Mad'Ras Indian Restaurant Den Haag — Restaurant in The Hague

Mad'Ras is located in a cozy little street, the Piet Heinstraat, in The Hague. Having never been to Mad'Ras before, but being familiar with Indian cuisine after trying various Indian restaurants throughout the world, I was eager to give it a try.

The first thing that stood out to me was the décor, which differs from traditional Indian places that are typically decorated in a more classic style. This restaurant looks more Western: neatly laid tables, nice cutlery, plates, and napkins. We were seated at a lovely table by the window overlooking the busy Piet Heinstraat. My first impressions were really good.

We were greeted nicely, and we ordered our drinks and food. We had the butter chicken, saag paneer, and tikka masala. Two dishes with rice, one dish with plain naan, and a shared portion of garlic naan for all of us. To say that everything looked and tasted amazing is an understatement, as you can see from the photo I took. Each dish was beautifully rich in flavor, and the chicken was grilled (I assume, based on the taste) to perfection. It gave each curry that typical charred chicken taste--amazing! The curry had the perfect consistency and tasted fantastic.

One of the last Indian restaurants that surprised me as much as this one was the Punjab Restaurant in Covent Garden, London. My party told me that this was the best Indian food they had ever had, and I could not really disagree with them. This was exceptional.

The food was well portioned, and they served us plenty of rice, which was a huge plus.

I do have a critical note because I want to be fully transparent to whoever reads this review. I don't eat out a whole lot, but I thought their drinks menu was a little on the pricey side. I understand that everyone is dealing with inflation, but €4.50 for a Hertog Jan beer, to me, is a bit much. However, the food is reasonably priced, and honestly, it was really, really good.

All in all, I would highly recommend eating here:

Friendly staff Place is clean and well decorated Beautiful presentation of the dishes Tasted absolutely amazing The garlic naan was perfect

Pricey drinks (€6.50 for a glass of white wine, €4.50 for a beer, although their house wine, a Cabernet Sauvignon, was of high quality and paired really well...

Delightful place to have truly authentic Indian food in Den Haag. This place is strategically located close to the Tram station and in the middle of a street that's filled with lovely restaurants offering incredible variety in cuisine.

Mad'Ras serves some really good wine as well, not your conventional labels though. Romania, Lebanon, Austria make a distinct appearance.

We had Paneer Tikka and Chicken Tikka along with some Pappadum and an assortment of chutneys. Absolutely delectable stuff, well presented.

Then we moved to the signature Chicken Mad'Ras, a home-style onion based dark gravy with succulent pieces of chicken. And we got the Mutton Rogan Josh. It's probably safe to say this might be the best this country has to offer. We savored these with a Butter Naan and some Steamed Rice.

Rounded things off with a Mango Mousse. Given the quality of mangoes available here, this one is definitely a Chef's Creation.

But the real highlight of this place is the owner Vinoth. A young, passionate man from India with culinary experience spanning over a decade, Vinoth is extremely hands on, always smiling, chatty with the guests and amazingly large-hearted. Clearly for this entrepreneur, profits are secondary. Customer delight and quality of food served is his #1 priority.

I highly recommend this place to anyone visiting the Netherlands. Even if you are in Amsterdam or Rotterdam or other bigger cities, make a date at Mad'Ras and you will not be disappointed. Of course, you can...

Amazing find in The Hague for authentic Indian food - these guys have kept the flavours like how we get them in India, not how you typically get in Indian restaurants in Europe. They make their own masala from spices, the menu is inspired by the amazing Dhaba by Claridges (which is now in many places in India) and the flavours are very close to the inspiration. The spice level is right, and high spice doesn't always mean heat, but rather the blend of flavour and they have found that right balance. The owner Vinoth is super friendly and a serial restauranteur with 10 years of experience with North Indian food - the staff is amazing and they made us feel welcome and happy. To cater to the very low spice threshold of our son, they made a custom Chicken Malai Tikka gravy which he loved (this should be on the menu). We ended up eating dinner twice in three days - first dine in from which I can recommend Mutton Roghan Josh, Tandoori Prawns, Paneer Tikka, Tandoori Mushrooms, Dal Makhni, Chilli Garlic Naans and Plain Naans. For the delivery we tried Paneer Khurchan, Chicken Tikka Masala (this is what Chicken Tikka Masala would have been like if India did invent it :-D) and Green Peas Tikka - which was all very yum!

The restaurant is about 3 months old at this time (Feb 2024) and I hope they continue to do well because we want come back to The Hague and eat here...