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Sitara (Indian cuisine)  $$

 6.25
JaT Rating

3590 Homestead Road, Santa Clara, 95052  (Directions)


408-247-2753


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Standalone Indian buffet on the corner of Homestead and Lawrence


Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 1040
Reviewed: 10/8/2004
Rating: 6
My photo gallery 		Sitara came in as another wishlist item from a user. We had high expectations for this place since it was a much further drive than our current favorite Indian buffet Snehas in Santa Clara.

We arrived just before the lunch rush and the place had some people milling around the buffet line but nothing out of control. Hostess show us our table but without even sitting down, we headed over to the buffet line. Just our luck both Terry and I went on the right side of the buffet. Food lables were located on the left side...greaattt. I am not the Indian food buff and have no clue what most of the dishes were if they were not labled. A lot of their food is submerged under sauces. We had the fun of just randomnly picking dishes (they did have the veggie and meat section separated).

I dont recall all the items I had, I will just pick out the Sitara notables,

Rice - The white rice is probably the blandest stuff Ive ever had and I KNOW my white rice. Plain rice cakes come to mind. Now for the bad, I thought they had just cleaned the table so that would account for this awful wet rag smell. I took a couple of bites of my seasoned rice and my nose was telling my brain, something smells funny and you are eating it. I took a whiff of the seasoned rice and it smelled like a wet mildew rag!!! It was gross BUT I didnt want to waste my food and I ATE IT.

Naan - they will bring this out to your table in small baskets. It was much thicker than the stuff we were used to. Too thick as it tasted like uncooked dough in the center. I took a couple of bites and knew I would not be eating this stuff again. I am not making it up, but the Naan had a chlorine flavor to it. What the f*ck is this?? Did they just clean the dishwasher and some of the residue was left in the baskets? This was horrible.

Tandori Chicken - awesome stuff, one of the best ive had in a buffet line

Unfortunately Sitara will not prompt me for a return visit. I cannot get past the cleaning product smell nor can I say this was a better experience than Snehas.

The highlight of the lunch was watching Terry spit out some cold vegetarian dish. Only little kids spit out food...haha. The dish caught him off guard, it was served cold and sour. It was worth $10 to see that.
 


Reviewer: Terry
Total Reviews: 739
Reviewed: 10/8/2004
Rating: 6.5
My photo gallery 		We went to Sitara based on a wishlist request. We had high hopes but not too high, after all we never heard of this place before. We get in and its half-empty on a Friday during the middle of lunch hour. The buffet is about average size with a decent selection, not the powerhouse of Sneha (a few miles down the road) for example. I immediately grab a few items but am unsure what they are as the labeling is not on both sides of the buffet line, only on the 1 side.

So how was it? The rice was a bit flavorless, some of the veggie entries (I apologize I do not know the names) were not bad really. A bit salty, but overall had decent flavor. I missed not having the spinach sauce stuff however.

They brought a thin nahn-type bread to the table that was filled with a potato filling. (free refills on this). It was pretty good. (I apologize, I am so bad with remembering the names of these dishes). They also brought refillable Nahn basket to the table as well. The Nahn tasted like a bleach aftertaste or something, definitely not my cup of tea.

The ice cream provided was vanilla soft serve. Hooray! The mango ice cream that other places serve does not appeal to me at all. A great way to finish off the meal. It wasn't a bad meal (even though it cost me $10) but I doubt I will return with Sneha being so close by.
 
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