Mirchi Indian Cuisine

I did a few searches seeing if this restaurant turned up in any threads, but didn't find anything, so I thought I'd start one.

I just moved here from Kentucky about a year ago. In Kentucky, you don't have a whole lot of "ethnic" food, and while I'd traveled some I had never had authentic Thai, Vietnamese, nor Indian cuisine before moving to the area. Thai and Vietnamese were love at first sight, but after a few Indian buffets in the Chantilly area I was going to give up on that.

Then about 2 month ago we discovered Mirchi. Absolutely loved it. We were a little worried at first - the place is nothing great to look at, and the waiters are prompt but a little hard to converse with, but the food was fantastic. Have been back 5-6 times. Meals are reasonably priced, naan actually comes out warm, big variety on their menu. I checked out the lunch buffet once, honestly was not that impressed, but maybe the dishes in the buffet were not my thing.

I love restaurants that serve family style like this - I get to try everything. So between what my friends and I have ordered, I have sampled their Chile Chicken (very very hot), Lamb Fry (my favorite, slightly spicy chunks of fried lamb with basil and who knows what other spices), Cilantro Chicken (creamy milder dish), Tandoori Chicken (for the person who is scared to try more exotic things), Tikka Masala and Butter Chicken (both delicious of course, but after hearing how they're made - tons of butter/cream - I won't ever be eating again. try to stay away from that as possible, although I imagine the other things I get are probably nearly as bad).

The only things I was unhappy with ordering were the Chicken Fry (small pieces of boned chicken that tasted awesome but I was picking bones out of my teeth the whole meal which was annoying), the Garlic naan (naan literally covered in small chunks of garlic... not for me), and a ground lamb dumpling appetizer (forgot name, but it just wasnt enough quality/quantity to justify the 8-9$).

Anyways, it's right beside Let's Dish by the skating rink. I'm definitely not an Indian cuisine connoisseur but it's somewhere I'll be going regularly .

 

I recommend you try the lunch buffet at Banjara, which is in the Ashburn Village Shopping Center.

 

Interesting - just wondering which part of Kentucky you from? I have lived in KY for 13 years and moved in this area for about 3 yeas ago. I used to live in Lexington. We had 4 real indian restur. but all were do so dirty but food some reason always tasted good. Funny...hope you are a wildcats fan!!!though they are sucks this year.:rolleyes3:

 

I lived in Paducah (they got their first sushi place just as I moved to this area). Went to school at Transy in Lexington and then U of L though, more of Cardinal fan as they used to be the underdogs. Don't follow sports that much though.

 

Tried Banjara last night based off of recommendations here.

I would consider the quality of the food, the price, and the selection of items to be roughly the same at both restaurants.

I would consider the service at Banjara to be better mainly because our waiter was eager to actually discuss what we wanted to order, unlike Mirchi where it's hard to get more than a few words out of them.

However, I would say Mirchi wins hands down on the quantity of food served, and I enjoy having my leftovers be a second meal when I go out.

So I think we'll be going to Mirchi mostly, however if you're eating for the atmosphere or if you're new to Indian then I would without a doubt recommend Banjara over it.

Banjara seems like I very nicely run place though and I wish there were more meals in the week so I could support them all

 

I am a Banjara fan so I look forward to trying Mirchi soon.