Cross Culture

This is the best Indian food in town. I always order the vegetarian samosas, naan, raita, and one or two vegetarian entrees and everything I’ve had has been great. My only problem with the food is that it isn’t very spicy and I always forget to ask them to make it spicy. I normally just ask for hot sauce and/​or cayenne pepper on the side. I also love that they are open until 10 so I can still satisfy my Indian food craving late night. Delicious! I highly recommend!
FYI: BYOB.

Love this place, best Indian food around. The vindaloo will knock your socks off!

I am incredibly picky when it comes to eating Indian food in restaurants being that I was spoiled my whole life with home-​cooked Indian food by my mom and other family members/​family friends. Not many Indian restaurants grab my attention. They usually are very heavy, use a lot of oil, don’t taste very good at all, make me feel gross after, etc. Cross Culture is one of the 4 Indian restaurants in the United States (so far that I’ve encountered in my 23 years of life) that I don’t mind going to. The food is always great, and the service is as well. I’ll always choose home cooked when it comes to Indian no matter what restaurant, but at least Cross Culture comes close. So if your standards are not as high as mine, and since I’ve been happy with their food — I guarantee you will be as well.

I wish there was a way to give a ½ star so I could rate this food 3.5 rather than just three as the food is yummy and deserving of four stars. The only reason I do not give four stars and will not order to-​go from them again is that they use Styrofoam for to-​go orders. I do not understand how an intelligent person still finds this acceptable when there are so many compostable and reusable alternatives (not that I am a fan of plastic, but at least some people will reuse them). I hope Cross Culture considers making this change. If so, 4 stars!

The food is very good, especially the dal fry if you like the simple food with not much tadka and all.
The A-​la Karte is bit on expensive side. But worth it once in a while.

i went there for lunch and the food was fresh (malai kofta and pakoras) but the naan was soft despite the fact that i requested it to be crispy.
maybe thats their style of making it but it was quite inedible

Excellent food !!! We tried a little bit of everything and not one complaint !!! A very casual place with a reasonably priced menu. A very pleasant staff. So glad I read other positive reviews about this place they are all spot on.

Like other reviews have said, this place is amazing! I had no idea this existed in Princeton Shopping Center. I came here for lunch the other day. I had thought that there would be a lunch buffet, but it was Sunday, so maybe not.
I liked that there was a separate lunch menu. I ordered the Chicken Tikka Masala. The chicken was delightful. It tasted like maybe it was seared first. The inside was very tender. There was an ample amount of meat in the Masala sauce.
The lunch special comes with a split pea or lentil soup along with pakoras, naan, and rice. Needless to say, I was very full and had enough leftover for another meal.
My boyfriend got the Chicken in the spinach sauce — I forget the name. I also recommend this one. I loved the creamed spinach.
We also got a mango lassi. I could tell they used real mangos. It was definitely one of the better mango lassi drinks I’ve had.

Excellent food. Will be my favorite choice to visit again. Friendly staff and very ambient atmosphere.

Great Indian food nearby is always a plus! My husband and I are regulars here– we love their samosas and their garlic naan, get them both every time! Their entrees are flavorful and the portions are just right. I would definitely recommend!

Don’t really have too much experience with Indian Cuisine, but this place is pretty awesome. The ambiance is just right, and the service is top notch. The food itself was also pretty awesome. Friend and I both got the lamb, tho seasoned (?) differently? Anyways, I think we should have just skipped the food and went to dessert tho. We got the Kulfi and it was. THE. BEST. THING. EVER.

This is our goto indian Resturant in the area. Food is very good, grilled items are excellent. Curries well made and balanced flavor and spice. Chicken and lamb curries are great. We did my in-​laws 50^th anniversary dinner here and the owners were very accommodating. Kids love the place. Takeout quality is also great. Keep in mind place gets busy on Friday and Saturdays.
Its BYOB… liquor store across the mall so very convenient.

I am what you might call a regular to Cross Cultures. It is worlds apart from other 4-​star rated Indian restaurants in the general vicinity. It is a touch more expensive but worth every penny.
Vegetarian dishes are heavenly. They are complex, satisfying, and flavorful. For a great treat try the tandoori paneer. Onion kulcha is classic.

Really enjoyed the samosas, garlic Naan and chicken tikka. If you don’t like things spicy, but like Indian food, this is the place to go!

The lunch specials are a great deal. It comes with pakora, naan, rice, daal, and your choice of entrée. My favorite dish is the chicken cashmere. It is a little difficult to get the entrée to come out with the right amount of spice level. It seems to come on the milder side, so even though I like the spice level medium, I ask for 10 out of 10 spiciness level.
**edit ¹⁄₂₀₁₆ the last two times I’ve been here, the spiciness level has increased. 8 out of 10 spiciness has the perfect amount of kick for me

Really good Indian food, everything is really authentic. A little on the expensive side compared to it’s competitors, but it’s par for the course in Princeton.
If you plan on eating here on the weekend, be sure to get reservations. It’s BYOB.

