Amirtha Curry & Bar — Restaurant in Virginia

We have eaten takeout from here twice now and ordered a good variety of items both times. The food is very good, authentic, and the portions are generous.

We have ordered the aloo tikki chaat, butter chicken, butter shrimp (substituted shrimp for chicken in the butter chicken dish), goat sukha, chicken manchurian, chicken fried rice, paneer tikka masala, goat andhra curry, idli, masala dosa, and rasmalai.

I tasted all the dishes and found them all so tasty, really well made, and found that care and thought was put into the making of the food.

I'm from Tamil Nadu (south India). I was raised on south Indian food for most of my life. I can say the food I've tried that Amirtha claims is South Indian, is truly authentic. Their idli and masala dosa come with sambar and coconut chutney. The dosa comes with tomato chutney as well. They provide 3 large idlis which are very soft and they melted in my mouth after absorbing the sambar and chutneys. The coconut chutney was smooth and didn't have little bits in it which is my preference. The tomato chutney had heat to it and I found it a tad sweet. The goat sukha and goat curry I tried tasted just like my mom's and what I ate while visiting Tamil Nadu as a child. The two goat dishes I also found a little sweet. Which was surprising for me. I don't eat a lot of sweet things so maybe this is just my taste buds here, I'm not sure.

I know Tamil and my husband knows enough to recognize the language, he said he overheard the staff conversing in Tamil. To me that matters greatly. If I'm going to eat at an Indian restaurant, I want Indians involved making my food. The same goes when I order Korean food or Chinese food.

I absolutely love Indian food but I'm not the best at making all of the things I like, as my parents were gone before passing recipes to me. Due to this I've tried a lot of the Indian restaurants in this area. We have eaten many times at Aago, Monsoon, Swagath, and Amiraj. I can sincerely say Amirtha is the very best of all those for me.

I have 4 kids who don't eat much of any Indian food. They find it spicy so I don't push them. The paneer tikka masala here was the first Indian dish they all loved, ate, fought over, and later asked me why I didn't order more lol. It made me so happy to see my children genuinely enjoy food from my homeland. 2 yo to 14 yo they all loved it!

My (white) husband who got the butter shrimp said it tasted awesome. They gave him 8-10 pieces of shrimp both times, which we agreed was generous for an Indian place. To touch on generosity more- our chicken manchurian looked like someone had really pressed it down and packed in as much food as they could fit. That was nice! Both times we ordered takeout we were also given complimentary desserts which I don't see offered on their online menu at the time of this writing.

I will recommend this spot to everyone I know and I don't see myself visiting any of the other Indian restaurants in this area again except for Amiraj. Their goat biryani is brilliant. I'll have to try the goat biryani from Amirtha and see how or if it compares. I'll try to remember to update this review if I do.

I'm so thankful to have found a place that gives me the gift of nostalgia- the ability to re-live memories of warmth and love from my childhood, through their amazing offerings of food.

If you are new to Indian food and aren't sure what to try, I would recommend the chicken tikka masala. It's not authentic Indian food in that it was a dish invented by a Scottish man and popularized by the British. But I think it's a good way to dip one's toes into Indian food. Like a gateway food lol. If you like seafood you could ask to substitute shrimp, if you like cheese, I suggest the paneer tikka...

Bottom line up front: Really cool little venue with great tasting dishes. Great for a unique dining experience. Food is very authentic and dishes we had were excellent. Step out from your standard go-to dinner joints and explore a tasty new adventure! Want more, read on…

Great thing about military life is exploration of new places, cultures, and food 😊 A great thing about Newport News are the amazing dining options available to you without the need for international travel. Amirtha Curry & Bar, Indo Chinese cuisine is a great place because it’s not “Americanized” like all of our Chinese and Mexican joints in the area. The food here is prepared in their cultural, traditional ways and it makes a huge flavor and taste difference. It’s a small Mom & Pop entity so they go the extra mile to help you explore their cuisine and show off their culture. We had the Parotta bread, Goat Sukha appetizer, Andha Curry (goat), and Lamb Rogan Josh…..all at the “mild” level. They can go full curry on your a$$ but recommend starting out easy. The word “goat” caught your attention, right?......they have other options such as beef, chicken, lamb, shrimp, you get the idea, but I recommend the goat which is milder flavor version of lamb. Wife never had goat before but she loved it. Of these dishes, we liked the Sukha and Andha best of all. Everything was delicious but those stood out. Things of note, beware the bones! The goat dishes had bones mixed in so be careful. Easy to see for the most part but the traditional cooking style uses all the meat and bone to enhance the flavor so use caution. Bollywood volume level on the TV was a bit loud but I was only there to order and pick up. Some very catchy...

I find myself sometimes not going on my first choice and end up disappointed. I then think why I am even here! The other night we almost made that mistake again, but went back to what caught my eye while looking for something to eat. Amirtha Curry & Bar was one of the first restaurants that popped up when looking nearby and we are so glad dined that night. I had seen on the Food Network about Indo-Chinese Cuisine and we had been interested in trying something different for a change. I believe that Amirtha Curry & Bar has only been opened for a few months and we have driven by this restaurant a few times without even thinking about it. The restaurant is small, but seems comfortable and cozy. They had almost a full house, but was able to seat the two of us quickly. My wife had the Kurma Curry Chicken mildly spiced and I had the Butter Chicken, also mildly spiced. We also shared the Vijayawada Chicken Boneless Briyani and one order of Parotta. Everything was delicious, well-seasoned, and fulfilling. Our waiter had recommended the Briyani and the Kurma Curry. I had already knew I wanted the Butter Chicken. Everyone in the restaurant seem happy and please with their dishes from what I could observed. The owner, Rajasekar came out when it wasn’t busy to check on all of us and even sat down and talked for a while. He is very proud of what he is doing and made us even more comfortable during our visit. Even recommend to us to try to make some of the dishes at home. Amirtha Curry & Bar was an amazing choice and we would highly recommend this restaurant to...