1223 Merkley Ave
West Sacramento, CA 95691
Rating: 
In an odd location in West Sacramento, Pooja Indian Grill serves up authentic Indian cuisine in a great lunch buffet concept. In addition to the lunch buffet, the restaurant does offer a standard menu as well. Having made a reservation the day prior for our large group, we arrived right at opening time with a table already set for our group. Water was quickly poured for our table as we left to gather food.
Indian Naan bread was provided as part of the meal, which went well with any of the sauces from the meat dishes. We also ordered Garlic Naan, which added an amazing flavor to the bread and also went well with the meat sauces. Of all the items at the buffet, I mainly tried the meat dishes and the rice. The Biryani rice was well seasoned and was flavorful. I could have ate without the rice since the Naan bread went so well with any entree. The bright red Tandoori chicken was plentiful and came in many different types of pieces. Each bite of chicken tasted tender even though it looked dry on the outside. The chicken masala (butter chicken) tasted extremely tender and you can definitely taste the butter in the chicken. The sauce went best smothering the chicken and the naan. The lamb curry also tasted tender and the sauce delicious. There were many pieces that had a lot of meat, but also had chunks of fat, but that did not deter from the fresh aromatic flavors. The goat curry was similar to the lamb, but tasted even fresher and the sauce slightly different. Many of the pieces had a lot of bones, but you can eat around them. The fried fish tasted fresh and the batter was extremely crispy. You can taste a bit of spice in the batter used that also made the outside look redder. For desert, the gulub jamun are basically donught holes swimming in sweet syrup. Each hole tasted soggy on the outside and cake-like on the inside. You can taste a condensed milk flavor in the syrup, which tasted delicious. The mango ice cream soft serve was very light, and you can catch the mango flavor as an aftertaste. The ice cream is very solid and seems to have a lot of water content.
Overall, Pooja serves up some of the best Indian dishes in a very economical way with a $10 lunch buffet. Considering all the different entree options available for such a low price, Pooja offers so much food at such a great value. Having tried other Indian lunch buffets before, Pooja definitely serves up the best in the area. Service was consistent and friendly with multiple water refills performed throughout the lunch service, and naan refills provided when necessary. Most of the curries were not that spicy and were in more of the mild range. If you never tried Indian food, you definitely need to try it here. If you already tried Indian food, then you still must come to Pooja for the best Indian lunch buffet in town.
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