.
Given the two options, you’ll save a ton of cash (and time) by ordering form the café. You miss out on some of the perks of being waited on, but I think the food more than makes up for the other’s performance.

Excellent food and good service. Our chicken tikka masala, chana masala, raita, and naan were all delicious. Better atmosphere and a liquor license could help…

Wasn’t really impressed. For $ 9, I would have expected more than 9 – 10 small chunks of chicken in a gallon of sauce. The chicken was dry, the sauce was okay. Everything needed salt, which is quite unusual for Indian food in my experience. The samosas weren’t spicy! WTF! That’s the point of samosas! Really disappointed there. The naan was quite good though, but strangely they pack it in a hoagie bag when you get it to go, lol.
Basically the food was okay… waaaay overpriced.

Went in for lunch on a Sunday. Only one other table was filled, and they had already gotten their food. I love Indian food and usually order aloo gobhi, my favorite dish, to serve as a benchmark for quality. With the raving reviews this place has received on here, I was expected to be blown away.
What I received was incredibly disappointing. For starters, the potatoes were undercooked, so I had to flag down the waiter and send it back. I have NEVER ONCE sent a dish back — ever. So I am NOT one of those people. However, since the portion was so small and mostly potatoes, I had no choice. The potatoes were basically raw and not edible.
Second time it comes out, the potatoes are just dandy, but the dish suffered from a lack of spice and flavor, despite ordering it medium spicy. Again, not bad at all and still far better than the crap they try to pass off as Indian cuisine at Star of India, but rather bland.
On top of all this, the service was subpar. The server had no problem taking the dish back and getting it recooked after I flagged him down, so he gets points for that. Yet he never apologized. On top of that, he neither took anything off of the bill nor did he come back to check on our table once during our dining experience. Again, there was only one other table in the restaurant. After he brought us the bill, we waited 10 minutes for him to come get the check (he was up at the bar talking to someone else) before I took the bill up myself. Again, I don’t have a problem doing that if that’s the type of place, but there’s no counter or register visible.
Despite this deplorable experience, I’m going to give it a second chance because …
1) Everyone else on here seems to rave about this place. So I will give it another chance, perhaps during dinner when it’s busier.
2) The samosas were decent and getting a tray of coriander and chutneys was a nice touch.
3) The food itself wasn’t awful — once I got it cooked fully.
4) I like the ambiance.
5) I am not one of those types to blacklist a restaurant because of just one crappy waiter or waitress. It’s not fair to the owners and chefs.
If the place is great the second time around, I’m happy to forgive and forget and rate ‘em like this mess never happened. However, if I go back a second time and have such an experience again, I shalt not hesitate to strike them down to 1.

The menu here is influenced by bangladeshi cuisine, and might not have some of your typical Indian restaurants’ standards. I don’t think I saw a single paneer item. With Palak Paneer being my go-​to Indian dish, I broke into a cold sweat and felt my mind freeze trying to deal with the litany of delicious-​sounding vegetarian dishes on the menu, many of which incorporated the mushroom — a recent addition to Indian cuisine in India, where apparently people in certain parts of the country are going bananas for fungi (according to a roomie of mine who just worked for an AIDS organization over there).
I had the mushroom biryani, which was flavorful and delicious, tasting of almonds, with some crunchy bits that I was unaccustomed to, but which made the texture of the dish really pop.
Tablemates got a chicken dish in a very lightly sweet and sour sauce, with lentils. It was definitely spicy — something not mentioned in the on-​menu description. It was okay. The chicken was a little tough, and the flavor a little bland compared to everything else.
Our other tablemates ordered a veggie dish — can’t remember the name — but it was potatoes and cauliflower and a few other veggies simmered in a delicious, creamy, curry-​like sauce.
We also got the appetizer sampler. The samosa was perfect, as were the pakora, but the lamb came out cold and was a little flavorless for lamb, and the chicken tikka was also chewy and a little lifeless.
The mango lassi was AMAZING. Oh, and we somehow got all this food — a feast for four people — for less than $ 30.
Highly recommended! But I’d say — stick with the veggie dishes. Even if you aren’t a vegetarian.

