Kesari Indian Kitchen — Restaurant in Ogden

Kesari is THE BEST Indian food we have ever had, and we are an Indian-American family. To start, the restaurant itself and the atmosphere is incredible. It’s very intimate, the lighting is cozy and romantic, and the art piece made of cut up Kurtis and Saris is stunning. Definitely a perfect date night spot. But the food is the truly special aspect of Kesari. Every dish we had was truly excellent and cooked perfectly. We started with the onion pakora and they were fried perfectly and the addition of turmeric and other spices in the batter was a pleasant touch, as many places in Utah do not add the spices in the batter. Same with cumin seeds in the rice. You don’t see that very often, especially in Utah. I got the Lamb Saag and the lamb was incredibly tender. It was fall apart tender and the saag was the best saag I’ve ever had. My Indian in-laws got the Ogden Egg Curry and it was excellent and they couldn’t get enough. I always thought the concept of egg curry sounded gross until my husband made it for me and his was great (and part of the reason I married him), but Kesari’s Ogden Egg Curry was spectacular. My husband got the lunch special and was pleased with the was it was served, as it reminded him of restaurants back home in India. Lastly we had the Galub Cheesecake and I was extremely excited because every other restaurant that has had it always has pistachios baked inside it and I am allergic to them. When I informed the very helpful waiter of my allergy, he went and checked for me and then had them make a special one without the pistachio garnish. Just like everything else, it was excellent and my husband got a rose water lassi to go and he greatly enjoyed it because that was a flavor he had never experienced before. We cannot recommend Kesari enough, and we now have our new go to Indian place instead of having to drive down to Bawarchi’s in South Jordan. We are serious about good Indian food and will go the extra mile (or 40) for it and we are so glad to have found a place closer to us and with unmatched atmosphere and...

I would really like to start this review out with the fact that the food here. Was so good. Absolutely delicious, a tad bit on the spicy side for being mild. But so flavorful and so yummy.

I liked this place a lot, buuut there were just a couple things that didn’t sit well with me. I’d like to make this review not to bash the company, because the food was really good overall! But to bring awareness that there might be some extra training and clarification. As well as a review of the kids portion of the menu.

First being the kids meal.. I paid $12.99 for 3 chicken nuggets….3! And they were nuggets that were run of the mill chicken nuggets from a generic grocery store and they were like half warm. The fries didn’t have any salt- and on the menu it said the kids meal included a drink. But when the food came out we didn’t get the drink. So I asked the waiter “does the kids meal come with a drink?” He said “no I don’t think it does.” I asked him if we could double check the menu and he said he would just get us a drink, kinda as if he was just doing us a favor lol… $12.99 for a kids meal was not worth it for three chicken nuggets and a handful of unsalted fries and no drink. That is kind of outrageous to me. Indian food is a favorite in our family. Even the kids like it. Usually when we order kids chicken nuggets at some of the other Indian restaurants we have visited, they give us a whole plate of chicken battered in a really flavorful chick pea batter. My kids LOVE them! I’m not going out to eat at a restaurant to order chicken nuggets that I could make them at home..

My second qualm was a little to do with the service. Our waiter was REALLY REALLY NICE. But he did leave our empty dishes on the table the ENTIRE time we were sat for our meal. Even after we were done eating and had packed up our leftovers and were waiting for some to go orders while we chatted. there was no other customers in the building and he and other employees had walked past our table a few times to go into the little office room...

I came here because a friend had a very nice lunch here. At luch, they ordered chickpea coconut curry and said it was delicious. My experience the same day at dinner was very different. Lets start with what was good, easy parking and friendly servers. At dinner, the food was meh, they had a fly infestation, and have a problem with getting all dishes to the table at the same time. We ordered a mango lassi, it was good. Tart from the yogurt and sweet from the mango. The samosas had a very thick crust and little filling. They are almost identical to the ones you get from the frozen section in the grocery store. They were served with thin watery mint sauce. I am used to homemade samosas so Im a little spoiled. My friend's order of Tofu curry arrived hot with room temperature rice. My dish, tandoori chicken finally arrived more than 20 minutes later. Yes, I kept asking where my dinner was. When the chicken finally arrived, it was not hot and the rice was hard. Also, the chicken had little flavor. I thought the chicken would have been really hot and fresh since it took so long, but instead it was more like room temperature leftovers. It came with a salad of iceberg lettuce and one slice of cucumber. The lettuce had brown spots. At this point, there were so many flys that we had to ask for a take box because they were landing on the food. The last straw was when the flys were landing inside our water glasses. The server noticed we were not happy and asked the manager to bring our bill to the table. The restaurant manager said she was sorry we did not have a good experience and they were dealing with the fly problem. We paid for all the food and tipped well because none of these issues were the servers fault. Maybe we caught them on a bad night, but I am not going back...