All India Cafe

All India cafe location is in the heart of old town Pasadena.I would recommend to go with friend or for casual date.we Specialy like their chicken Tikka masala and fish Tikka.All India food a soon as we walked in the door then served pleasantly greeled us and seated us because of food and service is fantastic thats why All India cafe is our favorite Indian Restaurent in Pasadena.

Pros: Best crossants in town

Posted 10/24/09

I thought the chutney was salsa it didn't even taste like chutney. They messed up my order and brought me tofu instead of paneer. When I told them that they brought me tofu they didn't think it was tofu but they finally realized it and said oh ok and brought me the right thing but i had to wait while everyone else at my table was eating. we asked for medium spicy and the food wasn't spicy at all it actually tasted sweet.

Pros: none

Cons: food doesn't even taste indian

Posted 06/21/09

I should have known something was amiss when the waitress didn't know what "vindaloo" was. Soon thereafter, I was served a dish that was so unlike lamb vindaloo (and so remarkably identical in taste to a salsbury steak tv dinner) that I had to ask -- are you SURE that this is lamb vindaloo? I was assured that it was vindaloo. But I can tell you with some certainty that a Big Mac would have been closer to lamb vindaloo than the alpo super chunky meat slop that I was served. Everything on my plate -- and on the plate of the person eating with me -- was a miserable, tasteless culinary disaster. I love indian food, and I am not a food snob, but this was so utterly horrible that I had the overwhelming urge to warn every person entering All India Cafe to turn around and run away, as fast as their legs could carry them.

Pros: the iced tea was quite good

Cons: every dish now lives in my nightmares

Posted 06/02/09

Our favorite Indian restaurant in Pasadena. Great food, great selection. Service can be a bit casual (polite word for slow), but we keep coming back because of the food. We especially like their curries and breads. Quantity is great, too.

Pros: Great food

Cons: Service a little slow

Posted 05/03/09

Food is not impressive, sorry...

Posted 03/03/09

All India Cafe had the best indian food i ever tasted. There service was really good. I really liked the Samosas , Chicken tikka masala and Tandoori Platter.

Posted 09/11/08

It has good food but it's highly overpriced! The chicken dishes are really good and highly recommended with naan

Posted 06/01/08

I tried All India Cafe for lunch last week. The Chicken Tikka Masala was out of this world! The flavor was so wonderful I forgot to ask for chutney which I usually need for extra spice. Make sure you order the Naan (Indian bread) it is soft and fluffy and warm like they just baked it. Try dipping the Naan in everything or eat it like a burrito with the rice and tikka masala inside...omg my mouth is watering thinking about it! Also I LOVED the dressing on my salad, it had the right amount of tangy and delicious. They do catering too so hopefully I can get my company to venture away from the boring sandwiches at our meetings.

Pros: AWESOME Indian food....period.

Cons: Street prking is hard in Old Pasadena so use the lot across the street

Posted 03/03/08

i am huge fan of indian food, in 2 years i have more than 50 indian cuisines all over california.
the owner, not a waiter rushed us through our dinner, greedy to seat the next customers on our table. the food was awful and the service was so rude!!!!!!!!!!
this place is owned by the biggest unprofessional, i have ever seen in my life. HE JUST WANTS YOUR MONEY.
IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME GO SEE FOR YOURSELF...
but don't worry, there are a plenty of other good indian restaurants in l.a.

thank you

Pros: everything they don't cook there, beer

Cons: food, service, owner

Posted 03/01/08

Good location is always a plus for me. All India Cafe is in the heart of Old Town Pasadena, a venue exhibiting class and culture. The restaurant is not the most romantic place, but suffices for a nice casual date. The Chicken Tikka and Chicken Tikka Masala are a must! Great savory dishes and a nice change of pace.

Posted 12/26/07

Only been there for dinner several times and each time the food was consistently good. Great Bengan Bharta (not sure about the spelling, but it's the eggplant dish), best I've had. Their tikka marsala sauce is very good, too. I have to agree that service is slow, but generally friendly. If I'm super hungry or in a hurry and need to eat and run I'll probably go somewhere with faster service. Otherwise It's a cozy little place to enjoy a casual evening with friends.