I went with my parents for Mother’s Day today, and she was very impressed! We ordered the Lamb Saagwali for my dad, a basket of garlic naan, the Mixed Tandoori Grill (which included chicken, mutton, salmon, and shrimp) as well as the Chicken Cashmere. As we didn’t make a reservation, we did wait about 30 minutes, but the waiter was very helpful in updating us on the seating situation, and also accommodating in bringing us an extra chair outdoors as well as packing us an extra box of rice. All were delicious sauces that we enjoyed, particularly the Chicken Cashmere with cashews and golden raisins in a cream sauce. The mango lassi was also the first positive experience I had with the right consistency.
The only thing I’d say would be disappointing is the Persian Falooda we ordered, which might just be because we read the description but didn’t realize it was a very odd combination of noodles embedded in the ice cream and fruit seeds, which was really weird and an odd texture.
That said, my mom would definitely bring her friends back, but perhaps stick with the safer mango desserts for next time.

Oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah!!! OK so you do have the option of getting take out (obviously…) but dining in at Cross Culture, especially for lunch, is definitely the way to go. Why, you ask? Oh, allow me to shine some light on this little gem.
It’s a BYOB. We are all aware of how that concept is my favorite concept, yes?
After you order they give you little fried shredded squash… things and suuuuuper super delicious dipping sauces — one spicy herb and one fruit. It’s like an amuse bouche! You don’t get those complimentary fritters with take out.
The menu is well organized and extraordinarily well explained for an Indian restaurant in this part of the state. I never had to ask my server to explain anything, even though they totally could have explained anything.
It’s the best Indian restaurant in this part of the state. And… therefore in the state I guess. Wow. That was a bold statement right there. But I don’t go anywhere else anymore. I’m a Cross Culture girl now.
The okra tomato dish is FANTASTIC.
They give you a scale when you ask for spice from 1 – 10. Tread carefully, my darlings. They mean business when you’re like…“sssseeeevennn???” And they smile inside because they know their seven is definitely NOT your seven. Also I think 1 – 10 scales are stupid because they’re so incredibly subjective and have no way to establish a baseline.
The price is right. I’m thinking about one time when I went with two friends and we ordered three dishes total to share, didn’t finish any of them, were all super full and satisfied, and each paid like 15 bucks with tip. We could have ordered two and paid 10 bucks probably and wouldn’t have had leftovers.
Just go. Trust me, it’s solid.

BYOB Indian restaurant tucked in a shopping plaza. Service and food are both ok. There were some unappetizing factors when about to eat a meal. More than one waiter smelled of body odor and another waiter walked around with a rag and spray bottle for tables. We had a wobbly table which I needed to request assistance with.
For the food, the naan was inconsistent. The first batch came out soft and moist. The second batch was much better more crispy and dryer. As for the entrees, we had chicken tiki masala, which was tough as it had not really cooked in the sauce and needed to soften and cook in the sauce more. We also have a spinach dish which was very good. Food came out really fast, like it might have been sitting in a steam table. We weren’t offered dessert. I think there are better options for Indian in the area.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my meal at Cross Culture. However, the dining experience did get off to a bit of a rocky start after being informed of a wait of 20 – 30 minutes, despite seeing multiple empty tables. I guess these were all reserved in advance by other parties, as the staff did seem to promptly seat those who had called ahead (Note to self…).
Apart from that, the experience was top notch. The chicken biryani and chicken saagwala my girlfriend and I shared were both delicious and the onion kulcha was definitely one of the better flatbreads I have had at an Indian restaurant. The kulcha was soft and doughy (rather than dry and overcooked, as is unfortunately quite common at other Indian restaurants) and the onions added the perfect amount of sweetness to the bread. The portions were of ample size and we each took home another meal’s worth of food. Service was excellent as well; both the waiters and help staff were very attentive and efficient.
The only downside of Cross Culture is the price! The price of each entrée seemed inflated by several dollars compared to what I have seen at other upscale suburban Indian restaurants. Not quite as bad as city prices, and I do understand Princeton is an affluent area, but this still caught me off guard. Fortunately the quality and quantity of the food were up to par, because otherwise I would not consider returning. However, as a result of the steep prices, I decided to forgo ordering an appetizer, as I typically will do at an Indian restaurant. I now regret this, given the high quality of the entrées, but hey, now I have even more motivation to return!