From the outside, you have no idea if you are going into a restaurant, a crack den, or a dive bar. But once you get inside, you are surprised! How nice! They dusted the fake flowers!
The naan is out of this world here. Soft, crispy, chewy, thick, delicious, with little seeds of awesomeness. Extremely satisfying.
V got me to go here because he said this place was the most like «home food» for him — meaning not an absurd about of cream or ghee in the sauces. It’s extremely satisfying without putting you into that Indian food coma I am so familiar to.
However… even V warned me before we went — that their meats are decimated in dryness. Tough, dry, and inedible to me.
It’s the veggie dishes here that are FTW. The veggie samosa are the best (filled with my favorite: PEAS!)… and the sauces are dead on.
Just … pass on the meats. Unless you want something so dry you have to drink water to swallow.

I love ghandi!
Every entrée and appetizer we’ve sampled has been excellent, and they have great chutney’s (the best I’ve had in the metro detroit area). Prices are great, and service is always exceptional.

I think naming a restaurant «Gandhi» has a black humor to it, considering that one of his forms of peaceful protest was the hunger strike. That said …
I think I was impressed with Gandhi’s vegetarian menu. I love the way they do chicken, and sometime or other I will try their lamb dishes, but I was in a vegetarian mood last time I ate there. The mushroom saag, like all saags on the menu, has a spinach component to it. The menu also includes appetizers with goat meat.
There is nothing austere about the vegetarian selections. Like the rest of the menu, the dishes are well seasoned and expertly prepared. Meals come with basmati rice with tiny, slivered, fried onions on top.
Sometime or other I’m going to get a dessert other than the rice pudding, which is golden and creamy. I also want to get a lhassi with rosewater. It’s not on the menu, but they will make it for you.
The décor is quite nice without being ostentatious. You could feel comfortable either dressed up or dressed down.

I love Gandhi!
Well, OK, it’s probably not too cool to say you *don’t* like Gandhi, but in this particular case, I’m talking about the delicious Indian restaurant, not the political and spiritual leader (though I admire him, too, of course, of course).
I was glad that Tim reminded me that this place existed. I seemed to recall it from several years ago, and while I can’t say for certain, when I entered, it did feel like I’d been here before — perhaps when I lived a little closer by.
As Tim mentions, the prices are extremely reasonable. I wouldn’t necessarily apply the «fine dining» tag, but our meal was very pleasant — with both wonderful food and attentive service.
We started off with the Samosas, which were good — I’d say on par with Madras Masala’s in Ann Arbor. I had the Aloo Mutter, and it was so good that I ended up overstuffing myself a bit! The nan was wonderfully soft, though I could have gone for even a little more garlic on the garlic version.
My friends had several other dishes including Tandoori Chicken (which smelled amazing), a fish dish, and another veggie dish (perhaps Muttar Paneer?), and everyone was very happy with their selections.
The only difficulty was then to head down the street to the Hamtramck Blowout and try to fit beer into our stuffed bellies!

Want to have a fine-​dining experience without the fine-​dining price tag? This simply elegant Bangladeshi/​Indian restaurant is the answer to your search. Co-​owner, Mohammed Ahad, is the definitive gracious host who greets you with a pleasant smile and words of sincere welcome. The atmosphere, surprisingly, manages to balance sophistication with a refreshing, come-​as-​you-​are vibe. This is a rare quality for any restaurant to possess.
The food is very well prepared, generously portioned and tasty. You could make a meal out of their mixed platter appetizer alone. It features a great-​tasting vegetable somosa, lamb sheekh kebobs, chicken tikka and crispy vegetable pakura fritters. I don’t know the names of the dipping sauces but I can tell you that the brown one is delectable and sweet and the creamy green one has a spicy kick.
Either the lamb, chicken or mushroom saag I can attest to being very good. The chicken tikka massala is also tender and rich. The basmati rice is not too dry or sticky and has an inviting aroma. Their freshly baked variety of flat breads are warm and savory. The mango lassi is a sweet treat as is their saffron-​infused rice pudding.
Any of the entrées are worthy of a try. Be warned, some dishes take a little longer than others to prepare. The recently updated menu is extensive and can be daunting. However, the smartly uniformed staff is quick to assist the unfamiliar guest.
When I asked Mr. Ahad about needing a reservation for a large group, he said to call just 15 minutes before you arrive so they can make the necessary preparations.
Side note: their lunch buffet is a dollar more than what is listed on their website. (Mr. Ahad said he has been having problems with the London-​based web host service.)