Masala Craft Indian Kitchen — Restaurant in Virginia

tl;dr: Holy moly, this place is amazing. You must eat here immediately.

The Long Version: I've been here around 50 times now, and have ordered literally every single item on the menu at least once (and several not on the menu). I can say with total confidence that every single thing here is excellent, and you cannot go wrong with any of it.

But below are some of my favorites.

(Side note: I would strongly recommend bringing at least one other person and coordinating with them to share your entrees, as all of their dishes are even better when paired to compliment each other. Not to mention, it's just way more fun this way.)

Appetizers: (1) Gobhi -- fried cauliflower in a delicious semi-sweet glaze. I could eat this every day for the rest of my life. (pro-tip: Order this as an additional entree instead of an appetizer, as it is even better when paired with rice and your other main dishes.)

(2) Khasta Kachori -- a perfectly-spiced, fried, stuffed pastry smothered in a pile of beautifully flavored chickpeas, tamarind sauce, and yogurt. Delicious.

(3) Chaat -- basically the khasta kachori without the pastry. Perfect if you want something crunchy, tangy, refreshing, and packed with flavor before your meal.

Runner-Ups: Sweet & Spicy Shrimp ; Chicken Chili

Entrees: (1) Tikka Masala (best with chicken). A classic for a reason. My wife and I daydream about ordering buckets of their velvety tikka masala sauce to smother on everything we eat. Or fill our bathtub with it.

(2) Saag (best with paneer). Another classic. It's outstanding. And they add mustard greens to the spinach, so the flavor is a little more interesting than your average saag.

(3) Dal. All three of their lentil dishes are excellent and jam-packed with flavor, ranging from the yellow, almost nutty in flavor dal tadka to the rich and creamy brown lentil dal bhukhara.

(4) Mughlai Murg Musualam. A rich, creamy cashew-cream-based chicken dish brimming with the flavor of fenugreek. Great if you want something a bit more indulgent.

(5) Meen Moilee. High quality, flaky, melt in your mouth sea bass in delicious, subtly coconut-y red sauce. I don't even like fish, but I still dream about this dish.

(6) Khaas Paneer and Vegetable Tikka. A huge skewer of perfectly clay-oven char-grilled vegetables and cheese. Their paneer/cheese is just so rich and perfectly moist -- firm, yet springy and airy -- and there's this amazing spiced rub that they sprinkle all over this dish. A perfect pairing with one of the other heavier, more sauce-y dishes.

(7) Bhindi Masala. It's actually listed as a side, but we always order it as one of our entrees. (The portion is that big.) This is probably the best okra I've ever had.

Runner-Ups: Ghar Ki Subzi (awesome tomato-based curry spiced with garam masala) ; Laal Maas, Methi Ghost (both outstanding goat dishes -- admittedly, on-the-bone goat weirds me out a little, but you should absolutely order these if you're into that)

-- And don't forget to order some naan! All of their breads are awesome and delicious. The garlic naan is a favorite.

Staff -- The family who runs this place are basically the nicest people you will ever meet. And the service is beyond excellent. And now consider that this is still true, even though they haven't had a day off since they opened well over a year ago. (How does one remain even a tiny bit pleasant under those conditions -- let alone remain the friendliest, kindest people in town, while also continuously providing the best service and the best food in town?) They are super-human.

Atmosphere -- The atmosphere inside is also really pleasant. They've managed to create such an elegant, airy, inviting setting in this fairly small space. And it's always spotless too.

Drinks/The Bar -- I should also mention that there is a full bar and they have a lot of fun drink options, including homemade cocktails and flights of Indian scotches. (These are...

What a disappointment. Ambience and food are fine, but the menu print is IMPOSSIBLY TINY. I have perfect vision and I couldn't read this horrible menu. It's very dark inside which doesn't help.

To make matters worse they give each person one food menu, but the table has to share one of each of the cocktail menu (which the table shares), which is separate from the beer menu (which the table shares), which is separate from the tea menu (which the table shares).

Of course, they're all in tiny illegible font- and they come over asking multiple times for your order, rushing you, when you don't even have a chance to see the menu. I didn't even know a cocktail menu existed!

Why can't you just give each person each menu so they actually have a chance to see what you have? Do you not want to make sales? Normally restaurants actually want to SELL drinks but in order to do that you need to actually show people what you have.

The kicker is that each menu has 80% unused blank space. I guess they were going for some specific aesthetic with it..? I don't get it at all why you wouldn't just max out the space and make the font LEGIBLE.

Ordering was such a frustrating experience -- having to tell the pushy waitress 3 times that we aren't ready because we have to all take turns reading each menu. Instead of doing that maybe you could just GIVE PEOPLE ENOUGH MENUS and make the font big enough to read!??!!!

Such a disappointment....

The worst restaurant experience in the my 60+ years. My friend and I have been loyal customers of Masala for many years. We had just been served our meals. My friend got ill and spit up some food on the floor. I was concerned about my friend and waved to a staff member to come over. He frowned and didn't come until I waved again. He never asked how my friend was or expressed any concern for him. I asked him to please clean up the food from the floor (there wasn't a lot) and he said he wouldn't clean it up until we left. No member of the staff--servers, management, bus staff--inquired to see if my friend was ok. I left the restaurant as soon as I could, paying for both our meals, even though my friend had only eaten a few bites of his dal (lentils) before becoming ill. The next day I visited the restaurant and spoke with a manager who said that I was responsible for the problem by waving to a male staff member to come over. She said in India you cannot wave to a male staff member. I said that we are in America where different norms apply. I was not offered compensation for my friend's uneaten meal. I was told that she would call and apologize to my friend. It's been 2 weeks and no one has called my friend. What a terrible way for a restaurant to treat customers who have been going there since they opened years ago. I hope no one else is treated so shamefully. We will never eat...