Bollywood Bistro — Restaurant in Potomac

Some of the worst Indian food that I have ever tasted. I ordered a few things off the menu for takeout, just so I could get the full experience, and I was left sorely disappointed.

1. I ordered the Chicken Tikka Masala, a common dish at most Indian restaurants. I even made a note to make it spicy as I can handle it. Unfortunately, it was more like tomato soup with a few chunks of chicken. It had a sweet taste to it, somehow sweeter than butter chicken I've had at other restaurants. It also had a liquid like consistency, a far cry from the gravy like consistency it should have been. Avoid at all costs.

2. The paneer makhani was nothing to rwrite home about either. It looked the exact same as the chicken tikka masala, with a similar flavor, as if they just scooped the same sauce over and called it a whole new dish.

3. The garlic naan was hard. It seemed as if they had made it earlier in the day and decided to heat it up and serve it up for dinner.

4. If you have ever had mango lassi, you know the thick, creamy, flavorful drink that it should be. This was not that. It was water like, pointing to how dilute they made it. It was so dilute that you could taste the mango if you closed your eyes and really tried, the La Croix of mango lassi, just slightly essenced.

5. The Samosa and the tandoori chicken at this place were the only things palatable, but even then, very sub par and mediocre for the price. You can get the same flavor from frozen TV dinners.

Overall, it is best to avoid this place at all possible. The food is a mockery of good Indian food and you'd probably be better off getting Indian food at a...

Overall, the food is OK. The spices, the herbs, and the yogurt were good.

You're paying a slight premium for the Great Falls location, at least compared to 3-4 other Indian places that we've ordered from in the DMV (though similar to an Indian restaurant in McLean). You're definitely not getting more food for the price, so my guess is that it goes to rent.

We generally order spicy food at a mild spice level, so that our 5yo can handle it. That seems to have an impact on some dishes here but not others. For example, the biryani and rogan josh came closer to medium spice. The chicken tikka masala was closer to mild.

We've gotten biryani twice here, and they've mixed extra unseasoned rice into the biryani (though not evenly). I've not seen biryani prepared this way at other Indian restaurants, so my guess is that it's attempted to spread out the spices. Well, it doesn't work, and it cheapens the dish by piling on rice that wasn't cooked for hours along with the other ingredients.

Another main issue is that the chicken, lamb, and scallops were overly dry both times. I have no idea what they're doing differently, but it's not good. Again, the herbs/spices and sauce help, but it won't make dry meat juicy.

The crispy spinach, potato, and mango dish (forgot the appetizer name) was off. It mostly tasted OK, but the potatoes must've been going bad because they tasted bitter. Had to toss that.

The mango lassi and naan are highlights but not enough for...

Update As of july 29, 2020 this restaurant is open. Though the buffet was discontinued because of covid restrictions, they now have a thali which can be any comination one would want (vegetarian, chicken, shrimp or lamb) (see pic), which is a great dine-in option. As in the past, the quality of food is excellent.

Excellent Indian restaurant. In addition to numerous standard Indian dishes, periodically the chef (I think his name is sunil) rotatingly prepares some outstanding dishes. I particularly enjoyed his methi chicken, chicken biryani (I think done in the famous Hyderabadi style), pav bhaji and others. While the restaurant seems out of the way, in the great falls village shopping center, if u take the Georgetown Pike from McLean/Tysons, it is a very pleasant and scenic drive and u could stop by the popular great falls or other parks or creeks along the way on a nice day and enjoy the whole experience. In fact, I have been doing this at least once a week. And the best thing about Bollywood bistro is its lunch buffet price: around $13. Great food at an...