Naga’s South Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Houston

I’ve lived in the US for over 20 years, and I can confidently say I have never had a dining experience anything quite like this. I understand that busy days happen, but the lack of preparation and organization at this restaurant was astonishing. There were only 4–5 front-of-house staff attempting to manage hundreds of guests, and the result was pure chaos.

We waiting nearly 2 hours for a table, despite arriving pretty early and getting on the waitlist. Meanwhile, people who weren’t even on the list casually walked in and grabbed tables, with no staff stopping them. The front area of the restaurant was a packed mess, people were crammed shoulder to shoulder, some even grabbing plates and eating while waiting, something I’ve never seen before at any restaurant.

The dining environment was chaotic and unorganized. Guests wandered around with plates in their hands, eating while standing, or while waiting for a table. The waiting area felt more like an Indian food market than a restaurant. Toddlers were running around the dining area unsupervised, throwing utensils, and screaming, which made it impossible to enjoy my meal peacefully. Water was served in bottles instead of glasses—not that I minded, considering the state of the dining area.

After such a long wait, I was hoping the food would redeem the experience, but I was wrong. Average at best would be a generous description. With such large crowds, you’d expect the staff to be on top of refilling the dishes, but that wasn’t the case. Naans were unavailable for the majority of our visit, and the biryanis were mostly just plain rice with very few pieces of meat. I only saw one type of biryani refilled during the entire time we were there. The non-veg curries were forgettable, and the butter chicken I got was cool in the middle, not even warm. This is simply unacceptable for a restaurant of this supposed caliber. Worse yet, there was no one available to speak to about the food quality because the staff was clearly overwhelmed.

I had high hopes for this place but was left incredibly disappointed. The food was mediocre, the atmosphere was chaotic, and the overall experience was far from enjoyable. Our family won’t...

We had ordered catering order for our Birthday party from Nagas recently . First of all , the food was so delicious and all guests were very much impressed with the food and everyone enquired on, where we had ordered it . Next thing, everything was so meticulously prepared and rightly balanced with oil, spice or sweetness without overdoing any of them . Also the quantity was also way more than we anticipated and all guests have taken to-go for their dinner too after having them for lunch . We had ordered all vegetarian items for our party in a restaurant which is very famous for their non-vegetarian foods ( chicken dishes, lamb and sea food ) . The quality of Babycorn Manchurian, Butter naan, Vegetable Biryani and PannerMasala were quite great, equivalent (if not, better) to some of the major vegetarian restaurants in Houston and USA. Based on our request , the spice level was around low-mild, enabling the kids to enjoy it a lot .(they are quite capable of making a good spicy dish too as per our Al-a-Carte experience ). Also special mention on the dessert - Rasamalai , which had been good and it was with adequate sweetness , flavoured and thick milky instead of just being sugary one , so kids had liked it more and had a few more of them . I would and had recommended this restaurant to many of my friends for their party orders or dining experience both of which we had found it to be great. Mr.Murthy from Naga’s with whom we had placed the order for party and have been providing the instructions, was very polite and had been in touch with us every moment for the last week to address our instructions, concerns and questions and finally their food , attitude and accommodative mindset was more worth than the price we had negotiated with . So nice of him to call us after the party and to enquire on each of the items and how we liked them.

Overall, I would give 5 out of 5 for their food and 10 bonus for their attitude , patience and...

We got:

Chicken 65 - 9.5/10 If you like your 65 spicy, this hit. Spicy like hot, but also spicy like it had a ton of spices to it which sometimes people make their 65 more like vinegar-y or monolithic. This one was really well done and probably my personal fave between Aga’s, Peacock, and here. But it is close!

Chana Masala - 9/10 I don’t always get Chana everywhere so hard to do a comparable but it was really good. Im big in the chickpea game so my ratings are a little skewed but I believe this was good Chana. Lots of flavor.

Gongura Curry - 7/10 The curry aspect was really good. MY only beef, no pun intended, is that it was mostly bone because it’s bone-in. So have to dock some points here.

Garlic naan - 8/10 Good, no negative, no excessive positive, it’s garlic naan 🫓🙀

Mysore Masala Dosa - 9.5/10 Ok, this was the best thing we got IMO. It was really good. All the chutney was fantastic, with the more orange spice/curry type chutney being the best, the white/coconut one being second, mint third, peanut last place. But the dosa itself was very crispy and the filling was soooooooo good my gawwwwd 🙀🙀🙀🙀 I have had Dosa at Shiv Sagar before as well and I have to give the nod to Naga’s atleast on this day, because this was a really good dosa. I recommend planning to get dosa with you meal here 100%.

Biryani - 8.5/10 I have a hard time eating biryani , and I cannot remember which we got LOL! But, there’s was unique. The meat was all in the middle, sort of layered up with all the rice in a bowl. It was definitely well prepared and good. I just have a hard time differentiating on biryani but it was good!

Overall - 8.5 / 10 I liked that they also have spice levels so if you want to go hard on the South Indian spice, you can level it up. We did everything medium , not mild, and there was a spicy level. Medium was 100000% manageable. Spicy might have you sweating a lil bit. Would 100% come back especially for the dosa...