Honest Restaurant Lowell — Restaurant in Lowell

We had a very good experience here. Three of us arrived for dinner and luckily, we got there between the two evening rushes and were seated very quickly.

We first ordered three apps to share while we decided which entrees to order. The delivery to the table was perfectly staggered so as we were finishing one, the next arrived. We had:

Pani puri: very tasty pani with boondi, and puris were stuffed with potato and kala chana. The tamarind chutney, however, was watery and lacked flavor.

Paneer pudina: terrific! Well-marinated rectangles of tandoori paneer, crisp outside and soft inside, with well-seasoned onion and green capsicum, served on a salad with pudina chutney. Very good balance and flavor.

Dahi puri: a little too sweet for my taste, but nicely crunchy.

For the entrees, we shared:

Kofta with a side of naan: this was excellent! The gravy was extremely tasty, and the koftas were fried so they had a crunchy outside and softer inside. Super flavorful. The naan had a perfect texture and tandoor char.

Plain dosa: served in a cone shape with sambar and with coconut and tomato chutneys. The flavor and the texture of the dosa was nearly perfect, crispy on one side and soft on the other, though it was a little oily. The chutneys, again, were bland, but the sambar was tasty.

Szechuan fried rice: this was a little disappointing. The flavor was overwhelmingly that of garlic only, and it was quite wet for a fried rice.

Overall pros/cons:

Pros: Very clean, friendly and efficient service, food was really good, pitcher of water on the table, good location with plenty of parking. The place was hopping, and when we got up to leave, there was a big line of people waiting for a table - always a good sign. And very importantly, it's an all-vegetarian restaurant with a tandoor! 😍

Cons: Weak chutney game, tables are small when ordering multiple dishes, dishes arrived without serving utensils. Also, their menu is so big, it's going to be impossible for them to do every single thing perfectly.

Overall: We left really full and really happy, and will definitely come back. Just gotta get that chutney game...

Chaat items are excellent especially Pav bhaji. But........

the Customer service is Awful!! There are always people waiting outside so you go and give your name and your phone number, they'll tell you to wait outside in the car park area for ~45 mins and then after 45-50 mins you go and ask them why you didn't get a call yet. They'll tell you to wait another 45 mins because they told you approx 45 mins not exactly =45mins. And then when you tell them, you can't wait that long, they'll ask you to either wait or leave. Because you've waited for 1 hour+, you don't want to cancel out the name and try different place because it's already the closing time for most diners so you wait some more time and finally get a call, dine in. Then comes the surprise.. The person who takes the order will come and tell you " Please order all at once" because it's difficult for them to handle the huge crowd waiting to dine in. So you'll end up order a lot of food that may go waste because this is your first time to Honest (and you don't know how it'll taste like) but still you get them all at once in your table. Finally when you take some good amount of time (not extra time) to taste them all, someone will come and tell you "Hello Guys! I kindly request you all to leave as fast as you can because there are a lot of people waiting outside" and then you eat the remaining food asap and pay the bill and rush out to see no one waiting outside. Also you think why all the people sitting inside are not asked to leave though they came before you.

Again, I am saying the Food was good, But the customer service should be improved for sure. As a customer, we surely understand the difficulties they go through when they have to manage such a larger crowd, but at the same time, they should treat the customer with respect. I would suggest to write down the time in the wait list so that it'll be easy to prioritize. Or allow people based on...

First time here. Taken to here by BIL. I like Indian food, as long as the spices can be held in check. Honest was able to do this, mostly. I'm not a fan of vegetarian restaurants, as this. The food came out quickly and hot, good service. The mango shake was great, but rather small, for the price. The veg. kofta was not like any malia kofta I've had in the past. It came with a brown sauce of unknown properties. Also the rice was not included, that had to be ordered separately. Never have to order separately in N.C., not sure what the norm is up north here. I know basmati rice, this did not taste like basmati, it was like eating a dried out mash. I have to day, I did eat about half, but did not enjoy it. I was told that this is a chain restaurant, with locations across the country and in India. I've never seen or heard of this restaurant in any of my travels in U.S. or India, so I'm skeptical. If you're a fan of this type of cousine, give it a try. Seating inside is cafeteria style. One big screen TV set up on the back wall. I had my back to it, so don't know what they were showing on it. Very loud in there, from screaming/yelling kids, and general conversations. I found the prices to be high, for what they are selling in food and atmosphere. I'm not going to be seeking out this particular restaurant, in my travels. My BIL, thinks the place is pretty good, he's entitled to his opinion, as are the patrons of this place. They seemed to have no shortage if customers, so it must be a particular taste niche. Just not for me, your...