Honest Indian Restaurant — Restaurant in Woodlawn

I live in Virginia, but every time I happen to travel to Baltimore or via norther Maryland, I have made it a practice to visit Honest Indian restaurant in Catonsville, MD with family. The obvious reason is that their food is very tasty and is of super-good quality. The choices are plenty that everyone in my family including young children finds many options to choose from. Ordering the food is very easy without the drama of a busy waiter/waitress taking up your precious time when you are hungry. You choose the food from the menu and order it whenever you are ready at the counter. Even though we were the last customers for the night, the food they delivered was piping hot, was very tasty, less greasy and above all was made of good quality ingredients. All 6 of us in the table had the same feeling and nobody talked (other than the lip-smacking sound of course!) for the next 10-15 minutes while savoring our delicious food: it was that good! They have the option to choose the spice-level for your food. Since we had kids in our group, we ordered our food as mild. All 6 different dishes we had ordered had the same level spice, which was beyond my expectations. Let me tell you something: compared to other restaurants, their portions are full-size and are fully satisfying. This restaurant is so thoughtful that they keep aluminium-foil containers (which can keep the food warm, recyclable and safe to store hot food) and plastic containers next to their utensils that you can take home your leftovers without asking the staff for boxes. I like this take-home leftover containers options in this Catonsville, MD restaurant and did not find the same in another Honest Indian restaurant that I have visited.

We like their self-serve model. We found that this makes for an efficient, quick and cost-effective way of ordering and eating in a dine-in restaurant without the drama of waiting for a waiter for your every need. The tables have everything you need: The cutleries, water pitcher, use and throw water cups, paper towels, salt, pepper and ketchup. The cutleries are stainless steel and NOT plastic, which we like. Their plates and bowls are plastic instead of porcelain, but look very elegant and without scratches - which is understandable - they are lightweight and you don't want children dropping them or breaking them by mistake.

If you are in a mood to eat good quality, tasty, sumptuous, vegetarian Indian food (quite simply, some honest Indian food), please make this restaurant your destination. Thanks to all the restaurant employees that made my experience very pleasant...

Date of visits: 5/29/21 & 5/30/21

Its hard to find a vegetarian restaurant so I went back again to see if there were improvements. Here are my findings:

They have made improvements to sambhar. You can safely order south Indian here. Didn't particularly like the masala in Mysore masala dosa but the regular masala dosa was good.

Punjabi thali was good but paneer was sweet. Overall the thali is worth it.

Sandwiches are good. There is no need to put Lays magic masala chips with the sandwich. They are not that good nor add value to the sandwich.

Chinese items were decent - the place was packed and there was only 1 cook working to make Chinese dishes that weekend. So the taste might have been affected with the number of orders coming in.

Overall a big improvement from a month ago. Other than food, it is important to highlight the people taking the order. They do not rush you, are considerate and always have a smile. I have updated my review to 4 stars. I will be a regular customer.

Date of visit: April 5, 2021 It’s rare to find a vegetarian restaurant but to find a good one is even rarer. The decor is chic, dining is spacious and the staff is friendly & accommodating. But the food is a different matter altogether. I ordered veg kolhapuri & jeera rice (both vegan), paneer tikka masala & naan. There were “mild”, “regular”, “spicy” levels for curries. I asked for regular because I know kolhapuri is generally spicy. Boy, was I wrong. It’s the worst kolhapuri you can have. It was very sweet, oily and full of color. Surprisingly the same for paneer tikka too. Tikka is supposed to have some spice! Naan was decent. Maybe because they are Gujrati, sabzi’s are sweet.

We also ordered Hakka noodles, dry manchurian, masala dosa, chole bature, and grilled alu muttar sandwich. The sambhar with the dosa was an insult to sambhar. But the dosa with the masala was good. Again chole were slightly sweet and the Bature were dripping oil. The rest of the items were good.

So if you go here, your safest bet is to stick to Chinese and sandwiches. I did not try any of the chat items.

Another thing I didn’t like about the place is that you pay for it first and along with the bill are options to choose your tip. I have to make the decision before knowing how the service is going to be. I like to tip not only on the service but also how the food tastes as I am sure the cooks get to split the tip. I was deceived on that.

I am still giving it 3 stars because half the items weren’t bad and we need to support vegetarian...

I have had dosa, chole bhature, some veggie sandwich, mirchi pakoda and faloodas here. I would avoid the mirchi pakoda, it is literally 1 pakoda ( ONE single mirch) which costs $1 at Patel's, it is $8 here! Only the dosa is not too bad, everything else mediocre and way overpriced. They are in business only because there are so few vegetarian places near by. Observe that most of the good reviews are from non desis who have no real clue what the food should taste like or what a mirch bhaji should cost! But aside from mediocre overpriced food, my chief complaint is the INSISTENCE on tips at the time of placing the order. You will see how pushy the people taking the order are about tips. They will take your order at the counter and loudly and forcefully ask "and how much would you like to tip". So you have to tip them without knowing what the quality of the food would be or the service!!! WHY? Tip is based on the service you experience, how do you expect it without allowing me to experience it? Why are you so pushy about tips at a self service place ( all they do is bring you the food, no other service) at the time of placing the order? What am I tipping you for? At most places now they have the tip option on these tablets, but they never push you for a tip like this place. No one shouts in your face demanding a tip. At this place, go in, and experience if you think I am exaggerating. You will be unwilling to come back. A tip before even giving any service is NOT ANY RIGHT OF ANY WORKER. I will leave my tip on the table based on the service and...