Last time I headed the call of the curry, I straight up went by myself and ate like a sad, fat kid. I didn't even care, because it was so damn delish. But today was different. I had my trusty (however, bitchy about Indian food) companion, my Lars.
Seva is by far the best Indian food in Astoria, and their weekend buffet is great for a quick bite. It takes place every Saturday and Sunday from 12 PM - 3 PM. I prefer the Delhi Heights buffet in Jackson Heights (they do a Manchurian style Indian with more Chinese influences which I love), but it's a bit of a trek when Seva is just on the corner of 34th St and 30th Ave. We bundled up and headed down the street to stuff our faces, and subject ourselves to the dreaded meat sweats.
The food is solid and it's a decent level of spice, especially for a buffet. I've noticed that Indian joints tend to tone it down for those people who I will now call "punjabies" because it sounds like a dirty word, but isn't. That really gets my curried goat. I still want the stuff to make me warm from the inside out. Indian food without heat is like Milo without Otis. Sad (but not as cute). Seva boasts all the basics - basmati rice, naan (indian flat bread cooked in the clay oven), chicken tikki marsala (chicken marinated in yogurt then cooked in a tomato/cream sauce), chicken korma, chicken vindaloo (vindaloo means hot! It's chicken in a spicy tomato/pepper based sauce) and lamb rogan josh (lamb cooked in a rich tomato/yogurt sauce with curry, garam masala and other key Indian spices). For veggie lovers, they don't go cheap on the saag paneer (cheese cubes in creamed spinach with Indian spices) or the chana marsala (chick peas in a tomato/wine sauce). You have your tamarind, mint and mango chutney sauces handy, and you're good to go!
It's all-you-can eat, so as my dad always used to say, "strap on the feed bag, kids". Seva does a great job of keeping the food fresh and hot. They never let the naan or rice get dried out. Unfortunately, the chicken often becomes a bit of an overcooked casualty due to the nature of the buffet serving style. It will overcook after sitting out for a bit, so keep your eyes open and pounce when the new food is laid into the serving pans. The chicken vindaloo was my favorite meat dish. It had a very rich flavor and was still spicy enough to do the job. My vote for best dish on the buffet definitely goes to the saag paneer though, which is always super yummy (though I would order it spicier if I were getting an individual serving). The cheese is cooked perfectly, and the spices are well-balanced.
This picture below is my plate after a second trip to the buffet where you can see the charred, chewy naan, spicy chicken vindaloo, saag paneer (check out those cheesy chunks!), chana marsala and mint chutney, over basmati rice. So yum, y'all. My first plate looked essentially the same but with the other chicken varieties which were good, but I liked VINDALOO HEAT, SON! (that sounds like a racist hipster band name). Lars tried the lamb and said it had a great flavor and texture.
We both finished up with Kheer (sweet rice pudding with raisins/spices/nuts) which was also featured on the buffet. It was a little mushy, but the flavors were there. Another con of buffet style serving. We gulped down a sh*t ton of water because 1.) the food was spicy and 2.) the waiter was like OCD about making sure our cups were full. (Sidenote: I love the metal cups that they use at Indian restaurants? Is that an overstock warehouse that has these? WHERE CAN I FIND THEM FOR MINE OWN!?) Oh well, I'm not complaining. The service here is always great, and for the price you really cannot beat it. On the way out, I knocked over a full glass of water because as Lars says, "I have no spatial awareness". The servers just laughed at me. I tried to help clean it up, but they wouldn't let me.
This place gets you in and out, gives you tons of water and will have you full for the rest of the day. I made a smoothie for dinner because I was still pretty satisfied from lunch. And the best part, it's only $10 for all-you-can eat! SO AWESOME.
THE DAMAGE: $13 per person (with tax and tip)
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