Desi Bites — Restaurant in Beaverton

Let me start by saying that, ever since they opened over a year ago, we’ve been loyal customers who have come in at least once or twice a month. We’ve always loved the food, the people, and the convenience of being able to get groceries and takeout from the same place. We’ve come with friends so many times and we’ve always had a good time.

But we will not come back after today’s experience.

My wife and I have talked about coming to their Wednesday chaat mela ($5 per chaat instead of $7) for a while and get a bunch of chaats to try out, and we got a Groupon of $40 to spend, so we thought this would be an amazing meal at a place we’ve loved for so long.

We got 3 chaats (aloo tikki chaat, samosa chaat, and papdi chaat), a vada pav, and two Hakka noodles (veg and chicken - our previous favorites).

We took them home as we’ve done many times before - less than 5 min drive, and we opened the containers and the disappointment began:

The vada pav, always the highlight before, was soggy, greasy, and tasteless. It was not as crispy and flavorful as before, but still, even a bad vada pav can’t be that bad. 1.5/5.

The chaats, for some reason, are almost IDENTICAL. Different bases (samosa vs aloo tikki, etc), but identical masala on top. Ok, fine, plenty of restaurants do this, what do I have to complain about for $5 per chaat - then at least give it FLAVOR, spice, heat, salt, tamarind chutney - anything that’s not this warm-ish soggy mess of brown goop with neither texture nor flavor. We’ve had their chaats before - it was NOT like this!!! 1/5, because at the end of the day, it was food.

Then we thought, at least there’s the Hakka noodles. Not this time. They look like overcooked spaghetti marinara - soggy, vaguely ketchup-y, and… that’s it. Medium spicy? I don’t think a single chili flake kissed the pan in the making of this dish. There was, again, neither texture nor flavor - though I did taste quite a bit of some kind of alkaline-y substance in my Hakka noodles that left behind a vaguely bitter and soapy aftertaste. This was not the Hakka noodles from this exact same store that had me coming back time and time again. 0.5/5.

I don’t know what happened since our last visit, which couldn’t have been more than a few weeks ago. Was it because we used Groupon? Was it because it was Wednesday chaat mela? Did the kitchen staff change? Did the recipes change? But, seriously, whatever it was, it’s not what it was before, and we will...

Desi Bites PDX is located right next to their grocery store, which is very convenient if you neeed to do some shopping. The grocery store itself is small compared to others in town, but it has the essentials you would need to make Indian food.

We have shopped at their grocery from time to time, but had not tried the restaurant before today. Finally we decided to come for lunch because we wanted to try the lunch Thalis.

The dining area was pretty simple with tables and a TV by the end of the dinning area which was playing Bollywood musicals in the background. We ordered at the counter and received our food at our table. We ordered a Vegetarian Thali, a Non-Vegetarian Thali, and shared a Mango Lassi. We enjoyed everything that we ordered.

Our server was very friendly and helpful, as he made sure that we understood how the Thalis worked after dropping off our plates. He made sure we understood what we ordered and what to do with the pickles and the yogurt sauce.

The food was yummy and the rice/naan was perfectly cooked. I liked all the curries and my fiance really loved the salad with the round crackers. Since I don't eat spicy food, I was happy that nothing was too spicy and everything was seasoned just right.

Since we ordered a vegetarian and a non vegetarian Thali, we tried each others food and decided that the meat does not necessarily add extra flavor to the curries. I was perfectly happy with my vegetarian curries as everything was savory and rich.

The portions were very generous, too. When the food was served, I was surprised to see so nmuch butter naan stacked on top of the large bed of basmati rice. "That's a lot of food" I said to myself once I saw the amount of food in front of me. We were both smitten with the food.

Overall, we were very happy to give Desi Bites a try. Not only the food was amazing, the price was very reasonable too. We would totally recommend Desi Bites to...

Daisy bites is a relatively new Indian style restaurant. My family and I have gone there probably a dozen or so times in the last year so about once a month on Saturdays for their full service buffet where they have a plethora of delicious Indian dishes. Both vegetarian and meat dishes as well. If you are a fan of Indian food, this is probably one of the best places that you can go to. As I said, you'll find a variety of food that's all freshly made and properly seasoned. They are also now specialize in making dishes from that area of the country. It's a very unique idea since oftentimes Indian restaurants will only focus on the style of food that they themselves are either experts or comfortable with and not experiment or be willing to take risks to implement other types of foods. Overall, the ambience here is nothing extraordinary. They have a back room that could be reserved for events for a corporate party or even a small wedding or get-together. But as far as decorations, it's nothing exceptional. That doesn't mean that the place is messy or dirty. It's actually very clean considering the amount of space that they have to work with. But whenever you go, you will always find that there is a busy Rush of people and right next door to it. Is it Indian grocery store where you can find a plethora of Indian spices and ingredients for Indian style food? This has quickly become my family 's go to and favorite spot for Indian food since we like the style the seasoning and obviously the quality of the food here and the best part is the prices are extremely reasonable. In fact, they are the cheapest Indian buffet in Beaverton and I hope they stay that way because that will guarantee them a long time. Success over the other competition will be going back here in the future and perhaps next time...