Pros: Great food

Cons: slow service

Posted 10/24/07

Small little restaurant just south of the Colorado Blvd. crowd. Their lunch specials are really good...you get an entree with basmati rice, a salad and naan. Their samosas are a great starter. Their garlic naan is so good...I always get two orders of it! They don't have much of a wine list but you can order Indian beer. I recommend ordering it for pick-up so you don't have to deal with Pasadena parking.

Pros: Great lunch specials

Cons: Parking, slow service

Posted 09/05/07

I like Indian food- crave it- look for it in different cities. And this one's just not up to par. The flavors are dumbed down, the portion small, the wait long, and the place claustrophobic. Yeah.. not sure why the long line- I went there about four times...(not my choice- different friends wanna try their first exposure to Indian food- and we happen to be at Pasadena at the time and being geographically retarded, this is the only place I know.) And everytime, I'm like.. oh.. umm.. no. This place makes me crave Good Indian food. So I go to Mahan in Alhambra (the cooks are really from India there, the place romantic, and the flavors authentic), or to the one by my work, Star of India. Yeah.. but.. no. This place.. no.

Pros: It's food and in general, food gives you energy.. but if you're looking for good food... look elsewhere.

Cons: Food mostly..

Posted 09/02/07

What a pity to see negative reviews of this restaurant. Okay, maybe I can agree with the comments about poor service. They're not prompt, and they don't come to your table very often. But I can overlook this because the food has always been so fabulous when I've eaten there. I've never ordered a dish that I didn't love. Some of my favorites are the light and crispy Samosas with that flavorful dipping sauce, the Palak Paneer, and my all-time favorite - the Shahi Paneer. The Shahi Paneer is the best I've ever had. Creamy, flavorful, filling. Add an order of their fluffy naan to that and I'm one step closer to nirvana. Their hot chai is also satisfyingly spicy and great for a cool Pasadena evening. The price is more than reasonable, especially if you go for lunch and get the lunch specials. The atmosphere is romantic, but a bit crowded since it's in one of the skinny old buildings in Old Town. Parking is convenient - there's a 90 minute free lot right across the street. I always take friends and family here when I have a chance, and I always enjoy it.

Pros: great food for a good price, convenient parking

Cons: slow service

Posted 02/24/07

Good service. Tasty food. It takes a long time to get the food, though. Overall experience is not disappointing. We'll certainly go back.

Pros: Good food. Polite service.

Cons: Small dining area. It takes 25 minutes to get the food!

Posted 01/11/07

Great place for lunch or dinner on any given day/night. Very casual space. Great food. Good service. Good value. My husband and I have been tried many Indian restaurants and my husband's favorite dish is, of course, the popular chicken tikka masala.... and he claims that ALL INDIA makes the BEST chicken tikka masala... and I may just have to agree..... =]

Posted 11/16/06

We used to love eating Indian food at San Francisco - from hole in the wall authentic Indian cuisine that costs $15 for two and unlimited Chai tea to fusion Indian $100 bills. All India Cafe is one of the "not recommended" place. We went on a Sunday night and there was no line. However the waiter right in front of us was not attentive to even greet us that another waiter had to step in to greet us and show us our table. This is the first Indian restaurant I've been to where the waiters are Indian. The food choices are limited and the items we ordered looked and tasted nothing like the other Indian restaurants.

Although the food is not bad, it is tasty in a different way. The use of spices just makes their food "hot". The iced chai tea is okay, but with no strong flavors detectable in an Indian chai tea.

Service is very slow from sitting down and waiting on a practically half-filled restaurant, to waiting for the food, and asking for the check more than once.

The saving grace is the relatively nice, dark ambiance with candles on each table and a very attentive young Indian girl (perhaps the daughter of the owner) who was concerned with our needs than the multiple waiters going around for nothing.

If I was hungry, it would be a restaurant to patronize. If I were craving for Indian food, this isn't worth recommending.

