India Garden - Lakewood Gem

So its Saturday lunch time, the weather is beautiful and I am in the mood for Indian Food; having heard good things about India Gardens in Lakewood I hop on the motorcycle and cruise over to check them out. India Garden is located in a small unassuming building set back from the street at 18405 Detroit Road (see map here). Walking through the door you enter a much different atmosphere, the dining room seems larger on the inside and is done warm earth tone textured walls with red accents. The tables are nicely set with deep red tablecloths with Indian place mats topped with a glass cover. The overall look is warm, inviting and upscale, with Indian accents that don't overwhelm. A good start. At lunch time India Garden offers a lunch buffet for $8.95 and it looks good so I give it a try. The buffet starts with some salad, fruit, tomato soup then gets to the hot foods. On my visit there are four vegetarian dishes, 3 chicken dishes and a goat stew; I of course stayed on the vegetarian side, unfortunate because the other items did look good. The tomato soup was good with a mild but distinctive spice taste to compliment the rich tomato broth. The Pakora were deep fried vegetable appetizers were good, although the addition of the variety of sauces really upped the flavor quotient. The vegetarian entrees included a mushroom dish, cabbage and peas as well as two curry style dishes. All were very well flavored, the vegetables tasted fresh and the spices, while not overpowering, were very distinct and pungent. India Garden's website indicates that they roast their spices fresh each day and it comes through in the flavors of their food. This was some of the freshest tasting Indian food I have had. While the flavors are familiar they seem to be kicked up a bit over what we are used to, a real achievement especially on a buffet such as this. The buffet also has other items such as rice, very good nan which had a tendency to disappear as quickly as it came out, Indian pickles and chutneys. There were also some fresh fruit and two dessert items, in this case Carrot Halwa, which is chopped carrots mixed with sweet milk, nuts and raisins, kind of similar to a carrot cake and then homemade cheese soaked in a sweet syrup. Both were interesting and well prepared if a little different. Service was good, plates were cleared promptly, water was refilled and the buffet was well tended. In addition to the lunch buffet, India Garden offers a full menu that can be seen here. India Garden lives up to its fine reputation, this is one of the best Indian restaurants in the area. The lunch buffet is a good deal and if the regular menu items have the crisp distinctive flavors of the food I tried I can see why India Garden is so popular. Lakewood proves once again that it has some of the best restaurant in Northeast Ohio. Give them a try.