pooja indian grill

indian food is hard to come by in this town. i used to frequent a place up in roseville called bombay bistro. they have a killer lunch buffet, which tells you it is real indian food, and it was as cheap as could be. i found them a few years ago while pouring wine at the grape and gourmet. a few weeks ago, cooper and i set out to find some indian food on a sunday afternoon and ended up at bombay bar and grill on 16th st. it was pretty good, but VERY expensive, and it was no damn buffet...

i heard that this place in west sac is good and it has a lunch buffet, so i decided to give it a go...

http://poojaindiangrill.com/

pooja indian grill is not a super swanky place. it doesn't really matter to me as long as the place is clean and the service is good, but i did take note.
the first sign that it is not a super swanky place is the location. it is on merkley ave one block east of jefferson in west sacramento.
the second sign that it is not a super swanky place is the fact that the basmati rice was being served out of a regular old white with flowers on it like your grandma used to have crock pot.

swankiness did not seem to matter.

the food here is rocking good. there were 12 main dishes, 3 desserts (not including the mango ice cream soft serve, which i will address later), and 6 different chutneys, yogurts, and garnishes, all of which looked fresh and homemade. everything i tried was delicious, with a few notable highlights:

• the aloo tikki (deep fried potato patties) were fresh, hot, and had a nice flavor.
• the saang paneer (homemade cheese with creamed spinach) was savory and satisfying.
• (i am a total sucker for chicken tikki masala. i know that it is not a traditional indian dish. i don't really care. i like it and it makes me happy. they didn't have any on the buffet. i was kind of bummed. what they did have in it's place blew my head off.) the chicken makhni (butter chicken with nuts) was off the hook. it is like chicken tikki masala except instead of pan fried chicken they use tandori (bar-b-qued) chicken which gave the dish a slightly smokey flavor...awesome. there was also a tofu equivalent on the line that was equally as good, but less meaty.
• fresh and hot naan was delivered to our table by an indian looking gentleman who would not stop smiling.

every one of the three dessert options satisfied my sweet tooth. there was kheer (traditional rice pudding), rasmalai (homemade cheese in a sweet sauce with nuts), and gulab jamun (the sign over this dish on the buffet line simply said "sugar balls" which made me laugh out loud, earning me a dirty look from the state worker behind me in line). to top it all off, there was a soft serve machine that dispensed the most ridiculous looking cal trans orange dog turd piles of mango ice cream imaginable. i couldn't stop staring and giggling, but i had to give it a try...it was delicious, although the texture was bizarre compared to normal soft serve...very funny stuff, and fun to eat.

the bill for two came to $19.55 after tax, which is pretty goddamned cheap for an all you can shovel in affair....

if you plan on going in for lunch, give me a call...it will be a regular stop for me.