Indian Oven — Restaurant in Vancouver

Have had food from Indian Oven on many occasions due to family members ordering delivery regularly. Today went in with my daughter for lunch, and was pleasantly surprised with the peaceful atmosphere (as opposed to restaurants playing loud inappropriate (for the venue) music, radio stations, or highly annoying TVs, etc.). It's on the second floor at 4th and Arbutus, so somewhat away from street noise too.

Indian Oven has a terrific lunch special thali with paneer ($13) or chicken ($15) in butter sauce, chana masala (chickpeas), basmati rice, large naan and a lovely crisp pickle/salad – a very nice condiment for the curries – which were not spicy hot, by the way. We also had masala chai ($5), which had a very pleasant flavour. I often find chai has too much pepper or too much of something that makes it bitter or too strongly flavoured, but this was very nice. It was served in individual teapots.

Every food item I have ever had from Indian Oven has been delicious, especially (to me) the Malai Kofta (vegetable/paneer balls in a creamy sauce) and Palak Paneer (my very favourite) paneer cubes in spinach. Both outstanding at Indian Oven.

We all know how expensive it is to eat out these days, and with these lunch specials at Indian Oven the place should be packed. The food was delicious and too much to eat in one sitting, so leftovers were taken home.

Next time you're out and about on West 4th in Kits and feel the hunger coming on, take yourself up those stairs to an Indian oasis and enjoy a complete lunch for an...

Celebrating a senior's birthday, 4 of us agreed to Indian Oven for our first contact with them. The reservation process was easy and I could leave notice that one of us had Celiac Disease. I also emailed to see if they had gluten free options. They responded to say they had many dishes that were gluten free, or could be made gluten free easily. We decided to go and are very glad we did! The chef owner himself came out to talk directly to me about my food options, assisting the four of us to order a variety of foods almost all of which were gluten free! They ordered naan (very fluffy) while I ordered the gluten free roti right off the menu. The chef was knowledgeable about food restrictions, and all the staff were very good about keeping the gluten food away from the gluten free! We ordered 4 gluten free share plates (Lamb Rogan Josh, Chicken Tikka Masala, Aloo Gobi plus the Indian Oven Grill, a mixed share plate with Fish Tikka and Prawns, tandoori chicken and chicken tikka, seekh kebab that was wonderful for the other three; I was served the chicken tikka separate from this plate. Veg Jalfrezi rounded out our meal, coupled with a very good plain rice. We also had a litre of wine to share at reasonable cost. All in, we agreed that we must return and enjoy other dishes - for the menu is extensive. No better...

Had a satisfying late lunch here as first time customers! Ordered a Chicken Combo (Lunch Special), Chicken Curry, Kheer and a Veg Biryani (to-go). The curries had a good depth of flavour and as requested when ordering, were quite mild in spice level. I did think that the chicken pieces were a tad on the drier side, but eaten with the curry, it wasn't an issue! The lunch special was a good price at around $15, and had both rice and naan as bases for the curries. The kheer was sweet and had a strong enough cardamom/rose flavour. The biryani was fantastic and had a good mix of vegetables (green beans, peas, peppers, carrots, potato and cauliflower)! We thought the food was reasonably priced for the portions. With the curries by themselves, you do have to pay additional to order rice or naan (it's not included in the price). I'd return if in the area for the lunch special or the biryani.

Service was good, with whom we imagine is the owner/manager running the FOH solo. We did have to wait a bit to flag them down, but they were attentive enough. We did dine at an off-peak time. The restaurant itself was a bit outdated, but clean! It's on the second floor...