Pros: Good dark ambiance, candle light on each table, quiet

Cons: Not an authentic Indian taste, Slow service food preparation to being waited upon

Posted 06/10/06

I have eaten at this restaurant multiple times and always liked the food, but I just had an experence so negative that I will never go back. I invited five guests for dinner on a Saturday evening. At the end of the meal the staff whisked away our plates before we were all finished eating. After I paid the bill, we were talking and preparing to leave when the waiter appeared at the table. We were told the manager had instructed him to ask us to leave because other people were waiting for a table. We had been at the restuarant for less than an hour and were not loud or disruptive. I have never been treated so rudely in any restaurant. My guests were shocked and felt the same way. There are plenty of good restaurants in L.A. I won't spend my time or money at this one again.

Posted 05/13/06

My girlfriend and I have eaten here three times (always in a larger group, which is not necessarily the best way to experience a restaurant) but have been disappointed often enough that we probably won't be going back.

The food is average at best; we enjoy spicy-hot food, but it's almost impossible to get the dishes cooked the way we like them. Some of the dishes are surprisingly bland given the array of spices used in Indian cooking and the vegetable selection is oddly limited.

The service is good, especially as we have been there in a group of six or more people, but overall the food doesn't merit recommendation.

Pros: Interesting Wine List, Adjacent Parking Lot

Cons: Bland Food

Posted 05/11/06

I was really surprised to see nefgative comments for All India cafe. It is the best Indian restaurant I have ever seen in LA. There food are very very good and consistently good. I have been to india and had Indian Cuisine there. I feel no difference. Even tastier and healthier than what I had in India. There food are great, good service and owner's personal attention to what is being delivered to customer had impressed me a lot. If I ever want to go to any Indian restaurant that will be All India Cafe and All India Cafe only, where Indian cuisine is at its best!!!!!

Posted 03/18/06

I LOVE Indian foodI cannot tell you the countless restaurants from Los Angeles to New York City where I have enjoyed this savory cuisine. This restaurants' version of Indian cuisine was not like any I have ever tasted, and there have been some bad experiences. Every dish was worse than the previous. My wife thought that she could drown the tasteless food in alteast some of the traditional flavors of chutney, but those were like old jelly from your grandma's kitchen. I have to say that the wait staff was prompt and the ambiance was okay. I would definitely not recommend this restaurant if you are craving Indian food, I would recommend it if you can't get reservations anywhere else.

Pros: Prompt service

Cons: Food, price

Posted 03/03/06

I don't have to describe the menu, you'll have to see and experience it for yourself. The food is very, very good, no kidding! Their bread is like cotton (soft, tasty and not filling) the food is one of the best and on par with "Akbar" in its unique way. Both locations (Santa Monica & Pasadena) is nice, the owners and waiters are very nice and attentive. Again, aside from all that, food is number one priority and is the root of all rating.

Pros: Location, Food

Cons: Parking

Posted 08/14/04

My husband and I love Indian food!!! This is one of the best so far we've ever been to. My husband orders lamb makni and I order chicken bombay or shrimp tandoori. The food is very tasty!!!!!

Pros: delicious food, fair price, nice indian ambiance

Cons: crowded, slow service sometime, parking hard to find

Posted 01/26/03

If you're in the Old Pasadena area, don't pass up this restaurant... in my opinion it's simply the best Indian restaurant I've found in the greater LA area, and that includes many Indian restaurants [Paru's for example, which I don't think is even close and currently (11/5/02] rated much higher by CitySearch] in Little India on Pioneer Blvd. in Artesia.

Excellent food, prompt, courteous service, great lunch specials. Go with a group and everyone order something different so you can sample a wide range of the All India Cafe's cuisine.

Pros: Great food, Prompt Service, Courteous waiters

Cons: Old Pas parking, Small dining area

Posted 11/03/02

I've been to All India Cafe about 4 times and I've ordered the same thing EVERY time because it's SO good -- the Chicken Tikka Masala. The sauce is so wonderfully tasty, that I literally wipe the plate clean with naan. Yum!

Pros: convenient parking

Posted 08/29/02

If you're in Pasadena, and you say to yourself, "Self, I feel like some Indian food tonight", this is the place to go. Perfect for 2 to 4 people... you're always greeted at your table with the famous "cracker disk" and hot sauce. The food is great with enough diversity to satisfy everyone in your group. Try the Tandoori Platter or the Tikka Masala...vegetarians can get one of the assorted paneer dishes... and always get some nan.

Pros: Great food, Cracker Disk

Cons: A bit pricey

Posted 05/27/02