| Address | 4052 S. 28th St., Arlington, VA 22206 |
|---|---|
| Phone | (703) 575-8800 |
| Fax | (703) 820-8664 |
Pardon the beef reference, but all steak and no sizzle. The decor is lovely, the ingredients are great, and the presentation of dishes in lovely little copper chafing dishes is wonderful. Why is the food tasteless? Curry tastes like cream of tomato soup. Tandoori is sort of like BK crossed with Chili's fajitas. Go to Haandi.
The decor is pretty.
Restaurant staff remembers regular customers.
Right across the street from the movie theaters.
Strolling into Aroma on a rainy weekday, we were expecting to have our way with a tasty and spicy Indian buffet. Glad to get out of the rain, we were pleasantly and quickly shown to our booth and with plates by the side of the buffet, we began.
With only a handful of tables filled in the restaurant, we didn't have to wait in a long line for our food. The choice of foods was modest, ranging from generic mixed greens with a yougurt dressing, to a sharp and savory butter chicken dish, which I can only explain as a spicier cream of tomato with large chunks of boneless chicken in it. In addition to the delicious butter chicken, I have to recommend the lentil stew/curry and the Tandoori Chicken, which I intially scowled at since they didn't look as "charbroiled" as I would have liked, but upon tasting it, I found it to be quite tasty. For desert, my favorite, Gulab Jamun.
Although there were quite a few dishes that I was impressed with, I was not impressed with two particular dishes. The Eggplant Aloo (eggplant and potato stew) was below average due to bitter eggplants in the dish and the lamb curry was tasty but the lamb was tough and quite a chore to eat. All in all, I found the food to be quite good in terms of taste but lacking in spiciness and overall quality of ingredients. For a price of $7.95 per person, there are other Indian buffet choices to choose from but for a quiet buffet lunch with a good variety of choices, check out Aroma at Shirlington.
If you order spicy, be prepared for incredibly hot cuisine especially with the chicken vindaloo. Chicken Tiki Marsala is wonderful!
