Hot & Cold Cafe — Restaurant in Lynchburg

TL:DR - Family owned restaurant with personally Indian options being better than Mediterranean options. Lovely couple running the restaurant business together and they are very friendly.

Mediterranean and Indian "Fusion" restaurant. More so that the restaurant serves both Mediterranean and Indian dishes. I love Indian food and Mediterranean food and would often go out to eat for those cuisines, so this restaurant was in my list of places to try in Lynchburg for a while.

Great service. Nice lady serving us; she and the cook owns the restaurant together. She enjoyed talking to our group (my classmates), sharing with us about her trips to Thailand. I enjoyed her friendliness and service.

We came during Lynchburg restaurant week and were able to try various things on the menu, and my friends and I shared the food together. Mango lassi was good, but my friend thought the taste of the yogurt was not enough. Mediterranean plate did not suit my palate. I personally liked the spicy onion that we had with our food the most. Chicken and the falafel were dry, and it was hard to eat without the spicy onion or the sauce that was with it. The hummus and the baba ganouj had way too much garlic. Unless you LOVE garlic, I would recommend staying away. Even eating with pita, the taste was too strong that we left most of the appetizers untouched except to satiate our hunger before the entree. Chana masala was good. Compare to the Mediterranean plate we got the chana masala had all the right spice (plus slight sweetness) that went well with long rice. Chicken curry was also decent. Kheer, Kulfi, and Mango pudding were all very good though. The baklava is a lot sweeter than I had hoped, but if you are a sweet-tooth I think you would like them. Indian desserts were very good.

If I were to come again, I would come back to try their Indian food again, and...

Do you ever read restaurant reviews and the reviewer says something along the lines of “I felt at home eating here”? The Hot and Cold Cafe is the pinnacle of that statement. The staff (a husband and wife) are sweet and attentive. The wife helped me to order (I got vegetable masala and a cup semi-sweet chai. This is the best chai tea I have had in my entire life. The chef makes it every time it is ordered, meaning each cup is fresh and delicious for each customer. The masala was amazing, but too much for me to eat on my own. The chef would check on my and ensure I not only liked everything, but had enough to eat. When I couldn’t finished he was concerned the dish was too spicy and then made sure I had some sweet mango pudding for dessert. It was just a sampler, but it was delicious. I truly cannot recommend this place enough if you like Indian food, even if you don’t like Indian food go and get a cup of mango pudding. You will...

Though I the owners strive to provide good service (according to their peculiar conception of good service), good enough food is at least as important to me: I am really not a picky eater, and I merely ask for good enough food. After trying Indian and Lebanese fare at countless restaurants in the United States (and elsewhere), I must say that the food at this establishment leaves a great deal to be desired. We had falafel for appetizer; Bhindi Masala as entrees; chocolate baklava for dessert; and mango lassies. Aside from the mango lassie, which was indeed good, everything else was at best mediocre -- the sort of food that someone with no culinary skills would make at home, in haste, on a busy evening. The female owner mentioned that they have been in business for over a decade; I find this disconcerting. I am also disconcerted by the many glowing reviews. Truth be told, though, this place was all but empty when we visited...